Life is like a used towel

Do you ever get the tired feeling that, you are so wrung-up that you don't have anymore to give. Do you ever feel like a used towel? Well sometimes I do. Which lead me to think that a person can be just like a towel. I just came out with this interesting analogy and decided to pursue it further.

Now, let's assume that a person IS a towel. Just like there are an infinite variety of people and their characters, there will be many types of towel too. Here's my version of it

Novice: like a new towel - can't absorb much.

What goes out is exactly what what comes in. There are many juveniles out there that are very impressionable and can be colored by their environment. Once dyed to a certain color, you can bleach all you want after that but stains and faint color remains. So remember why youngsters are so impressionable and why it is so important to teach youngsters the right from wrong before they are stained to the color that you don't want be.

Intermediate: used towel - absorbs a lot.

What goes out is what comes in with some extra flavor and minerals. These are the matured lot. They have been stained by the colors of life. And they contain enough colors to rub on the novices should they wish to. Seeking advice from these people are good. But just like the multi-faceted people around us, there are totally soot-blacken ones that should be avoided and there are rainbow colored ones to which advice should be seek from.

Expert: water fountain - source of mineral water.

A role model for all the others. These are wise people. They have liven their lives to the fullest and now due to physical conditions, they are constraint to stay at some place. Young people should come seek advise from these people are they are a source of wisdom. Sometimes, history can teach us a lot and through history we learn not to repeat the same mistakes again.

I have been searching for my role-model for as long as I remembered. I have looked up to leaders, scientists, and practically any older people that I can find. But I have yet to find anyone who is willing to commit themselves to spend time talking to me. Maybe technology will be my saviour. I would use the immense pool of knowledge from the internet for advise. What about you, do you have a mentor?

Japanese women

The worlds' perception of Japanese women must have been further distorted with the recent premier of Hollywood's Memoirs of a Geisha. I have not seen the movie myself apart from the cinema preview, but I think the mass media simply doesn't do justice to Japanese women by putting the wrong images forward.

I present my own views of Japanese women and I realize that they are not a generalization of the entire Japan demography nor should they be treated as such.

At home

There are many virtues of Japanese women that deserve to be depicted or mentioned. Japanese people have been trained to follow a strict regime and guideline since young. Everybody has their roles. A father is the sole bread winner. The mother takes care of household chores. And that's how it has been ingrained by social pressures into the perception of most general Japanese. However, it is perhaps due to this ingrained image that every Japanese woman have that makes them ideal housewives. They are meticulous, unquestioning, and devoted. With virtually no questions asked, Japanese housewives goes about their daily chores like a carefully programmed robot. Everyone is supposed to know and follow the unspoken rules. And this probably leads to very little conversation at home. Recently, with more influx of Western ideas and thinking, a new wave of modern Japanese housewife has emerged. They demand their husbands to do their share of the housework, child rearing and other social activities. Is this a good development? Perhaps this will lead to a more solid relationship as the spouses have more in common when they perform the more activities together.

At work

Never in any other advanced countries will you see gender discrimination being so obvious as in Japan. I think Japanese men doesn't know what treasure they have living beside them. Japanese women are so taken for granted as if they were born to serve the opposite gender. Historically, this may be so, but in the modern society, people see this as unfairness and maybe even abuse of authority due to status or power. I had a brief conversation with a friend who has stayed in Melbourne for more than 10 years. And she remarked that she has not seen a single Japanese postgraduate lady student during all her travels. I agreed. Me neither. The status of Japanese girls take a sharp decline compared to their peers of the opposite gender upon graduation and when they finally start working. The future of Japanese women is to get married and take care of their home while the men are shown the way up the career ladder. Of course it doesn't make economic sense to train someone only to loose them when they tie the knot. But it's a social dilemma, employers are taking huge risks when they promote a women only to loose them when they start a family. But I don't disagree that women can't be more capable than their male counterparts. So unless science can come up with a solution and tip off the balance, as in Arnold Schwarzenegger in Junior, in the future, women may be continuously discriminated upon.

So, I think that Japanese women are extremely well educated and can be very independent if they want to. But at the end of the day, they would have to stand up for what they believe in and not submit themselves to general views.

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.

