Rimali Mitra (PhD student, 3rd year, Department of Geology and Mineralogy, Division of Earth and Planetary Sciences)

Date of Interview: April, 2021

Before Coming to Kyoto University
Japan is a culturally rich and technologically advanced nation, a fascinating and desirable destination for international students. Japan boasts Asia’s highest number of Nobel prize winners, which is an indicator of the academic environment in Japan, and I always wanted to be a part of world-class education, (who would not be). I, being from a multicultural nation like India, take a deep interest in multi-dimensional art, culture and traditions. I have studied Japanese history and deeply intrigued by the fashion in which various historical events have molded the cultural horizon and given rise to a harmonious society.
I wanted to work on tsunami deposits and Japan is the most fascinating place where I could pursue my doctoral research, as Japan experienced large earthquakes and gigantic tsunamis (e.g., following the 2011 Tohoku-oki earthquake). My interest in the historically and culturally rich Japan and the world-class disaster management system of this country inspired me to pursue my doctoral degree in Japan. Eventually, I was awarded the MEXT (The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology or Monbukagusho) Scholarship in 2018 to pursue my doctoral degree.

Life at Kyoto University
Life at Kyoto University is nice and comfortable. The university has an international and friendly environment where all researchers enjoy their lab. I also took Japanese language class at the University. I am grateful to the Institute of Liberal Arts and Sciences (ILAS) because I learnt to have a basic conversation in Japanese, soon after I completed the course. The professors and the lab mates of my department at the Graduate school of Science were helpful and supportive.

-What did you enjoy most during your time at Kyoto University?
I enjoyed the international environment, welcoming lab mates, beautiful campus facilities and extremely helpful faculties and staffs.

-What were the biggest challenges you met?
I think one of the biggest challenges for me was to fill in the forms in Japanese and have the department orientation in Japanese language. Also, when I came here, the number of international students were very few in my department. As a result, there were no English forms available in the department office. However, after 1-year other international students started to join the department, then the system started to become more international in terms of documentation and overall procedures. Along with that, when I came here my Japanese speaking and listening ability was poor and it also got improved with time, hence I did not feel that difficult after a while.

-What did you work on to overcome the challenges?
I used to ask for help from my lab-mates who were Japanese or native Japanese speakers. My supervisor, Dr. Hajime Naruse helped me a lot to overcome this situation.

-How smooth was your experience adjusting to life in Kyoto?
As I mentioned before, when I came here my Japanese language ability was poor, so it took a while to learn and adjust to the language and culture. I think it was smooth for me as I am from India, which is a diverse country with different languages, cultures, eating habits and customs. Hence, the adjustments were easier.

Life during COVID-19
We had all the research meetings, seminars and everything via ZOOM. So, there were no technical issues during COVID-19.

-What were the beneficial/challenging aspects of life during COVID-19?
I was fortunate enough to work on a numerical model which could be done remotely. We also had access to the Kyoto university network to download research items. So, it was fine for me to work from home.

Research at Kyoto University
My present interdisciplinary research theme includes the estimation of tsunami flow conditions from tsunami deposits at different regions across the world using inverse modeling with a deep neural network which was trained with the calculation results of a numerical forward model. In my doctoral study, we established a novel method to analyze deposits of tsunamis for reconstructing the paleo-flow conditions of past tsunamis such as the flow velocity and inundation depths, which provide critical information for estimating disaster risk and mitigating disasters in each region. This model was applied to the actual tsunami deposits of the 2011 Tohoku-oki tsunami and the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami at different regions. This can be used as a tool for disaster resilience and tsunami hazard mitigation to reduce the socio-economic impact of tsunamis on coastal cities.

-What do you hope to do after graduating from Kyoto University?
I hope to do more research on coastal hazards and other disasters related to geomorphology.

Message for Future International Students
Japan is a great place to do research. I would recommend learning Japanese language and culture before you come here. Nevertheless, even if you don’t have the facility to learn the language, you can easily come here and learn with time. Japanese people are kind to help international students, which will make you feel comfortable and make your stay enjoyable.