A Trip to Imou Bog...

I first visited Imou Bog for the purpose of looking wild miniature flowers. My trip there ended up in a big disappointment as I realized that I did not have the interest of hunting for small flower and that Japanese photographers had once again tricked me into thinking it is a nice place.


The REAL Imou Bog...so very different from the photograph above...

The bog boasts natural seasonal flowers which were grown and cared for by Mother Nature herself. Lured by this, I made my way there only to find tiny little flowers among grasses where you'll have to look hard to find....and there's always a ridiculous line of people taking turns to snap photos of that one, lonely, possibly terrified wild flower.


Do you see that???


I traveled one hour for this...

Damn, I've allocated a few hours for this...now what do I do?

There was, however, a hiking path nearby that leads up to a mountain range...but I was originally there to look at flowers, not hike up a mountain. Being under-dressed and having no food or water, what do I do?? The answer is obvious, hike up anyway....

The hike up was nice and fairly easy. I got nice view of the city from up there...



Once I was done looking down on the citizens of Toyohashi, I was preparing to hike back down when I noticed that there was another path that treads along the mountain's spine. Again, being underdressed and having no food or water, what do I do?? Do I go back down?? The answer is obvious, go on anyway....

Oh boy, I regret going down that path that day. You see, that path was longer and more treacherous that I thought it would be...by late noon, I was overwhelmed with thirst, hunger, and exhaustion. Not to mention that the way down was still nowhere to be seen. Here, I had to choose between going on, hoping that the path down would show up along the way; or turn back, going back to where I came from which took 1.5 hours. Now, the usual me would choose to go on, but this time, I didn't have the energy to do it and chose to go back the way I came.

I practically ran down the mountain as I was desperate for water. That bottle of drink I had at the bottom was the best I ever had.

But now I am intrigued to find out how far that trail really goes, where does it ends and what can I find along the way. You can say that this represents my nature; I'm never truly satisfied with anything until I've gone all the way. It doesn’t matter what lies at the end, the reward is getting to know yourself little by little with each step you take.

So, I went again a second time.

I went prepared...jacket, proper shoes, food and water. Now, I'm ready.

I managed to finish the whole course this time, which took me about 5 hours. Along the path I got to see more cities, the Pacific Ocean, and Mount Fuji with its trademark white hat.













But most notable in my hike was the meeting with an old man.
Well, actually, I met a cackle of old folks up in the mountains. Yes, a cackle, as in "a cackle of geese". Call me rude and unappreciative if you want but I find most old folks annoying. Just like on my hike, I met dozens of them and they always say/ask the same thing. And I just find them annoying...just like a cackling goose.
"Aren't you cold? Dressed like that?"
"Where are you from? Malaysia? Wow, I've been there before...20 years ago"
"You speak Japanese? Wow you are AMAZING!"

There was one, however, whom I met along a trail who really interests me. He did not ask me any of those silly questions...didn't even care to ask me which country I was from!!
We spoke a little about a fell tree and effects of the recent typhoon....then we somehow ended up hiking together. He'd shown me various hidden paths that offered beautiful panoramic views, talked about the soil, the plants, people who climb the mountain...

We hiked all the way to the end where we said our farewells...

And we didn't even know each other's name. I treasure meetings with people like this . They colour your life and leave a mark that can't be washed away.

After my hike ended, I still didn't know what is it I was looking for, what did I obtained from it, or most importantly, what made me come back in the first place.

I guess I was looking freedom. By not knowing where it ends, I can take my time and leisure hiking at my own pace...I didn't have to care about anything in the world, just the conscious action of putting my foot in front of each other.

Yeah...for that 5 hours, I was free.

Happily ever after...

It’s all over the internet now so, this shouldn’t even be on my blog as everyone else have written about it...still, can’t resist giving my two yen worth of thought here.



So, a Japanese man marries his Nintendo girlfriend. Wow, I am jealous.

And why not?



