Back in the village

Am spending the final days of 2007 at the village I was born...
The padi fields are still a little greenish and on the verge of turning to gold...
But I shall not have the privilege of seeing them harvested due to my short stay...

Spent five days at Mabul Island off Semporna in Sabah...
The resort we stayed at was just as pretty as in 2003 when we first went there...

The diving at Sipadan was very satisfying...
Baraccudas... jacks... hundreds of them tornado-ing around us...
Each of the baraccudas measured a meter or more...
Turtles... everywhere...

Diving the walls is actually an amazing feeling...
The sea floor purportedly drops to about 600 meters...

Meanwhile, saw the pygmy seahorse for the first time while diving at Mabul...
The pinkish creature was about one centimeter in length...
There is an orange colored one as well, the size even smaller...
But the currents... wooh, for the first time, my tank went almost empty...

Shall certainly be back for more...

When words become treasures...

One of my favorite songs till this day is that BeeGees number, 'Words'...

As Lita, a former student of mine, illustrated on 8th May 2007...

Dear Prof. Lrong Lim,
How are you, Sir?
It was my great pleasure to have met you again in Kagawa!
You looked a little bit tired but actually younger than 2yrs ago!
I believe your passion for your job is making you getting brighter as time goes by.
Hereby attaching one picture we took together~
You look nice on the shot.
Pls send yours in your free time!
Looking forward to seeing you again,
B.Wishes,
Lita

And, similarly, her words turned to treasure on 19th August 2007...

Dear Sir,
Well rcvd the photos with many thanks!
How are you these days? How was your job in Hawai??
It's too hot to go out recently! Crazy hot, hot, hot weather!!>_<
Take special care of yourself in this hard season~!
Looking forward to seeing you soon,
B.Rgds,
Lita

Had been weeping since I received the news yesterday afternoon...
Lita had passed away in early November...

She had apparently taken her own life...

Why Lita, I ask...
My door is always opened...
Why Lita, didn't you send me a note...
I would have caressed you with kind words... words that might heal your pains and troubles...
Why Lita... did you give up on life...

For all my young friends who happen to come across this post...
Please, do not give up on life...

Life is too precious...
For it is not only you who is living that life...
The folks around you, the friends around you... they live that 'life' along with you...

Please... don't ever give up...

Meanwhile... my eyes weep...
My heart pains...

My soul bleeds... for Lita...

Challenged... these days

These days, life is somewhat... exhausting...

This morning, when the alarm bells hit five, I could hardly reach out to touch the off-button...

I literally had to boot myself out of the warm futon, as there is work to do, even on a Saturday...

But still, life is wonderful...

I am saying this as I sit at my desk, listening to some amazing songs on the radio...

Ahhh... so agreeable to the senses...

But yes, life is indeed challenging...

Or, as Malaysians would know by now... very 'chabar-ing'...

‘Pantang’ or otherwise, as a faculty member in a university, I am perennially chabar-ed by my students...

At the outset, I can't be feeding them half-past six lectures, as it would eventually boomerang back to my face...

On an equally significant front, I am presently being chabar-ed by my superiors to do something that go against what I believe in...

But thank god, here at my office, I have the humble radio to offer me solace...

Life is indeed, my dear friends... very chabar-ing...

Japan fingerprints foreigners

Have been a law-abiding resident in Japan for the past 20 years or so...

It has been a pleasure thus far...

But on this day, I can’t help but to feel that Japan is embarking on something that is not very ‘polite’ for long-term foreign residents...

Why? Because as Asahi Newspaper puts it, ‘In Japan, people are not fingerprinted against their will unless they are processed as part of a criminal case.’

So, starting today, Japan shall fingerprint and photograph every foreign ‘visitor’ aged above 16 (some exceptions apply) upon entry into Japan...

And the rationale... fighting terrorism...

See the following articles...
Fingerprinting of foreign arrivals starts (a balanced view from Asahi)
Starting today, 'gaijin' formally known as prints (anti-view)
Watching them watching us 'Fingerprint Day' adds insult to injury for Japan's foreign community (anti-view)
Use fingerprints, photos to boost security (pro-view)

The only other country doing this is the US... the difference is, long-term residents are exempted...

I recall a prolonged debate I had with my buddies when the US invaded Iraq...

One of us said, ‘no use debating as the invasion has got nothing to do with us...’

I immediately countered, saying that he could not be more wrong...

Now, we all have gone through the stringent checks before embarking that plane... and more than once, we were told to surrender our water bottles...

Actually, fingerprinting is not really a big deal to Malaysians... we all carry identity cards that house our thumbprints...

