Closed!

I went home early last night but unfortunately I wasn't able to sleep early...  And I woke up too late again to attend class.  My alarm clock didn't work yet again.  Actually my alarm clock this time was this computer program that runs the official online stream of the Manila-based radio station Magic 89.9 (magic899.fm/ListenLive.aspx).  But argh, that guy who has the router (and with whom we'll share the internet expenses with) has probably moved it around again and so there's no signal in my room.  Last Saturday night, I had this same problem.  I called him up and asked him about it, and he said, "Oh there is something covering the router."  What???  And he expects me to pay the same amount as himself for the internet connection???  Sigh.  There are 3 of us sharing the connection, but I am not willing to pay 1/3 or not even 1/4 of the internet fee.

Now don't worry, the class I missed is not a very important class for me.  It is about something that is totally different from the field I'm studying.  And to tell you the truth, I find it so difficult and so distracting from the real work that I need to do here, so if I can I would really like to not attend that class anymore.  After today, there's two more classes and well, I hope to attend those if only to keep a good relationship with the class professor.

Lunch was nilagang baboy again.  Yummy, but it could've used a little more salt and spice.

We wanted to play basketball today, but the gym was closed.  So we just did some running.  I exercised for maybe 35 minutes straight.  Then shower.  Then home - because I had a delivery coming.

For dinner, I was thinking of having nilagang manok.  Oh, I forgot to mention, the nilagang manok was too salty and too spicy.  Hmmm.  Anyways, I am so not into having this nilagang manok again.  This wasn't appetizing.  This would make me feel less energized.  And so I decided to fry the chicken instead.  Wow, it tasted great!  Ate them with tomatoes.  Yummy dinner.

I realized I have to eat good food as much as possible.  When I was eating cafeteria food almost everyday, I felt the difference when I started to eat my own cooked Pinoy food.  This time around, I'm on an almost all-Pinoy food diet (or at least maybe 60% of the time), but of course not all Pinoy dishes are yummy.  Or some are yummy, but when you cook it differently, it could taste different and not so appetizing.  And so unenergizing, if there is such a word.  Actually what happened for this week was, I got tired of thinking of and deciding on what food I really wanted to eat and therefore needed to cook.  I just selected the dishes which I did not have the week before.  And so I ended up with this line up.

But actually one other motivation I have when choosing dishes I am going to prepare for the week is: avoid using cooking oil (even if it was canola or other vegetable)!  And so that's why I like cooking nilaga, and even the giniling.  And so this is what I ended up doing.  Fried (previously boiled) chicken.  But it was really yummy.

By the way, I forgot to mention that yesterday I received the results of my health check-up.  It is all in Japanese though, except the numbers of course.  So my BP is 130/80 (or "132/78" to be "exact").  My height is 183.5 cm and my weight is 85 kg.  And they calculated my BMI: 25.2.  I'm (still) overweight!!?!?!??  I told my colleagues here and they were all like, "No, you're still fine.  I'm shorter than you but I'm not that much lighter."  Another noticed that I have a "B" mark, exactly on that box/area where my height, weight, and BMI is listed.  He said that he got all "A" marks.  Actually, I really think I'm 185 cm, and if so my BMI is 24.8, still within normal.  I might just be slouching a bit when my height was taken.  It was, after all, mid-day already.  Anyways, this is all good news as it is only more reason to do more exercise!  :-)

I don't like to share this with you just yet, but what the heck.  I like to do more exercise so that I can eat more!  Ehehehe :-D

Trouble

The trouble continues.  Trouble sleeping that is.  What were you thinking?  Those deadma faggies?

Anyways, I was really intending to sleep early last night but no.  Ended up the same time...  But this time I woke up sooo late, almost 2pm already.  Why?

Because it's rainy and a little cooler today!  Hooray!

It is a big, welcome break from all those days of sunshine and humidity and highs above 35 degrees.  Daytime high today was 28 degrees.  Hooray indeed!

I do have a problem though with my umbrella.  So the one I brought here from the Philippines which I actually bought for around 5 USD in SG last December already has gout.  It can still work but it is bound to totally break soon.  So I bought me a new one, but only a cheap one, only 1 USD equivalent.  It is so weak.  Today I think was the first time I used it, and it is already showing signs of weakness.

The rain wasn't like long, continuous, heavy, torrential rain.  It was just a little shower for probably half the day.  But that and all the cloud cover was enough to turn today into more like May weather.  Love it.

But with the sudden change in temperatures comes a headache.  Can't hit two birds with one stone this time.  It is annoying.  Then again, maybe it's because of the sleeping in so late?

Or, maybe it's because...  So I woke up say around 1:45pm, took a shower, then went straight to school to do some pre-Nihongo-class studying, then Nihongo class, then back to my desk for a little work, then went home and had Pork Steak and Steamed Pechay dinner at around 7pm and...  Notice anything?  Yup, I had dinner relatively earlier than usual today.  But actually, it is my breakfast and lunch as well, relatively later than usual.  Maybe that's another factor.  In any case, the headache of course is annoying; it is difficult to concentrate and stuff.  Oh well, this too shall pass.  Can't wait to sleep!  And I really hope to be able to sleep really early today!  Can't be late for my 11am class tomorrow.

Usual Friday?

...Nope.  Not until around 5:30pm.  I went straight to class, had lunch, back to work, then off to the gym to play basketball.  The score was 1-0 when... bam!  I injured my ankle again; this time the right one.  This time a little bit worse than the last.  I am getting too old.  Subconsciously I seem to think there are things I can still do that I used to be able to 5 years ago.  While the mind can think of the many different things I can do with a basketball in my hands, the body cannot follow as religiously as before to the mind's wishes.  Mind over matter almost doesn't matter anymore, not in this case.  Not when the body is truly incapable of what the mind can perceive.  This is similar to trying to finish a 42 km marathon in 10 minutes.  No matter how much the mind wills it, the human body even of the most athletic human on earth cannot ever do it in 10 minutes, or at best, not without any undesirable consequences to the body or the mind.

