Hi-Tea with Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin

Last year we had Pak Lah, and this year a new Minister of International Trade and Industries, Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin, is here in Osaka to meet the Malaysian students. Not a grand dinner like last year but a Hi-Tea with a dialogue session.


I don't really like the way politician talks. They always tend to answer questions by giving only good news and good excuses about what is happening in the country. The high-rising oil price, inflation etc. all didn't sound that bad when he explained the situation. Comparing with neighbouring countries that do worse than Malaysia, yes, it's true that we are not that bad, but how about countries which are doing better than us? That's still a big gap between what the government is doing and what it can do. Admiting what they are not doing enough is the first step, I think.

Again when he talked about racial issues, the 513 tragedy was mentioned. sigh...it sounds like the typical political statements of BN. I felt pity when he tried to say that he is glad to meet Malay, Chinese and Indian students,but oops, not even one Idian student was there. A big failure. Students who come to Japan under JPA (Malaysian government scholorship) are mostly Malays. Some Chinese, yes. Maybe there are Indians, but I don't think I met one before. For Monbusho (Japanese government scholarship), so far I only know of one. Is it because Indians don't like to come to Japan to further their studies or is it really because they are not eligible for the JPA scholarship or is it because the government is not giving them the chance to?? There must be a reason. and I think most of us know but don't dare to talk about. Just like why the Hindraff demo happened. I really hope for a fair policy for every Malaysian. Let's pray,that the 3/8 political tsunami will push the country forward.

Like always, the event ended with students trying to take photos with the Menteri while he walked around talking to the students.

And like always, we enjoyed the food. :)

Passion Fruit

Passion fruit, I used to drink the juice when I was in Malaysia and I never see it before, I means the fresh one. So when I saw it in the super, although it was not cheap ￥100(almost RM3) for one, it worth for first try. Luckily they include one small paper in the packaging about how to eat this (I'm sure the Japanese are not familiar with this fruit too). So what I show you in the picture is the result of cutting the fruit half. A little bit shock when I first glance at it, a little bit ugly, but it smells really good. Okay, how are we going to eat this thing? At first I tried to suck out the flesh and throw away the tiny black seeds but soon I get tired of it and I decided to swallow the whole thing down. Not a bad idea actually. It tasted just like the juice I drank before, a little bit sour with its special tropical aroma. I google about this fruit in wikipedia and I found out that, besides the purple color one that I show you here, there are another species called Golden Passionfruit, bright yellow color which can grow up to the size of grapefruit, that means about double the size of the purple's one. Hopefully I have the chance to try it out. ;)

Firefox 3

Mozilla is going to release Firefox 3 in 17th June, this coming Tuesday. Mozilla is planning to set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. So, to show your your support to this Open Source Software + the best Internet browser in the world, Please don't forget to download the newest version of Firefox this Tuesday. Please visit this page for more information.

iPhone hit Japan on 11th July--In Singapore, Philipine but not Malaysia

I was late to the lab this morning.Can't wait to watch Steve Job's Keynote Presentation at WWDC2008 when I woke up this morning. As the rumours say, new iPhone 3G was reveieled. I'm not going to write much about it, i'm not a pro analysis and definately you will find many news and reviews about it all over the net. Anyway, the keynote presentation is worth viewing, see how the genius in the silicon valley doing presentation introducing their products and services. Here is the link.The Ad is worth viewing too. The phone will be in Japan in 7th July including a few asia countries ,but sadly Malaysia is not on the list. Why? Anyway, will I give it a try?? with ￥20000?? let's me see if I have enough cash in my account.

久违了。。凡人

知道凡人重新开唱，很高兴。虽然很多都是旧曲重唱，但温故知新，特别是这一

首-朋友别哭。。在网上搜一搜才知道原唱是吕方。凡人+张宇-三把动人的声音。

曲：莫凡 词：陈乐融

有没有一扇窗

能让你不绝望

看一看花花世界

原来象梦一场

有人哭 有人笑

有人输 有人老

到结局 还不是一样

有没有一种爱

能让你不受伤

这些年堆积多少

对你的知心话

什么酒 醒不了

什么痛 望不掉

向前走

就不可能回头望

朋友别哭

我依然是你心灵的归宿

朋友别哭

要相信自己的路

红尘中

有太多茫然痴心的追逐

你的苦

我也有感触

朋友别哭

我一直在你心灵最深处

朋友别哭

我陪你就不孤独

人海中

难得有几个真正的朋友

这份情

请你不要不在乎

"Here in My Home":-good Song...when will it become real?

