The 55^th NIBB Conference Arabidopsis Workshop 2008 entitled “Frontiers of Plant Science in the 21^st Century” was held in Okazaki during September 13^th-15^th and chaired by the NIBB Director Prof. Okada and others. The workshop consisted in 25 conferences (15 of which from foreign researchers invited from outside Japan) arranged in 9 scientific sessions covering most plant topics. 52 posters from Japanese researchers were presented, 9 of them being selected for oral discussions. About 130 participants, most of them at initial stages of their career (PhD students and postdocs), attended the meeting, that was nicely organized and properly scheduled at the Okazaki conference centre (OCC). The meeting was the right size to allow fruitful flow of information and to set eventual collaborations. Poster location opposite to the conference hall helped the discussion with the authors at any time and not only during the poster sessions. I personally find very formative for the young PhD students this kind of meeting that provides them a good overview of the latest plant research and trains on discussing their favorite research topic with other colleagues. The conference hall was very appropriate for the presentations, with very comfortable chairs and good facilities. Lunch at the conference centre was quite diverse and copious with enough refreshment time after each scientific session. Furthermore, get-together dinners with our Japanese hosts (PhD and postdocs in one case and Professors in the others) were very enjoyable; not only for the food but also for the relaxed and friendly environment. In this 55^th NIBB edition, the students organized a session about the future of plant research after short introductions by the invited young researchers. Although the aim of this panel Discussion was to enhance participation from the young students in the audience, mostly the senior PIs participated alone. In my opinion, the topic list chosen by the students was too broad. Maybe focusing only in a few hot-topics (the future of transgenic plants, climate change) and building a real debate table around them would have helped to improve the participation from the audience. Although most of the talks I attended were not related to my main research topic (leaf development in Arabidopsis), all presentations were clear and concise with a definite time for enough questions too. Maybe it would have helped for the students asking their questions in Japanese with following translation into English. I really liked that most of the speakers presented unpublished or ongoing work at their laboratories, which gives a good impression about the kind of science it’s been performed nowadays in Japan. Organizing travel and accommodation for the invited speakers was very efficient, such I did not have to worry at all for the flight tickets, etc.; since everything was arranged on advance from Japan. This meeting has been my first contact with the Japanese culture and as far as I can say the most interesting one. I am looking forward to have the opportunity to come back again in 2010!