Prof. Kondo's Tale

Prof. Kondo with his famous hat, during our school's hiking day - May 2007.

Here is a funny tale that I guess is worth to be shared with you guys.

I have a lecturer, who is in-charge of all the students in my class regarding our welfare, academic, and miscellaneous stuff. In other words, he is like the class teacher for our Mechanical Engineering class. He goes by the name Professor Kondo Toshimi, but we all are more comfortable to call him Kon-chan or just Kondo. So, it was a sunny Sunday evening yesterday and I while I was lazing around, I got a phone call out of nowhere. When I looked at the display screen, I saw that the caller was Prof. Kondo. I was a bit anxious initially. Who would expect to get a call from your lecturer on a Sunday evening, right? Nevertheless, I picked up the phone and this is what he had to tell me.

Prof. Kondo told me that he had a secret to tell me haha wtf!

He sometimes holds a long cane stick, which acts as a pointer on the blackboard while teaching haha - October 2008.

I was left wondering what secret he has to tell me. Don't tell me he wanna share his secret about his affair he has with some random school staff lol. Of course the secret isn't about that at all. So, this is what the secret was all about. It was regarding our finals which will begin from tomorrow and he asked me to "ganbatte kudasai". I suppose you know what that phrase means, but anyway, to those who are still in the dark, it means "good luck and give your best" in Japanese.

I got a phone call from him out of the blue, and now he told me to "ganbatte kudasai". Isn't that a bit awkward? I was still a bit blur at that time actually, unsure and curious why he is so nice to call me personally just to wish me good luck. I'm not saying that he is not a nice person on other times though, because when I just came here three years ago, he often asked me to see him in his room and discuss with him if I face any difficulties in life so far. The line had always been "何か困った事が無いですか？", which was his standard question, and my reply would always be, "特に無いですね" haha!

Prof. Kondo with his trademark hand gesture during the nomikai session with the rest of the lab members - October 2009.

So, the conversation (on the phone, not the conversation in his room lol) continued and I was told that there are other various prizes that besides getting our graduation certificates, there are gonna be other prizes awarded during our graduation ceremony next month. They include prize for perfect attendance, excellent achievements in academic and curricular activities. For the academic prize, it is awarded to students who had been the top two in the class over the years. Top two as in performance in exams, not our body height; otherwise I would be guaranteed of the prize for sure with my giraffe height haha.

Prof. Kondo told me that I was one of the two students in my class who qualified to get that prize, and that explains the reason why he called me and asked me to "ganbatte kudasai" lol!

Then before he ended the call, he some more reminded me (I guess it's more to scare me haha) by saying that the prize is only for the top two students, and if I drop to the third position this time, then I can say bye bye to the prize already. As a final word, he reminded me again that what he told me is a secret between him and me only. It sounded so much as if both of us are some undercover agents working on the country's top secret project haha. Just when I thought I could relax a little bit through my final exam in the college, now I felt a bit stressed up already haha. Nevertheless, I won't make it a big deal and I will just prepare as how I do it usually.

A creative work by one of my classmates haha! I hope Prof. Kondo doesn't see this, otherwise he is sure to disqualify me straight away lol!

The good news is that I have only four papers to sit this time and one of the four papers is an "open-everything" paper. I call it "open-everything", instead of "open-book" because we get to bring our text book, notes, photocopied notes from the lecturer, sample questions, and calculator into the exam hall! How can it be any easier than this, right? But sometimes, it is not necessary that it is gonna be a breeze for us. Anyway, I just wish that everything will be fine.

If I am lucky and awarded that prize, then I will be a happy boy and I promise to blog about it. However, if I don't mention anything about that prize again after this, then you should know whats is the ending to this tale haha!

Revival

Hello everyone!

Finally, I am back, after who-knows-how-many days. Since I started blogging almost three years ago, never did I had such a long hiatus. The hiatus was close to one month, which is very unlike me. Let me tell you the reason why I stopped blogging for a while. Actually, some bluish aliens by the name Ava-something kidnapped me and then put me on a banana boat and took me to an uninhabited island. After that, they started to set up fire and was gonna roast me, bla bla bla. Okay, lame joke.

Anyway, back to serious business, I don't think I am gonna go into details on the reasons behind my break, because I guess it is just not suitable to be shared in public. I took a break not because I was lazy to blog, but I was through some difficult period back then, and it was just impossible to pull myself into blogging. Nevertheless, everything has gotten better now, many thanks to you, and I will try to tune back into my normal blogging mood again.

Here, I would like to thank every single of you for all the messages posted in the comments' box and the chatbox. I sincerely appreciate all the concern from you guys. Reading those messages is actually one of the thing that motivated me to return to blogging, and here I am again.

Snow storm that hit Nagaoka on January 14, 2010.

I digress.

This is the first proper-entry of the new decade. Okay, perhaps the word "decade" is sorta too huge word here; so maybe I should rephrase it - the first entry of the new year? Does that sound any better? I'm not sure about you guys out there, but every time, on the turn of the new year, I often find it awkward to write the digits of the new year. To be honest, I guess I have not written the digits "2010" for more than five time yet this year, and it should take some time before I get used to it. By the way, how do you pronounce the year 2010? "Two-thousand-and-ten"? "Twenty-ten"?

Or perhaps, "Two-zero-one-zero"? Haha!

I have been away (from the blogsphere, that is) for quite some time, that seriously, I'm unsure where should I start my update from. Just as a brief recap, the final few days of 2009 was spent in Kanazawa and Shirakawago, in which I will blog on them later on. For the first time in three years, I spent my new year in Japan; in Tokyo, to be more precise. School started two days earlier after the winter break, as we had to replace the canceled classes due to the influenza some time ago.

Taken from a window overlooking the library at the opposite.

The parking area was filled with thick layers of snow, even though there was an underground snow-melting pipe.

So, it was back to the mundane, daily routine of classes, lectures, and research works at the lab. It is gonna be my finals next week which also means that I will have my text books, notes, and formulas to keep me company through the Chinese New Year, followed by the presentation of our research work in late February. On the third week of March, it would be the graduation ceremony of my school for the fifth graders. It looks like it's gonna be a couple of busy months ahead, but I am still trying to plan a trip to somewhere during the spring break; somewhere outside Japan, if possible. Not sure if that will work out or not though since I will be kept occupied with so many stuff to do.

I guess that's all for this time as I wanna keep it short and simple. I shall leave you with some pictures of my classmates several weeks ago. This classmate of mine, who is the class monitor thought that the 伝熱工学 (Heat Transfer) lecture was too boring and decided to do something else. That poor fella in front of me in red jacket was halfway asleep, and his friend seated to his right took his pencil case, took out all his pencils, pen, marker pens, etc and decorated them on his red jacket.

The lecturer was writing note on the blackboard and something interesting unfolded behind the classroom haha!

The outcome.

He decided that it was still not enough, so he tried adding another pen on his friend.

I guess I don't have to mention what happened when the lion woke up lol!

Dormancy

Just to clear all the curiosity, I am taking a break from blogging for an indefinite period.

Please do not ask me the reason, or when will I return to blogging again because honestly, I have no idea myself.

Thank you to everyone who has been reading this blog.