Unlike the last time I got "injured," which healed after a 5 minute break, this one did not.  I was so sad about not being able to "exercise."  I can't move.  I can still shoot, but I can't run after balls.  The pain is really more than the last time.  So after seeing that the resting wasn't helping "heal" the pain unlike before, I went straight home.  It was difficult, of course.  I had dinner.  Then right after dinner, lights on and table not yet cleared, I fell asleep.  I think I needed the sleep though.  When I woke up in the middle of the night, maybe around 10 or 11pm, my ankle felt better.  Although maybe, chatting on Skype also made it feel even much better. ;-)

Busy!

Busy day.  Went straight to class - the last day of our Wednesday class which is about evaluation of the environmental efficiency of buildings.  Then lunch.  I did the "2nd part" of the cooking for the Lechon Kawali, which was basically to fry it.  It was yum-mee.  Ate it with Dole sweet baby carrots (which are already peeled and ready to eat after some washing) and the typical sawsawan/sauce prepared and used by Pinoys for Lechon Kawali.  Then back to work.  Studied Nihongo a bit - because tomorrow it'll be a little tight because of some things I need to do and a shift in schedule.  We also went out to pay for our rent today.  We need to go with the "older" guys here because they know which buttons to press on the Japanese-only ATM rental payment service. It's a 5-minute bike ride away also; we can't just make payments from the ATMs right here in school.  We left school around 4:30pm instead of earlier because it was just too hot today!  37 degrees!!!  That's a record high since I came here, but I asked one of my Japanese colleagues and he says it is not totally unexpected, but yes it is not the usual summertime temperature highs they've experienced before.  It's exceptionally hot this summer here in Japan!  I heard somewhere up north, in Nikko, it was as high as 38.5 degrees!  This after having exceptionally low temperatures in April when I arrived, which was around 3 to 7 degrees.  This is already more than a 30 degree temperature difference in a matter of 3 months!  But, again we are talking about extremes here (or nearly extremes, is the worst yet to come?).  It is all just unusual.  I look around and it seems that the houses look less attractive and homey; ah the weather really has something to do with it.  Last year when I went to the US east coast also around summertime there, it was so hot, I didn't feel like I was in the US, because all of my previous visits where in the Bay Area (west coast) and during early spring (between March and June) or at the start of winter (sometime between November and February).  And then dinner.  Dinner was also yum-mee.  It was Nilaga.

My Nilaga "feels" different this time, because previously I was using this more like a lettuce veggie, but now I am really using cabbage which I think goes better with Nilaga.  I still used pechay, of course.

Anyways, about tomorrow, basically a medical check-up was scheduled for me at 12 noon since I missed the one scheduled in early April.  I was told I cannot move the schedule, and so I told my professor for my 11-12:30 class tomorrow.  Thankfully, he and all my classmates agreed to move the class to 1:30-3:00.  So my schedule tomorrow is like, 12-12:30 medical check-up, 12:30-1:30 lunch, 1:30-3 wind engineering class, 3-4:30 Nihongo class.  Yikes!  So that's why today I'm already studying for Nihongo tomorrow.

3 months

Today marks my 3rd month since leaving home and, of course, it hasn't been easy.  But it's not very, very bad; "I'll live."  Some problems are here and there, unavoidable, and just needs managing.  Aside from today's "monthsary," nothing is special.  Went straight to class, got home, ate my yesterday-bought convenience store ulam (burger, chicken, sausage, potato balls) with ready-to-heat-and-eat frozen veggies and the last batch of my own cooked rice.  Did a little work.  Played basketball.  Forgot my knee braces, but I was still fine the whole time.  Got a little bit of my form back.  But, one typical "injury" in basketball: landing on someone else's foot!  This causes a kind of ankle sprain.  But I'm a (self-proclaimed) "veteran" of ankle sprains now and I knew what to do - hold them high and apply pressure (tighten your shoes) to keep it from swelling; i.e. let the blood flow out of there!  After a 5 minute rest I was almost back to normal and shooting just as well as before the mini-incident.  No one won the "betting" again.  That's probably 3 weeks now since anyone has won.  Anyways, as usual I showered after basketball - like everyone does.  Well not straight from after basketball, I rested a bit and let my sweating come to a halt first before I went into the shower.  It feels good to shower after sports!  Yeah, I know about the Pinoy myth that you shouldn't shower right after sports, but why is swimming an exception?  Anyways, I looked it up and it's safe, mga kababayan.  The important thing is you take a warm shower.  Not a hot one because you could get burned (duh!  but actually because your body temperature is warmer than usual, you might think the water is 3 degrees cooler).  And definitely not a cold shower, because that could cause muscle cramps, which is fatal.  After shower, as usual I went home to park my basketball stuff but since I didn't have any food to eat, I went to the convenience store to buy my ban-gohan (dinner; night food/rice).  But I actually didn't eat any rice.  I instead got a salad (I really liked this one), two kinds of pasta (baked ziti with shrimps, and the usual red sauce spaghetti), and apple iced tea.  Very nice dinner.  I think the last time I had pasta like these was still back in Manila.  On my trips to the "Italian restaurant" tabehodai place, there wasn't any pasta on the buffet menu.  You have to order it separately.  Of course as I mentioned, last time I went there, I ordered pizza (with a very good crust).  And then I find myself back here, typing away on the computer.  Tomorrow is another day.

