Japan - Day 57

Today wasn't too bad really
In the morning, I discovered that a bunch of my friends who are taking classes were going to Tokyo for sightseeing in the daytime, and clubbing at night, so as I couldn't go to that I was rather upset for a little while. In the lab, I continued on with my Western blot (apparently I wasn't supposed to leave my experiment overnight at the transfer phase - someone had to wait a long time to be able to use one of the machines because I wasn't there to dismantle my one ^^'), and by the end of the day I got SOME results, but as the concentrations were uneven again, I need to start from the beginning again on Monday with a protein assay :-( Maybe I'll get it right this time
[Note: My computer froze up when I was writing this last night, and because it was late and I was tired, I decided to call it a night, so this is written on Saturday morning ^^']
During lunch break, I went with Jen to a rice place at the university cafeteria, which she'd been wanting to try for a while; it was pretty good :-) Then we went to the ISC to collect a few things for a medical check-up next Wednesday. I checked the time, and although I'll be able to go to kanji class, I'll miss Japanese class -.-
Back at the lab, after a couple more hours of continuing with my experiments, one of the girls in the lab took me down to the mouse room to put some mice together for breeding. Saturday morning at 9am I have to go in to check if they've mated. Then comes separating out babies before they can breed with each other, and practice with something I've really been dreading - killing the mice. For the next experiment, we have to extract embryos from the mother mouse. As this also includes removing the uterus, the mouse itself becomes essentially useless in the eyes of our science, so it has to be 'sacrificed'. Over-anaesthetising them is out because it either involves an injection in the stomach, or gassing them, which could both effect the embryos either physically or through stress, respectively. Which leaves the final option - neck-breaking, like I saw the assistant professor doing a few weeks back. The thought of it makes me cringe, but I guess I have to steel myself against it. On Saturday I'll be practicing by killing some wild-type mice, which, as they don't have the mutant gene we're interested in, are also useless to us. I'm sure the lab could make a bundle on the side by selling them off as pets instead, but there we are
After going to mate the mice, I had to go to the lab for another hour and a half. This meant that I missed going to gyoza with my friend, which was annoying. When I got back to my room at about 8pm, after dinner and a much-needed shower, me and a few of my friends who hadn't gone to Tokyo were trying to decide what to do. We decided on Shein's Bar, but just as we said this, my friend checked Facebook and it transpired that he was hungover, so the bar was closed. The next plan was just going walkabout for a while, but my friend up in Ichinoya didn't fancy that, so I met up with my friend in Hirasuna instead. We walked down into Tsukuba Centre and back, a good hour or so's walk at our pace. On returning, I tried to write my blog but my computer froze, so I went to bed
And now I'm awake once again, looking forward to a day that's probably going to be full of trauma and fun in equal measure XD Until next time