Love hotels, a special place for love

My wife and me, we had our first love hotel (LH) experience the other day. I find it rather amusing that there is a special place where you can you know, get cosy without the kids. Do love hotels exists in Malaysia and other parts of the world. Probably do. But it will be so bland, you might think its a tailor shop or a unisex salon, Heh heh. Not in Japan will you ever find a bland love hotel. These places are about as outrageous and loud (in terms of decoration) as they can get. Imagine the costumes that samba girls wear. Now replace that girl with a hotel. Guess what, the rooms inside hold even more surprises. In order to attract customers, LH operators must be running a theme-park side business too. I mean, the attractions inside are equally outrageous sometimes. Of course, you have your usual karaoke, PS and AV. But then I heard that competition has driven up the standards in some places and you can get all sorts of toys and costumes, on demand. As these places are not exorbitantly prices, any couple looking for a nice place to stay for the night can really pamper themselves at these LHs.

During the peak summer season in 2005, there was this World Expo near Nagoya. We couldn't find any reasonable hotels and we almost wanted to book into a LH with the kids. Thank goodness we didn't. Even if we could get past the watchful eye of the hotel people with their CCTVs who probably have driven us out, there will be plenty of questioning by those impressionable kids once they get into the room. So if you wanted to go in with kids, Don't. Trust me, it ain't worth it. So what did we do? We slept in the car. All four of us. It wasn't pleasant, but I guess it was better than having to explain about the birds and the bees to a 3 year old.

Self promotion

OK, I thought I should do some self promotion today and post a little speech that I made some time in March. I made it during my graduation day. It was my graduation speech so to speak. It's not every day that you can make a speech in front of the university president, as the student representative. To be fair, I didn't write this myself. A close friend Dr. Furumiya Tetsuo helped me draft this. So most of the credit must go to him. The speech is reproduced below but is officially located here.

物質創成科学研究科修了生を代表して、ご挨拶させていただきます。

本日をもちまして、私たちは奈良先端科学技術大学院大学物質創成科学研究科博士前期課程および博士後期課程を修了します。今日の日を迎えるまでに、安田学長をはじめ、先生方、事務局の皆様方に多くのご支援を賜りましたこと、修了生一同心から御礼申し上げます。同時に、日頃お世話になった研究室の皆様、暖かく支えてくれた家族にも感謝の意を表したいと思います。

思い起こせば、私の大学院生活は人との出会いの場であったような気がします。4年前に博士後期課程に進学するためにマレーシアから来た当時は、研究に対する期待や不安より、まず「環境に馴染めるのだろうか?」という不安を感じていたことを覚えています。しかし、いざ本学に入学してみると、素晴らしい先生方や仲間たちに恵まれたお陰で、それらは杞憂に終わり、研究に打ち込むことが出来ました。本学は、留学生や異なるバックグラウンドの学生を積極的に受け入れるという、素晴らしい特色を持っています。このような環境の中で、私は多くの人々と知り合い、議論しながら研究を遂行してきました。私の母国語の諺に「Jauh perjalanan, luas pengalaman」というものがあります。これは「旅をすれば人生の糧となる」という意味です。私にとってこの経験は、何物にも代えられない貴重なものだと思います。

私たち修了生は、様々な思いを胸にそれぞれが選んだ道へと旅立ちます。その前途は決して容易なものではないでしょう。今、社会は国の垣根を越え、グローバル化が一層進んでいます。そのような中で私たちは単に国という枠にとらわれず、視野を世界全体へと拡げ、国際人としての資質を身に付け、各々の課題や責務に対して積極的に対処していかなければなりません。しかし、私たちは本学で学んだことに誇りをもち、広い視野と研究で得た知識と経験を発揮し、社会の発展に広く貢献して行きたいと思います。

最後になりましたが、本日お集まり頂いた皆様方の今後のご健康とご活躍、ならびに本学の益々のご発展をお祈り致しまして、修了生一同の感謝の言葉に代えさせて頂きます。

平成18年3月24日
物質創成科学研究科　修了生代表
David Ng Chee Keong

p.s. For the record, I forgot to finish the speech by saying my name and my department. Must remind myself to do that the next time I make a speech.

Toilets

Today, I'd like to talk about toilets. Toilets are used many times during the day. In Japan, toilets are free for use. That's not the case in Malaysia. Foreign visitors to Malaysia will be surprised to find out that they have to fork out 20 cents for entry. Once, I met with a group of Japanese students. And when asked about their experience in Malaysia, most of them agreed that it's their first time being charged to use the toilets in Malaysia. I hope they don't ever have to use toilets that are free for entry like those in gas stations, public schools etc.