She is cute, has big eyes(with an incredibly sexy mole under her right eye), perfect skin, boobs with a satisfactory size. She’s forever nice, never demanding anything more than a few strokes of the plastic pen on touch screen, never argues, always there when you need her to be, always “not” there when you need her to be, won’t date out in expensive restaurants ordering something expensive which she can’t finish and will later complain about, and won’t ask you why your neighbour has new furniture/TV/car/curtain but not you. She also has no need for a Prada bag or a dozen shoes.

Wow...why have I not thought of that sooner?? I could have married Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy 7 for strangeness sake. That way, if anyone tries to rob me...

“Don’t you know who I am married to? Tifa Lockhart!! She will kick your ass!!!
Now, can just wait for a moment while I switch on my Nintendo?”
Push start…loading…select character…
load game…tifa…tifa…I’m going to load my best weapon…
Emerald Gloves of Dread. Oh ho ho…you are dead meat now!”



Now, wouldn’t that be awesome!! hahaha...

But seriously, I don’t understand why the world is so interested in this one dude. People have been having strange marriages all around!! Married to chicken, a tree, a dead spouse(I do think it is romantic, but some things just aren’t necessary), a partner twice/half your age. So, what is it so strange about this guy marrying a virtual girl?

Instead, it kind of makes sense in a few ways...

For example;
If Tiger Woods had married a Nintendo DS, he wouldn’t have crashed his car into a tree.
Bill Clinton would not have lost his presidency.
O.J Simpson would still be a loved actor.
Chua Soi Lek would be filmed sitting on a couch holding a small size gadget instead of...you know...

Just so you know, it isn’t all that easy getting a virtual girl to marry you. You first have to get to that “Marry Me” button...and it takes a lot of patience to get that option to appear on the screen.
I myself have tried a dating simulation before and, GAWD DAMN it’s frustrating!! It is almost as troublesome as dating a real girl in life. The only difference being you can’t slap the girl in game.

So, I say we applaud that guy who pioneered the way for us. Lets give him credit for being brave enough to actually hold a wedding reception in Guam. Lets be thankful that he gave us something interesting to read about and something for me to write about.
I shall forever remember him as NDS Guy(not Nintendo Dual Sreen but, Nippon Dude is Strange)....

Hah...I bet Charles Darwin did not predict this kind of evolution for mankind huh?

Japanese Zen : Power of mind over matter...

I know that you all have the stereotype impression of Japanese; that they eat sushi everyday, and that everyone practices Zen. While the former is false, the latter is very much true. Japanese from various places and of various ages practices them, from farmers to city folks, from secondary school kids with Nintendo at hand, to old folks with walking stick at hand.

One of the more famous zen practices around is "mind over matter"...the one teaching we've heard over and over, but hand still hurts when punching a brick. However, just because we can't do it doesn't mean it isn't true. With enough dedication and willpower, it's amazing how you can achieve control over your body, enabling you to withstand pain, heat or cold. As far as I know, there's a particular group of people who have been very successful at this.


Having said that, I would especially like to focus on zen practices by young Japanese city girls.

Young city girls here wear the shortest of skirts/pants during autumn and winter. And after living here for 5 years, I have learned to stop asking "Are they not cold??" I've settled for the assumption that they all meditate for half an hour each time before leaving their houses, thus their superhuman ability of extreme cold resistance. If you have any other better explanation, please feel free to enlighten me.



Recently on the news, was a TV special reporting on how young Japanese girls no longer wearing just a mini skirt or hot pants, but paring them with leggings. This trend started only very recently but already with over 60% majority wearing leggings...this means lesser bare legs around, much to the dismay of boys who "appreciates beauty".

On a survey done, they asked these girls...."So, why leggings? Is it because of the cold weather?"

Amazingly, they expressed shock, then answered "Cold? What cold? Leggings are more fashionable..."

Chics and dudes, if only I can express my amusement here other than the usual "hahaha".

