Ginkgo Trees

Now in Fukuoka city, ginkgo trees are beautifully changing their color of the leaves into yellow. Some produce ginkgo nuts. In Hakozaki campus of Kyushu University, many ginkgo trees gave the nuts dropped on the road. Smelling bad, however, the nuts are very tasty. I love them, grilled on charcoal or cooked in Japanese pudding called Chawan-Mushi.

Field trip with international undergraduate students

As a welcome reception and educational guidance, we had a field trip with G30 undergraduate students (1st and 2nd year students) to Kurokamiyama camping site in Saga prefecture. They experience preparation of wood for fire, cooking of rice and BBQ, and strict rules of camping.
I hope those experiences would be encouraging for the students. I definitely enjoyed those activities with students. Camping fire with some drink and discussion was particularly nice.

Beautiful cheering music from Trinidad

Dr. Chris Bayne introduced me the tropical bright music and encouraging messages from Trinidad and Tobago. The Fukushima radioactive situation is still fearing. The northeast people are still under depressive circumstance, I believe. But as a Japanese, I'm very much grateful for these touching activities.
Really thanks Chris!

Hearty messages encouraging us

First of all, Fukuoka city where I live in is perfectly fine, far away from the region attacked by the earthquake and tsunami.
Several of my international friends have sent hearty messages encouraging me. I deeply appreciate them. Thank you very much.

Indeed, several of my friends are there and still to be confirmed for their safe. So I am also just praying their safe. Because of wide range of paralysis of phone/mail system and surface transportation, there is quite limited access to the people in the region. I believe they are fighting and struggling for their immediate survival, so I do not want disturb them by asking even short reply message.

My major concern is now on the situation of the nuclear power stations that failed to calm down. Radioactive cesium and iodine are already leaked out to certain (significant) level. At least two reactors are now considered to be in critical situation of melting-down. Some of them contains MOX fuel containing plutonium.....

Anyway, I would like to inform you my safe personally, and would also like to thank you for your hearty thoughts.

In my family, we prepared a back-pack containing our invaluable things, a handy radio, a torch, chocolates, and several small PET bottles of water, so that we can bring-out in emergency. We also discussed about a place to get together in emergency. This kind of preparation will be effective to minimize harms of disaster and to prevent panic.

An investigation proposal

Effect of proximity of students' seats on the frequency of common wrong answers in a term examination.