• To understand what the process of research is like and to be able to work with international researchers in academic situations
• To deepen my understanding of Computer Science
• To develop my English skills and international mindset
• To interact with various cultures and values and broaden my perspective

Excerpts from Shuhei’s Weekly Reports

• Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.
• Week 02: Life in My Research Lab at Rice
• Week 03: Interview with U.S. Student and Researcher
• Week 04: Reflections on English Language & Life in the U.S.
• Week 05: Final Week at Rice and Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan
• Research Project Overview and Poster
• Week 06: Last Week in the U.S.
• Final Report
• Tips for Future Participants

Week 01: Arrival in the U.S.

My final exams lasted until August 8^th at my university in Japan, so I only had four days to prepare for my departure to the U.S. Therefore, I was really busy for the preparation, and I could not spend enough time to read papers my host professor had sent me to read. Furthermore, my host professor told me to study RUST, which is a programming language that I will use in the research project, but I could not study much about it before the departure due to the tight schedule. Therefore, I decided to read papers and study RUST on the airplane, but reading academic papers in English was much more difficult than I had thought and I could not understand them well. I strongly recommend the future students to spend more time reading papers before they leave for the U.S..

When I first arrive in Houston, I was really surprised that people in Houston are really kind and friendly. When I was in an elevator at the Wyndham Hotel, people always tell me, “Hi!” or “How are you doing today?”, even though I am a complete stranger to them. This does not happen in Osaka. I have never talked with strangers in an elevator in Osaka. Many people say that Osaka people are really friendly, but people in Houston are even more friendly.

What is more, the inside of a building are much colder than I though. Sarah told us to bring some hoodies or coats to prepare for the coldness, but I forgot to bring this with me to Houston. Therefore, I had a really hard time in classrooms and laboratories, and I also strongly recommend the future Japanese Fellows to bring some outer wear to wear indoors due to the heavy air conditioning.

Reflections on Intercultural Experiences
In just my first few days in Houston, I experienced a piece of the “Equality” value of U.S. culture. When I met my mentor for the first time at the welcome party, he told me to call him by his first name, and I did so. This does not happen in Japan. In Japan, I should not call older people by their first name because it would be considered rude. However, what I experienced at the welcome party is completely different from this, and I believe this shows the difference of the “Equality” value. According to the Cultural Detective hand-out on the U.S., American people like to be treated as “everyday” people, and so does my mentor. I think he also like to be treated friendly, and I found that this is a really important difference of culture. I like the “Equality” value of the U.S. because it will make it easier to get close with someone emotionally. In Japan, it is sometimes a little bit difficult for me to get closer with older people because I have to always be careful to be polite.

In my first week in Houston, I had a lot of opportunities to take various lectures, and in those lectures, the presenters always told me to ask any questions whenever I wanted. However, it was a little bit difficult for me to ask questions while a presenter was speaking. This is because I do not want to intercept the presentations and it is considered rude to interrupt while someone is talking in Japan. I understand that asking questions during the lectures is not rude in the U.S. and it will not offend the presenters. However, the Japanese value of “Wa” always makes me hesitate a bit to ask questions. This value of “Wa” is sometimes really useful and convenient, but sometimes it can be an obstacle. I do not want to lose precious opportunities to ask questions due to this value, so I should be aware of the influence this value has on me.

Preparing for Research in the U.S. and Initial Days in the Lab

As I mentioned before, my host, Prof. Lin Zhong, gave me some papers to read and he also told me to study RUST, which is a programming language I would use in my research project. I had never read academic papers before, and RUST was a new language for me. Actually, I had not heard the name of this programming language. Therefore, I knew I would have to spend a lot of time studying and that they would be really hard for me. However, I did not have enough time to spend on them due to the final exams. It was when I was in the airplane that I read the papers for the first time, and it was much more difficult to read them than I thought. There were a lot of technical terms and the content of the papers were difficult to understand. Therefore, I could not understand the papers well. I should have prepared for research earlier and I strongly recommend the future students to spend enough time for preparation.

I met my mentor for the first time at the welcome party on Tuesday, and I talked with him about my major, interests, and what I have learned before in Japan. After that, I went to my host lab with him and he introduced the laboratory members to me. Before the first day at my host laboratory, I was so nervous because I could not imagine my research project and the life in a laboratory, however, my mentor politely explained my research project to me and it makes me feel more comfortable.

