Cat in Winter

Picture upload by Picasa

May be because it’s winter so either I need to hibernate (am I a bear? :-) ) or my pen’s ink got frozen, anyway, in these last few weeks I found that it hard for me to write again (not only for this blog, but also for my master thesis, and I’ll be in big trouble if I can find no way to get round it really soon...). That’s why today I grabbed my muffler, gloves, and warm cap, and then took Aurora for a walk (Aurora is the name of my bike, and her full name is Aurora Borealis. Why I chose so, because it’s my first bike in northern hemisphere, and you can only find Aurora Borealis in northern hemisphere - if you find it in southern hemisphere, it would be called Aurora Australis instead. Anyway enough for astronomy class now...). We headed nowhere in particular; I just want to find some new air to refresh my felling. When I took a roll in Nakahara-kaido, I saw this cat (you can see it in the picture above) lying casually on top of car.

I must admit that there’s nothing special with the cat, but it could make me laugh to see him posing there like the king of the world. It’s not the cat that made me laughed; it’s because of other thing. The mechanism was like this: I saw the cat, and I remember Ari once told me that cats think they’re Gods (and this cat might think so). That piece of memory opened up the lock of other memories, because Ari told that thing on the very night when Bonggo borrowed the car of a friend of a friend of a girlfriend of his friend, and what happened on that night filled up my mind. This particular memory that made me laughed then (I hope the explanation doesn’t confuse you... :-) ).

You might think that the way I thought and finally laughed was strange (or not, since sometimes you think the way I think... I don’t know); however, it’s no matter to me. It helped me change the air that surrounded me, and before I realize it, I found that my pen is not frozen anymore. Well, I better use it to write my thesis now, before it get frozen again... (anyway, Yanagida and Chou-san just visited my bench and quite impressed because they thought I was writing hard for my research - but then laughing when they saw that I was writing for this blog...)

One Rainy Day

Picture upload by Picasa

I’ve just arrived back from Vietnam yesterday, and today I had to take JLPT test. Despite I sleep all day after arrival (oversea recreation… oops, I mean conference, could drain up your energy, since there’re a lot of sessions to attend - as well as a lot of interesting place to see :-) ), I still could not wake up on time and had to run to catch my train, left me with no time for breakfast, left alone for preparing lunch (the test was scheduled until about 3 o’clock in the afternoon, so I needed to bring my lunch with me).

The first part of the test - Kanji and Vocabulary (漢字・語彙) - was close to catastrophe. Out of 20 opening questions, I could only answer 3 with a ‘slight’ confidence, and I even felt that I never seen some of the kanji in the test before (either the main usage of the kanji is merely to make dictionary thicker, or my trip to Vietnam had erased them from my memory :-) ). And to add up all troubles, I also almost fell from stair in the afternoon, and even though I successfully kept my balance, I sprained my ankle and it hurt to walk now, specially when I have to use stair (I hope it’ll be better tomorrow).

Anyway, despite some problems ‘greeted’ me today, there’re still several things that could cheer me up. When I check my mailbox on the way to test site, I found one small basket filled with cake there (Seada had put it the night before), so at least I can have it for my lunch. Furthermore, I met Dhita on the test site (we were taking the test at the same room), and she offered me to share her lunch. Thus, instead of skipping lunch like what I (unwillingly) planned before, I ended up having a proper lunch plus some dessert (we ate Seada’s cake as dessert :-) ). The merry lunch seemed to influence the progress of the test (at least the session after lunch, Reading and Grammar (読解・文法), was far more better than the first one, and the second session of Listening (聴解) wasn’t bad either). Even though the Kanji session seemed to had done enough damage that the two other sessions cannot make up, there’s still hope left that I will pass the test (with one condition: I have to be very lucky and most of my wildly guessed answers turn out to be right :-) ). Either way, the result of the test won’t make a big consequence to me (I think Panasonic won’t mind if I can’t pass it this time, furthermore after knowing that I went to Vietnam up to the day before the test :-) ).

