A hobby evolves into a research life dedicated to pursuing what you love. The value lies not in the outcome, but in the challenge itself.

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From Nara Prefectural Nara High School, Nara Prefecture

Raised in a family where his parents, older brother, and older sister were all in science fields, he developed an interest in mushroom hunting from a young age, influenced by his mother. He analyzes himself as having a strong curiosity about natural phenomena and enjoying the process of digging deeper into what was happening before his eyes, always asking "why?" With this curiosity, he entered the Department of Applied Chemistry at university to study organic chemistry, a subject he had been interested in since high school. There, he encountered "insect galls" and is now pursuing this new interest. We asked him about his university life, where he immerses himself in his favorite research with exceptional enjoyment.

[*] Academic year at the time of the interview (November 2020).

I quit my club activity in the summer of my first year of high school, becoming what's known as a "go-home club" member. I was originally on the Basketball Team, but the practices ran from early in the morning to late at night. When I weighed that against the time for other things, I decided basketball could just be a hobby and quit the team. After that, I would go home as early as possible to enjoy my hobbies, like listening to music and reading manga. As for studying, I was the type who only focused on subjects I liked and didn't touch the ones I disliked (laughs). I studied my favorite subjects—math, chemistry, and physics—a lot, so I didn't mind solving problem sets, but I didn't study English, Japanese, or social studies, which I was not good at. My grades clearly reflected this personality. That was my high school life.

I came to like chemistry and physics because I was influenced by my mother's hobby of mushroom hunting. From a young age, I would go with her to the mountains to collect them, and I naturally became interested in mushrooms. I lived in Nara, and many kinds of mushrooms grew in a large park nearby. As a child, I wondered about their different shapes, colors, and where they grew from. Now, I'm drawn to the mysterious aspect that it's still not understood how the fruiting body (shijitsutai) on top of the mushroom is formed. However, mushrooms are strictly for observation. My mother used to dry the mushrooms she collected in my room, and because of the smell, I completely lost my appetite for eating them (laughs). It was thanks to my high school chemistry teacher that I became interested in organic chemistry within the field of chemistry. High school chemistry had three fields: organic, physical, and inorganic chemistry, but organic chemistry was the one where I got the lowest scores. Even so, I liked organic chemistry the best because I had a teacher who was unique and made the classes interesting.

One reason was that I admired universities in the Kanto region. Another major reason was that I wanted to go to a comprehensive university rather than a science-only university. I had lived in a limited community during high school, so at university, I wanted to place myself in an environment where I could absorb various ways of thinking. Many of my classmates wanted to go to universities in the Kansai region, so at first, I considered going to the same university as my close friends, but in the end, I decided to go to a university in the Kanto region. In reality, although I am now far from my friends back home, we still keep in touch, so I have no regrets. Actually, I took the entrance exams for multiple faculties at Keio University and was accepted into the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Faculty of Science and Technology. I hesitated, thinking that the Faculty of Pharmacy might be better in terms of my future and qualifications, but I considered which one would allow me to study what I truly wanted to learn and decided on the Faculty of Science and Technology.

I entered through Field of Study 3 (now Field of Study E) [*], but I was also interested in biology in addition to chemistry and physics, so I was really torn when choosing my department. I wanted to study subjects related to natural phenomena, so I had been thinking of eventually studying organic chemistry, but I also thought it might be better to study inorganic and physical chemistry to broaden my knowledge... The main reason I ultimately chose the Department of Applied Chemistry was that it allows students to experience a full range of lectures and experiments in various fields of chemistry by their third year. And the fact that I could then study my chosen field more deeply through life in a research lab was also appealing. I had been thinking about research labs since my second year when I was choosing my department, so I was comparing the websites of various labs. At that time, I saw a photo of a mushroom on the website of a lab in the Department of Applied Chemistry. I fell in love with that mushroom photo at first sight (laughs), and it made me want to go to the Department of Applied Chemistry where this lab was located.