By the way, we don't have any seminars tomorrow, and Monday is a holiday which means it's a long weekend!  I don't know yet what I'll do though; I haven't made plans yet.  I'll ask around and see.  Have I mentioned?  The school will be closed from August 12 to 17 - as in no entry, and no electricity (so no access to our computers here as well).  Some of the PhD students here are thinking about going up Mt. Fuji.  Yikes, I haven't climbed a mountain before!  Walking for 6 or 10 hours (with stops), I can do better than running 1 hour and 30 minutes for a 10 kilometer marathon!  Of course the problem is the thin air in high altitude.  Plus, as with any long duration physical activity, hydration is important.  So I'm bringing with me some cans of O2 (oxygen) and powdered "Pocari Sweat," and some water of course.  Basically the trip starts from the 5th station, which is 2,300 meters up.  The summit is at 3,700 meters.  There is a total of 4 more stations before the summit, but as you can expect, prices rise exponentially for goods sold at each station.  And, there's a price to pay to enter each station.  But anyways, the hike up is generally easy, and climbing season is only mid-July to mid-August, I think.  But it gets as cold as around 2 or 3 degrees Celsius (35 degrees Farenheit) there in the wee hours of the morning.  The start of the climb should be timed well in order to get to the summit just exactly before sunrise, which thankfully is around 4:30am here in Japan.  If you arrive early, you'll have to endure the cold for hours! If you arrive too late, of course you miss the sunrise.  Anyways, the climb might be 6 to 10 hours, depending on the pace of the people you're with. :-D  I have maybe three weeks to think about this really hard, and to do some preparations (i.e. cardiovascular exercises).  I'll keep you guys posted.

New bed

Last Sunday I ordered a shingeru beddo furemo (single-size bed frame) from Amazon.co.jp, and it was scheduled to arrive this Wednesday between 10:00 and 12:00.  Guess what.  My class was at 11:00.  I e-mailed the Amazon Marketplace shop owner to send it before 11:00, but to no avail.  Thankfully, the order arrived around 10:30am, and I was able to assemble it and make it in time for class!  Ahh, the comfort of sleeping above the floor.  Don't get me wrong, nothing wrong with sleeping on a mat/futon/mattress on the floor, but it's just a little less effort to go up or lie down when your bed is almost as high as your knee.  Anyways, this past 3 months has also been the longest time I've slept on the floor.

The bed I bought has steel pipe legs and frame, but on it is a wooden platform (not as strong as the typical wood used for building homes though), and that together with my current futon was enough for me.  I was earlier pondering on whether I should get a real (foam) mattress but I decided to try this set-up first.  Works well for me.  I also like that there's probably 40cm (16 inches) of space underneath the bed, so there's extra room for some storage, and that sort of helped tidy up my room.  Of course, I also did a little brooming to clean up the room.  Dust kind of accumulates here in a matter of weeks.

Other than that...  I still feel tired from yesterday.  My head's not "in the game" so much.  I had pork adobo with steamed pechay for lunch, and steak for dinner together with this cabbage salad with sesame oil and chili garlic for dressing, which I bought from the convenience store because I didn't have any veggies anymore.  Is it still called salad even if there's only one ingredient?  Ehehe.  Anyways, I also bought banana (first time I ate banana in a number of weeks now) and ice cream, which seems like a plain vanilla flavor.  I have yet to try it out, but I'm sure it's tasty.

Japanese written language help

This is another interesting tool to help you out with your Japanese written language skills: http://www.furiganizer.com/.  Furigana basically means small text that "translate," typically Kanji to Hiragana so that it's easier to read for people who haven't had the time to study the 1,000+ Kanji characters out there.

Anyways, Friday was the usual.  As usual.  Class in the morning: though this time I wasn't 100% into the class, because after Thursday's meeting with the Professor, I thought I had much to do - in my structural wind engineering field - and meanwhile this class was about environmental wind engineering.  It could be useful in the future, but not now.  It is a very difficult subject matter to internalize.  Then again, I remember: no pain, no gain.  Lunch again was at the by-the-pound cafeteria, and dinner was the last batch of my nilagang baka.  And then basketball as usual, wherein no one won the "betting," but we won the no-betting match which was a 3-on-3, which was as international as it gets: 2 mainland Chinese, 1 Taiwanese, 1 Korean, 1 Japanese, and 1 Filipino.  Well actually before, instead of the Japanese it was an Indian.  And even before that, instead of the Taiwanese it was an Italian.  Cool.

Talking about international, you can see how more unfortunate others are in some respects.  Some people have lived all their lives in generally closed societies, for example, marrying only within their own large clan, or not being able to go out of their country or watch a lot of movies, or shows, or news events, or even international sports events that are not in their country.  And so as you might imagine, they are not very open to many new things.  It is difficult for some of them, for example, to eat Japanese food (even those that are not contrary to any religion, like the fish/seafood and vegetables), to learn even just a little Japanese language, to use chopsticks, to be a friend to people other than their own, to go out and explore Japan (and there is much to explore) by themselves, to understand that there is such a thing as postcards and not just greeting cards, to be considerate of others in terms of their own personal hygiene habits that they've grown up with, and the list goes on and on and on.  I nor anyone can't do anything about them, of course.  It is all up to them to open up and really go international, instead of bringing their closed, little society (little compared to the global society) with them to this international setting.  But what could they do - or anyone - brought up "shy," to be coming from such "closed" societies.

