Check your bicycle before moving towards PhD

Are you ready to work independently?

Are you have enough energy to fight loneliness?

Is your brain smart enough?

Does your sv fits your research's interest?

What is your secret weapon towards sudden blurr in research?

Are you confident with your topic?

Are you really want to ride the bicycle or use other mode of transport?

sometimes we may feel that we are not good, but never stop the willingness to learn.

I try to be positive - but its getting hot in my head!

With Note
Dear Nur, As for the cycle lane, please visit the web pages below. If you cannot understand the detail, please ask someone Japanese student to translate the article.

Gimme sustainable 'Minyak Cap Kapak'

2 weeks after sensei left us.

Macam-macam perkara berlaku, siang dan malam, malam dan siang bertukar ganti. Tetapi kalau di namakan pening tentang hal kenkyuu ini, ada masa ia berhenti ada masa ia terus memenngkan. Pendek kata mungkin hidup selama 3 tahun dalam kepeningan.

Walau bagaimanapun, jangan putus asa! Walaupun jalan yang dilalui kadang kala menunjuk ke arah jalan yang berbengkok-bengkok.

Associate Prof saya nampaknya sangat berminat untuk menggantikan Kitamura Sensei sebgai sv baru saya. Juga cakap-cakap mengenai pengganti tempat Kitamura Sensei iaitu Fujii Sensei dari Tokyi Institute Technology adalah sangat kibishi.....Juga kerana saya terpaksa menanti kehadiran beliau sehingga April ini...menyebabkan saya mendapatkan khidmat Associate Prof ini terlebih dahulu.

Tetapi, bertambah pening kepala saya apabila, saya terpaksa UP sedikit kerja untuk membandingkan antara risk perception sang motosikalis di Malaysia dengan sang basikalis di Jepun. Memang di Jepun basikal merupakan kenderaan berdaftar paling tinggi walaupun tidak bermotor. Tetapi apakah mungkin dapat di bandingkan antara 2 jenis pengguna jalan raya ini, dan perbandingannya adalah di antara negera maju dan negara (yang mahu maju tetapi sibuk dengan hal politik (?) )yang membangun?

Kerja-kerja untuk mengenal pasti kaitan antara risk perception dan risky behavior saja masih belum selesai, sudah terpaksa di tambah dengan satu framework baru....

Kata Yoshii sensei....kajian ini kan jadi omoshiroi...harap-haraplah.. saya paste kan satu senario basikalis di Jepun yang saya dapati dari Japan Times untuk bacaan umum

Dear Alice,
I was more than a little shocked, upon moving to Japan last year, to see people riding bicycles on sidewalks. Back in Arizona, in the United States, sidewalks are for pedestrians, and it's illegal to ride a bike on one. Each time I ride my bike in Tokyo I wonder if I'm breaking the law. A friend told me it's OK to cycle on either the road or the sidewalk, but another said riding on the sidewalk is only permitted where there are signs that say so. I don't think I've seen such a sign and am not sure I'd recognize one if I did. What the heck are the "rules of the road?" (Or should I say "sidewalk?")

Mark J., Tokyo

Dear Mark, Your second friend is correct. Sort of. Officially, cycling is permitted on sidewalks only where there is a sign that says it's OK, and you could be cautioned or ticketed by the police for riding on a sidewalk anywhere else. Unofficially, the situation is more complex. You're unlikely to get in trouble with the police for riding a bicycle on any sidewalk in Japan, but it could depend on how you're riding and the discretion of the officer who sees you. How's that for a definitive answer?

There is indeed a sign that permits bicycles on sidewalks, but I'm not surprised you're unfamiliar with it. I've been biking around Tokyo every day for six years, but until I got your question I had never noticed one. Known (to an official few) by the unwieldy moniker of jitensha oyobi hokosha senyo doro hyoshiki (bicycle- and pedestrian-use only road sign), it's a blue circle with a silhouette of an adult man walking with a child, and below and to their right, a bicycle.
Until about 1970, when these signs first started appearing, it wasn't permitted to ride on sidewalks at all. But the rapid increase in the number of automobiles during the first postwar decades forced bicyclists up onto the sidewalks for sheer safety. Traffic was chaotic, and there were few of the safeguards we take for granted today, like guardrails and pedestrian lights. Readers who were in Japan in the '60s and '70s may remember the term kotsu senso (traffic war), coined when traffic fatalities first exceeded the number of Japanese who were killed in the Sino-Japanese war. Dangerous traffic became a social issue, and one strategy to reduce deaths was to change the law to allow bicycles on designated sidewalks.