However, in this case, as succinctly highlighted by Asahi Newspaper, Japan seems to be risking the goodwill of legally entrenched, law abiding, long-term foreign residents...

ACA officers to help increase profits?

I need some assistance here...

Can someone please enlighten me on just what the fish this report is saying?

Najib: ACA men will be stationed at key agencies if this results in more revenue
BY ROSLINA MOHAMAD

PEKAN: The Government is willing to consider recruiting more Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) officers and station them at various Government-Linked Companies (GLCs), government departments and agencies if the move results in higher revenue.

Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak noted that the departments and agencies recording higher earnings were those offering counter services to facilitate the public to pay their bills.

“However, if we deploy two or three ACA officers in the GLCs and agencies and such a move results in the Government getting extra in-come of several million ringgit, it is then a new form of investment.

“Yes, the Government is willing to increase the manpower if the earnings are higher than the cost of placing the officers in the GLCs,” he told reporters...

Is this report saying that putting ACA officers in the GLCs is a form of investment that will bring in more income?

Baffling, it is...

Thieving in Japan

Had returned from Malaysia to my ‘cave’ here in Japan in early September, and of course, was overwhelmed by the mountain of piled-up work...

So, there I was, slugging through that mountain on that Saturday and Sunday wondering whether this was the punishment for being away for a vacation...

On the following Monday at 0840 hours, was surprised to see my cap outside my office door...

And became more perplexed when I found the door to be unlocked as I keyed in...

Didn’t take a minute to realize that a thief had broken into my office...

Ooh, 21 years of continuous residence in Japan and this was the first experience of being robbed...

Called my staff members who then rushed to my office...

About half an hour later, three policemen came...

The thief had entered through the ventilation window, which I had left partially open...

The police combed my untidy room for fingerprints and shoeprints...

One of them asked... is this room always like this? Messy?

Me: Yes...

Policeman: How then, do you know if something is stolen?

Me: Of course I know!!

That rascal of a thief wore gloves, apparently... and he seemed like he knew what he wanted...

The loot included the Nikon D70 digital camera (oooh, this is painful...)

He knew what he wanted because he took the dedicated D70 battery from one of my drawers... and the battery was actually inside a pouch...

Plus, the battery charger... funny he pulled off the cord and took just the unit...

And, 3 pieces of 1 gigabit compact flash cards...

Plus, a video/CD player and an Epson Projector...　grrrr...

Still, odd that the idiot did not take the cables for these either...

Anyway, two more policemen came... and took pictures of the scene while requesting yours truly to point to the spots where the goods were removed...

I must say that they were pretty professional and prompt...

One stayed back to write the report on my behalf and had me verified and signed it...

At 1115 hours, I was able to resume my banging at that mountain of work again...

Back home that evening over dinner, my missus decreed, nose held high, and both arms on hips... ‘Now, no more buying of cameras, ok?’

Grrrr...

Sakamoto Kyu's 'Ue wo muite aruko'...

One of the biggest joys of residing in Japan for me... is listening to the Japanese songs on the radio...

This morning... was once again held captive by Sakamoto Kyu's rendition of Ue wo muite aruko...

Mesmerizing... to say the least...

On Namewee and Yee Yang Yang... what now?

On Namewee... had just been reading the reports and comments on the issue and was feeling pretty disgusted with the way the so-called authorities handled the affair...

Initially had no time to look up the video in question, until Vincent, a reader, asked for my views...

So there I was, doing a search for it and found myself somewhat enjoying the video...

Namewee is a pretty talented artist, at least by my standards...

Depending on one's standing, his style seems abrasive in some ways and crude in other ways (as in showing that lump of sh*t?)

Still, with my biases and slants, I think he speaks in the same tongue as a wide spectrum of the so-called 'nons' of bolehland do...

The discrimination... the corruption... these, no one can deny...

But on the dressing and perhaps even the azan prayers, these may be hitting below the belt...

Reason is, I have no qualms on how people choose to dress or pray but I do have bones to pick with hypocrites who claim to be religious while brazenly committing sins such as corruption and discrimination...

Then we have our so-called 'protectors' at MCA... they are but a disgrace...

Literally, they were slapped on the cheeks once again by big bad brother UMNO...

Yet these are but the same crooks that keep reminding us about that inane concept called 'power sharing'... the very same baddies screaming their throats dry for Namewee's head, harassing his family and demanding to have his citizenship stripped...

The dust has somewhat settled, so, what now with those 'honorable' buffoons?

Wonder if they are still seething to have Namewee extradited home... no?

Ok, let's assume Namewee has done us wrong... but what about the many worse wrongs done by those rascals at the top echelon to the citizens of Malaysia?

