GROWLING AND HISSING

Hmmm... these days, yours truly is busy like a bee, yet hungry like a ghost...

Been inundated with loads of work...

The list of 'to do' items don't seem to taper off...

On another front, went for a curry lunch today...

Those familiar with Japanese curry would know that it is not really the 'real' stuff...

Anyway, ordered an extra large portion...

When the plate came, the volume looked so ordinary that I had to confirm with the waitress...

Yes, that is extra large, she said...

But after gulping down that plateful, my stomach was still growling...

Hmmm... what now?

Stopped by a noodle shop and devoured a bowlful...

Now, that feels more like it, my stomach seemed to hiss...

I know, I know...

As man ages, he should pay more attention to the consumption volume...

Otherwise, the stomach would burst out, bulging in no time...

Hmmm... if not for the heaps of work, it'd be nice to sneak off for a little 'python' snore eh...

ON-THE-JOB TRAINING, STILL...

No kidding...

Took me ten years to come out of the classroom with a feeling that I have done a pretty good job 'teaching'...

I cherish walking right up to the students' faces, prodding and nudging them with questions...

I derive much pleasure from this interactive mode of 'teasing' the students...

Well, self-satisfaction, you could say...

But looking at the almost instant response from a rather large group of students remaining after the class to ask questions, yours truly couldn't help grinning from ear to ear yesterday...

Job satisfaction, I'd say?

The topic... Migration into Japan: its possibility and problems...

The class is big... almost 150 students and some latecomers had to sit on chairs taken in from classrooms...

My thoughts are thrown back to an interview I conducted with a company man while a doctorate student...

I asked the man how many years it would take for him to be considered a skilled worker...

His response... 15 years...

Man, I still have five more years to grind before I can scrape past that hurdle?

MAKING HISTORY IN JAPAN?

While holidaying in Malaysia last month, was asked by Kagawa Prefecture through the email if I could assist them to hold a meeting...

Without going into the finer details, I said ok... (it was terrible to read Japanese in romaji text...)

Turned out to be quite a high profile meeting with the purpose of discussing how to make Kagawa Prefecture 'a more livable place' for foreigners...

'Assisting to hold a meeting' turned out to be 'my consent to be chairman of the meeting'...

Hey, I didn't read that part!!

Anyway, first time to chair such a meeting with the top guns of the prefecture attending...

Learnt later that yours truly is the first foreigner to chair such a high level meeting in the prefecture...

Weeeehh... I am making history?

But... there's always a but...

The Japanese are understandably not really keen to take in foreigners into their shores...

They have been so for the past hundreds of years...

So, the proposals are more like limp, ad hoc measures... stopgap devices that are tuned more towards short-term stayers...

While short-term residents can be quite a problem (they don't know how to separate the rubbish... they party too late into the nights... they use too much oil to cook... the spices they use are too smelly... they commit too much crime...), the focus on long-term residents is somewhat superficial...

Anyway, we are due to meet two more times to thrash the proposals out...

Am looking forward to seeing more 'fire' in the discussions between the local and foreign members of the meeting...

PROUD TO BE A 'LIM' TODAY

Malaysian affairs has been and is still graced by quite a few of the 'Lim' clansmen...

Lim Chong Eu, Lim Keng Yaik, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, Lim Ah Lek are some of the prominent ones...

If I am not mistaken, Ling Liong Sik also shares the same Chinese surname... no?

Sometimes of course, I feel embarrassed to be 'associated' with them, especially those in the ruling coalition...

Times when they appear so weak and patronizing to you-know-who...

But today, I feel proud...

Dr. Dr Lim Teck Ghee has quit ASLI...

That's integrity for you...

I am proud that my 'braddaaa' is standing by his work and telling the concerned parties to go and rot...

Says he, 'It is the fundamental right of the Malaysian public to question all government statistics and policies, more so when these are not transparent or defensible.'

I salute you, brother...

PUBLIC SCRUTINY IN MALAYSIAN AFFAIRS

'Scrutiny' to the Malaysian government is something like sunlight to Count Dracula...

* Am I getting overly influenced by movies or what? *

From 10 a.m. this morning, I have been listening to the live parliamentary broadcast on Japanese national radio...

Makiko Tanaka, daughter of the (in)famous former Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka, was dueling with the newly minted Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on his dream to make Japan a 'beautiful' country (utsukushii Nippon)...

Fallen 'Prince' Katsuya Okada followed the assault, scrutinizing Abe on words he spoke years ago on social security at some campaign...

And there's Abe, responding immediately for all to hear and judge...

Back home in Malaysia, I wonder when is the soon-to-be-advanced government going to broadcast the parliamentary debates...

Presently, we have the Prime Minister accusing the ASLI findings as being baseless...

And what argument does he offer to back up his accusation?

Jeeeloh...

Boy... the credibility of this government (and even the previous ones for that matter) has gone to the dogs...

Assume that I choose to refute someone's claim that the moon is roundish...

Man, I better come up with some reasonable arguments to show that the moon is in fact squarish...

Otherwise, what image of myself am I projecting to the other party?

A bloody pain in the butt, and an idiot who cannot talk sense, no less...

As in this refutation by the Prime Minister on ASLI's findings...

There is a very interesting debate in Malaysiakini at the moment...

If ASLI's findings are indeed true, Khoo Kay Peng proposes that 'the government may be facing a difficult time in trying to explain to the truly marginalised segment of the society, which consists of largely the bumiputera community, why the 45% of wealth ownership did not help to alleviate their living conditions.'

There! Think about it...

As I mumbled somewhere before, 'you can run but you can't hide'...

The day the Malaysian government can stand up to PUBLIC SCRUTINY... and there are mountains of urgent issues waiting to be scrutinized... that will be the day when Malaysians can truly rejoice...

Till then my friends, I shall continue to enjoy scuba diving in my backyard here at Aji town...

JAPAN INLAND SEA, SCUBA DIVED...

Finally, scuba dived at our back yard...

Last Saturday morning, after the usual full breakfast, we geared up and descended into the sea...

We wanted to test our new regulator and buoyancy control device that we just bought from Malaysia...

Man, was the sea gloomy or what...

Visibility was, let's say, a meter...

Water temperature was 26 to 27 degrees...

Our first dive lasted 29 minutes...

Maximum depth, 7.3 meters...

So, what did we see?

At seven meters, nothing but gray matter...　

The sunrays could not even reach this depth...

At one spot, I could not even see the readings on my computer...

Ascended to about three to four meters; a couple of starfish, little gobies that are not that colorful and some baby kelpfish come to view...

After a short surface break, we went for the second dive using the same tank...

Three minutes into the dive, my buddy signaled me...

Her regulator was sending her air even as she was not demanding it...

She switched to the octopus as we watched the regulator free-flowed a few seconds...

Nevertheless, this dive was a little better...

We saw some rocks with seaweed and fishes hiding in the cracks...

'Interesting' sea life included a twenty-centimeter puffer, a starfish bigger than my stretched palm, some fishes that quickly darted away upon seeing my torch...

We ascended after 27 minutes...

I am game to go again but my buddy says 'no more diving here'...

Hmmm... I shall have to think of ways to 'con' her into diving the 'interesting' Japan Inland Sea again...