I could not help but laugh at their statement...I could swear that everyone in the cafeteria(was eating when I saw this) now thinks that Malaysians are crazy people. No other foreigners would have laughed hysterically at a TV report like that.

Randy is very sorry for causing a wrong perception towards Malaysians by the Japanese.

But how can I not laugh at that? I've known for years that they endure the cold winds just to show off beautiful slim legs, stare angrily at guys who ganders at them, then laugh happily among themselves in secret.
Now that they finally start wearing leggings, I thought that they have finally given in to Mother Nature...who could have known, huh...

On a different note, guys have started wearing leggings too...
Every time I see a guy wearing shorts with leggings underneath, it stupefies me to the point where I actually believed that leggings are meant for guys too....

Japanese Office Ladies...

They are called OL, which stands for...well, the title said it.
This group of workers has always been the "main" topic of conversation amongst Japanese men when they talk the men talk...which is almost always about girls(yeah, as if anything else could interest us...other than sports anyway). And FYI, there's a lot of Japanese pornography that involves OL...

This picture here, was the only picture I found where the girl isn't showing off garter belt or underwear while in a compromising pose.


Warning : This is NOT a real OL...this, is a model dressed up like an OL

Me being ignorant in the pass, I've never gotten curious over this particular group of workers who seem to sow seeds of sexual fantasies in men who are otherwise bored of work. Never made any real effort to truly know what they actually do in an office.

So...what do they do, other than getting sexually harassed(in the fantasy world) all the time??

Well...

They are one of the most important units in the office!!

Yeah, I'm in a R&D department dominated by men...us and our powerful brains researching and discovering things. But god help us when the phone rings...one annoyed plastic receiver with 20 guys staring blankly at it.
And I imagine that the rubbish bin would be full of instant noodles containers after lunch.
Also now that it is cold, who would take the initiative to make a hot pot of tea??
or organize meeting rooms so that there would be no awkward coincidence?

Office ladies know everyone by their names and contact numbers. It always baffles me how they can be that efficient in connecting calls.

Always polite...always smiling...

They are our mothers, always taking care of our well being.

And do you know what I personally think of them?

Nothing much really...I'm just bored again. My test pieces arrived yesterday(finally, I have some real work to do), and while I had a productive day yesterday, the machines got hogged up today. Will have to wait for my turn to play with it. And about yesterday's work...everything went as smooth as I predicted it would be, experiment results ending up just like I thought they would be...and while that is all good, shit, what am I suppose to do during my free time when I don’t have any problem solving to do??

Yes, Randy smiles brightly when he has a problem.
Randy frowns only when he is peaceful.
Randy, is a strange guy.

ANYWAY...
Back to my story about OL.

As far as I know, only Japan have the work-group called "OL". It is a low tier work class whose job is mainly clerical work, serving tea, ordering lunch...everything on that line. For some reason, only women does this kind of job...as if men sucks at making tea and taking down messages.

Japanese stereotype of an OL is that they are mostly attractive, witty, but more often than not, stressed in life, being under constant pressure from their parents. Most of them are unmarried, which is probably the main reason why they appear in pornography so much. Yeah, us men are wolf....and why not? In an office full of balding men with sagging skin, any young clerk can claim to be Cleopatra....

I shamelessly declare that I am under her spell too...

Randy, the restless one.

The English dictionary explains the meaning of "randy" as "boisterous" or "full of sexual lust".

I have always denied that the unfortunate meaning of the word that is my name, have got anything to do with my true nature. I'm sure that parents didn't intend me to be that way either. Which right minded, normal parents would want their kid to be like that?!!
Oh wait, my parents aren't exactly "normal"...
Nonetheless, those who know me, knows that despite the fact that I speak a lot of dirt, I don't soil myself.

But…

Seeing how restless I can be when idle...I may very well be "boisterous". The dict speaks the truth after all...what a dic*.