The trouble with that is that pedestrians and bicycles move at different speeds, and forcing them to share the same space increases the likelihood that they'll crash into each other. In 2005, there were 2,435 collisions between bicycles and pedestrians in Japan that were serious enough to be reported to the police. In six of those accidents there was a fatality.

Other countries have reduced traffic fatalities by providing separate space for motor vehicles, bicycles and pedestrians, but Japan has been slow to adopt the idea of dedicated bicycle lanes, partially because of a lack of space. Not surprisingly, riding a bicycle in Japan is a lot more dangerous than in other developed countries. According to data from the International Road Traffic and Accident Database, more people die on bicycles in Japan than in Germany, France, Italy and the Netherlands put together. Japan also has far more cycling fatalities than the U.S., despite having less than half as many people.

The National Police Agency recently held a symposium on how to make cycling safer. The attitude of the police representatives, according to one participant, was that bicycles should be moved off the roads completely, even if they've got no other place to go but straight into pedestrians' paths. This is one reason why I say you're unlikely to get stopped by the police for riding on a sidewalk, even where it isn't permitted. They like you there. Another reason is that all the police officers I spoke to assured me they look the other way unless the cyclist causes an accident or is doing something else illegal.

That's a good reason to learn the other rules concerning bicycles. Japanese law defines a bicycle as a conveyance for one person, although an adult is allowed to carry one child up to the age of 6, as long as the child is in a seat designed for the purpose. Which means all those moms who ferry two kids at once are breaking the law. So are the high school students and lovey-dovey couples who engage in flagrant futari nori unten (two people on one bike).

You'd never know it from casual observation on a rainy day, but kasasashi unten (riding with an open umbrella) is also against the law in Japan. So is doing anything that impairs your ability to operate the bicycle safely, including talking on a mobile phone. But except for occasional crackdowns on riding at night without a light, the police rarely go after cyclists. They're certainly not likely to chase after a mama chari (mommy bike) because there are two kids aboard.
However, the law against inshu unten (driving under the influence of alcohol) applies to bicycles too, and while rare, there have been arrests for drunk riding. So it's a good idea to walk your bike home after hitting the bottle. Just be sure to stay on the sidewalk, and watch out for plastered pedestrians!

Belasungkawa

Hari ini pagi Jumaat sangat redup. Awan berat dengan tanda-tanda hujan akan turun lagi. Saya menulis ini dari meja sebelah. Owen dan Petr sedang berdiskusi tentang list publications milik sensei hingga tahun 2005.

Belasungkawa

Sensei saya telah lama mengidap kanser perut sejak dari sebelum saya datang ke lab ini. Saya hanya berpeluang menemui dalam meeting hampir 1-2 jam tidak sampai 10 kali. Setiap kali hendak meeting, kecut perut akan terasa yang amat sangat. Kali terakhir saya meeting dengan sensei ialah pada bulan November di rumahnya. Pada ketika itu, beliau baru sahaja selesai operation tumor.

Sebagai seorang yang sangat terkenal di TRB, sensei saya pernah menerima Lifetime Award dalam bidang kariernya pada tahun 2006 sebaris dengan Ben Akiva dari MIT, US.

Sensei saya mempunyai minat membaca pelbagai jenis genre buku.
Semalam, apabila kami berkesempatan ke rumahnya, hampir setengah jam kami membelek-belek rak yang penuh dengan buku-buku, baik novel mahupun akademik. Sungguh memberikan inspirasi. Ada 2 buku tentang Malaysia, dan sebuah buku terjemahan 'The Koran'

Sensei minat kepada model keretapi. Ada beberapa model keretapi dan buku-buku mengenainya. Rupa-rupanya sensei mempunyai hobi yang menarik. Ia memberikan pengertian kepada saya bahawa untuk menjadi seseorang yang 'besar' kita perlu ada sesuatu yang 'unik' dalam diri.

Saya tidak mudah mengalirkan air mata semalam. Malah melihat wajah teman-teman lab yang kemerah-merahan menahan esak menjadikan saya 'blur.' Saya rasa saya bukanlah seorang yang dekat dengan sensei. Saya baru setahun setengah bersama beliau.

Tetapi untuk mengenali seseorang itu, lihatlah pada buku yang dibacanya. The Perception of Risk tulisan Paul Slovic menangkap mata saya dan saya segera tahu bahawa idea kajian saya berpunca dari buku ini. Owen dan Petr sedang sibuk berganbatte mencari kerja. Bulan 9 ni mereka akan tamat Phd. Nama sensei akan memberikan impak yang besar pada mereka. Mungkin juga pada Ari.