Why Japanese can't seem to master English

I think it's the perfectionist character of most Japanese that is their downfall in trying to master English. Japanese can't learn English because of their culture of being a 'perfectionist'. This, coupled with the 'hazukashi' feeling when they make mistakes, make it very difficult for them to learn the language, as they keep on apologizing over every little thing. Those who mastered the language probably did away with those barriers.

Recently, I heard a distinguished speaker in the 15th anniversary celebration at NAIST say that, Japanese as with other non-native speakers, are actually communicating in 'broken' English with each other. So there should be no feeling of inadequacies when they speak the language.

I know that Malaysians with their Manglish and Singaporeans with their Singlish may be taking things a little too far. Native English speakers may have a hard time trying to understand words like 'cannot meh', 'so, so lar'. Similarly, if you study Japanese, I am sure that you will come across many borrowed words like ケーキ(cake), of テレビ(TV) etc, that may be confusing to English speakers.

But then again, I may be wrong. I see many examples of Japanese people trying really hard to master English. Let's hope that the people who make fun of them, are kind enough to correct these errors.

Mama in the papers

We are all very proud of mama. She was in the papers the other day (Asahi Shimbun, 2006.6.26).

We know it's not easy to take care of the kids (big and small), clean the house, fix a great meal, do the laundry, and work at the same time. And all these hardwork are being done in a foreign country, with little support from family. Now, if you look at it from that perspective, no wonder mothers are often referred to as superwomen. Now top that with getting published in the newspapers, now I call that a feat that should easily earn her a PhD in social interaction.

Hurray for all the mothers of the world! ママ達、万歳！

I love my school

Before this, I wouldn't have thought that I could love a school. But that's exactly how I felt. All the schools that I have attended, from kindergarten through secondary schools to universities. I have strong feelings for my alma matters. I guess that's why there are alumnis, which basically let's OBs and OGs get in touch with their old classmates as well as their schools.

Here is a list of all the schools that I have attended. I will make it a point to take pictures of all the schools and compile them here.

2002-present Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST)
1998-2000 NUS (Graduate school of Engineering)

1993-1997 NUS (Mechanical Engineering)

1986-1992 Sultan Abu Bakar Secondary School
1982-1985 Sekolah Rendah St. Thomas
1980-1982 Sekolah Rendah Jalan Hang Tuah (previously Jalan Shaw)
1981 Kindergarten at Church of The Holy Rosary

Preserving history

If you've been to Japan, you will see many historical sites, beautiful gardens etc. You will be surprised to see how new things are embraced and harmoniously existing with the old. You will see MacDonald's being everywhere. But take a casual stroll down town and you may ocasionally notice a little shrine sandwiched between high scrapers.

You may snicker at how Japanese people are so fond of everything foreign. Deeper below the surface, you'll see that the Japanese culture is very ingrained in its people. They do seem to import all things from the states. However, they make a stand beyond which they do say NO. No to lousy beef imports. No to any vulgarities. No to American made cars. I really admire this quality of the Japanese people; trying out new things but not at the expense of the culture that they hold dear. Temples and shrines from antiquity are preserved, together with their culture and customs.

In Malaysia, you often hear that old buildings and structures are torn down. Town clocks, old cinema's, places of worship all destroyed in the name of development. There has been so many cases where the voices of people are ignored and the over zealous city hall people come in with their tractors and tear down those structures. But occasionally you do hear happy stories where the authorities listen to the public as the coliseum case in KL. Let's hope that more cultural places will continue to be preserved so that our children and their children may have a glimpse of how their ancestors spend their time before the age of video games or the internet.

Depression and Stress: A direct correlation?

I recently self-diagnose myself as suffering from mild depression. My symptom, a total lack of initiative to devote myself for social activities. I remembered it wasn't like that 4 years ago when I first came to Japan. Somehow, the situation slowly degraded and I am now just a pile of slime oozing out a sorry existence doing the absolutely minimum to survive. I am thinking that stress at work has plenty to do with this condition. And folks living and working in the city has plenty of that. Why is it that we hear people say that although staying close by in highly concentrated apartments, yet hardly know their neighbors. Is it an indication that these highly dense dwellings of convenience actually crosses the boundary threshold for comfortable living. Wait a minute, I think there is two issues here that are somewhat interconnected.

