ON WORKING IN JAPAN...

Received an email from a young Malaysian lady asking for advice about work in Japan.

She is planning on becoming an English teacher in Japan and I am quite impressed that tender as she is, she is already putting herself on track by gunning for the required qualifications...

Well, am not sure on how to 'advise' on this matter, except to yak about my mundane experiences as a teacher in the university...

One thing I can say is, foreigners probably need to be quite fluent in Japanese as well.

Perhaps becoming an English teacher in say, Australia is not so problematic because one can use English to converse with colleagues, in planning the work, etc...

But in Japan, even English teachers have to coordinate with Japanese colleagues in Japanese...

And we need to chat with our neighbors and shop for our milk in Nihongo too...

(Read the experience of auyongtc here...)

There are no two ways about this except to speak their tongue...

Incidentally, at Asia Pacific University the other day, a Singaporean academic curiously asked me about life in Japan.

My reflex answer was... life here is almost stress-free...

Japanese politics doesn't bog me down, and that is one big load off the shoulders...

(Still, I think Koizumi-san should pray at the peaceful Heian Shrine in Kyoto rather than at the contentious Yasukuni Shrine...)

Imagine if I were in Malaysia, I'd be gnashing and shortening my teeth (although I try not to) pretty frequently to hear those so-called 'honorable' politicians babbling statements that usually make little sense...

Of course there is discrimination and inconveniences (yes, even of the institutional type) here, but I don't lose sleep over those stuff...

I get respect, mutual that is, from the local community probably many times over from what I could ever dream of if I were to work as a faculty member in a Malaysian university...

For that, I normally get to snore away every night with a little smile on my contorting face...

Heeeeh...

By the way, the sakuras are still refusing to pop...

Chotto matte kudasai, neh...

Heeheeheee...

DRUNK WITH ANTICIPATION

Japan is intoxicated with anticipation on the looming sakura blooms...

This year, sakuras seem to bloom about a week or two earlier than 'normal' years...

Another indication of global warming... the 'experts' say...

The Japanese keep tag on what they call 'sakura zensen' (sakura 'front' as in a weather front)...

Okinawa of course will normally be the first to hit the front due to her southernmost location...

The front unmistakably moves northwards as the warm weather forces the sakuras to explode...

This year is very special to us because of the huge Somei-yoshino sakura tree in our garden...

It will mark the first time in our lives that we get to relish the sakuras in our very own space...

Yeeeeh...

I certainly need not go to the parks to photograph the sakuras from now...

The buds are getting pumped up, looking very plump and even juicy as I observed this morning...

There are also two more sakuras of the Sidare type in the garden...

These are willowy, with flowers flowing downward reminding me of a frail, pretty lady...

In addition, there are two yama-zakura or 'mountain-specie' sakuras, sort of like, wild sakuras...

Their flowers are smaller and by itself, not so 'enchanting' as the Sidare or the Somei-yoshino types...

However, as our neighbors tell us, the flamboyance of the yama-zakura rests on the hillsides, which literally turn pinkish when the wild sakuras start to bloom...

We are, you could say, getting dizzy with anticipation...

SCUBA DIVING LIFE JACKETS?

Been enjoying the conference at APU...

The presentations dealing with actual cases of Japanese universities sending students overseas are particularly beneficial...

But some, like the ones being presented now, are quite irrelevant...

So, escaped to blog...

Heh heh heh...

As usual, it is a joy to make new friends and renew old acquaintances...

Also got time to read some news on Redang's coral destruction...

And what's this?

'Touching on the safety, Abdul Rahim said divers should be made to wear life jackets. He said the marine park centre at Pulau Pinang, an island off Pulau Redang, had made this a requirement.'

Hmmm... divers to wear life jackets??

Huh?

HOT SPRINGS OF BEPPU

Heading to Beppu tomorrow to attend a seminar at Asia Pacific University (APU)...

Malaysians may be familiar with the one-village one-product movement...

The prime mover of this movement is Oita Prefecture, which encompasses Beppu city, a well-known hot springs territory...

Malaysia under Dr. Mahathir tried to learn this one-village one-product thingy from Oita...

But how successful are we... we never know...

Because as in most or all the projects in Malaysia, there never seems to be a follow-up on the progress...

There is no tail, so to say...　

APU is part of the highly regarded, privately run Ritsumeikan University of Kyoto...

APU's claim to fame is that, it is a 'bilingual' university with half of the staff and students coming from abroad...

I salute such universities, of which the graduate level International University of Japan (IUJ) in snow country Niigata is another one...

They are, no doubt, universities with fine ideas and noble aspirations...

The President of APU is a Sri Lankan gentleman whom I met long time ago at Nagoya..

He used to be with the United Nations...

Would be a delight to meet him again...

It will also be about 19 years since I last step foot on Beppu soil...

I came to Hiroshima in April 1987...

After studying for four months, I took a solo trip by ferry from Hiroshima to Beppu, armed only with broken Japanese and a backpack...

I look forward to 'boiling' myself in Beppu's renowned hot springs tomorrow...

Yeeeeee... we go alreadeaaa...

WHITE PLUM FLOWERS

Before the advent of the sakuras...

The plum flowers take the center stage...

There are three plum trees in the garden...

Two white and one red...

See related story here...