Anyway, I would suggest Namewee to stay put as he is now... go sail the world, young man and do what you are good at... family and friends aside, the only thing you might miss is the wonderful food back in bolehland...

While we are on the topic of young men, my attention veers towards the odd case of Yee Yang Yang...

Couldn't agree more with my 'clansman' Kit Siang's comment on UPM being a hooligan institution...

Such high handed-ness... where is the so-called Vice-Chancellor bringing the university?

I salute Yang Yang's courage in standing up to those mobsters, and now that they have returned his stuff... what now?

Can we expect some thug in UPM having one strand the courage of Yang Yang to come up and say gomen-nasai for roughing him up unreasonably?

These little-little incidents... wonder if they are the forerunners to some kind of undesirable behavioral pattern among the mischievous lot of rogues...

Huh?

The pariah Malaysian state of affairs...

Reading the daily news on Malaysia is a perennially tetchy affair for a Malaysian like me...

For one, what pariah state has this oppressive law that illogically limits an assembly of people to just five? Myanmar?

Above that number, you need a police permit.

And the good news is, the police-thugs will decide whether to give you that sickening piece of paper depending on their dim-witted fancies...

Goddamn Malaysian pariah state of affairs, I say...

And in which country can you find police officers linked to the deputy prime minister, no less, blowing up foreign ladies to bits with exclusive explosives under their ambit?

And then, to think about the pariah state of affairs in the Malaysian judiciary...

How low can these scoundrels go?

If the chief justice is not involved in the tapes, why the fish did he not sue the blinkers out of the accuser?

Does he not know the law... this 'honorable' chief justice we are talking about?

And these very scoundrels are telling us that Malaysia will magically become a 'developed nation' come 2020...


Man, what the fish...

Scuba-ing at 1.5 meters of water

Yeap, you heard me right... the following five shots were taken while yours truly was scuba-ing solo in 1.5 meters of water...


This is probably some kind of scorpionfish... size, maybe 15 cm... it was just sitting still, waiting for a prey to come along, I suppose...


I would like to call this specimen 'Lemon damselfish'... there are loads of them hovering in shallow waters... movements are very jerky, as if in excitement... size, 10 cm?


Enjoyed watching these gobies come in and out of their burrows with their companion shrimps...
Here, I visualized this guy basking in the shallows with its very own 'Mt. Fuji' in the backyard...


In 1.5 meters of water, you use almost no air... so there was plenty of time to observe these goatfishes feeding at the bottom... they use their barbels to stir up the goodies... this specimen is called 'Dash and dot' goatfish... hmmm, pretty self explanatory... size about 20 cm...


This cute little fellow was swimming all the time... it is a juvenile fish which will grow up to be what is called the Harlequin sweetlips... its swimming action is very pronouced and rather sluggish... I followed this guy around the reef and each time, it will return to a fixed spot which is probably its 'home'... size was about 10 cm...

Feather-stars, damsels, spider-crab, batfish and puffer

Befriended a family from Italy on our last dive trip...
(Leonardo, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure... and there are more to come...)
The above is one of my favorite shots of late... a leather coral being sandwiched by two feather stars of yellow and black... this is a rather common scene in tropical waters...


Damselfish (Indian Dascyllus) hovering over a colony of finger corals... about 10 centimeters they were? Was diving solo at the house reef... enjoyed remaining as motionless as possible (except for the breathing of course) while watching these cute little guys...


Spider crab sitting comfortably on a deflated bubble coral... it was not bothered at all with my photographing... size is minute, let's say, about 2 centimeters across?


Circular batfish with scuba tank... we were levelling off at 5 meters, waiting for the boat to arrive when a school of these graceful guys came by... and they were not afraid to come close... size was about 40 centimeters... and they looked pretty meaty... slurp...


White-spotted puffer amongst finger corals... was diving solo again in about 1.5 meters of water at the house reef when I caught this fellow cruising by... about 20 centimeters...

Sunrise, sand, ships...

Waking up early offers a refreshing opportunity to observe the seasonal movements of the rising sun...
Here, we could see the sun rising off Shodoshima, literally translated to mean the Island of the Red Beans...


Along my way cycling to and from work, I get to enjoy these kind of scenes...
This stretch of the beach is quite rubbish-filled... arrrggghhh...
Yet, this is not stopping those folks from having a good time...


A few meters from that beach is this one...
Hmmm... would have loved to jump in for a dip myself...


I enjoy shooting pictures of ships during misty days...
This ferry boat is heading for the Osaka area...


This is another of a large number of ferry boats that ply the sea-lanes in my neighborhood...
Those pandas... nope, the ship is not going to China...