[*] Field of Study 3... At the time of his admission in the 2014 academic year, this "Field of Study" allowed students to advance to one of four departments: the Department of Applied Chemistry, the Department of Applied Physics and Physico-Informatics, the Department of Chemistry, or the Department of Biosciences and Informatics. The names and composition of each Field of Study have been changed for students admitted from the 2020 academic year onward.

Note that the Field of Study system was changed for students entering the Faculty of Science and Technology from the 2020 academic year, and some of the departments students can advance to from each Field of Study have changed. For details on the Field of Study system, please refer to the link below.

The Department of Applied Chemistry has just under 120 students, so it's characterized by having a relatively large number of people within the faculty. For example, the Department of Chemistry has about 40 students, so compared to that, it's not a size where everyone knows each other. I think that's why there's a kind of fun that never gets old. Even within the same department, the people you do experiments with change between your second and third years, so I found the opportunity to interact with many different people to be a great appeal. In my research lab, it's also stimulating that everyone is working on their own individual research theme. There are students with research themes different from my own in the same lab, so listening to their mid-term presentations often gives me ideas that I can apply to my own theme. In the first year right after joining, senior students are assigned to you and teach you sincerely, so I felt secure, never having to worry about being left on my own with my research.

I belong to the Laboratory of Natural Product Chemistry and am researching the theme of "insect galls." Insect galls are tissues that swell up on plant leaves due to the stimulus of parasitic insects. Their shape and material differ depending on the type of insect, and insects like flies and aphids live inside. It is known that fungi also exist inside insect galls, and I am researching what kind of effect these fungi have on the galls. Actually, when I first chose the lab, I wanted to research mushrooms, but when I talked to my academic advisor, he told me they weren't doing mushroom research anymore (laughs). So, I conveyed my intention to work with samples where I could visually see phenomena actually occurring in the natural world and to unravel them at the compound level, and my academic advisor suggested the research on insect galls. I knew nothing about insect galls until then, but looking back, once I started researching them, I found that it was close to mushroom research in terms of collecting plants and dealing with fungi, and it was a research theme that suited me well.

One was going to collect insect galls as part of my research activities. We climb mountains to collect them, but as an indoor person, the mountain climbing was very tough for me. I was on the verge of collapsing by the time I reached the summit (laughs), but I'll never forget the beautiful scenery from the top. In my lab, if you wish, you can go into natural environments to collect experimental samples as fieldwork. Depending on the theme, you might go not only to the mountains but also to the sea, so it's interesting to be able to visit these actual environments. Participating in the "Natural Product Chemistry Symposium," a networking event for students studying natural product organic chemistry, in 2019 is also a fond memory. That year it was held in Hokkaido, and I participated for three days and two nights. It was great to be able to interact with various students. I made friends from other universities, and it led to good connections, as we still keep in touch from time to time. Since the pandemic, I've also participated in online academic conferences, but I feel that opportunities to meet and interact in person are truly precious.

Since we can't take chemical reagents and other materials out of the lab, it's difficult to make progress with experiments in my research field when I can't enter the university. There was a time when I could only go to the university three times a week, so I made an effort to plan carefully in advance and conduct my experiments according to a flowchart. From that experience, I became more conscious of getting things done within a limited time. Also, to prevent infection, I interact and share information with my lab members via social media instead of face-to-face. On days when I studied at home, I often read papers, so I decided to use the special cash payment to buy a tablet. This allowed me to read papers as if they were books, making it much smoother to read them at home.

After completing my master's program, I plan to advance to the Ph.D. program in my current research lab. I had decided to pursue a doctoral degree for some time, but I was undecided about whether to continue internally or go to a graduate school at another university. When the pandemic hit, there was a period of about six months when I couldn't go to the university, and during that time, I thought long and hard about what to do next. I had been cultivating and managing the fungi I collected from the insect galls all by myself, so I've grown attached to them. That's one reason I chose to stay in the same lab. Now, with the help of my academic advisor and lab mates, I want to see the research on the fungi I've cultivated this far through to the end.