1. Depression from Stress.
2. Close-up living quarters from apartments.

People suffer from depression for a variety of reasons. I know that women who are taking care of their children constantly without reprieve do sometimes develop symptoms of depression and in the critical state, feel the urge to commit suicide. You hear stories about 'salarymen', school children, etc feeling depressed. I know there must be numerous studies by shrinks to diagnose and cure these people. I also heard somewhere that you can take medication for it. Wouldn't it be nice to take a pill, and then you feel that you can give a presidential speech the next day, join in 'gotong-royong', or perhaps be the star used-car salesman. I guess, depression is a disease of the mind. Somehow, the chemicals in the brain is not in equilibrium, or the wiring is screwed-up. The best way to beat it is perhaps to get a hold of the brain and tell it who's boss.

I am staying in an apartment in a huge living area called "danchi". Here in Japan, people respect each other's privacy so much that they end-up not talking too much to each other. I know when I was in Singapore and was staying in the HDB apartments. Things wasn't that bad. Of course, you can't throw a rock party and expect your neighbors not call 991, unless ofcourse if you're staying in the university dorm. But people open their doors at least and play their favorite Hokkien songs, Malay prayers, Indian songs what have you and people don't mind too much. Here, in the danchi apartments, you shouldn't talk too loudly, let the kids run around, turn up your TV volume, do repair work etc. And if you need to, you'll have to give prior notice to the entire block. Which explains the proliferation of love hotels. The walls have ears so to speak. So, there special places for people to 「作世界」.

I guess you noticed the lack of coherence in my blog. The reason for this is, I started this topic in February only to pick up the pieces now in October. Anyway, I would like to sum up by saying that, if you have the means, go and get a proper landed house. That will ease your stress having to deal with neighbors. And if you are stressed up from work, let somebody close to you know about it, talking does help to balance your brain. I know it helped me.

Japan's Peanut Butter

I recently tried peanut butter spread after a long abstinence period. Guess, what, the Japanese version of peanut butter taste nothing like what I was used to in Malaysia. Frankly, I do not dislike it, but it's just different. The non-chunky version of it tastes like kaya in syrup. Here's a picture of the peanut butter that I am talking about. See, even the texture look's like kaya.

To be on-time or not on-time

I sent my daugther out to kindergarten this morning. Like always, we were the last

one to get there. But like clockwork, the bus arrived right on time, 9.03 am sharp on the dot. In Japan, the public transportation is always on-time. The buses, trains and airplanes arrive and depart right on-time. Coming from another country, you may think that it is almost like magic how the bus drivers, train drivers and pilot keep to their schedule. And many a time, I have come to appreciate the fact that they do.

Japanese people, I realized, pay almost obsessive attention to time. Take a look at a typical train time table schedule. Can you believe that this is a time table. The first time I looked at a train time table, I almost blanked out. It looked more like an assembly language code that machines generate that no mere mortal can understand. It still baffles me how the Japanese people use these time table. Or do they?

Anyway, back to the topic. I marvel at the value that Japanese people place on time. I tell myself that if Malaysians place the same emphasize on time as the Japanese people do, there will be higher productivity across all levels. There will no longer be 2 hour waits for wedding dinners to start, no queueing up for MyKad renewal, no more traffic jams (OK, I'm exaggerating). Think of all the increase in efficiency and productivity, not to mentioned the time saved.

On the other hand, it's not all good news to be on-time. Recently there was a tragedy involving a train caused by human misjudgement. The train driver must be thinking of the repercussions of not being in time and not too much on passenger safety when he oversped and caused the train to derail. Although this is one example that depicts the devil of being on-time. I can vouch that 99.9% of the good things that do happen when things are on-time are almost taken for granted in Japan.

I learnt that Japanese have been constantly reminded of the virtue of being on time. Parents, teachers, strangers would tell their young ones that 一刻千金(いっこくせんきん）in other words, time is money. And being on-time is being able to keep a promise. I know for one, I am lousy at being on time. The clock in my room is always running 15 minutes faster. So that I would have ample time to catch up on in case I run out of time. It's really a bad habit, I know. But having been in Japan for quite sometime already, and having appreciate the fact that everybody else is on-time, I am beginning to feel that I too should start to run like clockwork. Less, I run out of time.

Boney M sang a song about money. And so does Sam Hui and many other artistes, but I have not heard a song that tells the importance of time. When you think about it, everybody has 24 hours at the start of the day. No more and no less. And how one use their time (wisely) is entirely up to them. I know for sure, the Japanese use it wisely.