After my senior destroyed one particular piece, my work was substantially delayed. Long hours to go with nothing to do...where to put all my "energy" to? You all know how randy I can get at times, right? My restlessness always gets the better of me...I need to be doing something at all times.

Well...a delay's a delay. Can't be helped, can't be fixed.

So, I've taken it upon myself to embark on one of my original project.

I've made a few researches on the topic that I was to do. While my internship program dictates that I should recommend which material to use, comparing it using one arbitrary augmentation, I instead research on the augmenting process itself. Now I'm currently reading up on it and drafting a report(written in Japanese...oh gawd translation can be such a pain in the ass!!). Will submit it to my superior and see how he deals with it. So far responses are good...

There you go, always make yourself useful and do beyond what you're told. Appreciation comes along that line.

So, am I proud of myself? Am I happy with what I am capable of?

Nah...I'm not proud, I'm just bored.

And gawd damn the Americans, using inches instead of metric unit...
Can't they agree with the world for once? Use what everyone else is using!! Makes life easier. Even with English they have to do changes to it...coloUr damn it, not color.
And what the hell is with that pound per square inch?? Now I have to convert both pound AND inch...

Sorry, I'm just bored. Do you know of the proverb "An idle mind is the Devil's Playground"? Well, even the devil is starting to feel bored from playing in the same place...

Sigh...word is that my real work will begin next week.

Will stay bored and churning up ridiculous blogs til' then.

The coffee dependent.

Days like these goes on forever...time slows to a crawl when I have nothing to do at work.
I am the traffic wreck and time is slowing down to look at me.

Time flies? Yeah, I'd prefer it walking away from me rather than flying around my head.

It's funny how you will always manage to feel sleepy at places where you not suppose to fall asleep...meetings, classes...for my case, at work. Times like these makes me wish that time machine exists...not to speed up time, but to go back in time to thank that brown person from Ethiopia who invented a drink of the same colour as him. Also, thank god for including caffeine in that drink.

Much wonder can come from a small cup of coffee.

I don't know why I can be this bored when just yesterday I had to stay an extra hour just to finish my day's assignment. Either I'm too efficient(doing too much in a short amount of time, thus having nothing to do later) or I'm just bad in balancing work.

Or maybe they are afraid that I might break another machine if I'm active...

Either case, I badly need a forecast just to let me know how much coffee I'll need to stay awake for that day...

Something like,
Forecast of the day: Cloudy with 75% chance of boredom. Put down the umbrella and grab 2 cans of coffee.

This, my friends, would be of much better help than reading lame, repeating horoscopes. I don't need to know if the love of my life is showing up today...my workplace is full of men anyway, so tell me if I'll have work and stay happy, or will I be bored sitting on my ass all day.

Sigh...actually, I did have a report to write yesterday that I planned to do today knowing that I had nothing else scheduled. But, just before I left, my chief, who had 1 hour left before finishing(he came an hour later than me to work) called me up to discuss plans for some future assignment. We talked, and he asked me to draft up a summary. I said "Ok, will get it for you first thing in the morning". He grunted an "OK" to me.

This morning, I arrived at work to find that report already done!!

Shit!! What the hell? Why did he do my work for me?!!!
Wait, oh right...he had one hour left yesterday. He was bored too.
Damn, he took away my work. Now, I'm bored earlier than I thought I would be.

Sigh...

Scary isn't it? Economy depression can really make people rushing for work to do.

Now, let me take a sip of coffee before I fall asleep and wake up with a keyboard on my face.

Tale of the destroyer

Remember the 1984 film "Conan the Destroyer"?



The one where he goes around destroying big things and human lives? Well, I'm more or less the same...although with significantly less muscle fibers, non-Austrian accent, and destroying smaller things minus the human lives.

To date, everything I've touched (aided by my senior) will go under...you name it I’ve destroyed it.

Band saw machine: used wrong speed setting

Automated polishing/buffing machine: used wrong buff

Water-cooling cutter: Filter got jammed with residues, resulting in water overflowing from the bottom, which in turn results in that machine being put through overhaul...

