Thank you my friends and my heart goes out to Christchurch

On Friday 18 February, my MacBook suddenly stopped to respond to my input. Rebooting it did not make any better. Just blank milky gray screen was there. As it turned out later its internal hard disk drive was gone.

I immediately brought it to MagnumMac New Market, the official Apple retailer conveniently on my way home from the University of Auckland Business School where the conference I attended had been held.

So I forced to be less active in cyberspace (yes, I have been VERY active in else where on the net ;) in the following week but it caused me a tidal sequence on Tuesday 22 February when the earthquake hit Christchurch again this time with devastating damages.

My friends back in Japan soon noticed I had been very quiet since I made few activities in the morning, as they little knew about, with iPod touch on home wireless LAN. (I used a USB modem with MacBook to access Japanese contents on the internet in daytime.) When I accessed the net again with iPod touch at home after the day's work, my blog, email and Twitter were all full of the messages concerning my safety. I thanked my friends very much and felt sympathy to those who concerning the people actually suffered.

I set up an information portal for Christchurch earthquake in Japanese and replied back to my friends. I started to answer questions and correct wrong impressions about the activities in Christchurch referring to reliable sources. When finally my MacBook had been repaired and I had restored its contents, the early confusion of information had been settled. So I was not well prepared in terms of the internet accessibility when it was the most needed.

Last Friday, I joined the Red and Black Day to support Christchurch by wearing a red polo shirt and black jeans. I purchased a mobile WiFi station for better access to the net in case any of my information devices broke down. My heart goes out to Christchurch and I hope that the information technology helps the people to get back on their own feet in some ways.

Casio Methex Competition

This week has been a very busy one. Last night I was setting up a system almost until midnight. An assignment from Postgraduate diploma course has been occupying my mind. Heaps of house maintenance issues have risen one after another - I am really a happy renter at the moment.

Of course there were also happy ones. Both of my children competed in Casio Mathex Competition 2010 and secured great results. Mathex? It is a combination of mathematics and exercise. Each team is formed by 4 players and 3 of them are the solvers and one is the runner. The runner runs around the designated course to fetch the problem sheets and submit the answers. The solvers work on the mathematic problem on each of the sheets and write down the answer and hand it to the runner.

My daughter and son are both solvers. The teams in my daughter's high school are formed in February and had been practising since then. The efforts paid off and her team made it to the third place after a very competitive tie break game on Wednesday.

For my son the story was totally different. He was called for the team just 2 days before the competition. The coach of his intermediate school said to him, "Relax, the whole of our school is on your shoulders!" My daughter gave the tactics to him and it was one of the reasons his team scored much higher than expected for the scarce preparation on Thursday. I was glad to witness his excellent leadership in action which I had failed to see as the youngest member of our family.

Watching the games was really exciting. The contrast of ice cold brains and burning hot muscles was making a good mixture. A great adrenaline pumping experience. I heard this is another Kiwiana, a thing typical to New Zealand but as the title sponsor Casio is unquestionable Japanese company I would like to see it to get popularity in Japan.

Is there anyone who would produce a fantastic manga or anime featuring Mathex to introduce it to Japanese?

Taken to hospital by ambulance

Well, today is Friday the 13th. I am not a superstitious person but it would be suitable to talk about a bloody story I have just experienced.

Now it was more than a week ago, I was in a hurry to pick up my son from the school. Intense shower was developing and I thought it was too severe for him to walk home. The staff car park was the opposite side of a large road from my office building in the clinical centre.

Heavy rain made visibility really bad and when I ducked to avoid a sudden gust something hit me at my head hard. I had bumped my head into a sharp edge of a street number sign which stood at the exit of the driveway to the road.

I managed to walk back to the office blooding and asked my colleagues for help. Fortunately one of them was a emergency management staff and professionally organised first aid and ambulance call. So I was taken to hospital by ambulance.

All the ambulance and emergency department staff who attended me were fabulous. A training surgeon stitched the wound under supervision. It was flawless and I was convinced that she would make herself an excellent surgeon in near future.

I got four stitches in the front head which were removed today. Yes, now the injury has completely healed. Not exactly like a Friday the 13th story!

Apology for absence (again)

Yesterday, I received an email invitation to a reunion party. It was for the student council of my high school in Japan and the reunion has been held regularly twice a year for more than twenty years.

Since I came to Aotearoa New Zealand three yeas ago, I have not been able to attend it. So I will be writing an apology again. There is a popular Japanese pops about that kind of situation - with a newcomer to the metropolitan Tokyo from a rural town - "Tooku tooku" by Noriyuki Makihara.

The protagonist of the song thinks about the hometown where he knows cannot be observed even from the highest tower in Japan. At that time it was Tokyo Tower which is 333 meters high. However it was now surpassed by the Tokyo Sky Tree which is now under construction towards staggering 634 meters high.

Although the tallest in Southern Hemisphere, the Sky Tower in Tamaki Makau Rau Auckland now familiar for me is not so tall as either of them - 328 meters high. Of course it is not tall enough to observe my hometown Osaka, Japan. So I would be writing an apology for my absence again.

Recently I sometimes feel that now I am more a Kiwi than a Kiji - the national bird of Japan. How they will find me in this regard when finally I ever make it one of the reunion meetings - that is what I am pondering now.