PS: Just got back from two weeks of vacation in Malaysia...
Weather there was much cooler than the hellish Japanese summer temperatures...

Lionfish, sponge, moorish idol..

Shall be flying off to Sabah tomorrow morning...
And heading to one of the islands for some, oooh... diving...
Can't wait...

Meanwhile, have to be contented with looking at these pics... found this lionfish specimen at the housereef near a resort I went some time ago...

The vicinity was just all sandy... quite a bit like a dessert... sloping gently to the depths... and this guy was just there, relaxing... looking at me at the corner of its eye...

This cute little fellow is a different specimen... a so-called Spotfin Lionfish... it has two 'spears' rolling right out from its eye area... watch it now...

And they are telling me this is an animal? Actually, a sponge, so to say... humans used to harvest such sponges for the domestic and the beauty industry... they are supposed to have pretty immense water suction capability...

Ah... anthias... can never get tired of gazing at these little fellows darting here and there... they are such a pretty sight for the eyes...


And the speedy, speedy Moorish idol... wanted to shoot its characteristically long dorsal fin (?) as well but... forgive me...

Catch the Rainbow

Used to listen to Deep Purple quite a bit while growing up...
Their guitarist left and formed his own group, Rainbow... thus the above title song...

Days in Japan lately are hot as hell...
While gardening on weekends, my sweat literally 'rains' from within...
The real rains, meanwhile, are few and far in between...



So, was quite lucky to get caught in a drizzle while cycling home one evening...
And woah... stopped right on my tracks upon catching this big R... two, actually, if you care to observe...
Rainbows are rarely seen at where I live...



This particular rainbow seemed to be just about two kilometers or so from where I stood...
See how it shone 'in front' of those table-top hills?



The setting sun cast a golden glow on the metalics of the bridge...
At the bat of the eye, I caught this cyclist breezing by...



Closer to home, was beckoned by this pretty sight...
The island you see was previously used as a rehabilitation center for lepers until recently...


Meanwhile, yours truly shall be heading back to Malaysia for a short holiday...
Shall be cruising the oceans in East Malaysia before zooming back to my village...
Shall also drop by KL briefly before 'hitching' a ride back to Japan in early September...

Capturing spirit of racial harmony?

This kind of mongering almost always gives me the creeps...

Spirit of racial harmony, you say? In the midst of the silly hullabaloo surrounding the now-famous Hokkien rapper rapping over the national anthem?

Oh yes, before I forget... one piece of related information made me kind of like, ahem... yearn quite a bit for the writings of MGG Pillai... (May his soul rest in peace...)

Reports the Sun in 'Who's sorry now?'... The 'indescribable' Nazri purportedly said 'I am not telling the A-G what to do as the A-G is independent to initiate proceedings against anybody, but if the AG decides to prosecute him, then when he lands his foot in this country, he will have to answer.'

As MGG Pillai would have eloquently poked... Why the need to remind citizens of the independence of the A-G when we all know that it is so? Or is it?

Ok, now back to the main topic...

That... the well-known two faced minister of 'Culture, Arts and Heritage' was reported to have said:


'I am truly happy because in the book, you will find that a Muslim photographer has captured a photograph of a Chinese cultural event while a Chinese photographer had snapped the image of a Muslim reciting Yasin beside a grave.'

I say: Oh god...

Why in the world must these people always compartmentalize citizens of Malaysia into this box and that box?

Can't we just have citizens as, merely Malaysians without all those flowery classifications decorated with racial and religious undertones?

Anyway, this is a 'noble' project to produce a coffee table book entitled 'Malaysia@50' to mark the so-called 50th year of the nation...

Which, I suspect our brethrens from Sabah and Sarawak are not as excited as they should be...

In conjunction with this hooha, a photo competition was held to 'encourage an artistic sense of patriotism and love for a shared independent nation'.

Wow... big time patriotism and love for the nation...

Can you guess who the winners are?

In all three categories reported, (schoolchildren and youths (below 18) category, Open Category (above 18), and Photo Essay category), the winners all come from just one 'box'...

Now, can you guess which 'box'?

And if you guess right, can we go ahead and assume that these people from that certain 'box' possess the most acute sense, albeit 'artistic', of patriotism and love for a shared independent nation'?

And we have 'distinguished' scoundrels in high places losing sleep over the 'unpatriotic-ness' of a now-famous and upcoming rapper who happens to emanate from that same 'box'... arrgggh...

Meanwhile, the maggots continue to gnaw on at where it hurts the most...

Hawaii... why they keep coming...