Anyways, there are one or two stories I will tell you guys about in a future post.  Until then, my Friday story continues:

So as usual, after basketball, I go straight home to eat dinner.  But I was so tired this time from the basketball.  And right after dinner, I felt so sleepy and so I fell asleep!  That was around 9pm or earlier, I think.  I was so tired, I fell asleep with two of the lights on (the kitchen and the main room lights)!  Also, this time around, my knees are feeling better - but there's a little pain in my ankles this time, pain that I haven't felt since I ran a 10 km "marathon" in 2008 (which I haven't done since ~1992).  I am now and back in 2008 nearly 50 lbs (22 kg) heavier than I was when I first ran (twice) back in the early 90's (I was still in high school, and was still 14 or 15 years old).  Is this what growing old means?  Ha ha!  I didn't think this would come this early, at least not the physical aspects.  I know 50+ year olds who are more fit than me, and I thought I could be like them. I can accept that I can't jump as high as before, but feeling all these things is something I didn't expect.  Of course, this is a product of being an engineer in the Philippines (a.k.a. very busy) and having practically no exercise in the past 5 or 6 years.  This time, I'm hoping to make this a regular thing, and hopefully get some of my "groove" back.  I'm not expecting I'll be as athletic as I was like 6 years ago when I was already at my sports prime, but I'm just hoping to get some back.

Hum again

Hmmm.  Things are starting to get boring now.  Nothing new or amazing today again from the usual stuff, except that in Nihongo class we're now studying Katakana characters, and today we had our 2nd quiz.  I'm thinking to take a new direction with regards to my blog post topics, to spice things up.  Ah, yes.  Spices.  They can certainly change things.  Like how people "smell," or at least that's what some people say.  What I think is, if you don't bathe or shower, you smell.  If the temperature is cold, fine, no need to bathe/shower everyday.  If the temperature is quite warm (like nowadays), please take a shower because for sure we will all sweat, and only then will the difference between what we eat will come out.  Now, there is absolutely nothing wrong with sweating; we shouldn't be ashamed of it.  It's a natural process.  But anyways, relatively unfortunate for Filipinos who pride themselves of "not smelling," unlike others, only because it's generally warm in the Philippines and so we bathe/shower regularly, (by the way, pride is always bad; "Love is not proud," says the Bible) there are some who are really out there and, I don't know if they even know it.  One other guy around here thought that we should have an air freshener here in our room.  Nope, that wasn't me.

No class!

Class was cancelled today!  Our professor has a speaking engagement in Tokyo and he had to catch the 11:25am bus from TPU to Hon-Atsugi.  And our class was supposed to start at 11:00am.  We wouldn't have time for any relevant lecture so we will just meet again next week and most probably extend into August (end of semester is in end of July).

Anyways, other than, I was a little busy today.  I had the groove, the momentum, and I capitalized.  Also played basketball with "betting."  Of the "relevant" games, the two teams won one game each (both with scores of 15-13), and so no one won the betting.

Lunch was at the by-the-pound cafeteria, and dinner was the last of my Nilagang Baboy and Pinoy food for the week.  Tomorrow is laundry, seminar, grocery, and cooking day.  Sunday is Tokyo day.  :-)

Okonomiyaki!

This day is the usual Thursday.  2 classes, 1 is Nihongo class.  I had lunch this time at the other cafeteria, the first one where you order by dish, not by the pound.  Well actually you can order a lot as well, but my bill was just 608 yen, much less than my usual 800 yen (minimum 700 yen, maximum 950 yen) at the by-the-pound cafeteria.  Not as much though, not as full, but fulfilling none the less.  Thank God for the blessings.

At Nihongo class, we learned how to read the calendar.  Not as straight forward as in English, but okay, something new learned today.

Then this evening, at 6:40pm, the PhD students and a few of the researchers met up at the TPU front gate to go to this restaurant, for the farewell dinner for the short-term researcher from Italy, Francesca-san.  The restaurant is Dohton-Bori, an Okonomiyaki restaurant.  It is just 10 minutes by bicycle from TPU.  There were 17 of us who went there.  Basically it's like "barbecue" or hot pot style where you cook the food yourselves on the table.  I thought it would be like one big table for all 17 of us, but we were split into so many tables with 4 people max per table.  Anyways everyone had a multi-course meal.  On our table, we were 4 very hungry men.  We had 3 kinds of okonomiyaki, then we had this... mokyujiyaki?  And yakisoba.  And gyoza and...  fried rice (forgot what it's called), similar to chao fan (Chinese fried rice).  Anyways, the fried rice was black fried rice - it had squid ink.  Felt like the Spanish paella.  The okonomiyaki is basically like omelet.  Two nights ago we visisted one of our Indian fellow students and he was preparing dinner, which was also much like omelet - lots of onions, and garlic sauteed although they mix it with the rice before serving.  Anyways, everything tasted good at Dohton-Bori.  Even the biiru. :-D  Total bill per person on our table: ~2500 yen.  That's 1500 yen for the biiru! :-(

Anyways, daytime high today was 29 degrees!  I love it!  Others found it too warm, so they turned up the air-conditioning - which was too cold for me.  I wonder when will I get used to the cooler weather.

Basketball, and then some

Woke up the usual time. Got to class just in time. Left class to go back home for the last of my Nilagang Baboy for lunch. Got back to the office around 2pm. Then guess what. The short-term researcher had some snacks to share for everyone! The invites were sent around 2am (so I was sleeping already), and since I wasn't able to check my mail early enough, I missed it! Well, no, not really. There was still some leftovers and it was pretty good.

Anyways, I played basketball though I was a little cautious because of my knee's condition. It turned out that not exerting so much effort helped - my shooting from long range was greatly improved!  We won 1 of the 2 games, and almost won the other game.  It was 29 points going for 30, and the other team was just 22 or 23...  but we still lost!  But it was a good game.  Competition is heating up.  We've got bruises and all that each - I have my knee, and another guy got hit a number of times in places you don't hit...  But it was fun.

