Category Archives: A day in my life

Last Thursday, I was invited to a Board Meeting of the Engineering Design program at McMaster University to present my (technically, “our”) engineering design project.  There are two fields in the program: product design and system design.  I represented the former one from last academic year.  I am honored to represent the program.  Though it was a short presentation, it was worth taking a day off and driving three hours one way.

Yes, I drove the new car to go to Hamilton a day after it was delivered.  And on Saturday, I drove to Toronto to take IELTS, International English Language Testing System.  I need to submit a score to apply for immigration.  By the way the listening section was tough for me because it is British English.

Anyways, I hope I will have other chances to contribute for the program.

I have tried to live in an eco-friendly way, but finally, my ego won.  I bought a car!

It was a tough decision.  Money is, of course, the biggest issue.  And I seriously thought of environmental impact; no matter how fuel efficient it is, it inevitably has a negative environmental impact.  But, the life style here finally convinced me to surrender.

On the way to the car dealer, I was so anxious.  “Is this really a good decision?  Can I really afford it?”  But when the cheerful sales representative, who I had frequently talked with in last week, enthusiastically explained the paper work and the features of the vehicle and gave me the key, I was simply happy.  “I am the owner!”

But owning a car should be like driving a car; I should always retain a beginner’s mind. By the way, my first drive from the car dealer to home via Canadian Tire was in the snow.

Now I work between Japanese engineers and Canadian engineers, technicians and others.  A language barrier is one issue.  An even more difficult barrier is the cultural difference.  Japanese people always hide important things between the lines, and when they listen to other people, they read between the lines.  It’s like coding and decoding.

In Japan, people generally think that saying “I cannot” or “I don’t know” is shame, impolite, and worse than being dishonest.  When they ask something that they think is difficult and people say “yes, I can do it”, they assume the answer is in fact “no, I cannot do it but will do my best to do it”.  When Canadians say “yes” meaning “yes”, Japanese ask the same question in different ways to find what is hidden between the lines though nothing is hidden.

Working between Japanese and Canadians is often even more difficult than working between engineers and people.

Today I moved in a new place in Orillia.  I brought a lot of stuff, but I am a little too tired to unpack everything.  Tomorrow will be an unpacking day.  The room is not as big as the previous one, but big enough to do exercise.  This is very important for me.

My impression of Orillia is good so far.  I have a couple of days to explore.  Many people have told me that Orillia is beautiful in summer, but I will miss it because the contract job is until the end of March.

This is it for now.  Time to bed… zzzzzz

This is like magic.  Apparently, there were not so many stuff in my room, and I even wondered how to handle empty boxes when I move out.  I was planning to pack in this morning, and did not expect it would take until night.  Where have the stuff been hidden?  Now I wonder if I have enough boxes.

I even wonder which is better, having more or having less.  Oh, it’s a long long story, and now I need sleep.  I will be driving a truck tomorrow.

I have served as a teaching assistant for Design Thinking course at McMaster since the beginning of September, and today was the last day of the class for me because I am moving to Orillia soon.  (Yes, it is a bi-weekly Saturday class.)  It is good to teach at where I had learned.  I can use my experiences to help students from a closer position. Since the instructors did not give me specific directions (which is good), I tried to find ways to contribute for the class differently from the instructors.  Let me assume it worked.

I like teaching and have many experiences in teaching: as a part-time science teacher, Japanese instructor, TA at EVDS, volunteer instructor at McMaster, and so on.  Seeing students’ improvement and their aha moment is my delight.  Now many people don’t know that I was not a good student in my high school and university in Japan.  Some teachers and professors even disliked me.  So, I know what not-so-good students feel when their classmates are doing good.  I like to encourage them.  Experience of being a bad student helps me teach.

I will miss the class.  I hope I will have a chance to come back to McMaster to see their work again.

I know my voice does not reach her, but cannot help saying this.

Happy Birthday to You, Happy Birthday Dear BoA!

BoA is a Korean singer, and speaks and sings in Korean, Japanese, and English.  If I understand correctly, she is the most beautiful girl in the human history.  Correct me if I’m wrong :p

She tells me a lot, but let me pick up a couple for now.

First, if you want to tell something, language doesn’t really matter.  I have all seven Korean original albums of hers.  Do I understand Korean?  No, I only know some basic expressions.  But it’s pretty enough to feel it.  Her Korean singing is more touching for me than any other Japanese singers.  How touching?  Like this.  Or like this.  Her singing even makes me cry in some situations.  Probably many singers use techniques to sing beautifully.  But I want to believe BoA touches me deeply because she sings from her heart.  Suppose I am correct, what can designers learn from her?  We need techniques, of course.  But we need something before choosing and using techniques.

Second, she has served as a bridge between Korea and Japan.  Now K-pop (Korean pop) dominates in Japan, but as far as I remember, BoA is the first Korean singer who became popular in Japan.  Japan had learned a lot from Korea in ancient times.  But in modern times, there have been conflicts between the two countries.  She must have known it, and chose to come to Japan.  Some Japanese, including myself, came to be interested in Korean culture because of her.  Now the conflicts between the two countries are even more critical than before.  I hope they will re-evaluate what people like BoA have establishes and reach a peaceful solution.

She is my No. 1 and Only One.

Hurricane Sandy is hitting U.S. east coast, and approaching southern Ontario right now.

Please forgive me to write something fun while many people are suffering from the strong wind.  A week ago, I wrote about scenery and food.  So does weather; typhoon (the Pacific Ocean version of hurricane) in this season reminds me of memories of chestnuts.  When I was a little kid, I liked to play in a park near my place.  There were many trees in the park, and after a typhoon hit my town, I could pick up lots of chestnuts there.

Another thing reminded me of the memories of chestnuts.  I bought a Japanese book through amazon recently, 佐賀のがばいばあちゃん (My Gabai Grandma from Saga).  In the book, the author talks about his memories of his grandma and their financially poor but (and) happy life.  He did not have enough money to buy snack, and climbed trees to get fruits and nuts for snacking.  He learned a lot in his financially-poor and fruitful life.

When I was in my late 20s, I had a chance to pick up chestnuts with a group of friends, and found they did not know how to take out chestnuts out of a bur.  I knew it not because I did not have money to buy snack when I was a little kid but simply because I was curious about many things.  Still, I think that not having enough gives an impulse to learn and stimulates creativity.

Now I’m visiting Orillia to find a room to rent for a few months while I do the contract job.  I have spend only half day, but have a feeling that this is a nice city.  Some people told me that Orillia is good in summer, but my contract job will end before that.  I’ll miss it.

I’m a bit tired.  This is it for today.