AUTUMN DAYS IN JAPAN

Aaaah, early autumn in Japan...

I just love it...

The skies, so cloudless and blue...

The air, pleasantly dry and cool...

And the seas, so calm and glass-like...

I feel high... pretty high I must say... to have sailed this way...

The last time I felt so consistently high was in 1996... ten years ago...

That was when I successfully 'defended' my doctorate thesis...

Haaaa... could have 'died' halfway through the program...

Plus, I got a job at my current university that year...

Then, ten years before that in 1986...

I went through a similar high getting balled-and-chained to my sweeto-haato while swearing in front of a Texas County Judge with my closest pals standing in as witnesses...

The floating-floating feeling continued till I graduated from Texas Tech University a month later...

Hmmm, now I wonder... what awaits me in 2006-plus-ten years from today...

HOMECOMING, AFTER 22 YEARS OF GOOFING OFF

Just received a note from a good pal...

Said he, 'I'm planning a trip home end of this year after 22 years....'

Wow!!

***** ***** *****

In early January 1980, yours truly set out from his kampong with a borrowed shirt on his back...

Destination: Singapore...

Reason: Was hired by Singapore Airlines to train as Cadet Pilot...

As if I was not lucky enough, Singapore Airlines decided to send me (and a bunch of goondoos) to Manila for the training...

But that's another story for another time...

Each day, we walked through the hallways at the Philippine Airline Aviator School...

An overhanging plate said something to the effect...

'Along these hallways walk the fine airmen of tomorrow'...

Anyway, we trained and managed to qualify (?) as commercial pilots with instrument rating...

However, fate was not to be...

The 1981 oil shock put a stop to the expansion plans of Singapore Airlines...

The company offered us a choice to return to our kampong to wait for the recall...

Or we could choose to work in the cabin crew department and wait for the opening in the cockpit...

All of us, over twenty guys, chose the later...

We had a ball of a time flying as flight stewards...

What more... we got to know what the heck hors d'ouvre meant...

We got to taste 'leftover' Dom Perignon before we poured them away into the sink...

Meanwhile, months passed... years passed...

The company could not go on making unfulfilled promises...

So we were offered student loans to study in the university...

We were to return to the airline after graduation...

Most of us took the study loans and headed to the US...

We graduated but only a handful chose to return to the cockpit...

Most remained in the US, with one each in Japan, UK, and Australia...

Needless to say, the colors of the passports changed as the umbilical cords with the mother country got severed one by one...

And then, this notice from my pal about returning home after an 'exile' of 22 years...

(Notice he mentioned 'home'...)

I made a trip home after a continuous absence of three years (was studying in the US)...

That was in 1986...

I could not recognized my home in Alor Star then...

Imagine the images that will run through my pal's mind when he hits 'home' (aka Kulim)...

Woaaaahh... 22 continuous donkheey years away...

SCUBA DIVING IN MY BACKYARD?

Took me over two months to negotiate with the local fisherman's union...

We plan to scuba dive the waters around Aji Peninsula, where we live...

We have heard that the fisherman's unions in Japan are pretty tetchy when it comes to scuba diving by 'outsiders' in their territory...

The reason is, there have been many cases of 'outsiders' pouching the fish and shells, thus affecting the livelihood of the fishermen...

We are recreational divers and we have no intentions of pouching...

Anyway, was lucky to have a good friend who could introduced me to the union chief...

And what luck, her husband came along and it turned out that his grandfather was the union chief some years ago...

The union chief said there would be no problem as long as we alert them before we dive...

More than one month passed...

Then, a phone call came...

The fishermen will take us to some uninhabited islands to dive...

We would have to pay them 5000 yen each (almost US$50) for the boat ride...

There would be no dive guide, and we have to source everything by ourselves...

I rejected the offer and countered that we only plan to do beach entries rather than boat diving...

Another month passed by...

The response this time was, fortunately, positive...

However, we are only to dive in one site dictated by the union...

For the time being, I said, ok...

On our last trip back home, we finally bought our BCDs (Buoyancy Control Devices) and Regulators...

We are ready to scuba dive this weekend to check out our new equipment...

Rented two aluminum tanks yesterday from a local dive shop...

Imagine, 4000 yen (almost US$40) for merely two tanks and nothing else...

Talked to the boss of the shop who gave me some good hints...

So, instead of Aji peninsula, we shall head to Naruto area in Tokushima prefecture, which is about an hour's drive away...

Apparently, the visibility there is much better... perhaps four to five meters compared to the one meter at Aji...

If we are lucky, we could see some pelagics...

But, we are shallow divers...

And, we prefer the little critters like gobies and nudibranches...

Wooh... can't wait to sink into the ocean...

LeProfesseur LeRong

Back in April 1996, I sat on my office chair, excitedly cherishing the first moments of landing a job as assistant professor at my current university...

I had never dreamt of getting a job in Japan, what more a teaching job in a Japanese national university...

Fast-forward ten years to this fateful twenty-first day of the year two-zero-zero-six...

I sit on my office chair... quietly cherishing the very first moments of my promotion from associate professor to a full, tenured professor this morning...

Officially, my promotion takes effect from 1st October 2006...

The road has not been pretty at times...

Hard work, of course, comes first... perseverance, that is...

Then, naturally, there is luck... we need it, really...

Plus, the tears... yes, tears, my dear friends...

One occasion was when my supervisor-professor threw out my paper while a doctoral student...

The second time was when the business faculty decided to reject my bid to become associate professor in 1997...

Ahhh, it is quite sweet, I must say, to be able to sit back, reflect, and smile at those times...

But then, nothing's really changed...

First and foremost, I remain humbled but honored as always, to be treated as such...

And like you, I'd still fart and burp after gulping down some of those delectable durians during my trips home...

I would certainly still snore when I hit the sack at night...

For I am, but the same old yours truly... a bit corny, sometimes unfunny, and occasionally grouchy (my missus will attest to this)...

Still, for the time being, I remain on cloud nine...

Oops, time to report to my missus...

We'll probably have red wine in the evening to celebrate this wonderful turn of events...

BACK FROM A 3-WEEK HAITUS

Just got back to Japan yesterday after a three-week vacation in Malaysia...

Was at Pulau Perhentian from 31st August to 5th September...

My, the crowd there... dinner time was like a fish market...

Stayed a pretty nice resort and enjoyed 15 dives around the islands...

The highlight of the dives was without doubt, the large school of buffalo fish...

They really looked so graceful, chomping off the corals and stirring up the sediments...

Then, spent about ten days in my kampong in Kedah...

Mother is about 85 years old, and weakening although she still eats well...

Each time I leave my kampong, I have to tell myself that this could the last time I see her...

Anyway, when the time comes, each and everyone of us has to go...

Food in Kedah is always superb to me...

By this, I mean the nasi lemak and mee rebus... they are not quite like the ones you get elsewhere...

Finally, spent three nights in a hotel in KL...

This place... I have never developed a liking for it...

Crowded, jammed up roads...

Except for some (scuba gear) shopping and looking up my school friends who have migrated here, I would have given it a pass...

Anyway, it rained everyday when we were there...

Must admit one good thing, however... which was, we enjoyed the wonderful masala and rawa tosai breakfasts in a shop just outisde the hotel...

This trip is 'unusual' in that, both my missus and I were inflicted with cough just before our return...

Our flight home was pretty bumpy due to the winds from Typhoon Number 13...

From today, it is back to my routine at the university...

Ahh... should have gorged in one more mouthful of that wonderful masala tosai...