Had sometimes wondered why my friend Panda-chan left Hawaii for Japan... I wouldn't mind at all to settle down in Hawaii... not so much in Oahu but the other islands like the Big Island or Maui... As the above pic shows, it is 'paradise' to many...

Was attending a conference last May and could only hang out in the Waikiki area... There is so much space for people to linger about... Compare this to my country Malaysia... you would find the hotels building right up to the sea, shutting out the regular folks who just wanted to have a view of the sea...


And on most of the evenings, I was there... waiting for the sun to fall on me...

Kanazawa... a world of 'wabi' and 'sabi'

Had an opportunity to visit Kanazawa for the first time...
This is a city of samurais where much cultural artifacts from that era has been meticulously maintained...
The above picture shows one of the row of tea houses of old, where such men of power had probably spent many a day (or rather night) of 'pleasure' in...


Kanazawa's claim to fame these days, however, lie in the Kenrokuen... one of the so-called top three Japanese gardens in all Japan...
This above rendition marks the stone lantern that doubles as the unmistakable symbol of the garden...


Before venturing into the garden, I had little expectations of being impressed...
But there I was, snapping and snapping at the fabulous stone lanterns of various shapes and sizes... woooh, impressed I was?
This lovely lantern stood at the foot of a fallen 'aka-matsu' (red pine) tree...
I stood there, almost in awe(?)... admiring its reflection on the water amidst the gentle ripples...


This huge lantern found its place beside a wasabi pond...
I took time off to suck in the air while soaking in the scene...


And finally, a lantern by a restaurant at a large pond side...
I wouldn't mind at all to have one of these features in my home... no?

O Canada

Am now in Calgary, enjoying her sunny cool summer days...

Calgary University is the last leg of my visit to three universities...

Impressive they all are, each with their own strengths...

Prince George the first stop, is a small city of about 80,000 people...

Forestry is the mainstay of the economy and the University of Northern British Columbia is only about a decade old...

Still, it is a very well-run university with a student population of under 5000 students...

Edmonton, the second stop, is much bigger with a population of over 700,000 people...

The University of Alberta is a charming university with some nice old buildings...

Was busying myself with photographing those buildings...

The university is huge and there is a lot of green spaces...

Was impressed with the HUB, a student dormitory with lots of shops and a very bright overhead glass ceiling...

Calgary seems more robust and modern, with a population of about a million people...

The university is comparable to the that of Edmonton's in various aspects, except that it is a little younger...

In all three locations, I stayed on-campus as I wanted to get to know the university as much as I could...

And in all three locations, I have sent students... and it felt so good to chat with them on campus...

On a more personal side, I think I am reaching the limits of my tolerance for 'trans-pac' flights...

Crossing the pacific ocean does take quite a toll on the body, both physically and mentally...

As in my previous trip to Vancouver two years ago, the jet lag got the better of me about two days after arrival...

In Vancouver, I was awakened by a telephone ring... and, in the midst of my grogginess, I jumped out of bed as the hotel receptionist said that I was supposed to check out at 11:00 am...

And it was 1:00 pm already... wooaaahhh...

Anyway, here in Calgary, the folks are really very hospitable...

A lady who works in the department I am dealing with, was so kind to show me her home...

I met her husband, who even though, retired, looked like he is in his late forties when he is coming sixty...

They offered me a glass of good red wine and we chatted about things Canadian while sitting in their backyard deck...

Then, they took me to a sushi restaurant for dinner... how kind of them, I must say...

I have two more days here and I intend to make the best out of it... as I do not think my forty-nine-year body, 'young' as it is, can take anymore of this beating from crossing the mighty pacific...

A walk on the hillside

A mega typhoon hit our shores about a week ago...

Shikoku, especially Kagawa Prefecture, where I live, has always been inflicted with a shortage of water supply...

The authorities were furiously trying to urge the inhabitants to conserve water as the reserves dipped dangerously at the 15% level...

We were, in other words, almost gasping for rain to fall...

Then came Typhoon Number Four...

The winds slammed our walls... blew our persimmons off the trees... ripped the leaves off the bitter gourds... and tore off a large branch of our wild sakura tree...

The winds and rains scrapped almost throughout the Japanese archipelago, bringing deaths and destruction...

And it filled our water reserves to a full 100% in just a matter of two days...

The morning after was a Sunday... and my sweetheart invited me for a walk in the hills...

She of course, go for walks almost daily along this path...

And I could not turn down a good offer...


So, with camera in hand, I caught this ivy colony clinging on the rock walls just minutes from our home... the fresh greens looked so crisp...


Further up the hills lay a forest of pine trees... I could just stand there, gazing.. and letting my imagination roam free...


