Voice From Alumni

I am much honored to introduce myself here. My name is Karthikeya Kamath. I am 25 years old and I come from Karnataka, a state in southern part of India. Presently I am in Ritsumeikan University , Japan, pursuing PhD in Advanced Robotics.

Unlike busy city places of Japan, Kusatsu is very peaceful and quite with major attractions such as Lake Biwa Museum and Mizunomori water botanical garden . With pleasant breeze and mesmerizing sunset view near the Biwako lake has always attracted me to spend more time on weekends.

Japan has always known for its technology and acknowledgement of people towards time management. But after coming here I got to know that it’s not all about technology when I witnessed the actual beauty of Japan, the humble, kind hearted, honest, courteous Japanese people, the culture and tradition finally the “Totemo Oishi” food of Japan.Words cannot express it all. Japan is such a rich country in all forms.

I was attracted to Ritsumeikan University because of the incredible breadth of research conducted here. Ritsumeikan University being one of the oldest University of Japan has a great remarks in the field of research . Research here is well complimented by magnificently built infrastructure and world class professors. However after coming here I also came to know that, Ritsumeikan University's greatest strength is the collaborative and friendly atmosphere that is represented in every department and division. Opting for Ritsumeikan University is proving to be the best decision made because of the outstanding professors and colleagues who have been incredibly supportive and encouraging as I am growing in my research.

Coming from a country with very rich cultural background as India, I felt Japan culture to be very much fascinating. Before coming to Japan I was with a thought of getting culture shock and facing problems due to language barrier. However, with humble people all around and with caring friends I never experienced culture shock or language barrier as such .Moreover, my friends and colleagues always encouraged me to be more greedy to learn Japanese language, which is making my life even more fun in Japan.

I would advise to study Japanese language properly to make your life and research much more comfortable in Japan .Also, I think it is very important that you think about what you want to study in Japan, which faculty you want to enroll in, what you want to do after you graduate, and so on before you arrive. You should come to Japan after you have set clear objectives for yourself. Once you have set such objectives, the rest is up to you: how much effort you are willing to put into fulfilling your dream. I hope you will keep trying and not give up.