Find out about this video from my friend a week ago. Maybe most of you have seen it before but good thing is worth sharing. 

A big step forward for Malaysian unity at least it was not something make out by the government to promote the country or to fool the people. It is a group of artist who love this country and who want to change it and make it a better place. Hope that this will not be the first and the last. Let's make our home a better place!!

Here is the lyrics.

Hold on brother hold on

The road is long, we’re on stony ground

But I’m strong, and you ain’t heavy

Oh there’s a misspoken truth that lies

Colors don’t bind, oh no

What do they know? They speak falsely

Here in my home

I’ll tell you what it’s all about

There’s just one hope here in my heart

One love undivided

That’s what it’s all about

Please won’t you fall in one by one by one with me?

(Fall in~ Fall in~)

Fall in with me

(hmm … fall in~)

Fall in fall in fall in with me

Push back sister won’t you push back?

Love won’t wait, just keep pushing on

Yes I’m strong, you ain’t heavy

Oh don’t you worry about that …

What we have shadows can’t deny

Don’t you know it’s now or never?

Here in my home

I’ll tell you what it’s all about

There’s just one hope here in my heart

One love undivided

That’s what it’s all about

Please won’t you fall in one by one?

(dududu lululu … alot of dululu until i micounted them)

(馬來文)

Bertubi asakan berkurun lamanya

Hati ke depan mencari yang sayang

[Years of fears and years of tribulation

The heart keeps searching for that endless devotion]

(中文)

手牽手大家一起走，我代表華人開口，未來就沒有溜走

[Hand in hand we’ll march like blood brothers

I speak for my people, hope we’ll find peace forever]

(淡米爾文)

inthe payanam payanamm yen vettri thaagam

anthee kaana kaalam naam vetri raagam…nanba nanba

[May the road ahead quench my thirst for success

May the road behind echo a song of the blessed]

Yes I feel it in my bones, so I will let it be known

No matter where I roam this is home sweet home

Sing!

Here in my home

I’ll tell you what it’s all about

There’s just one hope here in my heart

One love undivided

That’s what it’s all about

Please won’t you fall in one by one by one with me?

(yeah~ Yeah~)

Here in my home

(Here in my home)

I’ll tell you what it’s all about

(I’ll tell you …)

There’s just one hope here in my heart

(one hope! one hope yo!)

One love undivided

(aa~ one~)

That’s what it’s all about

(That’s what it’s all about~)

Please won’t you fall in one by one by one with me?

Here in my home

(Here in my home~)

I’ll tell you what it’s all about

There’s just one hope here in my heart

(one love one love one love ^^)

One love undivided

That’s what it’s all about

Please won’t you fall in one by one by one with me?

(鼓掌 喔~ i love you man)

梅田研究室 Umeda Lab

Our lab members

It's my 4th year in the university. In Japan's universities' engineering department, we will be allocated to a laboratory and be supervised by a professor to conduct our final year project what we usually called 卒論(sotsuron-the graduation thesis).

The lab that I enter is 大阪大学 大学院 工学研究科機械工学専攻 梅田研究室. In short we just call it Umeda's lab. Actually this lab and its research field is considered new in mechanical engineering. It was set up in only in 2005. That's means I am the third badge of undergraduate student entering this lab. Our research area is about Life Cycle Design or in short EcoDesign. Our main focus is to develop a design theory and methodology for developing product life cycle that reduce the drastically environmental load, resource consumption and waste generation as well as increase living standard and corporate profit.

It doesn't sound like a mechanical lab right, ya, when talking about mechanical engineering most people will imagine about robots or engines. But who know, maybe in the near future our research will be the solution to the environmental problems mostly cause by industrial activities. I will be posting more about what I am doing now when I get more result in my research, it's just the beginning.

Family Visit Japan

My family, all of them have pay me a 2 weeks visit in Japan for the first time since I came here 5 years ago. Ya, It already 5 years. And it's the last year for my undergraduate program here in Japan. Just cannot believe that how fast was our world is spinning.