To sum up the day, some of my friends help me out to otherwise a terrible day, and I think tomorrow I need to do the same to my other friends, to keep the cycle on...

How Many TITech Students Does It Takes to Bake Gyouza?

Picture upload by Picasa

The answer is three, and the gyouza was still overcooked. That was based on the party at Vashek and Klara’s home. Go was bringing gyouza for us to eat (some of them was even made special for me because I can’t eat meat), but none of us had the experience of baking gyouza. It ended up with Go, Kazue, and Klara experimenting with them, and even though the result wasn’t perfect, it was still good enough to enjoy as we talk about all kind of things.

Actually, if you ask the question somewhere else, the answer could be different. If you happen to be lucky enough and land in my lab, the answer would be one, and the gyouza would be professionally cooked. However, if you’re not, there’s a probability that the answer might reach infinity and all you can get is some USO (unidentified smoking object :-) ).

So, what is the thing that set the difference between my lab, party at Vashek and Klara’s, and ‘somewhere unknown’ that can only produce USO? Well, my lab has several ‘semi-professional’ chef (most of my lab mates are either like cooking or ever work part-time in a restaurant); at Vashek and Klara’s we have some experienced ‘cooker’, but no one experienced in gyouza baking; while ‘somewhere unknown’ doesn’t have any single person experienced in cooking.

I think the message is clear enough: it is often dangerous if you’re daring something that you know nothing about. At least a little bit preparation will do the trick (and escape you from the likelihood of having USO :-) ).

Lift Up of The Day

I got this Captain Hook from Wendy on my first week in Japan (She said that he looks a lot like me :-) ). The captain has a knob on his back, and by turning the knob, he will swing his arm around. Simple thing, but by watching the swing, sometimes it can help me lift my mood up...
Picture upload by Picasa

Do you ever feel that your mood influences your day? May be not all of you ever feel that way, but at least I, and some of the people that I know, do. Here’s one story from my lab (at first it might not look directly related to the topic, though...):

One afternoon several weeks ago. The fifth game of Hawks vs. Marines in Pacific division of Japan Baseball league, and the winner would go to the Japan series. Makii (one of my junior), as one of Hawks’ fans, became restless all afternoon and kept on checking the internet for the preview of the game. By the way you saw her at that time, you’d believe that she herself who would play for the game (or, as she then corrected: “as if my own kids who’ll play for the game”). Tan who sits next to her couldn’t help asking whether the game was really that important.

Well, perhaps most of normal people - who have good sense and can cope with their feeling well - would not understand it, and would think that it’s silly to get carried away for something so trifling like that. However, I could understand it very well (which actually implies that I’m not normal and don’t have good sense :-) ). And I’m clearly not alone here. Yanagita (my other lab-pal, who’s like me, a little bit abnormal and doesn’t have good sense :-) ) was supporting Makii by saying, “It’s sure important. It’ll help giving you some spirit in doing research the next day if your team wins”. (By the way, if you’re thinking that it’s only happen in my lab, you’re wrong. You can check it in Harry Potter 5 and see that Harry and Hermione once argued about Harry and Weasley’s twin’s care about the next Quidditch game, and the argument was ended by Hermoine’s saying that at least her happiness didn't depend on Ron's goalkeeping ability).

Back to the topic - and as Yanagita mentioned - some of us do have problem dealing with mood. When your team loses the game, or when your plan doesn’t go as you wish, it can turn you blue and consequently the next thing that you do also tends to go awry (may be that’s why they say “It never rains but it pours”; it’s not the problems themselves that come in group, it’s the mood that makes everything looks wrong). If you happen to be this sort of people, well, I can’t tell you ways to control your mood yourself (since we’re in the same ship :-) ), but fortunately, because our (yes, it’s our) moods are easily influenced, we can use those around us to turn the day around. For us mood is contagious: when the people around us are happy, they tend to lift us up with them, and when they’re feeling down, we tend to feel for them too. So, whenever your mood lets you down, just look around and find someone who can hook you up. It can be your lab mate who’s yell ‘ohayou’ when they enter the room. It can be just a cheerful dove that lost his way into your lab (it did happen once in my lab). It can also be some people from across the street that beaming around despite the cloudy weather. It’s just everything, everywhere.