Micro Vickers indenter: Supporting rod got dislocated, inaccurate indentations

Deep drawing machine: Speed dial got jammed temporarily, and on a different occasion, the punch was operated too fast and it hit the upper dais, deforming both the punch and the dais. Repair cost 130000yen.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that each of those cases was "my fault". And the term "destroy" was a little bit exaggerated…the term "temporarily disabling" might sound better.

Well, when each of those "calamities" happened, I'm told that it wasn't really my fault and that I just had rotten luck of it breaking down with me at helm. BUT, they go on saying that they have never seen it break down in their many years of working with that particular machine...then finishing their sentence by once again saying "It is not your fault".

Gawd damn Japanese ambiguity...

Well, I'm not saying that it's my fault(If I've learned, but forgotten or just plain careless, then only it's my fault). But can't they just say what they really want to say? What the hell do they mean by bad luck? All engineers know luck have no effect on machines!!
Machines are dumb assembled parts, they only do as they are told and break down only when some machine part's lifetime is up, or by the misuse of its handler.

Bad luck my ass...

But, at least they have the guts to tell me what was it that caused that particular mishap and "How I can prevent it in the future".

So anyway, life goes on at TOPY...

And as far as the learning process goes, I've still got a few more machines to destroy...

PS:
While typing this, keyboard suddenly loses function, not responding to anything. Had to unplug and re-plug the cable...thank god it worked. Would have been soooo awkward for me to ask for a new keyboard.

And I guess it is also worth mentioning the one thing I didn't touch that broke down.
The automatic sliding door at my hostel....it stopped being automatic 3 days after I moved in.

Maybe I do have bad luck after all...

Toyohashi Festival..

ええじゃないか！！！

Means "Whatever goes!!".

While most festival all around have themes that hints at Global warming, world peace, perseverance, humanity....all kinds of make-you-feel-good bullshit imaginable...finally, a theme that makes sense, "Whatever"

Haha...whatever dude! I'm having fun!!



So many people lined up along the street....does this represents how popular this festival is??
Well, no it doesn't. This picture only shows how late I was to the festival. Spent the night before at Jeremy's place playing some cartoon-ish online game...
Woke up late the next day....nuts....

Even though I only managed to attend this festival for 2 hours, I had tremendous fun.



Even though I arrived late, I was instantly absorbed into the festival mood. Everyone jumping up and about, dancing crazily in pink.

Such energy!!



And they somehow managed to get a black midget to join them!
That little dude is not a kid, this group represents a local bar, and we all know that bars don't allow kids so....that must be a midget.
Woo Hoo!! Just saw the first midget in my life!!



And further up ahead is a bevy of beauties in red. Dancing to some barbie song or something like that..

Ay ee ay ee ay
I'm your little butterfly
Green, black, and blue
Make the colors in the sky

Yeah...that song. That annoying song from the 90s...but they had ladies in red dancing to that tune, in a cute way if I might add. Suddenly I was able to tolerate that song.


These guys seem to enjoy the song though.
See that some of them are just letting their cameras hang from the neck and not taking any photos?
Well, their memory card ran out.

And, as if to emphasize the generation gap, a bunch of old farts parading at the back..



This group of old farts was promoting road safety. Seeing how the group is consists of old people only, they are trying to tell us young people "Wanna live til' old age like me? Drive safe".

Oh my gawd...what a boring bunch!! Can't they do this some other time? or can't they pick another spot other than behind the ladies in red? Who's gonna drive safe when there's beautiful women right in front?!!

Moving on....

The next group I came upon was some dancing school group.


The kids were....I suspect they suffer Attention Deficit Disorder.


"I said...DANCE LIKE ME!!!"


Come on now, do the OOMPHAH!!!

Following behind was a brightly colored group of...oh, I don't know. Lost interest in knowing which group is which.




After this group, there was some kind of big gap before being followed by the next group...