Some steps away from the forest is this view of our humble little house in red...
The Japan Inland Sea was still pretty choppy and ships were not a-plenty...


An Iranian family has a second house up in the hills... I sneaked into his garden to steal this shot of an artichoke (sp?) bloom... this one was a little smaller than my clenched fist... and it looked so pretty...


Was surprised as my sweetheart introduced me to this beauty of a, probably wild black berry...
Took a bite at one of the ripe ones and the taste? Somewhat sweetish and sourish...

Note: Yours truly is slated to shoot to Canada (Prince George, Edmonton, and Calgary) on 23rd July, Monday... woooh, am looking forward to this visit as it will be my first time to step foot on these lands...

Parrot-fish, Dottyback, Blenny, Scorpion-fish, & Leaf-fish

The parrot fish is a perennial favorite among divers, I believe...

They are swift swimmers during the day, so photographing them is quite a task...

However, come nightfall, they settle down for some 'shut-eye' (actually 'open-eyes' as you can see)...

In other words, they become very easy photo targets as they snooze away...

Sometimes we can see a film of mucus surrounding their bodies, which serve to protect them from preys...

Size, about 50 centimers?

This guy is called the 'Pale dottyback'...

Was quite fascinated with the way it rests on the finger coral with its leg-like fins...

Unlike the parrotfish, this guy tends to take periodic breaks once it settles on a coral... we only need patience to sneak closer for the shoot... size was about 15 centimeters...

Am not sure about this little baby...

Looks like some kind of blenny...

It has half its body inserted inside a hole on the rock corals...

Quick movements frighten the fish so we have to move very slowly to get close... Size, maybe less than 10 centimeters...

Is this a scorpion fish or a stone fish?

I would imagine, scorpion... size was about 40 centimeters...

This fellow was motionless throughout the shoot...

The only movement came from just the eyes...

Hmmm, I think this guy would look better on a plate, nicely dressed up and garnished with fresh onions and tomatoes...

This Leaf fish is quite like the scorpion fish above... predatory, that is...

They lay still, waiting for the opportune time to snap at their prey (usually smaller fishes)...

This lovely specimen was about 6 to 7 centimeters... pale-whitish... range of colors include deep green, black, brownish, etc...

Ah, rainy days I like...

Supposed to be the rainy season now in Japan but it has not been raining as expected...

But today, the wonderful rain... it makes me feel so good...



Was driving to the office (yes, on a Sunday) when I noticed the rain-soaked padi fields...

They captivated me enough to make me screech to a complete stop...

With the clouds smouldering over the low hills in the background... ooh... nice...



The Japanese folks associate the rains with the 'ajisai' flower (Hydrangea?)...

We have a few species in our garden... the blue one above is one of my favorites...



A close-up of the pinkish 'ajisai'... apparently the real flowers are those little-little stuff in the center rather than those that look more like flowers at the sides...



Another close-up of a different specie... hmmm... lovely, don't you think?



And of course, the plums... the Japanese do not call the rainy season 'baiyu' (literally plum rains) for no reason...

We have three plum trees in our garden, one red-flowered, one white, and one that has yet to produce any flowers...

You bet that I shall be looking forward to imbibing plum wine from these...

The Devil Laughs...

Come 2057, I shall hit the 99 counter... I'd probably be toothless and certainly hairless... if I am still around, that is...

The Japanese have a word for it...

'Rainen no koto wo iu to, oni ga warau'... literally, 'talk of next year, the devil laughs'... (similar meaning with that "don't count your chickens..." thingy...)

Not to say that we should not plan the future... it is necessary to a certain extent for it gives us direction...

Still, my body reverberated uncontrollably as I read through that 'truly inspiring' speech by the 'dreamer' Malaysian prime minister...

Says he of Malaysia...

"A hundred years of Merdeka (independence) would see this society, this nation achieve the unimaginable.

We will have Nobel laureates, truly global corporations, respected and market-leading brands, internationally acclaimed poets and artists, among the largest number of scientific patents in the world and even the best football team in Asia.

Our students and professors will dominate Ivy League universities and our own universities will be citadels of excellence for international scholars.

We will be pioneers in alternative energy, drawing on our strength in biofuels.

Our cities will be the most liveable on the globe, blending cosmopolitan facilities that are rooted in a tolerant and just societal ethos".

Oh god... forgive him, for he knows not what he speaks...

On a more earthly tone, merely saying that this man is inept is beginning to sound more and more like an understatement...

As many have already pointed out, there is plenty to do now for the nation...

Think of the corruption, water drainage, education, race relations, the horrid police, crime, you name it... but he chooses to glide amongst clouds and dream of 2057... oh god...