He suggested to me that I replace programs written in C with programs written in RUST. First, he gave me an HiKey board, which is a single board computer, and he told me to install Android OS in it. I spent the whole first week to do this because it was my first time to use a single board computer like HiKey, and it was a really difficult task for me. Furthermore, I had a Windows OS computer, but I did not have any Linux OS computer. In order to install Android OS to the HiKey board, a Linux computer was necessary, so I had to use a virtual Linux computer to install it. It made this task much more difficult, and it took me whole three days to finish the installation.

Question of the Week
Why are there so many Asian students, especially Chinese students in Rice University? In my host laboratory, there are so many Chinese students, and I often hear students speaking Chinese in Rice University. Furthermore, other Nakatani RIES JP fellows also say that there are many Chinese students in their host laboratories. I know that the population of China is really large, however, even if I consider about it, I wonder why there are so many Chinese students.

• For more on this, see the section on International Students in the U.S. on our Education in the U.S. page. Particularly the tab for ‘Questions of the Week’.

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Week 02: Life in My Research Lab at Rice

My mentor is a PhD student and he just finished his final paper just a few days ago. I first met him at the welcome party last Tuesday, and we talked about our majors and our interests a lot. However, he went on a vacation from last Wednesday, and he will come back to Rice University this Thursday. Therefore, in the first and second week, I conducted my research project completely by myself. Although I can communicate with my mentor via email, however, even if I ask some questions about my research project to him, he was not always able to answer them. This does not mean he is a bad mentor, nor that he dislike me, but I realize that this means I cannot get advice or answers from others easily, and that I have to find the answers and solve the problems by myself. Before the research project began, I thought I would be able to ask any questions about my research and my mentor would quickly answer all of the questions, but I realize research does not always go so easily. This is surprising and research seems difficult, but I believe I can enjoy it.

On Saturday, I went to the Galleria Mall with my friends, and this was when I used Uber for the first time. I was really surprised that Uber is quite convenient and reasonable. We chose a driver and she came to us within 5 minutes, and it cost only nine dollars to go there. Furthermore, I could find how much and how long would it take to go there before I chose the driver. I cannot do this when I using a taxi. Judging from the cost and convenience, I felt that Uber is completely superior to taxies. I strongly hope that there was a similar system in Japan, and I am really looking forward to introducing this experience to my Japanese friends and family.

Research Project Overview

I am doing a research on Operation Systems(OS), which are really important parts of computers. Today’s OSs are programmed by C, which is a famous programming language for system programming, however, C can easily cause errors due to its quite complex memory management. Therefore, I am trying to make OSs safer by replacing programs written by C with those written by RUST, which is a much safer programming language than C. RUST is suitable for system programming, and RUST programmers do not have to worry about the memory managements.

However, it is impossible for me to complete this large project in five weeks, so the goal of my research project is to run a simple Android application by RUST. Android applications are written by Java, which is one of the most popular programming language, but they can also use C programs through JNA, which is a system to connect Java with C. Therefore, I am trying to replace this C programs with RUST and to make the application safer.

Actually, I have not begun using RUST yet. I have to build an Android Application with JNA before I use RUST. And I have to build a device in order to run the application before making the application. Therefore, my first task is to install an Android OS to a single board computer, HiKey board, and I finished it last week. Therefore, I am making an Android application with JNI now.

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Week 03: Interview with a U.S. Student and Researcher

I interviewed my mentor this Tuesday for about 15 minutes, and we talked about his research, career path, and PhD degree. First, I would like to write a little about his background. He is an international PhD student from Korea, and he is now doing research on Mobile Security in Prof. Zhong’s laboratory. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degree in a Korean university, and he had been working for about 9 years after graduation in industry. After that, he entered Rice University to take his PhD degree, and he is now in the last semester of his PhD course.

He is doing a research on Mobile Security. We have a lot of precious information and critical information in our daily life. For example, everyone in the U.S. has their own Social Security Number. So, he is trying to develop the security of these types of  important information.

After he graduates from Rice, he is planning to find a job in the U.S. as a software engineer. He wants to work in the U.S. because he likes the flexibility and kindness of the U.S. This means that people in the U.S. are kind and open-minded, and there are few strong hierarchies in the U.S. However, in Korea, a company usually has a strong hierarchy, and employees are forced to follow their bosses. He does not like this, and this is why he is searching a job in the U.S.