See how organized Japanese are during festivals??
Love it when I see how people respect each other and try not to break the rules...
Not even to take a picture such as this.
Ehem...I broke the rule just so that I could show you how diligent every Japanese are at not breaking rules. Just wished I also had the chance to show you a picture of a group security personnel swarming in on me.



Next was a group dedicated to their local treat "おでん". It's umm...a Japanese version of Yong Tau Fu.


Oi!!..Do your dance properly, don't need to feel so happy of me taking your picture...


Ever wondered what Japanese worship in Japan? There you go...
A fish stick. Never has any deity or holy figures of great religions being heralded like this. God and friends up in heaven must be so jealous of this fish stick.


Two girls leading a team on...


This dude is just angry it's not raining on the day he remembered to bring an umbrella..


A member from KISS ??


They will grow up to fill in the red dresses some day.


The saddest looking piece of konyaku ever...


I saw him reach for that Pikachu mask!!!
Nah, just kidding, he took the green ranger mask..
It's a wonder that this kind of masks hasn't gone outdated...


A classic Japanese must haves at any festival...rescue the goldfish game.
You are provided a scoop which is made of paper...it tears if you try to scoop too fast, but if you don't, you'll never get to rescue any of them ugly, big eyed monsters...
And kids LOVE them...
But I wonder why they call it "rescue the goldfish"....
Ever seen goldfishes in the hands of a 3 year old? They live a better life in that tank, dying of old age instead of in the hands of a curious 3 year old. Nothing in this world...not even the devil can be as evil minded as a 3 year old kid with a goldfish when there's no cartoon on TV.


This stall allows you one cup of fries...
Haha, reminds me of my adolescents days...used to do this all the time.
Good job fat boy....


Yet another common sight to see at any festival...
While we fry our bananas, Japanese decorate them in sweets...covered in colourful rice chocolates. Japanese somehow claimed this to their own food culture. Well, yeah...who else in the world would decorate bananas like this?!! Even the hungriest monkey would stay away.


I think westerners with long black hair is hot....


But Asians with blond hair is not...

Anyway, look at them 2 punks....at any other times, all they do is loiter around with cigarette in hand, making noise and are of nuisance to everyone else. And yet, it is these good for nothing punks who manage most of the festival!! They set up the stalls, sells food, AND they tidy up after...

Amazing...completely different from punks in Malaysia who just loiter and spit on the ground, who vandalize things, who robs...
Here, punks like these two are just for the looks, minus the attitude.

Anyway, although the festival was a "Whatever" festival, they still stayed on plan and ended accordingly. The last group to parade was...


A bunch of party killers here to clear the streets...

Yet another Japanese quality, streets was reopened to traffic in exactly 30 minutes!!

Been here for 5 years, but this sense of punctuality and effectiveness always manage to impress me.

An intern's life so far...

I'm entering the 3rd week since I started my internship here in TOPY Toyohashi.

I am allocated into the R&D department, placed under a guy named Kakami, whom I will describe as a 18 year old looking, 29 year old man. But let's talk more about him later. Also in the team is a Chinese Chinese called "Cho" and a fellow Malaysian Chinese named "Tan".

Now that I'm into R&D, you must be thinking I'm designing or developing something right?

Well, not exactly...

During my 3 weeks here, I've learned that what matters most to a manufacturing company is cost of material. It doesn't matter whether other materials are superior in terms of hardness or yield strength, being superior doesn’t always means it’s good(In my case, superior means hard but low yield point). Instead, inferior, cheaper things bring good news. In a society full of stingy bastards where people are always going for cheaper things, it makes sense not to sell them your best item, just your cheaper ones(Ask Microsoft, they know best about not selling you good, reliable software).

And this is where I fit in.

