Opening

OK. My public life is just becoming more public. Perhaps for better.
Bios on the employer's site are generic, outdated, and uncreative anyway. This might be a better place to share more with my friends.

Perhaps, I should be first updating about myself.

Employment
Yes, I am still at Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (APCSS). It has been seven years since I joined APCSS. Lots of changes at the center. For one, it is a lot busier.

Travel
Part of the reason for our busy schedule is travel. Instead of (or in addition to in some cases)individual research and conference trips, we now frequently travel on center-assigned missions. I have done it only twice to Tokyo, but some of my colleagues have done more. I like the flexibility of travelling solo. Rudi and her colleagues know this already. (Laughter!) Last year, I missed Iskandar in Jakarta, as his arrival plane was delayed the night before my departure. (No famous Indonesian karaoake!) I could not catch Susan there either. (US Embassy was simply inpenetrable. (Laughter!)
Most recently, I went to Kuching (Sarawak/Malaysia) for the first time for a conference on maritime security. A really pretty town with amazing ethnic diversity--so different from peninsular Malaysia. This month, I will be flying to San Francisco for another conference. Center missions will likely take me to Canberra, Kuala Lumpur, and Tonga this year, and possibly more.
Scholarly Life
Despite the busy schedule, I still enjoy being a scholar. I just finished two book manuscripts recently. Though I am used to working late evening hours on my books, it was the hardest this time as my two children grow up and their bed time tends to get later. In February, I taught an intensive one-week course on globalization and regionalism at Ritsumeikan Asia-Pacific University in Oita, Japan, near the famous hot spring town of Beppu. Yes, I did manage to soak in the hot spring and enjoy good sake and fish for dinner.

Health
Working hard sometimes takes its toll. I am recovering from a serious backache I had some ten days ago. Cumulative tensions on the spine from long hours of working in a chair reached a limit. There are some healers among the APCSS colleagues, and their help was much appreciated. I tried Chinese acupuncture for the first time. It was pretty good until the doctor started pulling my legs out and rolling them back into my hip bone. My butt got even stiffer as a result. I also do yoga to be more flexible. I am as slim as ever.

Windsurfing
Obviously, I now have to take a break from windsurfing because of the back pain, but I do not intend to stay away for too long. I am teaching some colleagues how to windsurf. I had to teach him the very first beach lesson--to look like a cool sport, not an aggressive single guy.

OK, that is all for tonight. Not sure how soon I will have enough interesting new stories and time to share them with you. But, stay tuned.

Mahalo for reading, and Aloha.

Yoichiro