Tidak lama lagi akan tinggal saya sendiri. Anggap saja saya tidak bernasib baik kerana tidak dapat berpayung di bawah sensei untuk jangka masa yang lama. Pagi ini, barulah saya terasa betapa banyak peninggalan sensei untuk saya pelajari. Barulah terselit satu rasa untuk memahami cara pemikirannya dan apa kemahuannya.

Sukar untuk meluahkan apa yang tersirat di fikiran. Hidup perlu diteruskan. Berbanding dengan rakan-rakan lain, saya telah mempunyai pekerjaan tetap dan scholarship yang bagus. Tiada masalah untuk saya melebarkan sayap biarpun saya akan bertukar supervisor. Dan supervisor yang baru mungkin tidak sehebat sensei Kitamura.

Tetapi, tuhan telah menyediakan jalan untuk kita susuri. Sekiranya kita percaya kepada sifat ubudiyyah, maka segala ketentuan dan ketetapan yang berada di bawah tangannya akan dapat kita terima dengan redha. Ini adalah satu pengalaman yang mengesankan dalam hidup saya. Tugas penyelidikan saya akan berjalan seperti biasa. InsyaAllah.

Penghormatan terakhir

Esok - Sabtu dan Ahad, kami satu lab akan membantu di majlis pengkebumian. Majlisnya hampir sama dengan majlis untuk orang-orang beragama Buddha mungkin. Saya akan membantu sebagai tanda penghormatan. Di samping itu dapat melihat kepercayaan orang-orang bukan Islam.

Hidup di perantauan memang bukan sesuatu yang mudah. Tetapi kita dapat melihat banyak sudut yang berbeza. Ada waktunya kita perlu terbang jauh melebarkan sayap melihat bahawa dunia milik Allah ini terlalu luas dan penuh dengan pelbagai penciptaan yang tidak pernah terjangkau dek akal. Dan...satu hari nanti, apabila sudah puas terbang, seperti fitrahnya sang burung, kita akan pulang ke sarang...dengan membawa apa yang telah kita lihat untuk dilihat oleh mata orang lain.

Sabda Rasullullah S.A.W - Sebaik-baik manusia ialah manusia yang banyak memberi faedah kepada orang lain.Semoga kita menjadi salah seorang dari manusia yang terbaik itu. Amin

Ryuichi Kitamura Sensei, houtouni doumo arigatou gozaimashita...

Thinking about you

I don’t really know how the Malaysian people thinking. I just assumed that publics don’t get enough information about what is happening and what will happen. I think our people lack of information about knowledge but too much info about gossip and entertainment. ( plus bad politics’ situation)

When I take a look at the pool from PDRM’s website about the risk of not using the backseat seatbelt, the percentage of arguing is higher. I think, our road users are not really recognizing the risk around them. In order to say that maybe our people just don’t really care about safety, I rather claim that our people are lack of education about safety. Some will say that it is because of the enforcement. Our roads need police averywhere. But,our people are not really cared of being penalty or ticketing, aren’t they? People, who have money and power, will not be affected with this kind of enforcement.

In Japan, police seems has nothing to do rather than ticketing the bicyclists and drivers. Japan is somewhat very secure place even for kids. No robberies, no criminals. You are safe to walk alone at night. No body will take your wallet if you let it freely on the table in family restaurant. You will get your hand phone in safely return if you suddenly left it on the train. etc

So, how to change our people’s way of thinking and behave? A lot of things have been done according to this matter but the appropriate way is to understand what actually they are thinking and the factors that influenced their behavior. Questionnaire is a way how to get the information.

I just realize that data that we got from the questionnaire could describe the internal situation that the researchers never recognize. The raw data can give a lot of interpretations that would lead to other deep research in order to understand the human behaviors. Thus, it is better to share the results with the public, so they will know the exact situation rather than they keep on arguing about the policies.

In the easy way, I can say that the researchers gain the knowledge from the experiment towards the public and returning back the result to the public in the informative way. People might be more aware if the policies that been made is based by the strong and supportive research. This is the way to build up the trust towards policy. In risk management study, it is called as risk communication.

I think, we must develop research culture in our people’s mind since they are young. Do it in the interactive way. I found out that internet is very effective used in Japan, and for many other developed countries. People supposed get more information about the risk around them. But first, develop the culture of reading the academic materials not the comic!!!