Well, I'd better go chew on more 'natto' so as to prolong my life to hit 99...

With the help of natto and perhaps more seaweed consumption (now, don't go a-ha-ha-ha-ing here...), I hope to be around in 2057 to see for myself, among other earth-shattering achievements, how our students and professors beat the hell out of those 'wretched' Ivy League universities and how our universities will be citadels of excellence for those 'pitiful' international scholars.

Meanwhile... allow me the privilege to go a-ho-ho-ho-ing with the devil...

NINGEN DOC a.k.a. MEDICAL CHECK-UP

Hospitals or clinics (especially those in the country side) sometimes double as places of social interaction especially among the senior-senior citizens...

The saying goes in that, if you are absent from the hospital or clinic over a prolonged period of time, you have either kicked the bucket, or you are on the verge of doing so...

June is that time of the year for my annual medical check-up...

Been doing this for more than 10 years in a row, but I still cannot get used to that Valium stuff...

The instructions are pretty standardized... stool to be taken over two days... no gnawing of food after nine the previous evening... report at the hospital before eight in the morning... etc...

Was the first one to report today... this is a first for me as throughout the years, no matter how early I thought I was, there was always some one else reporting ahead of me.

The gong goes off at eight twenty... and the process starts rolling...

The first thing to do... pee into paper cup... and the instruction on the wall says, do not take the first 30 ml of pee, take only the 'central' part of the pee and fill up to one third of the cup... wheew...

Then, measure height... weight... fat content... all these done by one single sleek machine... just needed to stand barefoot on a plate and lean straight... a bar gently drops from above to touch the crown and hola!

Blood pressure check follows... and, heart beat... max and min...

They used to have the eyesight checks manually where you stand about three meters away from the zeros and alphabets...

You are supposed to block one eye with a spoon-like tool and try to mumble the correct number or alphabet under the hawkish eyes of a lady nurse...

This year, they used a machine... and I think I may have 'cheated' by continuously guessing instead of admitting failure... there was no eagle-eyed nurse around to spot me...

Sometimes I think it is amazing that we do not fall sick more often... think about it... just about anything can go wrong with any part of our anatomy... eyes, nose, stomach, brain, liver...

Am turning 49 next month, so, am bracing for some repair work to be done on my 'machine... let's see what the results say in a week's time...

The good thing about this official medical check up is that, you get an official day off although this does not mean that I can goof off for the day to play with my goldfishes...

The reason is, you have to 'eject' out the Valium taken during the stomach x-rays... and you cannot be dashing out of the room (with one hand on the rectum) in the middle of a meeting with staff or counseling with students when nature abruptly calls...

(Apparently, the hospital has introduced a less troublesome and less painful method to visually inspect the stomach whereby a very fine tube/digital camera (5.6 mm thin) is inserted through the nostril... hmmm... maybe next year, I shall try this method...)

The other good thing about the medical check is, the hospital gives you a good lunch box after the check is completed...

And, the union I belong to subsidizes the fees so I pay peanuts for the check...even the lunch box fee is included...

While paying for the fees, the familiar lady at the counter greeted me 'Lrong-san, O-hisashi buri desu ne'... (Lrong-san, long time no see, ya...)

A thought swiftly raced across my mind... now, could she be thinking of the reason for my prolonged absence from the hospital, as in the senior citizens' case?

Naaawww, as yours truly, promptly: 'O-kage sama de, kaze to ka hiite inai desu'... (Thank god, I had not been catching cold lately).

Anyway, just returned from the first successful mission 'ejecting' the Valium...

Aaaaaaah, feels very light... indeed...

A MIRACLE HAPPENED

Last week, I finally decided to sign up for a hand phone...

Yes, after years of telling my coordinates that I am hand phone-less, and after countless of times seeing their jaws dropped in disbelief, a miracle happened...

My university colleagues cheered with gusto as I deliberately announced the number...

Been quite occupied with 'business' trips lately... after returning from Hawaii, took a quick trip to Tokyo to meet up with some colleagues to discuss about research issues...

Lunch quickly followed the meeting (ah, food! food!)... as our gracious host took us to a Vietnamese joint in Shinjuku...

Ummm... papaya salad, raw spring rolls, roasted chicken with lemon leaves, some kind of fried stuff that was supposed to be on the menu of royalty, the humble yet exquisite pho, and sweet pumpkin soup for dessert... ummm, hoolaalaa...

Then, managed to squeeze some time to meet up with Adriene who is a graduate student in the masters program at Sophia University...

A day before flying to Tokyo, she asked me for my hand phone number... that was the spark that led to the miracle...

(The real story is, dreading to witness another jaw dropped, yours truly decided to just dash to the nearest phone shop...)

