A twist of fate… Kedah man in Japan

Folks, this is a little story that yours truly penned for an internet newspaper focusing on Malaysian affairs...
The topic is, brain drain, so I thought I could offer my two-cents worth... 
The original article is found in Malaysian Insider... A twist of fate… Kedah man in Japan

MAY 30 — Like AC who penned “First love, long lost”, life just happened and before I knew it, I found myself enjoying life outside of Malaysia.

I am but a padi farmer’s son. I was working in a construction site after obtaining three Ds and one O for my Higher School Certificate in 1979. One day, my older brother handed me an advertisement by Singapore Airlines calling for pilot trainees. Fate had it that it was the last day for the application. It was a Friday and the post offices in Kedah were closed. My nephew drove me all the way from my village to Butterworth on a 100cc motorbike just to post the application letter. I can still recall how my buttocks hurt.

With rather average scores, I was very surprised that Singapore Airlines called me up for an interview. I miraculously got through that and some other medical checks that followed. Soon, along with a bunch of other Malaysians, I found myself on the way to Manila for pilot training. After being certified as a commercial pilot, it was fate again when the oil crisis in the early 1980s put a stop to the expansion plans of the airline.
Subsequently, we could not operate as pilots and were offered jobs as cabin attendants while waiting for the airline to recall us back to the cockpit. However, it was not to be. Singapore Airlines then offered us study loans to further our studies in the universities of our choice.

We were supposed to return to the airline after we graduated. Almost all of us went to US universities. Singapore Airlines did ask us to return to the cockpit after we graduated but only a handful of us did. The rest of us found new avenues. As it is, many of my colleagues from the pilot trainee days stayed back in the US. One went to the UK, another to Australia, and perhaps two or three returned to Malaysia.

I had the opportunity to remain in the US but I decided that I wanted to live in an Asian country, any Asian country. And somehow I had the good fortune of landing myself a scholarship from the Japanese government. To paraphrase AC, life simply occurred. I thoroughly enjoyed my graduate student days in three Japanese universities and made tons of friends, Japanese and otherwise. And as fate would have it, after obtaining my doctorate, one of my alma mater universities offered me a job for six years, after which, I was to return to Malaysia.

One thing led to another, and yes, before I knew it, I was promoted to become a professor and offered tenure. The next thing after obtaining my tenure was my missus and I bought a property and that really opened up another phase of life for us.

All my pals in the US, UK, and Australia (and, most likely, those who returned to Singapore Airlines as pilots) have surrendered their Malaysian passports.

Meanwhile, I choose to remain a Malaysian, heart and soul, and a proud Kedahan at that. I have no intention of giving that up.

Now, with the government touting the so-called Talent Corporation, would I be enticed to return to Malaysia? I shall touch on only the pull factors here in Japan as many other folks previously wrote about the push factors in Malaysia. There are three factors from my point of view.

First… from the professional aspect, there is probably zero chance of me returning. I have a “permanent” job here in a Japanese national university. I take pleasure in working with my Japanese subordinates and colleagues. I get a lot of respect from the Japanese community as a professor in a national university. It would be extremely hard to surrender what I have now in order to look for a job in Malaysia.

Second… socially speaking, I am thoroughly enjoying myself as a foreign resident in Japan. I am a permanent resident and except for the voting rights, I am on par with the locals. The public service is excellent and fair, while the people are extremely courteous and polite, and a joy to live with. To top this up, we are very lucky to find ourselves living among friendly and sociable neighbours. I have absolutely no complaints in this regard and would very much like to continue living under such favourable conditions.

Third… on a private basis, we are blessed with a sizable vegetable and fruit garden in our property. I cherish spending time and energy tilling the soil and cultivating the plants in the garden. To be able to do this in Japan as a Malaysian thrills me to no end and life simply could not be better. These too will be very difficult to give up for now.

Still, I do yearn for Malaysia and return home about twice a year for vacations. On every visit, I have always come away with the feeling that Malaysia is indeed a beautiful country. Perhaps when I retire from my job here in Japan, I might want to return home to further “re-discover” the many splendours of my beloved homeland.

Finally, on my hopes for a better Malaysia, I truly pray for a change in the government. I have faith in the people who have realised the folly of the crop of politicians in the present government. I am rooting for the folks in Pakatan Rakyat, for sure. These are the folks whom I believe can truly bring about a positive turn for my beloved country.

Rained out on the weekend...

The raining season has just started...
Coincidentally, a typhoon was approaching and the combined effect was continuous rain for the last few days...
Went out to my potager and was surprised to find that water was vigorously running underneath the surface of one of the vegetable beds...
I hope that portion of the potager will not collapse... 

So, with the rain not stopping, what to do but to take pictures...
This is the scene from our hall, looking outwards to the garden...
It is just wet, wet, and wet... 

Being indoors also allowed me to do something that I had wanted to do for a while...
That is, to learn how to make muffins from my sweeto haato...
Under her supervision, this is my 'masterpiece' rum raisin muffin...
Made 10 of them and they taste really good... 

Also learned from my missus how to make cookies...
We use fresh rose geranium leaves from our potager..
They give out a fragrance just like the rose...
I shall be bringing these to my office to gnaw during the tea breaks...

As in almost all weekends, my request for lunch is noodles...
I am feeling hungry again as I hit the PC keys...
Definitely can't get this combination from anywhere in the world... 