In my 5 months internship here, I will have to perform various observations, and fatigue tests on different types of steel, and make comparison of them so that I can recommend the best one for mass production.
In these 3 weeks, I have identified which among them are best for use, but I was bluntly told, "Really? Wow, good work. Nicely done. But we are thinking of using this instead. We know it sucks, but it's cheap. Now, try to think of a way to make it better."

So, I've come to understand that when it comes to steel manufacturing, R&D here means Research cheaper material and Develop a way to make them better. And amazingly, there are many cheap, simple tricks in order to get them to perform better. Well, at least we are making effort in making it better...
I know, it sounds a lot like a big middle finger to people who discovers new, superior materials. This time, it will be MY middle finger...haha, take that you arrogant inventors!!

Ok, I've jumped ahead too much in my story telling...

What I really do here is, I've studied a lot on the various works involved, like punch process, and types of test I will need to perform on them. Also on my schedule was learning to use all kinds of machines; band saw machine, refine cutter, polishing machine, that damn microscope...etc.

And the one tutoring me is Kakami.

And, in all my lessons, we've managed to cause problems to all of them, except the microscope...he hadn’t manage to misguide me into breaking the lenses yet. I can go on and on describing the various "misguidance" but let's just settle for the fact that he tends to forget "certain step". The worst resulted in a machine being sent for overhaul just because he forgotten a "certain step" of checking the filter...

This dude...Kakami tends to speak with that teenager attitude, with no command in his voice when speaking to me.

Ehem, here's a fact you never knew about Randy...

I'm constantly looking for people to look up to...someone I can respect. But if I meet anyone who fails to establish control over me, no matter how old they are, I tend to "take charge". It's a bad habit of mine...but I can't help it, certain events in my life have sculpted me this way. Before you judge me further, I do try to make an effort of suppressing my dark side...

So, this Kakami fellow... you very well know which category he falls in.

Anyway, I'm busy most of the time, always having something to do...be it studies or preparation of test materials. But there are times when I'm suddenly free...like when the machines are hogged up. Times like that…well, guess when I wrote this post?

Sigh...the worst thing in life is having nothing to do.

A new intern arrives at TOPY...

My first day of internship...I have to confess here that I didn't start off good.

On my bus ride there, I fell asleep and missed 2 stops. Had to pay extra fare and I had to walk around trying to look for the right place...and did I mention it was also raining? Let me tell you, getting lost in industrial area was no fun...factories are far apart from each other and I had no way of telling which way to turn at any junction. Thank god I went early....and thank the pretty lady at the station who gave me a map.

After reaching the company, despite missing the stop and getting lost, I realized I still was half an hour early. In Japan, where punctuality is religion, arriving too early is a no no...it means you don't respect their timetable.

AND I forgot to bring along my pen and my stamp...do you know how awkward it is when they push a piece of paper to you, expecting you to start writing when all you have is a pencil? Damn...that was more uncomfortable than the time I forgot my wallet at the supermarket.

But that guy who greeted me was a nice guy so, no trouble there. I was then introduced to the boss, my section leader, and head of safety. Then, I was fit into a yellow hard hat and a black hard boots, and things kicked off with a tour of the facility and a spectrum of rules to follow.

Remember the phrase "Rules are meant to be broken" ??

Well, no they are not.They are meant to keep you from harm's way...keep you safe.

So do your best to obey them like pathetic slaves.

It used to be "Quality First" but now it's "Safety First". Apparently, they realized that an injured fellow worker and an interrupted machine costs a lot of money, and also that lawyers these days are more cunning, so your safety(their money) concerns them.

Having said that, you would have guessed it, most of it involves rules when walking around or handling machine. They have a manual on every piece of machine in that factory. Yeah, that means they also have a guidebook hanging from a vacuum cleaner, so in case you hurt yourself while sucking dust, it's your fault for not reading that damn guidebook first.