Anyway, may be it’s better if I scream ‘ohayou’ when I step in my lab today. Someone might need a little bit lift up. Who knows?

Is It Not The Right Time?

Picture upload by Picasa

The next research report meeting is looming ahead and you have thrown all of your data in the previous presentation. It means that you have to start get busy or you’ll end up reporting a blank sheet. (Sounds familiar?)

While some might advise that it’s not the right moment to waste time by doing trivial things (such as filling up blog :-) ), I even feel the temptation to write here more than usual. Should I discard the lure and keep strict with my research, or should I follow the feeling? Well, it might look like the choices are left between the two, but if I give it a second glance, actually there’s a third choice (and perhaps also the fourth, the fifth, and the options can still grow): I can do both (or not doing either, or etc, etc - you can make an complete laundry list here).

Sometimes the question is not on the matter of ‘which left to choose’, but more to on ‘what else that can be chosen’...

Visions of Memories

I wrote this for the foreword of gp96 gallery. As it might be replaced by new version of foreword in the future (I don't know when :-) ), I also put it here for online archive. Some of the content is similar to my other blog here.
Thanks for Ratna for some of the ideas...
Picture upload by Picasa

... old pictures are always pleasing to behold, for episodes portrayed by them could swing the pendulum of moment to the nearly forgotten hours. It doesn’t matter if those images start to fade away - eroded by the passing hours - the memories sheltered within your heart will help redrawing the lines, refresh it into a crystal vista as clear as it ever be. Those passions, those laughter, and those tears will emerge and embrace you, make you think that there’s no way those days had already passed you by.

Seeing things came and went - some events that went as planned, while other went astray; some promises that be said and done, while other will never come true - make you see that there’re lot of good times and bad times standing between you now and you then. It is amazing to see that the naïve, unseasoned you back there could past all the hardship to become the present you, sitting there right now. It was not the experience back there, but the hope and the spirit, and also the enheartening from those friends of yours, which help you through all the hurdles looming on your way. You don’t need to wonder where all of those hope and spirit had gone, for as you flip thru’ all those framed memories, you can still feel them scintillating through the layer of dust precipitated by the flowing days. Nor you need to wonder where all those friends had gone; they might not always have a glimpse of you in their mind, but be sure that you have a special place, right in the heart of their soul. Just don’t let the flame burn out, and when they flip thru’ these vision of memories just as you do right now, an image of a special friend will fill up their mind. An image of you...

The Man in the Silly Red Sheet

Picture taken from http://www.darkhorizons.com/
Picture upload by Picasa

I was trying to find new song from Foo Fighters (well, it’s not new anymore now), when I ran across a file titled “It’s not easy to be me” by Foo Fighters. I never heard such a song from Foo Fighters before, so I checked the song, and later realized that ‘twas not a song by Foo Fighters at all (lucky me that I didn’t have to do a lyric search in Google since Ari gave me the song when I left for Japan, so I had heard it before). It was actually a song by a group called Five for Fighting, and the actual title of the song was “Superman”.

Perhaps many of you had heard the song before, but anyway, I’ll tell you the content (It’s not bloopers, isn’t it?). It tells about Superman (as the title suggest, I think you should have been able to figure it out without having me telling you :-) ). However, the song doesn’t tell us about how great superman is, who can jump over tall skyscrapers in a single bound, neither tell about any other superman clichés. No. It tells that Superman also has problems and sorrows, has dreams and wishes. After all, he just a human (or an alien that looks like human - at least a living being), and it is normal for him to have problems like any other human (besides regular problem of Lex Luthor trying to rule the world and such...).

