ところが、私が調査対象としているアフリカの一部の地域では、そのようなデータがきちんと記録されていませんので、そのことが大きな問題になっています。例えば、重金属を含んだ埃がどのように粉塵として飛んでいるのか、そういったことを予測したいときに、基礎となるデータが無いわけです。今回はそんなことを東京で話してきました。

　そのあとも、滋賀県で連携している先生とうちの修士学生と分析を行ったり、別の学会のために他の学生と横須賀に行ったり、忙しい日々が続いていますが、どれも実りある出張でした。この研究室の学生はどの子も必ず外部に別の指導教官がいます。前も言ったような気がしますが、研究室に閉じこもらず、いろんな場所で、いろんな実験をして、いろんな先生からアドバイスを受ける、ということが成長するには一番です。

　写真は、旅のハイライトです（遊びに行ったわけじゃないけど！）。

   Again, I haven't been able to update this site for a while. After the big conference in Saga, I have been travelling mainly domestically. A while ago, I have a very good meeting with a company developing a weather station. Weather station is a device which record climatic factors such as rainfall and temperature. In our country, thanks to it, we can be warned for typhoon, extreme hot/cold weather events. Then we can decide what to wear or whether we are going to bring an umbrella with us or not. It seems pretty "normal" but we have to be really thankful for that. 

   Our research fields, such as a part of Africa, such data is often unavailable. It is problematic when we want to, for example, predict the distribution of heavy metal containing dust. We have been talking about these things in Tokyo. 

   After that, me and my student have been doing some measurements in Shiga with a professor there, and we also attended another conference, with another student, at Yokosuka. Those trips were very fruitful. In fact, all of my students have some supervisors outside the University and I am really proud of it. Students have to get out the lab, do experiments outside the lab, get advises from many other professors other than me. 

   Photos are some "highlights" of our trips (although I wasn't travelling for "fun").