Update 7

Hello

We are back from Japan. It was such an interesting and enjoyable trip - technical visits and social - with a group of Surveyors whom we are all familiar. We covered so much ground from Tokyo to Lake Kawaguchi, Hakone, Toyohashi, to Kyoto and Osaka. But the itenary was carefully drawn up we did not feel tired or rushed. We ate authentic sushi, tempura and teppanyaki - but of course some of us, myself included, mixed these Japanese delicacies with our very own sambal, ikan bilis and rendang. The last night was a real Japanese fine dining complete with the ambiance of tatami mat, hushed whispering of pretty kimono-clad ladies, origami, and bonsai garden.

The technical visit included visit to Shibaura institute of technology to understand their programe for surveyors. While there we met up with several Malaysian students. Next we went to meet our counterpart the "Building Surveyors Institute of Japan" which also include talks on Japan latest software. We were lucky to be able to make a courtesy call to Matrade Tokyo office and next to the Malaysian embassy in Tokyo.

Although Japan is not a shopping haven but I do believe our group somehow manage to increase Japan GDP by 0.1%. Many of us came back with Kimono, Yakuta, Japanese purses and dolls, seaweed, crackers & nuts, swatch, Japanese brand cosmetics, branded goods from premium outlets - I think most of us took Sr Han Hoe's holiday motto of "Better to regret buying than to regret not buying"!!. Do watch out for him in a leather jacket. Or go over to our Sec Gen's house for a quick snack cooked in her unique 3-in-1 pan. And drop by to our immediate past president's house for tea using the new bone china tea set.

All the towns and villages that we visited - are clean, clean and clean. The toilets are clean, clean, clean with push buttons for water shower. Not a single piece of litter eventhough there weren't many dustbins. It seems that the Japanese would just pocket any rubbish to throw it later in the bins at home. Everything works, and there are a lot of unspoken rules that they followed religously. Everything work within a system. As such although they are polite, but since everything has a fixed procedure, way and system, not much flexibility. Recycle is a way of life and dining is a art. The scenery is breathtaking - especially with Mt Fiji in the background. And my God, the amount of photos that all of us took!!

We enjoyed ourselves but my only regret was that I did not try the onsen bath.

Salam
Sr Wan Maimun

Happy Deepavali

Update 6

We are still in the month of Syawal and thus the one month celebration of open house still continues. ISM successfully held our open house at hotel Armada on 28 Sept 2009 with good food and good company. The council wished to thank all members young and old who came to share the celebration and catch up with old friends and colleagues. Other open houses where the President was invited were by PSDC on 2 Oct, BQSM on 6 Oct, CKUB JKR on 13 Oct and Matrade on 14 Oct 2009. Tonite I will be attending Datuk Sr Isahak's open house. Hope to see you all there tonite.

On 29 Sept, Fadilah Camaluddin and I were in Johor on the invitation of UTM to give talks to their QS students with regards to ISM, registration and panel forum on the challenges of QS. Fadilah was her usual lively and gutsy self taunting and teasing the students to participate. It was fun. On 30 Sept and 1 Oct, I was fully occupied with the CIDB excellent award evaluation panel and as such DP Sr Elvin and vice presidents were on hand to welcome HKIS young surveyors visit to ISM on the 1 Oct. On 6 Oct, I attended the BQSM Board meeting. On 12 Oct, we had ISM 50th anniversary meeting. I was again invited by another institution of higher learning (Taylor's College) to give a talk to their students on 14 Oct but this time the emphasis was on being a professional QS. It was hilarious as the students were lively.

In the afternoon of 14 Oct we had our ISM management committee meeting and amongst the issues discussed were feedbacks on survey with regards to ISM, publicity on ISM, proposed setting up of UK chapter, opening up of ISM membership to non-Malaysian, financial issues and administrative issues.

On the 15 Oct, the FIG international conference was successfully held. It was attended by over 250 participants comprising international members of FIG commission 7 and members from ISM, PEJUTA, JUPEM and LJT. I attended the opening and stayed on for the two keynotes which were brilliant and informative. The FIG Commission 7 - annual dinner was also held on the night with traditional dances which enthralled the foreign participants. Also on 15 Oct, CIDB held the forum on construction industry payment and adjudication act (CIPAA) which I attended after attending the FIG opening and keynotes. It is hoped that after this forum the industry's concerns highlighted would be addressed and subsequently the CIPAA would be able to be gazetted. It's about time Malaysia had its Payment Act considering that the effort had started way back in 2003.

This morning on 16 Oct, I attended the National Professional Services Export Council (NAPSEC) and presented a paper on the Internationalization effort of the Surveying professions to NAPSEC members. I informed the members with regards to the efforts by the QS on the KL Pact, the PCVS effort on the education promotion in India and ISM's technical and study tour with emphasis on GLS effort on their visits in Vietnam, Cambodia, Phillipines and Indonesia. I also touched on the Malaysian Services Exhibition by Matrade. I suggested for PSDC to showcase the integration of all the professional services within the construction industry that include the Surveyors, Architects and Engineers instead of each instituion showcasing their own services individually. The next MSE would be held in Dubai in 2010.

ISM has organized a technical cum social visit to Japan from 18 Oct - 25 Oct. I will blog you all with regards to the trip after I come back. So that's it for now. I'm off to Datuk Sri Sr Isahak open house.