During class, the discussion was about improving indoor thermal comfort by natural and mechanical ventilation as well as air-conditioning and therefore contributing to work productivity.  But the professor cited a report where it shows that the Japanese are working as much hours as the Americans - longer than many Europeans and Canadians - but among the group (US, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, Canada), Japan has the lowest work productivity.  He mentioned that he spent a year in the US and he noticed that people were at the office only from 9am-5pm from Monday to Friday, and sometimes they would work 9am-7pm but only from Monday to Thursday.  The professor is puzzled about this, what could be one reason why the Japanese have a low productivity and yet work more hours, and so he started a discussion during class.  I shared what I think but the professor believes it has to do with the "system," i.e. that in the US there's a hierarchical-system who gives out instructions to everyone, so everyone tends to focus on their individual tasks while in Japan it's a "flat" system where everyone gathers regularly and discuss with each other to determine what to do and stuff.  So those "discussions" part take up a lot of time.  He also mentioned that typically Japanese people, particularly here at the university, would go home at 9pm (work hours officially start at 9:30am), and cited examples of people staying at their office 4 days a week every week!  Anyways, as somewhat of a homework, he asked us to think of how we can be productive during our PhD stint here and graduate in 3 years.

Now I've been a little bit surprised about all this, just a little bit.  Japan?  Low productivity rate?  Well, they are creative and innovative.  And as I always say, there's a reason why "creative" or "innovative" is spelled differently from "productive."  There's a difference.  Before this morning's lecture, one of my Filipino friends who I've met up with in Meguro after Sunday mass twice now, a former PhD student here in Japan himself and now working for a French company here in Japan still, told me how some Japanese guys tend to relax during regular hours then do most of their work after regular hours - when they're paid overtime.  Sounded so familiar.  Same case in the Philippines - well, depending on who's above and where people are from.  Right here at the office, I am able to observe at least one Japanese guy who on regular occasions I would see playing an online game or watching some movie!

I personally think it's all about attitude and "culture".  And it's difficult to teach attitude; no, not to adults.  To toddlers, sure.  And definitely, it's difficult to change culture.  As someone in charge, the best you can do is to try to motivate.  If you have the privilege, you should choose your men well.  Read Jim Collins' Good to Great, and that other book of his.

Anyways, I think having a "no-overtime policy" works; i.e. encourage work-life balance.  And encourage task accomplishments only during the specified working hours.  No ifs, no buts.  But this requires good managers.  Like if you have a bad manager who always says yes to the client's requests, overtime almost becomes always necessary.  Of you might have a bad manager who, after you've done Task A, will ask you to do Task B and Task C, only to say later that Task A is sufficient and no need for Tasks B and C.  An engineering-related good thing about this "no-overtime policy" is you save energy!  And therefore cut down on costs!  Of course, one downside here is, again if you have bad managers, you might be forced to work at home - so actually the company's costs are only transferred to you.  Blessed are you who have good managers.

I don't know why but for some reason haven't Japanese heard of the 8x5 (8 hours per day, 5 days a week) working hours limit for good health?

Another engineering-related thing that I haven't observed here is that no one's regulating the temperature!  In the Philippines, the building code says that the standard temperature for air-conditioned offices should be between 23 and 26 degrees.  Here, everyone's uncomfortable already at those temperatures!  Except me!  Anyway, what happens is the air-conditioner is on and yet we have the windows and doors open!  Again, because people have control over the windows and doors and stuff.  There has to be a standard agreed to by everyone.  Again, energy and cost savings are the drivers here.  Okay, so maybe 23~26 degrees is not applicable here.  So let's set it to 20 or a maximum 23 degrees.  Anyways, in the Philippines, I've had experiences with having officemates who feel that 26 degrees is so cold already!  So they put the temperature up to 27 or 28 degrees.  UNCOMFORTABLE, man!  Come on, I can't take off my clothes to become comfortable.  Meanwhile, they can put on some jackets or what so that we can have 26 degree temperature.  And that's the maximum as per the building code, i.e. the law!

Anyways, another experience I have is having high ceilings and generally spacious working areas (of course, not too spacious) helps in work productivity.  Here at our office, if we all extend our arms outward, we'd be touching each other.  Cleanliness is one other thing.  Because of smaller working areas here, you would tend to not see which areas need cleaning and stuff.  I wonder how the indoor air quality levels are here.  That affects health - including mental - and the ability to be productive.

Anyways, speaking of health, I haven't been feeling so well since Saturday.  As I've been mentioning, there's my knee which is still not yet 100% but it's better now (heck, I played basketball with it).  But there was something I was not able to do last Saturday morning because again we were asked to be at the bus meeting place at 9am "or else" and yet we left at 9:30am.  And starting Sunday I've been doing that once a day but I think there's still something that needs to go, but it just doesn't go!  It is so annoying.  I also wonder why this is so when I eat lots of fiber everyday anyway.  To tell you the truth, this is affecting my productivity.  And my general well-being.  Oh well, this too shall pass.

Subarashii!

When I got to our Nihongo class, our sensei had

1234567890えん

written on the blackboard.  And then I was the very first one he called, and while pointing to the writing on the board, asked me "Aquino-san ikura desu ka" ("Mr. Aquino, how much is this?").  So I answered as best I can...  "Ju ni oku san sen yon hyaku go ju roku man nana sen hapyaku kyu ju en desu."  Our sensei said "Subarashii!" and clapped his hands, encouraging everyone else to clap their hands.  Subarashii (すばらしい) means one or more of the following, according to Google Translate and Dicts.info: Great, Marvelous, Fabulous, Nice, Beautiful, Incredible, Stunning, Tremendous, Fascinating, Super, Gorgeous, Glorious, Sensational, Mighty, Heavenly, Raving, Crucial, Rare, Posh, Rip-roaring, Bang-up, Magnificent, Splendid, Wonderful. One other word that means practically the same thing is "sugoi." (すごい)  I would add "cool" as one other possible meaning of "sugoi" or "subarashii."  Anyways, I know One who could be called Subarashii using all those meanings..  Clue: He is actually Three Persons....  Even more subarashii!

