PhD diary
A journey as a doctoral student between 2017 and 2020. I keep these posts because, looking back from my early days, I can see how much my perspectives have shifted as a reminder of the learning journey.
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Week 56: Lowest temperature in 48 years
We had the heaviest snow in Tokyo since 2014 and experienced serious traffic disruptions. I was visiting a research participant. The meeting went well, and we arranged for three-day observations in February. After the meeting, the snow was getting heavier, and I was stuck at a train station for two hours. On Thursday, Tokyo recorded read more
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Week 55: Another ethics application
Three weeks have passed since I came to Tokyo to start my fieldwork. I have spent the past few weeks (and will continue to do so) contacting and recruiting research participants, meeting with them in person, explaining the study, arranging dates for my observations and recordings, and working on literature reviews. This week, I found read more
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Week 54: Ask the local expert
I have fully recovered from the flu and got back into a normal work routine: wake up at 6 am, have a chat with Luca, have breakfast, and then work. I started making hand-written field notes on 9th January, and I keep writing about everything that happened, whom I have met, and what I have read more
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Week 53: Influenza
I’ve had the flu since 2nd January, with a high fever of 39.7˚C, a chill, and body aches that continued for five days. I went to a hospital on the 6th and was tested for influenza and pneumonia. Luckily, the high fever was not a symptom of pneumonia but only of influenza. My doctor prescribed read more
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Week 52: The last week of 2017
I am about to leave for my fieldwork in Japan. All the preparation – recruiting research participants, preparing ethics statements and consent forms, and confirming research locations – is done. But there is still some preparation to be done for the conducting of focus groups of patients, which will provide supplemental data in the later read more
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Week 51: Christmas socials Part 2
My research workload was small in Week 51. I spent most of my time contacting research participants, shopping for Christmas goods, and cleaning the kitchen, dining area, and bathroom. On Tuesday, my supervisor invited me to lunch. It was a pleasure to have a nice lunch with her before I departed for fieldwork. In our read more
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Week 50: Christmas socials
I attended Christmas socials at my school and enjoyed chatting with colleagues I hadn’t had the opportunity to talk to. We discussed our research methods and shared some concerns about analysis over drinks. It was very helpful to exchange our thoughts and experiences of research life. Some of the participants in my research have helped read more
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Week 49: Paperwork and social
One of the research participants suggested I increase the font size of the consent forms to make them easier to read. I changed the size from 11 pt to 14 pt and the line spacing from single to 1.2. I had used the original English format, but academic documents tend to be written in small read more
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