Back to the topic. Besides my family, my housemate's parents also visiting their daughter here at the same time...ya all of them have bought the air ticket during MAS promotion period. At the mean time, a new housemate is moving in. So all together there were 12 people in my house!!!

Having them here was fun. Although it was tiring to have a plan ready everyday to guide them around, it was fun to have them joking and fooling around because it has already been a year since I was back in Malaysia. Even though we talk through Skype and have video conferencing every week, it's totally different having them here. 2 weeks was short. But, I enjoyed every minute of it.

Now, it's just loneliness. I miss you guys!

Too many things going on

Too many things were happening and I was not able to write it down here...and time flew. I don't think I will be doing that in the future if I don't do it now. So just a few lines for each event.

Mexico Trip
My housemate is on a one year exchange program in Culiacan, a small town in Mexico. A great chance to visit Mexico since I have a friend who can speak good Spanish. A free place to stay and a free guide, what a good deal.;-). One month in Mexico and we traveled to a lot of places. Of course we ate a lot of nice Mexican food. But the best thing was we meet up with a lot of people, who are kind and friendly. Although I couldn't even understand a word in Spanish and needed my friend to be my translator all the time, it's nice when you have a chance to talk to them, the locals. And this made the travel more meaningful than simply visiting the tourist spots. I took a lot of photos like around 3000. I would like to share it here but it will take me a lot of time to filter out the good ones. So....I will try.

Family visit Japan: Next entry...time to go to bed....:(

It has been a long time

My last post was in September, so it has been 3 months that I haven't write anything here. Actually there were a lot of interesting story to tell, about my trip to Shanghai and Inner Mongolia, about Osaka Motor Show, about the fall season and many more. But I just don't have the time and feeling to write.

Anyway, after stayed up late last whole week rushing for deadline and I ended up falling sick now,and I totally don't have any mode to do other thing, I decided to come here and leave a few lines before I go to bed. Actually my head is empty now, don't know what to write...sorry that I'm wasting your time reading my rubbish posting.

Soon the winter holiday will be coming and I hope that I can spend some time here to write something. Ya, I think i should stop now. Time to bed. Sweet dream!!;)

Rainbow

"Rainbow, everyone come and look at it, it's so beautiful ..."shouted the kids who live in the same mansion when I was preparing my dinner. Quickly I grabbed my camera and run for it. Ya, it was the most beautiful rainbow that I had seen before. Since the sun was setting, the rainbow with the red sky made up a good combination. Anyway,my camera failed to focus in auto-focus mode, i tried manual focus but still failed to have a sharp focus on the rainbow even though I set the focus length to infinity. After a few shot, I gave up and enjoy the scene with my bare eyes until it disappear from the sky with the sun.

Lunar Eclipse

Yesterday, my neighbour called me and said "There is a lunar eclipse, want to have a look?" .Wao I never see a lunar eclipse with my bare eyes, so together with my housemates, we ran down to have a look, it was red in color just like a sunset but a smaller one. Unfortunately, soon the moon was blocked out by a big cloud. I don't even have a chance to take a shoot on it.....
So within the one hour, we keep praying that the cloud will go away soon, at last the moon came out but the lunar eclipse almost end. Quickly I grabbed my camera to shoot on it, anyway I'm having problems to get the best shutter speed and aperture, so you will find my fist photo with the moon overexpose, anyway this is the best one where you can still find some shadow on the edge of the moon.At last I get the setting right, and this is it the normal photography of moon, but the lunar eclipse was almost gone.
Then I played with the white balance setting on the camera and I get a series of moon with different colors. I like the last one, how about you?

Hanabi 花火

I haven't been playing with fireworks for a long time since Malaysia has banned it while I was still a child. Anyway here in Japan, fireworks is a common activity and a must during summer. And I definitely won't miss the chance to pick up my childhood memory.
I went to a place called 松屋町(Matsuyamachi) where all shops along the street are doing wholesales of fireworks. Actually I expected more from this place (is my first time visiting there), but it turn out to be every shop selling almost the same thing, so is a little boring when you find yourself keep looking at the same thing all the time. Anyway, I found many kinds of fireworks which I used to play before, and I just can't help buying them. The price was cheap, compare to normal stall, so we get quiet a lot for our fireworks party tonight.

You can find everything you remembered as a child, and also something new. People are still inventing some new stuff here.

