Sustainable Energy in Japan
As I started this study abroad course, I wasn’t sure what to expect when it came to learning more about Japans ‘energy crisis.’ The basic underlying issue that I knew of was simply Nuclear energy is a big no because of Hiroshima, Nagasaki and more recently Fukushima. So, what does an island with little to no natural resources do to compensate and hopefully fulfill the energy demand? Unfortunately, Japan has had no other option then to import these resources which in turn has its own laundry list of concerns. Gearing u for this trip, I was excited to learn a lot more about these issues and of course, enjoy Japan to the fullest while immersing myself in it’s culture and history.
Japan is very poor in natural resources, such as natural gas, coal and oil, with its largest resource being hydro. Hydroelectric power has unfortunately seen a decline over the years and almost 90% of Japans power sources are now composed from fossil fuels that are being imported. This low energy self-sufficiency ratio means that Japan must rely on other countries for their supply in resources. This of course means that Japans energy can be easily affected by international situations and changes in the demand for fossil fuels. The largest of these imports, which are LNG and crude oil, are used for large thermal power plants to generate a stable electric power supply with much of the other resources being used to hit fluctuating peak demands. After learning all this the first question many people including myself would ask is where are these resources being imported from? The second would be how stable is this supply of fossil fuels?
Even though I had been to Tokyo before, it’s safe to say that Matsuyama was a complete culture shock to me. On a much smaller scale than Tokyo it was completely different, and I left feeling as if I found a second home after Seattle. One main thing I was unaware of in Japanese culture was the extreme stress around being punctual. I felt as if everyone was lenient towards us since of course we weren’t from Japan, but after speaking with Ruth and Itagaki Sensei it became very clear that if you weren’t at least 5-10 minutes early, you’re late. Ruth told us that she was used to being a very punctual person back in the states showing up right on time but once she moved to Japan she was always considered late and had even gotten into arguments with colleagues because of it. I’m used to showing up at exactly the time mentioned or maybe 5 minutes after and that’s with me usually being in a rush, so If I lived in Japan I would sorely need to change my habits or everyone might just end up disliking me because of it.
The lab work at Ehime University was phenomenal to say the least and it truly made the Japan trip worth it on its own. We worked on two-component diluted hydrogen fuel propagation. So essentially, we would create our own hydrogen gas mixture by also adding helium and carbon dioxide to be able to control how far and how fast the fuel propagates after being ignited. The biggest thing I took away from this lab is how by adding moles of each of the diluent we would be able to predict how far the flame would propagate within the chamber. I was unaware of how fast hydrogen fuel ignites and expands, which of course is deadly. In turn, we must be able to control the flame as it ignites keeping it below the speed of sound and not reach let it reach supersonic flow.
Granted the graduate lab partners we had were extremely tired form all their research, but they were still extremely helpful, punctual and knowledgeable. The thing that stood out the most to me was that you could easily tell how exhausted they were with the amount of research they had done before we had even arrived at Ehime. This in turn had no effect with how much help they were willing to give us and the amount of enthusiasm they had when being able to teach and show off their work. I guess the correct term would be “ganbatte” which encourages people to try hard and push past their limits. The resolve of everyone in the lab was truly inspiring and made me want to try even harder when presenting their work.
Traveling to Japan was extremely easy as I’ve traveled to multiple countries many times. First off, everyone I met during this trip was incredibly nice and helpful and by the time I left I felt like I had another family. The food in japan is amazing with some of my favorite meals, such as the chicken katsu curry, coming from the local spots around the share house that we stayed at. I never once felt like it was dangerous to go and walk around by myself at night but that may be because I’m a big guy but everyone tended to keep to themselves. All in all, it was one of the best trips I’ve been on and would easily recommend it to someone who was interested.
