Single for two weeks...

Once or twice a year, my better half visits her mum in Kanagawa Prefecture...
This time, she shall be away for... uh, two weeks.
I recall one of her married friends who, years ago, visited her mum, as my wife is doing now...
After three days, her husband could not take it anymore.
He went over to his mother in law's place and literally kidnapped his wife back home.
Yours truly is not about to do likewise... hehheeee...
Yes, it is lonely to be alone...

Annual medical check-up... continued

I could feel the camera snaking through my digestive system...
(see the first part of the story... Annual medical check-up)
The twirling, poking... the nudging of the inner skins of my stomach...
Relax... said the nurse, as I lightly closed my eyes...
It was over in about 7 minutes...
The doctor showed me the photos he took... more than 30, I believed...
A polyp here, a 'suspect' spot there...

Sashimi chicken liver, anyone?

While training as a cadet pilot in Manila in 1980, I experienced my first bout with food poisoning.
I had no clue what happened and what caused it, until some days later.
All I knew was, I was immobile, wriggling in pain, bedridden for two or three days.

Fast forward to 2010...
Here at my university, I established two student clubs, with plenty of help from the students themselves,of course.
One is a club for international students and the other is for Japanese students.
It has been more than a decade since... and with much honor and pleasure, I remain as advisor to the two clubs.
The Japanese students are very organized, and they work very well as a team.
The international students are, well, independent, and rather weak as a team.

Start of rainy season

Am sitting inside the house on a Sunday morning, listening to the rain falling on leaves...
The rainy season this year comes a few days later than is normally expected.
It is good for my plants...
This morning, got up at 5:10 am, as usual...
Missus was still asleep, so decided to prepare breakfast...
Now, where should I start, I wondered...
Started with preparing the cocoa drink for me (van houten with milk, raisins and oats) and tea (strong, so two sachets, plus milk and oats) for the missus...

The friendly policemen in Japan

With a face like mine living here in Japan, life went/goes on pretty much 'undisturbed'... While a student here in the late 1980s, I hanged out with some buddies from Ghana, US, and Brazil. While I went on with life quietly, policemen came by and stopped my Ghanian friend... 'hey, where did you get that bicycle?' Not once, but several occasions, apparently... In the supermarket, a young kid yelled out to his mum upon seeing my friend from US (of German ancestry) shopping... 'kaa-chan, gaijin ga tofu wo katte imasu!' (literally, mum, look! a foreigner buying tofu!). As a faculty member and international student advisor these days, I have had a student from India telling me the same story with the policeman bugging him about how he got that bicycle.

Annual medical check up

Each year around this time, I look forward to going for my annual medical check-up... it is quite fun, actually.
The Japanese have a name for it... 'ningen doc' (literally, human doctor).
Been doing this since 1996, without fail.
The check-up is quite detailed, I must say.

First, no more eating from 9:00 pm the night before the check-up.
No problem for me as I am always getting ready to hit the sack at this hour.
On the day of the check-up, no breakfast... water and clear tea is ok... no milk or sugar...

What do you do... what can you do...

What do you do when an international student comes to you with a financial problem?
What do you do when the student had expected to obtain a scholarship, and had failed to do so?
What do you do... when during 'normal' days, the student is so radiant, so energetic, and so full of hope and smiles?
And what do you do... when the student breaks down, weeps... and cries for help...

For what can I do... to provide each and everyone of the needy international students with a scholarship...

The student leaves the room, dry-eyed by now...
and silently, in the privacy of my own company, my heart cries...
Oh god, this is just beyond my reach... for my eyes can only sob for them...