He decided to take the PhD degree because he was not satisfied with just his master degree. As I mentioned before, he had been working in a company in Korea for 9 years, but 99% employees had PhD degree in the company because it was a research company. This was why he felt that he needed a PhD degree and why he decided to take PhD degree. He chose Rice University because it was a really high ranked university, and it had a huge and friendly community. He said that researchers in Rice University always welcome others, and that it was really easy to make connections with other researchers. For example, researchers in Rice University usually keep their office’s door open, and it means that they welcome everyone to their office. He said that this community was one of the best advantages of Rice University.

In comparison with undergraduate studies, He said that graduate school was completely different from colleges. Colleges are places to input knowledge, and in contrast, graduate schools are places to use the knowledge we learned in the college. In graduate school, students have to develop the ability to find problems and to find how to solve the problems.

Interview with Dr. Ozaki
I also interviewed Dr. Ozaki, who is a Japanese Language professor at Rice University. I first asked her how she decided on her career path? Now, I have some options of my career after graduation, such as PhD, working in a company, but I do not know how to decide my career, and this is why I chose this question. She has a really unique background, for example, she lived in Germany, Turkey, the UK, Japan, and the U.S., so I was very curious to how she decided her career path. She said that she always went to where she could go to, and that it was important to be sensitive to chances. She also said that I should keep every chance available, and then, I can choose the most enjoyable one as my next career.

Before the Nakatani program, I had never thought about changing majors, and I thought that computer science was the only subject I should major in. However, through Nakatani program, I learned that a lot of students change their majors when they go to graduate school, and it was really surprising for me. I could not understand this because I thought changing majors would make the previous major a waste. However, she told me that the time I spent on learning computer science would never be a waste of time even if I changed my major someday. That is because there is no waste in our life, and what I learned in computer science will necessarily be useful in other fields. Because I am not so familiar with my major and other fields, I cannot imagine how computer science works in other fields, but I could find that changing majors will never means throwing the previous major away.

Interviewing my mentor and Dr. Ozaki was really exciting, and I learned a lot of things through these interview, such as how a PhD students decide their career path, how undergraduate students prepare for a PhD degree, and how I can decide my career path. These clarified my career path, and I really appreciated their sparing the time to speak with me.

Research Project Update
On Monday and Tuesday, I tried to install Android Studio, which is an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) to build Android applications. IDE is a huge software or program, and it makes it really easy and convenient for programmers to build applications and programs. Android Studio is a kind of IDE, and I can easily build applications by using it. My current task is to build a simple Android application with JNI (Java Native Interface), so I needed Android Studio to complete this task. That is why I spent these 2 days for the installation of Android Studio in my virtual Linux OS.

After installation of Android Studio, I began to build an Android application by using it. It did not take so much time, and I could finish this task within a day. Now, I am trying to replace the C programs with RUST programs, but it seems difficult because RUST has some unique features and those features are difficult to understand. Therefore, I am planning to spend 2 or 3 days on studying RUST, and 3 or 4 days on the replacement.

In the timeline of the 2^nd week report, I wrote that making an Android application was my task for the 2^nd week. However, I could no finish this task last week because there were some difficulties in the process of installing Android Studio. Before I explain the difficulties, I have to explain a little about my virtual Linux OS.

There are many kinds of OSs, for example, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux, and my laptop are using Windows OS. However, I need a Linux OS machine in order to complete this research project, so I am using a virtual Linux OS now. Usually, one computer has only one OS, and it is impossible to use 2 OSs in one computer. However, there is one way to use Linux OS with my Windows OS laptop, and it is called “virtual machine”. Virtual machine is a system to make another OS in a computer, but the OS is virtual, so it does not mean that the computer has a certain hardware to build another OS.

I do not have a Linux OS computer, however, fortunately, I have a virtual Linux OS in my laptop, which I used in a class in my home university. Therefore, I was using the virtual Linux for my research, but I could not install the Android Studio into it due to its limited performance. I tried to find another way to build Android applications, and also tried to find a way to enhance the performance of my virtual Linux, but I could not. Finally, I decided to delete the virtual machine, and make another virtual Linux with higher performance. This process took much more time than I had thought, and this is why I could not finish the 2^nd week task on time. Although it took much time, I could finally solve this problem, and the research is going well now.