Anyways, that's all the fun there is today.  It's another rainy day, with daytime high of 24 degrees and nighttime low of 19 degrees.  It's not that cool, but it's cool enough for me - I need at least 3 layers of clothes (1 sweater, 1 shirt, 1 jacket).  And it's the usual day.  Lunch by the pound.  Just-microwave dinner (with my own cooked rice though).  No basketball.  Books, books, books.  Hey, what on earth am I here for? :-D

Class... then... BASUKETOBORU!

Class.  Then lunch at the by-the-pound cafeteria.  Then a little bit of studying and stuff.  Then...

Basketball!  We played 3 games and here are the teams:

Game 1:
  Team 1 - Korea+Japan*+Italy** (Win)
  Team 2 - Philippines+China+India

Game 2:
  Team 1 - Korea+China+India***
  Team 2 - Philippines+China****+India (Win)

Game 3 (did not finish):
  Team 1 - Korea+China****
  Team 2 - Philippines+China (Leading 7-5)

* The player from Japan was replaced by the player from China****.
** The player from Italy is a girl!  She knows how to play.
*** This player from India is a little bit shorter than the other player from India.  Both players from India are beginners in the game of basketball.
**** This player from China is taller than the other player from China.

Then after, I had a nice meal for only 500 yen at the old cafeteria.  A torikatsu (fried breaded chicken) meal that comes with veggies, I had another dish of veggies, miso soup, and rice of course.  :-)

Summary of the day so far: F. U. N.

Then when I got back to my desk, all the Chinese students gathered around one of the Chinese students - who was showing videos from his wedding ceremony late last month!  It was a typical Chinese wedding, based on many Chinese traditions, but of course modernized already.  It started early in the morning, there were lots of gift-giving (via what we Filipinos call "ang-paw", those red Chinese envelopes with money inside), fireworks, carrying the bride two flights of stairs up, and photo ops for the families and so on, etc.  And they also had pre-nup pix!  Very, very, very interesting.

So what do I call a day that has been so fun already...  and then it's topped off by another fun and interesting thing?

Indeed, indeed: thank God it's Friday!  God bless everyone!  :-)

Nihongo

Let me see.  Today was Nihongo class day.  The rest of the day was all about studying and reading.  Interesting thing was...  Now I know how to count from one to one trillion in Japanese! :-)  Other than that, today there was some kind of fire evacuation drill and so the old cafeteria is closed the whole day.  But of course we usually eat at the new cafeteria (the by-the-pound lunch).  No basketball or gym today.  Yikes, no exercise today, other than the walking around campus and the apartment!  But anyways, I'm excited about the weekend, because I am planning to go to Yamada Denki (Yamada Electrical/Electronics store) to buy a webcam.  Denki means electric, I think.  The Japanese do not have a word for "electronic," I think.  So you would hear them say "I will go to the electrical shop to buy an mp3 player."

Oh, and today was... not rainy.  Yay!  Although yesterday's forecast for today is rainy.  Nay!  Yes, people.  PAGASA is doing just fine.  If you're not a meteorologist or didn't study meteorology, don't put the blame on them if they go wrong.  In Taiwan as well, I heard that one time recently their meteorological agency made a forecast that a typhoon will pass through one of their populated cities, so they had schools and businesses closed, and everyone "safely" at home.  Then the typhoon went 90km off from their forecast path.  The US as well was not ready for Hurricane Katrina.  Don't be too harsh on your own.

The forecast for tomorrow here is rainy as well.  Let's see what happens. Ja ashita ne.

Class, Bike, Basketball

Got to my desk around 10:30am, and was just in time for my class at 11:00am.  The class was interesting - actually it was more of a discussion rather than a lecture.  We talked about this and this.  Very interesting indeed.

There are two of us students there, the other a Japanese who speaks and understands little English.  But we had some common opinions, probably being both human and Asian.  But Japan being developed and the Philippines developing was probably the difference.  One particular difference in situation is that in Japan, the birth rate is going down and the population is probably decreasing.  It is the opposite in the Philippines...

Anywho, since class ended at 12:30pm, and since my usual lunch buddies eat at 12pm, I ate lunch at the by-the-pound cafeteria by myself.  Not so bad.  Today my lunch was just around 700yen.  My lowest priced by-the-pound lunch cost me only around 650yen.  My most expensive by-the-pound lunch was probably 850yen.  Right now my budget is just 800yen per meal.  It was a good meal as usual.  I had my usual share of leafy veggies.  I just don't like that a lot of the meat are fried and with breading, therefore meaning it uses eggs.  Cholesterol.  I should really get a stove and steamer soon.  I don't plan on using my rice cooker for steaming again because the fishy-oily smell from the steamed fish clings to the rice cooker's pot!

Aside from a stove and steamer, I also plan to buy a bike when I get my first "salary" (basically my subsistence allowance) and when I know I have enough money for my basic needs.  But actually today...  I now have a bike to use!  Not my bike, I just borrowed it.  I rode it around tonight.  It is a pleasure to ride in a bike.  Problem is, I'll have less walking exercise around the area now.  I should just make sure now to play basketball or do some running more regularly.  But actually, it's just a 5-minute walk including a 4-storey climb up some stairs to get from my apartment to my desk.  I plan to use my bike only though to go to Atsugi Trellis, where the nearest grocery is.  But I also plan to explore Atsugi more with my bike, as well as go to some other stores which I haven't gone to by myself before, like the Yamada electronics store, where I also plan to buy later a webcam so that I can make video calls from my school computer.  The only problem with going there is, my place as well as the school is on top of a hill so going there is no problem, I'll just be cruising down the slope.  The problem is going back.  Oh well, part of the exercise.  Or of course I could just walk up the slope.

Well that's about it.  I really like riding the bike.  And so much more in this weather.  Oh, I played basketball. The "kompyang" unfortunately put us two taller guys together in one team, and the not-so-tall guys on the other team.  So it was not so competitive but it was still fun.  Basuketoboru ga daisuki desu.  I love basketball. :-D

Class Day!