Normal but it was so beautiful

And we were so amazed by this one, they said if you can burn the whole strip without dropping any of it, your wish can be come true!!

Try out some long exposure photographing, and we get a nice "love" here.

So we go for a more difficult mission...but oops we get it wrong...

And finally we get it right!! \(^。^)/

Trip to Wakayama(和歌山) 2-Shirahama（白浜）

The second day, we take an one and a half hour ride to 白浜(Shirahama). A famous spot for beach and hot spring. We stop half way at a fish market, to see how they get the big tuna fish into pieces and of course some very fresh shashimi for lunch.

"Smells good!!"

The big tuna

海鮮丼(Kaisendon) with イカ(Ika=squit),鯛(Tai),サーモン(Selmon),マグロ(Maguro),甘エビ(Amaebi),いくら(Ikura)

Scallop baked with butter and 醤(油Shoyu)

Then we headed to our next destination 三段壁(Shandanbeki). The name come from 3 kind of mineral that make up the rock. And we took the elevator 36m deep down to the cave and have a short trip inside the mysterious cave.

This spot is also famous for people to kill themselves so you will see this kind of notice advising people to call for counseling before they choose to jump.

Magnificent view...the sea is so clean

Group photo

A small shrine inside the cave

Our next stop was about rock view again.千畳敷(Shenjojiki) is formed by the erosion of the soft rock due to waves hit. Since the rock is soft and is really easy to get a word crafted on it, you can find a lot of crafting on the rock. Is really a bad thing to do, but is the crafting itself that make this place special. A little bit silly, am I? Another interesting point about this place is you can find little creature living inside the stagnant water in the small fragments or holes in the rock. They are pretty good at hiding, so it just depends on how you can find it.

Although I didn't focus on the crafting, but you still can find the words quite clear

Small creature...catch ya...

This place is also famous for its hot spring and definitely we won't miss it.We went for this 露天風呂(Rotenburo) called 崎の湯(Zakinoyu) The fare is cheap, it only cost us 300yen to get in, and you can enjoy the hot bath with the nice sea view just in front of you. The best thing is to get a photo uploaded right here, but it no right for me to get a camera inside there where everyone is naked. So you need to visit and experience it yourself.

4 years in Japan and is my first time at the beach in summer. 白良浜(Shirarahama) the famous beach in 白浜 and every one is having their summer beach party there. It was so pack with people, a lots of bikini girls and guys enjoying their sunbath, beach volleyball, or just simply playing with the sea water. I hate the heat in summer but I like the beach so much. Hope that I will have another chance to visit a beach again next year.

Loving couple...

Bikini girls

Trip to Wakayama(和歌山) 1

御坊(Gobo)is a small town in 和歌山市(Wakayama　Prefecture), hometown of my Japanese housemate, Yurika. It's my second visit, the town is 3 hours separate from my place by train. Since my friend had been gone to Mexico for a students exchange program, so we didn't stay at her place this time but at friend of her, Aki who had guided us for the passed 3 days.
This was a very nice trip, short but pack and interesting.

We arrived around 2 at 和歌山駅 and our first stop was to fill up our empty stomach. What we headed for is called 茶粥(Chagayu), porridge cooked in Japanese tea. I had a different dish, porridge also but is cooked with サツマイモ(Satsumaimo), Japanese sweet potatoes.

The porridge come as a set with fish and two small dishes

In the small plate we had 味噌(Miso),梅干(Umeboshi),かまぼこ(Kamaboko),and 2 kind of 漬物(Tsukemono)

Plan to visit a beer factory but it was closed due to お盆休み(Obon-yasumi). So we had a 1 hour ride towards 御坊. The view along the road was nice. Had a few shot inside the car and I like this one the most.

We met up with Yurika's family, they threat us for dinner at a restaurant famous for ちゃんこ鍋（Chanko-nabe）.Is a kind of steamboat and is famous among 相撲(Sumo).

This is Yurika's mum and she was helping us preparing the nabe

Looks delicious...

I forget about the restaurant's name but luckily I took this photo and it remind me. 俵屋(Tawaraya)

After the dinner, we had a short visit to Yurika's home. And there is one new member in the house...Hacchi!! The new dog in the family.

Is fun playing with him, but not getting him posing quietly for photo. This is the best I can get.

And finally we had a group photo!!