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Week 04: Reflections on English Language & Life in the U.S.

Communicating in English communication is always challenging for me, especially communications with native English speakers or people living outside campus. However, I find talking with international students or professors easier than talking with native English speakers because they usually speak more slowly and clearly than native speakers. The most difficult thing is to talking with store clerks, and I cannot understand what they say in most cases due to their speaking too fast. It is also difficult to talk with people who speak English with unique accents and intonations. For example, when I get on the BRC Express Shuttle, the driver always kindly talks to me, but I cannot understand almost any of her English. Therefore, I always ask her to repeat what she said again and again, and finally I can understand her words a little beeter and succeeded to have some awkward conversations with her.

Although communicating in English is a little bit difficult for me yet, I have had some successful experiences with it. I often meet up with Sahil, one of the 2018 Nakatani U.S. fellows, and I can learn a lot of English slang through the communications with him, such as “dope” or “judging people”. It is a precious opportunity to learn casual English for me because I do not have the opportunity to learn such slang in my home university. I really enjoy my communication with him.

I went to Austin and San Antonio during the Labor Day holiday weekend, and I really enjoyed sightseeing there. On Saturday, I visited Austin with some of the other Japanese Fellows, and I enjoyed visiting the State Capitol and Barton Springs Pool. The most exciting experience in Austin was having lunch in BBQ restaurant, Franklin Barbecue. It was the first time for me to eat such delicious beef and sausage, and I strongly recommend the future Japanese Fellows go there too if you visit Austin. On Sunday and Monday, I stayed in San Antonio, and enjoyed visiting historical places, such as the Alamo and Missions National Historical Park. It was also an exciting experience for me to ride electric scooters.

Research Project Overview 
In this week, I focused on building an android application with Rust by using Android Studio, and it was much more difficult to use Rust in Android Applications. First, Rust is a unique programming language and it has some features which are difficult to understand, making it difficult to build an application with it. In addition to the complexity of Rust, cross compiling also makes using Rust difficult. Cross compile is a system to translate an A programming language to another B language so that B can use A programs. Android Studio are designed to use Java as primary programming language, so I have to cross compile Rust programs in order to use them in the application. However, cross compiling has a lot of complicated procedures, and I have to write Java and Rust programs in a different way to use cross compile. These make it much difficult to build an Android application with Rust.

Although it was difficult to use Rust and cross compile, I succeeded to complete building up an application with Rust. I thought I finished my whole research project at that time, but my mentor said that what I did was a little different from what he wanted me to do. What he wanted me to do was to make an application which Rust programs ware called from C programs. Therefore, I have to change the application a little and write C programs which use Rust programs, and it will be the task of 5^th week. From this experience, I learned that it is important to show my understanding of my project to my mentor often. Although I often told him what I was doing and what I would do next, I should do that more often in order to avoid misunderstandings.

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Week 05: Final Week at Rice and Research in the U.S. vs. Research in Japan

Before participating in the Nakatani program, I thought that my mentor would tell me thoroughly about my research project and what I have to do to complete each step for my research. However, in the first week, he just suggested a topic of my research to me, and he did not tell me the details of each processes. I thought my mentor would lead my project, so it was surprising for me and doing research seemed much more difficult than I had thought. Furthermore, I first believed that I could get an answer easily from my mentor if I had a question or difficulty, but I realized it is not always so easy. I often asked my mentor for advice, however, he was not always able to give me the answers. This was probably because he thought answering all questions was not instructive, and sometimes he maybe did not know the correct answer too. From this experience, I realized that I cannot always find the answer quickly  others easily, and that when doing research you sometimes have to struggle to find answers and overcome difficulties.

Through this research experience, I learned how unfamiliar I am with my major, computer science, and it inspired me to learn a lot more. As I mentioned in my previous reports, I had to use various tools to build up an android application, such as virtual machine, Android Studio, and Rust, and I needed to learn a lot about these tools because I was not so familiar with them. I realized that there are so many things I have not studied yet in computer science, and this made me much more interested in computer science overall.