Like most factories in Japan, they adopt a system called "指差し呼称", which means point and speak. For example, when you step into a factory, you have to point while saying;

Point to the right "右よし" - migi yoshi(right ok)-

Point to the left "左よし" - hidari yoshi(left ok) -

Point above "頭上よし" - zujou yoshi(above head ok) -

Point to the ground "足元よし" - ashimoto yoshi(ground ok) -

FYI, Japan Railways adopts the same system. You'll always see a station master gesture along the train before blowing the whistle. Amazingly, no mistakes by station masters was ever recorded, proving that this troublesome gestures actually works to reduce accidents.

When switching on a machine,
"スイッチオンよし" - suichi on yoshi(ok to push START button) -

When switching off a machine,
"スイッチオフよし" - suichi off yoshi (ok to push STOP button)-

And, the interesting thing, my manager's name is Yoshii.

Yoshi to everything!!

But seriously, safety is the highest of importance in my workplace. We haven't had ANY serious accidents since 1980. The last accident recorded was some dude who caught a splinter in his thumb from a wooden chopstick...apparently, he was an operator for a production line and he couldn't push the buttons.

The company lost 2 days of productivity.

A City called Toyohashi…

And so I arrived at the city of Toyohashi one day before I had to report in.

This is the first time I set foot in Toyohashi... And oh boy...so many Brazilians around!!

Brown skin amongst small eyes…

But of course, it’s not just their brown skin that sets them apart. It’s the way they dress, the way the walk…the way the look around. Like, I saw this one family walking by…father was dressed like punks do, mother was dressed in a bright pink tube top and denim short pants, and along was a little girl. Mother was enjoying her stroll and father was eyeballing everyone who looks at them. If that lady dressed like that, of course everyone will look!! Why the eyeball?? Why not put a coat around her or something!! Please don’t mistake me for a conservative, I’m all for bright pink tube top but…there are better places for her to dress like that, not at the train station!!

Anyway, the reason why there are so many Brazilians here is because, about a century ago, Japanese saw a very intriguing posters posted all over...


Says "Come on! Let's go to South America!!"

For every participant, they will be given a hoe and two tiny dolls along with a miniature flag. Now, we all know how much Japanese like small dolls...so, hundreds of thousands of people signed up and emigrated to Brazil. And they liked it there!! While Japanese women are all covered up in kimono....well, we can all assume emigrants there visited a popular beach.
Japanese Brazilians started to spring up everywhere...so, Brazilian government and Japanese government drew up some kind of deal that provided them with Japanese citizenship. After some time, these JB decided they wanted to "make use of" their citizenship. Thus the number of Brazilians here...but only god knows why they chose Toyohashi and not any other city.

And the high school girls here are…very different compared to where I came from. Let’s put it this way, I have never seen so many upskirts in a single day before. I mean, they don’t even make any effort to conceal their undies!!! They wear this ridiculously short skirts, then sit on the ground with their knees raised….sort of reminds you of the “Welcome” sign hung outside shops isn’t it? Call me a pervert all you want, but, if I didn’t look at them legs and nylon (some are silk), all my guy friends and my girlfriend will have something to worry about...my gal pals would probably start asking me for chocolate muffins recipe.

At least I was decent enough not to take pictures of them just so I can upload them here…

Okay, enough of me being a salivating wolf...


They have trams here!! A cute one too...
I thought trams only exist in Hiroshima and Hokkaido.


They had a band going on right in front of the train station.

And I started thinking that Nagaoka is way more “kampung” than Toyohashi.

Anyway, I met Jeremy, Kelly, Chin Wooi and Siew Ling later that evening. My god it’s good to see Siew Ling again!! It’s been like…5 years since I last saw her. Haven’t seen her for so long that I almost instinctively offer a handshake and say “hello, nice to meet you”. She still looks pretty much the same though…prettier than I remembered, but still the same I knew her to be. Good to see you, girl..

Well, had a wonderful dinner…had to bore myself listening to them talk the “Toyohashi Talk”…but a nice evening nonetheless…

Jeremy was kind enough to offer me his room floor for the night. The next day, I get ready to start my first day in TOPY!!!