3 classes in a row today.  This will be today only, hopefully.  But it was fun.

Thankfully the 9:30am class (which is only actually a make-up session for our Friday class) was postponed to 1:20pm.  The good news is, no classes tomorrow!

But what happened was I had class from 11:00 to 12:30, then lunch, then 1:20 to 2:50, then 3:00 to 4:00.  It was very tight.  Anyhow, had lunch at Cafeteria 2 (by the pound lunch) - I love it there.  More for less.  And...  My 3rd class was actually my Nihongo (Japanese language) class!  It was the first time I attended; it was a fun class.  Everyone gets to participate!

I learned what wind engineering is in Japanese: kaze kougaku.  Watashino senmon desu.  (It is my major.)

Anyways, I learned a lot too, and was able to practice my Japanese numbers from ichi to sen (1 to 1000).  One interesting fact: the former capital that preceded the current Tokyo is Musashi, which encompasses Tokyo and parts of Saitama and Kanagawa, and which is somewhat an abbreviation for 6-3-4 (mu, san, shi) = the total height in meters of the currently under-construction Tokyo Sky Tree.  Last we checked it was around 350m tall already.  Yup, "six" is either "roku," "mu," or "mutsu," and "four" is either "yon," or "shi."  But of course, "roku" and "yon" are the commonly used translations.  My birth year is sen kyu hyaku nana ju nana.  Exciting!

Anyways, our Nihongo-no-sensei (Japanese language professor) commented that this year, there is no Spring.  From winter, it turned into summer immediately.  Yikes!  Well actually it still feels like spring, but yeah, it got a little warm the past couple of days but maybe only because Someone wanted the Japanese and tourists here to enjoy the long holiday weekend.

Anyways...  I feel so tired already.  I ran 1 km / 10 minutes on the treadmill, did some weights, shoot some hoops...  Ayayay.  Wellp, no class tomorrow, but I have to go to the city hall to pick up my alien registration card.  Until next time... :-)

Class Day

Today is class day.  I had two classes in a row, from 9:30-12:30 this morning.  Interesting topics, both.  Duh, almost anything wind engineering is interesting to me!  Ehehe. :-D

Anyways, right after that I went to the bank in Hon-Atsugi (or downtown Atsugi) to exchange my USD ("Amerika-no Doru") to JPY ("Nihon-no En"; the Japanese for "Yen" is "En," except after a word that ends in "n" like "san"/"three" or "sen"/"thousand.").  I thought it would only take a few minutes; I got back to TPU at past 3pm already!  That's inclusive of taking lunch in Hon-Atsugi, and a 20 minute or so wait for the bus, because I was one minute too late for the previous one!

And I went to have my registration finalized - I'm registered I think in 6 courses, each 2 credits/units each.  Tough schedule.  But 4 of those 6 courses might not have classes until next semester, or might not have classes at all. :-D  The one class I attended this morning is actually not a credited class, but of course I attend because learning is one thing I'm here for anyway.  Doing (and learning) research work is another thing.  Oh, and I'm also registered for the Japanese language (Nihon-go) class, which is also not credited.  I attend of course to improve my Japanese language skills, as well as to bond with my colleagues.

Anyways, at around 6pm, we decided to continue the FIBA Asia Friendly Matches, this time it was P+J and K+C.  We didn't finish our game because the Volleyball and Futsal clubs were going to use the gym.  Oh well.  I knew I was exhausted from yesterday, and I thought I could still play today.  I didn't play like yesterday and I really felt the muscle pains.  I hope to rest tomorrow morning while my Heart attends Nihongo class. :-D

On my way to Hon-Atsugi, I noticed the bus was full and unexpectedly so, at least for me.  Usually around lunch break, not too many people would be leaving TPU already.  And then when I got back to TPU, it was just around 3pm but the line for the bus was very long already.  It usually isn't like that not until around 5pm or so.  As I walked around, I noticed there were very few people roaming around campus.  Ah, I realized tonight was the start of the 5-day long weekend here.  Great!

Not so much for me though; I think I'll need to do a lot of studying during the holidays.  I have to finish a report, read a chapter of this book about the atmospheric boundary layer (partial differential equations, momentum fluxes, tensors, and Kronecker deltas, anyone?), start to do some literature survey for my research topic, read about global warming and stuff because there will be discussion in class next week, and so on.

Oh, there is one good news for today: I got my old "new," broken and now repaired PC back.  My initial diagnosis was correct, it was the memory.  But now I am afraid to "commit" to this PC; what if it conks out again?  Yikes.  Goodbye LeopardXP and FlyakiteOSX.  ;-D  I need to be a little bit more careful now.  And I guess I should include my computer in my daily prayers!!!

Anyways, I already bought today my lunch and dinner ulam for tomorrow.  I might just have sardines during lunch time, in addition to the side veggies I bought.  I need to save money!  According to my calculations, I have enough only until June 18.  My first "payday" (when I can first receive allowance) is not until June 21!  Gulp.  And that doesn't include any payments for utilities and so on, that I need to make.  I really need to eat my sardines now.  And cook my own rice.  :-D  And no more travels!  Gulp.  And hmmm, I wonder if I can still buy a Japanese cellphone line and handset.  I think I could really use one in case of emergency!

Actually it is also difficult because not too many establishments accept credit cards here.  They are generally a cash society, which I think is a good thing in itself.  But of course, credit cards have their merits, if you know how to use them properly.  Usually only the Western-style hotels accept credit cards.  Well, I hope to find credit card-accepting stores soon!