The Nakatani program also inspired me to go on to graduate school. Before this program, I was wondering how I can decide on my career, and I did not know whether I should go to graduate school or find a job after graduation. However, this research experience showed me how interesting computer science is, and now, I want to go to graduate school because I feel computer science is such a huge field that I cannot study it enough in just four years.Final Week in Lab &

Final week in my lab

I was really busy in the final week, because I had not finished my research and poster yet. For example, on Monday, I went to my laboratory at 9:00, and left there at 18:00, and then, I continued my research in my hotel until 24:00. Actually, it was about 13:00 on Wednesday that I finally completed my research project, and this was the day of the final poster deadline. There was one very difficult thing in my research, the library, and this is why it took so much time to finish my research. I succeeded to build up an android application at 13:00, and I had to complete my final poster by the midnight. I had not begun making final poster at that time due to the tight research schedule, so I hurried up to complete the final poster, and finally I submitted it at 23:55, 5 minutes before the deadline. Thus, this research project was really hard for me, and I had even thought that it was probably impossible to complete this research in time. Although doing research and making poster was difficult and busy, I was also satisfied with what I did. Through this experience I could get much more interested in Rust, which is a programming language that I used in the research.

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Research Project Overview and Poster

I was a little bit nervous before my poster presentation because it was my first time to do a poster presentation in English and because I did not have enough time to prepare for the presentation. As I mentioned before, I had just finished my poster at the midnight on Wednesday, so I only had Thursday and Friday before the presentation. However, it was not so difficult for me to explain about my research to the audience as I had expected, and talking and answering questions about my research project with many people was really exciting and fun.

In the presentation, I was surprised that most of the audience were familiar with programming, and that many students study computer science at Rice University. Before the presentation, I thought that not so many audience members would be familiar with my research field, and I would have to begin from an explanation of what programming is. However, most of the audience members had some programming experience and I actually did not have to explain it. This surprised me a lot, and this also pleased me because I could have deeper discussions with many audience members.

Final Research Project Poster (PDF): “Running Android Application with Rust”
Host Lab at Rice University: Zhong Research Group 
Host Professor: Prof. Lin Zhong, Depts. of Electrical & Computer Engineering and Computer Science
Mentor: Min-Hong Yun

Introduction
My research topic was “Running Android Application with Rust”, and I tried to enhance the safety of Android applications in this research. First, most Android apps are coded by Java, which is a popular programming language. These Java programs sometimes call C functions, which is also a popular programming language, in order to gain high performance. This is because C can calculate much faster than Java, so Android apps can be faster if they use C functions. However, there is one problem in that C is an unsafe language, which means that programmers can easily code incorrect programs. In order to solve this problem and enhance the safety of Android apps, I replaced C functions with Rust functions, which is a safer programming language.

Approach
I used Android Studio in order to build up the Android app. Android Studio is a kind of IDE (Integrated Development Environment), and it is the only official software to make Android apps. IDE is a software which has all functions to build up specific software or programs, in this case, Android apps, and users can write, compile, debug, run programs in an IDE.

I also used JNI and Cross Compile in order to use C and Rust functions in the Android app. JNI (Java Native Interface) is a framework which enables Java to call other languages, such as C or C++. Generally, one programming language cannot use other language’s functions, however, Java can call C functions if I use JNI.

Cross Compile is a way to compile programs for other devices. For example, in my research, I wrote all programs in my laptop, but the actual Android application have to run in an Android device, not my laptop, so I have to change the programs in my laptop so that they can be used in Android devices.

Results and Discussion
I finally succeeded to make a simple calculator application. There are 3 steps to use this calculator. Users choose x first, and choose y next, then x + y will be showed on the screen. A Rust function gets x and y variable from C function, and it calculate x + y, then it returns the result to C function. This demonstrative application proves that I can call Rust function in an Android application, and the model I used in this research can be used to enhance the safety of actual Android applications.

Future Research
I am planning to measure the latency caused by the overhead.

Conclusion
I could prove that Rust can be used in Android applications, and it can improve the safety of them.

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Week 06: Last Week in the U.S.

After our morning tour of Independence Hall, I had about six free hours to walk around Philadelphia. First, I visited the Eastern State Penitentiary with my friends, which is one of the most famous sightseeing spots in Philly. The penitentiary was built in 1928, so it is a really old and historical building. I could walk around the building and prison yard, and I could also enter the building and the solitary cells. The admission fee was a little bit expensive, $12, however, I could enjoy the interesting history and beautiful buildings. Furthermore, I was also able to use a free audio device, and it told me the historical background of the penitentiary.