Bought some more equipment for chopping wood for our wood stove...
A 3.6 kilogram hammer, two splitting wedges (1.5 kilogram and 1.0 kilogram)...
These come in handy for wood that are too 'stubborn' for the splitting maul to handle...
Was pleased to see DQ Farms buying the same axe as I did...

Garden party... one Saturday in May...

Each spring for the last five years or so, we have had the pleasure and honor of inviting a bunch of friends (senior folks, actually) over for a pot-luck garden party...

The 'menu' is almost always predictable...

As in the sashimi...

This 'hamachi' (yellowtail), its meat is very succulent and I just love the taste of it...
The hamachi is designated the official fish of Kagawa prefecture...
Reason is, Kagawa first pioneered the rearing of this pelagic fish...

Plus, maguro (tuna), sawara (Spanish mackeral?), and katsuo (bonito?) sashimi...

Eaten with a dash of wasabi and soy sauce, urrrmm...

The 'oden', however, made its first appearance this time...

It is sort of like a stew with various ingredients thrown in and cooked in slow heat over several hours...
Took a bite off that octopus... real tender and tasty...

The same lady brought a second dish...

Which is her specialty... the home-made smoked chicken...

A little too salty for me but still, tasted good...  

For as long as I can recall, an 80-year-old-plus husband and wife team again brought 'o-kowa'...

Glutinous rice steamed with lots of veggies, that is...

No meat here... chewy and very popular dish among us...

The glutinous rice dish goes hand in hand with this 'tsukemono' (radish pickles)...
Tasted somewhat like one type of pickled young mangoes?

As in previous potlucks, this group of folks from a neighboring town always turn up fully geared (with pots and pans) to cook 'tempura'...
The 'seri' is some sort of mountain vegetable... very fragrant...

And they always go to the hills to dig out fresh young bamboo shoots...
Alhough we do not favour too much tempura or fried stuff, the other guests were really enjoying themselves with this dish...

Among our guests this time, we had a chef who specializes in French cuisine...
He did not cook anything French, but he dished out this simple yet very delicious 'somen' (thin wheat noodles)...

Unplanned as it was, the somen went extremely well with the crispy tempuras...

And finally, some fruit punch to seal the event...
I swore not to over-eat that day, but, but...

I was supposed to cook roast chicken with the dutch oven...
But was too occupied with setting up the venue...
Moreover, our guests had always told us to just provide the venue and the opportunity to meet at our garden...
They will take care of the food, they say...
We are very happy to see them enjoying our garden...
They have been coming back year after year, and we certainly look forward to having them again next spring...

Fishing, one May afternoon...

(Actually put up this post on 12th, but Blogger bunked me out for some unknown reasons...)

We moved to this hamlet almost 6 years ago...

Had always wanted to go fishing but there is just so much stuff to do in the house and garden... stuff with rather 'high' priority...

 There is a really good fishing spot less than 10 minutes walk away from our house...
The day was beautiful... the air cool and nice...
Used some earthworms from my potager as bait, but no bite...
Changed to a 'wharf roach' which I could catch from the rocks...
And whoallaa... a greenling fish!
It measured about 20 centimeters...
Took it home and had my missus cooked it for me...
Urmmm, super fresh and super delicious...

Then, I noticed the low tide on the way home from work...
I'd never seen the tide going so low, so I thought to myself...
What a good opportunity to go hunting for mussels?
Did just that... and came home with 11 of those morsels...
My sweeto haato cooked spaghetti with them, on top of some seaweed and kelp that I harvested from the sea...
Woooh, lovely... 

While waiting for the fish to bite, I took pictures of boats passing my view...
This fishing boat was in business right in front of my eyes...

Each day on my way to work, I pass by this dockyard...

Always find myself enjoying, looking at the bottom of the boats coming in for repairs...

While we are at it, two kilometers from our house, on the way to work, lies a pond...

And for the first time, a Common Moorhen family with six chicks...
I was glued... and I knew I'd returned with my camera... 




And one for the road...
Muffins with vinegered prunes...
Home-made... oooh

Do you have a sweet tooth?

My suweeto haato's first attempt at making 'doraiyaki', a Japanese sweet...

They look just like the ones in the stores...
Hmmm, I love doraiyakis... 

Had to harvest all the remaining carrots in the potager...

Way too much to munch as salad...

So, requested my wifey to make carrot jam...

She did that... plus a cake to match...

Wooh... very, very nice... 

While in LA some time ago, visited an old pal of mine...

He is making a name for himself in the world of BBQ...

He gave us a packet of his secret rub of spices...

And my missus tried out the rub on chicken, beef, pork, and fish...

The above pic is chicken breast meat...

She put the stuff in our wood stove before retiring for the night...

So, the meat was cooking when we were sleeping...

The taste? Absolutely lovely! 

We like to chew on salads in our evening meals...

Here, my sweeto haato came up with her own creation...

Mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, gherkins from the store...
And from our potager, snap peas, lettuce, borage flowers, rocket flowers...

Plus a generous dash of olive oil, vinegar, and pepper...

Smoked salmon and fresh lettuce, onions, and dill from the garden...
Lovely with some white wine for dinner...

The usual suspects for our lunch...
Somen noodles, shrimps, green onions, carrots, tofu...

Similarly, the usual suspects for our breakfast...
We almost always share just one boiled egg for our breakfast...