However maybe, Malaysia is a country that lack of natural disaster or phenomenon like earthquake, volcano’s eruption, tsunami etc (but we have flood problem, landslides, higher numbers of accidents, cases of criminal, disease because of too much eating ……), we don’t really want to care about the matter of risk.

It is an interesting topic for me thou. It is related on people’s way of think and behave that are practically developed by the culture of one country. Culture and policies somehow mingle in a related way.

Komen

Tak terasa selera untuk makan tengah hari hari ini. Bukan kerana tak dapat menerima komentar Petr dan Owen tentang framework saya. Bertuah sangat mereka dapat luangkan masa 2 jam untuk meneliti kerja-kerja saya. Maklumlah, sensei masih belum cukup tenaga untuk mengendalikan student. Email tak berbalas dan thesis pelajar-pelajar B4 dan M2 tidak dapat juga diperiksa.

Cuma yang mengganggu di benak saya ialah apakah sebenarnya standard kajian saya ini? Kalau diturutkan idea, memang banyak perkara yang hendak saya buat. Tetapi banyak juga limitasi. Dengan sensei yang tidak dapat memberi penyeliaan secukupnya, serta pelbagai keterbatasan.

Petr banyak memberi pandangan dari sudut decision making dan probability. Theory yang telah diselidikinya selama lebih dari 2 tahun. Ada sedikit persamaan tetapi ada juga perbezaan dengan kajian saya. Owen lebih banyak memberi pembetulan dari segi membina questionnaire.

Saya sedang menanti email dari Prof Farhan. Semoga Prof Farhan dapat memberi satu nasihat yang baik. Setiap masa saya rasakan research saya berada di hujung tanduk dan masa terus berlalu. Pun saya kuatkan diri dalam kebimbangan bahawa saya akan sempurnakan topik ini kerana ia menarik biarpun Peter kata ia tidak memberi kaitan yang kuat antara lorong motosikal dan kajian terhadap persepsi.

Berita dan data kemalangan mengenai penunggang motosikal yang tidak pernah surut yang menjadikan saya terus kuat untuk stay dalam topik ini. Saya selalu bertanya pada diri untuk menjadikan topik ini menarik di mata penghuni-penghuni makmal ini. Maklumlah, setiap kali orang lain membuat pembentangan, apalah sangat yang dapat saya fahami dengan pengetahuan nihon go yang sekelumit cuma.

Buat yang ingin melanjutkan PhD, perlu latih mental menerima tekanan dan keupayaan untuk menyediakan plan-plan susulan. Nasib kita mungkin telah ditentukan. Tetapi jangan sesekali mengalah. Sesekali untuk mengatasi masalah hilang kepercayaan kepada diri, kita perlu berdegil bahaya kajian kita adalah kajian yang baik dan berfaedah. Itulah cara saya memujuk diri………..

Minggu baru bagi bulan Februari. Pantas sungguh masa berlari. I am getting very busy after this. Target untuk data collection adalah pada bulan Mei. Tapi sekarang still setup framework for modeling, belum pun tunjuk pada sensei apa-apa lagi. Juga belum contact orang-orang MIROS. Selagi tak kukuh nak defend framework ni, selagi tu tak boleh maju selangkah lagi.Btw, proses design questionnaire sedang berlangsung sekarang ini. Ini merupakan step ketiga dalam list things to do.

Kemudian kena pastikan tiada masalah bagi pihak Unit Cuti Belajar di UTHM untuk balik collect data. Juga dengan pihak KPT. Juga dengan kewangan untuk collect data. Banyak wang yang akan dikorbankan kerana lab saya tak mempunyai grant research. ^ ^ !!

Well, there's nothing special to share. Just to built up the mood. My M2 labmates sedang sibuk menyiapkan rombun. Tidur di dalam lab secara berjamaah. Pagi-pagi Isnin ni, saya datang awal untuk gain back the momentum. Tapi,budak-budak ni sedap tido lagi.

Sebenarnya, pada musim-musim sejuk ni, saya suka makan strawberry. Tetapi sejak mengalami krisis ekonomi, dan harga strawberry yang masih 350yen ++ menyebabkan saya bertukar kepada satu kegemaran baru iaitu cherry tomato.

Cherry tomato ni tak pernah jumpa di Malaysia. Kalau jumpa pun maybe tak makan sebb saya bukan penggemar sayur. Tetapi tahun ni, saya berkenalan dengan cherry tomato ni. Rangup dan sedap. Saya makan dengan susu yang sepatutnya di makan dengan strawberry. Salah satu cara untuk jaga kulit dan juga elakkan kanser.

Yosh! La la la la... kerjalah!