We walked around the crowded streets of Shinjuku, occasionally gawking (more of me rather than her) at the ganguros... and finally settling down to chat over some soft drinks...

And yo, before you realize it, it is time to say 'sayonara, sayonara, sayonaraaa'...

Anyway, traveling on a Sunday in the Tokyo subways is quite a blissful feeling...

There are just so few souls in the trains and stations...

But however blissful it is to travel in empty Tokyo trains, the level of blissfulness can never match that of sleeping on my own futon...

The quiet of the Shikoku night... the frogs a-croaking... the sound of gentle waves coming in from the sea...

On my prior trip to Tokyo, Makuhari City in Chiba Prefecture in fact, I could not sleep at all in the night...

Which led me to think... for future trips, I shall try to fly home to snore, rather than to spend the night in the raucous city, rolling a thousand times left and a thousand times right on an unfamiliar bed trying to catch just one minute of shut-eye...

Still, I am due to head to Tokyo again on 21st June and shall be night-stopping... oooh... I see another restless night coming...

This time, I hope to catch up with not only Adriene but also another Malaysian compatriot who is supposedly strutting his stuff at Waseda University...

BREEZY HAWAII

Am now in Hawaii… what a lovely place it is… breezy, cool, no rain, and oh so touristy…

Had been here for a couple of days already and shall be leaving for home tomorrow morning…

Conference was so-so… not that good, not that bad… only thing is that, too many presenters fail to turn up during the sessions, which is rather disappointing for people expecting coming to hear them… but then this is Hawaii… people do not come here to ‘work’…

Another downside of the conference is that there is not much opportunity to network with other attendees… more mealtimes and social events should be incorporated into the program so as to offer the chance for delegates to mingle with one another…

Oh well… I am enjoying myself anyway, attending whatever sessions that are available and getting to know whoever is in the room…

I have one more afternoon left and perhaps I shall take a ride to the Ala Moana Shopping Center, just for old times sake…

While working for Singapore Airlines decades ago, the crew used to night stop at a hotel around the Ala Moana Shopping Center, so it may bring tears to my eyes to revive those memories… heheheheee…

A former colleague of mine suggested that I go and eat the ox-tail soup at the shopping center… let’s see if it is still around and if it is, I still have to find it… and being rather hopeless with directions, hmmm… the prospects are dim…

Oh yes, went skoooba-ing the afternoon after my presentation… the dive sites, Turtles and Koko Crater, were just off Hawaii Kai bay…

Didn’t expect to see much and was advised by my missus not to bring the underwater camera…

But to my surprise, at Turtles, the guide found a huge frogfish of about 40 centimeters, greenish yellow in color… man, wished I had my camera with me!

At Koko Crater, someone had put a Buddha statue on the sea floor… we saw a turtle, and the guide pulled out a poor baby octopus, manhandled it, and had the octopus placed on the mask of the novice divers and had their pictures taken…

So much on official lessons about leaving the animals alone…

CLOWN, SWEETLIPS, ANTHIAS, TRIGGER, NUDI

More pics from the dive trip at Roach Reefs...

An old pal asked about the 'equipment' used...

Been using Olympus C5050 for years, with just the internal strobe...

Considered purchasing an external strobe but the thought of the extra baggage continues to put me off...

No doubt, if armed with the external strobe, the shooting range will certainly be enhanced...

But for time being, I shall focus on taking pictures rather than to think of accessories...

The key to taking good pics, I believe, ahem... is to know one's equipment, more precisely, what the equipment is good for and its limitations...


My buddy and I love these guys... the anemone fish a.k.a. nemo...

Who doesn't, anyway...

These two, I believe, are pink anemone fish... correct me if I am mistaken...


This guy was hovering just beside me as I was taking pics of some shrimps on a late afternoon dive...

What a friendly fellow...

I believe this is a blackspotted sweetlip... again, correct me if I am wrong...

Size was about 40 centimeters...


Ah... anthias... one my favorite small fishes to watch...

They are very energetic and a lot of a patience and luck is needed to shoot them...


The currents were coming in strong...

Fishes fleeted about... looking for places to hide...

Was then surprised to see fish tails lying on the sand...

I thought these were blue tangs but after consulting the books, perhaps there were a type of triggerfish (red-tooth maybe?)


Nudibranches remain a favorite photo subject...

A dive site site could be just rubble, but upon closer observation... hoolaaa...

This is supposedly a common specie although I do not get to see them often...

They go by the meaningless name of 'Caloria indica'... and is recognized by the orange head with white and yellow markings, and 'cerata' (those horn-like stuff on the torso?) with blue and red markings...