Yi-Cheng Ting (丁以晟) is a final (7th) year medical student from Taipei Medical University. Yi-Cheng came to Japan for the first time, and participated in the elective attachment at Hokkaido University in October 2015. He seems to have spent quality time here in Hokkaido! 

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I would like to thank a lot of people who helped make this exchange program possible, including the Dean of School of Medicine, doctors in Pediatrics and Gastroenterological Surgery II, Ms. Iguchi and Assistant Professor Murakami from the International Relations Division, Center for Medical Education and International Relations, and medical students of Hokkaido University!

I attended the courses of the Pediatric department for the first two weeks, rotated through all the divisions of Pediatrics, and saw a lot of rare cases in both in-patients and out-patients. I’m very glad that the doctors were really nice, explaining a lot of knowledge to me in English. I’m also very glad that the doctors let me participate in the case presentation in the grand round with the other medical students of Hokkaido University, and not leaving me out like a foreign student.

For the last two weeks, I attended in Gastroenterological Surgery II, which majored in gastric cancer/ bile duct cancer/ pancreas cancer. I always love practical things. We had a lot of surgical skills trainings, such as basic/continuous suture, anastomosis techniques, and endoscopic surgery techniques. I also got to see a lot of pancreaticoduodenectomys and the operation method which was originated in Hokkaido University Hospital – the DPCAR(Distal pancreatectomy with celiac axis resection). I also learned a lot of reconstruction methods for the operations.

 

On regular weekdays, I had really nice time checking out the city of Sapporo and the surroundings of Hokkaido University and its dormitory I lived. I also joined the doctors’ and students’ dinner parties and checked out izakaya (居酒屋) and really nice yakiniku(燒肉) . On weekends, I enjoyed far away trips to Hakodate and Otaru by the train. I really love the extraordinary sceneries of Hokkaido!

Without the exchange program at Hokkaido University, maybe I would still be thinking of milk, chocolate, and snow when I hear the word “Hokkaido”, but now, it means much more than just a name of a place to me. Sapporo became a city I had lived in for one whole month, not long but enough to make some friends and be familiar with its surroundings that sometimes made me almost forget I was in a foreign country.

 

I am really glad I got this very special opportunity to travel and study abroad in Hokkaido. I will remember all the great memories of beautiful autumn in Hokkaido!