It's Spring

Few days ago, birds start to chirp, waken up from hibernation. Insects start to fly into my room.

Winter finally ended. The peak was almost 2m of snow. The whole walkway from dorm to classes were covered in snow. I was looking at the autumn pictures and the scenery is so much different. Winter is so beautiful and I'll miss it.


To this one




Soon the confinement would end and I'll be able to cycle to Koide and all the other places

Malaysia General Election

March 8th is Malaysia's General Election. Being so far from Malaysia, it is almost impossible to get the latest information 5 years ago. However, Internet changed everything.

I know that it would be election when my friend MSN'ed me at 12pm, just minutes after the announcement were made. Many of my Malaysia friends didn't even know about it at that moment. The geographical distance from Malaysia was made so small.

Days before the election, news, commentaries, articles, predictions and rumors appeared in blogs, news sites and political party websites. Even though heavy censorship and news blackout happened in mainstream media, all news are available online.

On that night during poll count, me and a few friends started MSN chat starting at 10pm. Soon, many more people got online, and we started a 10 people online conference chat. We have people from UK, Japan, China, Penang, KL, Taiping and Ipoh, all discussing about the latest news, all of us scurrying around websites updating each other on the latest results. We were the same group that used to chat face-to-face in mamak in Section 17 when we studied in UM. The only difference now is that we cannot see other's face, but the quality of conversation is still the same. I could imagine listening to each other's voice.

Soon, I've started another MSN group, with 8 of UC's ex-staff. We have people from Sabah, Penang, KL and me from Japan and continue until 3am.

Condolences

Our economics Professor's mother has passes away, and today he flew back to Sri Lanka to attend her funeral. Over the weekend, Manisha made a condolences card to be passed to him when he come back the next week. I was the 2nd person to write on it.

We used the passing method to distribute the card to everyone. Once you get it, sign it & find another coursemate who has not signed & pass to him/her. Soon, the card reached back to me again in the kitchen & I passed it to Yoichiro, a Japanese.

We struck conversation, he was quite surprised that we made the condolences card. According to him, Japanese would not send such card when someone has died, because it shows disrespect to the person whose family member passed away. I explained to him that in the west or other countries, it is courtesy to send the card to show that we cared for such person.

Such a difference in Japanese culture.

21st Century Family

This is Manisha, the modern mom in our university.




We went together to the Muikamachi Snow festival with several others. On the way back, we asked her why we haven't seen her son who's staying with here in campus for so many days. She said her son went back to her country in India.

On our way back, her phone rang. "Hi Elish". Her son called from India, "Mom, I don't know how to do this homework, can you teach me?". "Ok, show me the question using the phone (3G Camera phone). It's not clear, point it upwards. OK, this is how you should do it... ... ... Do you need that book? I'll order it through Amazon and have it sent to you."

Her son Elish has been traveling alone from Singapore to Japan, Tokyo to Urasa, Tokyo to India all by himself. We ask if she's worried if her son get lost. She said no, because her son can always call. Furthermore, using location based service, she can know her son's exact location at any time.

Here in Japan, everyone is using the latest technology to its maximum potential and I'm surprised how an ordinary parent in Japan has been using the technologies so much, Internet, video call, GPS etc.

Prof John's Stories: Fall into snow

In the gym, Prof John was telling us to be careful during winter. Every year, someone will surely fall down to drain and die. In the winter, snow got so thick that it's almost impossible to differentiate drain from the normal flatland.

2 years ago, they found a body of a local people in the Urasa river. John said that the people must have drank too much, and then when they go piss, they went far away from the rest of the group, ventured to loose ice on river bank and fell into the river when the snow collapses.

Therefore it is always a good idea to stay as far away from river banks as possible.

Prof John's Stories: Cross Country Ski

Prof. John is an athletic man. He said that he used to ski a lot in the winter. Not just normal skiing. He did Cross Country Ski. That means he opens up new paths in the snow, up & down the hills, make sure the snow are compact enough to for support.

Try opening ski path in places like this.

Those who have ski would know how hard it is to open a new path or going uphill. And John would do this everyday in the winter, same path, during the lunch time, alone. It is very dangerous to divert away from the path you created because you might fall into deep places which couldn't be seen in the snow.

One day few years ago when it was almost spring, he said he has diverted away from his original path that he made over the winter, and then suddenly fell 2m down into a well. Luckily the well still have snow inside it. If not it would be a 5m fall.

He got out with only some bruises and no major injuries.

Prof John's Stories: IUJ was underwater

Came back from Urasa's supermarket in IUJ Bus & was sitting beside Prof. John. He was started to tell stories on how the spring is about to come, where birds would be singing.

When we almost arrive in IUJ, he started to show me a patch of black trees in the middle of the fully snow covered, white mountain. He mentioned that it was one of the very first Buddhist temple site in this area.

Why do they build it so high?

Well, simply because last time, the whole Urasa & IUJ was underwater. That's why a lot of ancient buildings were at the higher ground. That's why there are some places called Prawn Island, this Island, that island still exists around these area.


Everything in the pic was under water!!!

He added that if we go near the hills, we are still able to see the shoreline now. OK, i'll go search for those shorelines in the spring.

Prof John's Stories: People die falling from roof

It was almost the end of winter. Workers were seen today clearing the ice that has been accumulated on top of the roof.


In gym, John told me that every year without fail, there will be people die falling from the roof top while clearing the snow in around Urasa, Muikamachi and Koide area.

Considering the small population in all these area combined, it's interesting to see the high death rate for such a unique kind of accident. He added on however, that the locals have been clearing snow from roof for ages.

However, the only difference is that now people fall into cement to their death, while the last time, people fall into soil and survived.