The last resort is sending money to myself.  But the remittance or wire transfer costs are just too large.  And that's why it's the last resort.  Speaking of "last resort," I haven't been to Boracay since 2002!  :-D  The weather is becoming more and more pleasant each day.  It is generally sunny today, but the temperature was still very cool.  Or maybe I didn't wear enough layers of clothes.  High is 23 degrees, low is 10 degrees.  Feels like Baguio.  Love it!  Come Monday and Tuesday, the predicted high is at 25 or 26 degrees, and the lows might be at 15 or 17 degrees.  I love springtime.  Same temperature as autumn but, spring leads to summer!  Nevermind that Akino, the Romaji for my family name, means autumn fields.  :-D

1st Class Day

Today is the first day I attended a class lecture, which is actually about environmental wind engineering.  It is actually the 3rd meeting for the class already, so the 1st half of the class was about the 1st two meetings.  Totemo omoshiroi deshita!  (It was very interesting.)

I also learned that the professor requested for an extension of the registration so that I can register for the class.  Google!  (I meant to say "Yahoo!" but since I am using Google...  :-D)

It was still rainy and cool (but not cold) in the morning.  A beautiful surprise in the form of a sunset shone upon Atsugi by the end of the day.

Anyhow, that's about it for today.  I did miss lunch with the usual lunch buddies, so I bought bento and ate lunch at my desk.  "Bento," by the way means "lunch box," "box lunch," "boxed lunch," or maybe even "packed lunch."  So "bento box" would be like saying "lunch box box," "box lunch box," "boxed lunch box," or "packed lunch box," which... all doesn't sound right, don't you think?

I found this interesting website which you can quickly browse through a few pages at a time to learn about Japan, their culture, and some useful phrases: http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/index.html.  They also have an interesting piece about bento: http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/virtual/bento/index.html. :-)

Itadakimasu! :-)

(From Wikipedia/Itadakimasu#Eating_and_Drinking: "Meals in Japan traditionally begin with the phrase itadakimasu (いただきます^?) (literally, "I humbly receive"). The phrase is similar to "bon appétit," or saying grace to give thanks before a meal. It is said to express gratitude for all who played a role in preparing, cultivating, ranching or hunting the food.")

And the pain remains... but... :-D

Today is better than yesterday; I am able now to post to my blog again; I initially used my laptop to connect to the school network (still using it now).  And then a little later today, I was given a temporary computer to use, until my very new computer gets repaired.  We confirmed that one of the memory (RAM) consoles was busted; we removed it (found out which one of the two memory consoles by trial and error) and the system was working again.  So thankfully I was still able to retrieve my files so that I can work on them.  The pain of having to work on a temporary computer remains.  I was already getting comfortable on my "new" computer - a Core 2 Duo with 2Gb RAM and 250 Gb SATA drive (pretty much the same as my computer at my previous employer) - such that I could focus on what I am here for: learning.  But now, no, I have another thing to worry about.  I hope my computer gets repaired or replaced very soon!  I heard it might still take two weeks.  The manufacturer won't be able to pull it out from here until tomorrow.  Painful indeed.

Now a good thing happened today, a blessing indeed, although it is like your favorite ice cream flavor for a broken ankle because of the busted PC.  Apparently all new PhD students get to have one new 1TB external hard drive, courtesy of TPU!  That is the coolest gift I've received here so far!  Thank you, TPU!  Thank you, Lord!

Last Saturday, if I haven't mentioned, I received another undeliverable mail notice, apparently for my ATM card.  With help from the GCOE Secretary, we scheduled a delivery again between 7-9pm tonight.  Great!

So, what did I do today?  Nada.  Transferring files.  Cleaning up this temporary PC I will be using for now - it has too much software programs installed!  Reading a little bit here and there.  I finally registered for that environmental wind engineering class, which is about the mathematics of the atmospheric boundary layer (i.e. the layer of the air we live in).  I will be attending it together with the other two new PhD students, although we three are all taking the structural wind engineering track.  The schedule is on Friday; Thursday is a holiday here, so our Thursday class under Prof. Tamura gets moved also to Friday.  Friday morning is lectures morning, straight from 9:30-12:30.  Yeah baby.  Nihongo class is also on Thursdays, but the next session will not be until next week, the 6th of May, just after the 5-day weekend from May 1 (Sat) to May 5 (Wed).  May 3, 4, and 5 are holidays here, and the week that includes them, starting from April 29th is called "Golden Week."  April 29 is called "Showa Day," in commemoration of the late Emperor Showa's birthday who has passed away in 1989.  May 3, 4, and 5 are "Constitution Memorial Day," "Greenery Day," and "Children's Day."  Annually there is a total of 15 public holidays in Japan, some of them are moved to Monday under their "Happy Monday System" - to encourage tourism and so on.  And I thought having 15 public holidays and moving some to Mondays was a Filipino original.  Anyways, it doesn't matter. :-)

Last kwento for the day: Today is the first day I threw out the trash.  "What?"  You might ask, considering I've been here more than 9 days.  Well, it's like this.  I got this brochure that says, I should separate all the plastics, tetra-pack cartons, all other pieces of paper that do not easily burn, all cloth-like materials, all plastic bottles, all canned bottles, all glass bottles, and all biodegradable ("burnable") waste like food and small pieces of paper - and except for the last one, they should all be clean already.  So you can imagine while I have amassed an amount of garbage, I only have probably a liter or less of biodegradable/"nabubulok" trash so it really wasn't much.  All the other "trash" are cleaned.  Today was the schedule for the plastics, cloth-like, and recyclable paper materials.  Tomorrow is for the burnable stuff.  Nope, they don't call them biodegradable here, they call 'em "burnable" - "pwedeng sunugin," so says the flyer on waste management that I have with me which was in Filipino, apparently left by the Filipino researcher who previously worked here.  Then somebody told me "You don't have to follow those waste segregation guidelines, except for the plastic/PET bottles and the cans."  O. Kay... :-D