Eventful day

29 February, a date that appears once every four years. And it was an eventful day, starting with snow in Tokyo (which rarely snows...), minor tremors in the evening (from an earthquake further north), and the completion of the Tokyo Sky Tree.

Here's the snow:

Management tools

The corporate world is full of bright minds who come up with great tools for management. These tools were specifically designed to solve certain management problems, and when applied to these problems, deliver great results. But there are not wonder drugs. They cannot solve all management problems. If we try to use a certain management tool to solve a problem that it was not designed for, we may not solve the problem and we run the risk of aggravating the problem. For example, a tool meant for goal management would probably have an averse effect on morale when used for personnel evaluation.

At the same time, we should also guard against management tools being used as career advancement tools. It looks and sounds great that a bright young mind learnt this new tool from somewhere else and finds a way to implement it within the company. But we need to ask ourselves if the tool being implemented is really solving a problem that we had in the first place, or are we making up the problem just so that this tool can be implemented for us to look good.

Mt Fuji 18 Feb 2012

Here's a photo of Mt Fuji taken on 18 Feb 2012 in the early morning.

Science and us

I was attending a class on ethical science the other day and this thought came into my mind. I have the impression that science started out as a study into nature and how it affects us as human beings. The aim of science then was to learn more about nature so that we as human beings can learn how to better live with nature. However, somewhere down the road of history, the aim of science started to wander off... the aim was no longer for us to better live with nature, but rather how to make nature work for us human beings. Instead of learning to live with nature, we started to learn how to make nature work for us.

Our ancestors have lived thousands of years with nature. Why are we breaking away from tradition and making nature work for us instead? Are the conveniences offered by our exploitation of science really conveniences, or have we become slaves to those conveniences of science, such that we can longer live without them, and continue to put in more effort to fuel them?

Going to the toilet

Milestone... the kid actually told us that he needed to go to the toilet today! Seems like the patience the wife has shown in toilet training is finally starting to pay off.

Trip to Tokyo Disneyland

This post is a bit late... we visited Tokyo Disneyland together with my sister-in-law and her family back in early December 2011. That's 2 months ago.

We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. In a way, we were quite lucky. Somehow, we managed to get to some of the rides before the crowd arrived, cutting short the overall waiting time. On average, we waited for about 40 minutes at each ride. The fastpass system helped too, allowing us to squeeze in one last attraction before we left. Anyway, here's the kid and I taking a photo together with Dumbo.

The kids really enjoyed themselves. Even after a long day, they were still energetic at night (although they did take a short one-hour nap in the late afternoon, just before dinner...)

You cannot go to Tokyo Disneyland without seeing the electric parade at night. It was wonderful, with lots and lots of Disney characters. Other than Mickey Mouse and Minnie, there were characters from Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin and other Disney cartoons.

And it all ends in a big bang, with the wonderful fireworks at the end of the day.

Hakkeijima Aquarium

It was the weekend, and with a bit of time, we decided to visit the nearby Hakkeijima Aquarium with my sister-in-law and her daughter.

Here's the two kids, in their penguin and polar bear modes.

The kid really enjoyed himself at the aquarium, looking at the exhibits of fishes and other sea creatures, such as the anemones here.

And here he is, staring at this huge ocean sunfish.

The aquarium had a pair of juvenile whale sharks... it is hard to imagine how large these whale sharks will eventually be when they reach adulthood.

Japanese kindergarten

I had a chance to visit a Japanese kindergarten for the first time in my life. The kindergarten was open to the public to showcase the different activities that they have for children, ranging from building fake railroad tracks, making plum juice, building a playhouse for beetles, etc. To me, it was very different from the kindergarten that I attended in Singapore, which was firstly a mission school (and thus I heard quite some Bible stories) and secondly, didn't have such fun group activities. While it may be good to start young when teaching kids to read and write, maybe we should not forget that social skills are just as important as academic ones.

Setsubun 節分 2012

3 of February is Setsubun 節分 in Japan, and it is a tradition in Japan to "call in good luck and drive away the devil" on this day. First, we went to the nearby temple, where they were giving out beans as a token of good luck.

The kid managed to catch/pick up quite some packets of beans (or maybe it would be more correct to say that my wife managed to catch/pick up quite some packets...)

And here's the little one all ready to be the little devil... hmm... he doesn't need the mask to be the devil...