Paul Santerre and lab members Meghan Wright and Xiaoqing Zhang had the honour of attending the 5th World Congress of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS) in Kyoto, Japan. The TERMIS meeting brought together international researchers and innovators in the fields of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The meeting kicked off with a visit from Typhoon Jebi, but all attendees were safely tucked away in the conference venue, the Kyoto International Conference Centre, a stunning example of mid-century Japanese architecture. Meghan presented on her research toward prevascularizing tissue engineered gingival constructs, while Xiaoqing presented two posters highlighting recent work validating the use of adipose stem cell-derived vascular smooth muscle cells. The conference ended with a night at the stunning Kiyomizu-dera Buddhist temple, opened for TERMIS attendees for the closing gala, where we were afforded stunning views of the lit-up temple towers and city below us. The temple is only very rarely opened to visitors in the evening, so we were honoured to be present.