Next, I went to the Rocky Statue and the Rocky Steps, and I took a lot of photos. When my friends and I were taking photos at the Rocky Steps, a friendly man talked with me, and he kindly said he could take a picture of us. At first, I thought he was a kind and reliable person, however, after he took a photo, he demanded $1 tips from each of us. Actually, he was homeless, and he was making a living by taking photos of visitors. I learned from this experience that I should not readily trust people in sightseeing spots.

The most impressive thing that  happened was on our way to the University of Pennsylvania. After visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art, two friends and I took an Uber to go to the University of Pennsylvania. However, the Uber had a traffic accident. another car crashed into our car, and it skidded to a stop. Fortunately, my friends and I were unhurt (as I was wearing my seat belt), however, I was shocked because this was the first time for me to experience a traffic accident.

At Lehigh University, we also took the Strengthsfinder survey.  In my results of the Strengthsfinder survey, it was written that futuristic was my 1^st strength, and this result really surprised me. Because I liked to think about my future life and my career path, I realized I was futuristic, however, I did not know this was a strength. Furthermore, according to the results, communication was also one of my strengths. Although I like to communicate with others, I did not realize this as a strength. Therefore, thanks to this survey, I could find two hidden strengths. Furthermore, I was surprised that some of my strengths are common to the other Japanese Fellows. After I took this survey, I shared my strengths with my friends, and I found that many of them have some of the same strengths as mine. I do not know why, but it was interesting and surprising for me.

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Final Report

When I talk with potential students who are thinking of applying to the Nakatani RIES Fellowship, I will say that the most important thing I learned from the program was the seminars we had on career paths. Although research experience and communication with many U.S fellows or other students in Rice University was really important, however, I think these lectures are even more important for students. Through this program, I had a lot of opportunities to take seminars on developing my career path, and I talked about this a lot with professors and Ph.D. students. For example, in the 2^nd week, we had a panel discussion seminar with about six Japanese Ph.D. students at Rice University. They talked about their career path and how to enter an American graduate school, which was really helpful for me to consider my own career path. Thanks to these seminars, I learned how difficult it is to do a Ph.D. degree in an American university, and how to prepare for the application process. These seminars broadened my career path, and it is very important for students to understand the process of applying to American graduate schools because it take a lot of time to prepare.

When I talk about Nakatani RIES program with my family, I would say that the most important thing I learned from the program was the experience of living in the U.S. Because my parents probably cannot understand the details of the research or seminars I participated in this program, I would talk about life in the U.S. I had not experienced living alone until the Nakatani RIES program, so this was my first experience of living by myself. I had to cook, clean, and do laundry by myself and  it was sometimes boring and annoying. However, it was also enjoyable and, especially, I was satisfied with the independent life.

When I talk about the Nakatani RIES program with a professor, I would say that the most important thing I learned from the program was the experience of research and I would also explain what my research was like. Whether the professor is an expert of computer science or not, I could first give them the research elevator pitch I learned at Rice University in order to briefly outline my research. During my stay in Houston, I practiced my elevator pitch only in English, so now I want to try to develop my elevator pitch in Japanese.

When I speaking to an employer during an interview, I would say that the network with various people I developed in Nakatani RIES program was the best thing I got from this experience. This is because, in an interview, I have to show that I can be beneficial for his or her company, and the network and connections with the people I met during this program can probably be attractive for them.

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Tips for Future Participants

The first thing you should do in Houston is to buy rice and a rice cooker. There are some important reasons for this. First, food in Houston is much more expensive than you might think. If you take a meal in a cafeteria or restaurant in Houston, it costs about twice as much as it does in Japan. However, you can easily save your money by using a rice cooker. When you go to grocery store, such as H mart, you can find reasonable rice cookers under $30, and the rice itself is also reasonable.

Second, you will probably miss rice some days. There are many kinds of food in Houston, and you can enjoy eating them, especially Tex-Mex food was really attractive for most of us. However, no matter how much you like American food, you will miss Japanese food some days, especially Japanese rice. Actually, all of my roommates, including me, were missing Japanese rice. It is true that rice in America is not as good as Japanese rice, but it is okay.

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