So, for superman that possesses all the superpower that you’d fancy to have, superman that be adored by Lana and Lois whose mere smile would make the sun seems to shine your universe all day thru’ (if you happened to be a boy, you might envy him for the second reason rather than the first one though :-) ), everything is not always going as he wishes. Even sometimes he has to worry about problems that won’t sweat a normal human (i.e.: us). It might sound trivial, but it’s true that nobody’s perfect, and each has different things that make him/her worried.

Anyway, if you read the lyric thru’, you’ll reckon that most of its contents also fit with most of us. We’re all more than a bird (except if you’re a bird and happen to read this blog. On the second thought, if you indeed a bird and you can read and understand this, you are more than a bird!). We’re clearly more than a plane (I’m sure about this one). And we’re also more than some pretty faces beside a train (except if you wish to be considered as just some pretty faces beside a train, it’s your choice then... :-) ). What I wanna say here is that we’re all special in our own sort of way. And of course with that specialness, each of us also has our own special kryptonite that made us worried. However, it shouldn’t keep us worried all the time, because that’s just the way life is. God gives us our kryptonite, so we can learn to face it, and grow much stronger from it.

By the way, I put the lyric here for your perusal. No matter how tough the going for you right now, just don’t give up fighting and dreaming. As the song suggests, even a hero has the right to dream, and you’re the hero of your own story.

I can’t stand to fly, I’m not that naive
I’m just out to find, the better part of me

I’m more than a bird, I’m more than a plane
I’m more than some pretty face beside a train
And it’s not easy to be me

Wish that I could cry, fall upon my knees
Find a way to lie, about a home I’ll never see

It may sound absurd, but don’t be naive
Even heroes have the right to plead
I may be disturbed, but won’t you concede
Even heroes have the right to dream
and it’s not easy to be me

Up, up and away...away from me
It’s all right...you can all sleep sound tonight
I’m not crazy...or anything...

I can’t stand to fly, I’m not that naive
Men weren’t meant to ride, with clouds between their knees

I’m only a man in a silly red sheet, digging for kryptonite on this one way street
Only a man in a funny red sheet, looking for special things inside of me
I’m only a man in a funny red sheet, I’m only a man looking for a dream
I’m only a man in a funny red sheet, and it’s not easy to be me

(Superman, Five for Fighting)

Getting A Little Bit ‘Ecchi’

Picture upload by Picasa

I think most of us realize how communicating using two different languages sometimes can result in misunderstanding. Well, I’ll tell one of the problems that can arise between Japanese and Indonesian this time (if you think that this is related to the word ‘ring’: it’s not that one!).

Like perhaps I’ve already told you a hundred times before, I often receive an invitation related to the word “eat” (he he he…) from my friends in Japan. This time Ali and Kiki, friends from Korea, invited me and several other people from Hippo for a dinner party at their home. The dinner was great (I quickly realized that I can live happily ever after in Korea if it’s only a matter of food :-), well, that’s probably simply because Kiki can cook very well... ), and while eating, we talked about lots of things.

Since people from Hippo always like to learn languages, they didn’t forget to ask me to teach them some Indonesian words. All was going well, until they asked me about the Indonesian word for “study”.

Well, the Indonesian word for study is ‘belajar’. However, when it’s spelled, it sounds like brajaru for Japanese (they don’t have the character for L in their kana), and in Japanese, barajaru means (sorry!) bra (actually, it came from the word brassiere). Most of us laugh after knowing the fact, and although I was worried that the dinner would turn a little bit awkward after that, it wasn’t (thanks to the openness of most Japanese to such a thing). That “study” thing even make the party become more lively (later Ali even wondered whether the word for not studying in Indonesian would be no*** (you guess those three stars yourself :-) ), but Ani quickly cut him by menacingly saying「アワン君に何を教えてるの！」(And what are you trying to tell Awan-kun!) - so the conversation was quickly switched into other topics...

So, one important advice: be careful with what you’re saying...

* If you don’t know the meaning of Ecchi, it’s actually means ‘H’ in Japan, and ‘H’ is more or less equal to ‘x-rated’ in English. If you still don’t know what it’s meant by it, you better consult your encyclopedia, because I don’t want my blog to be banned for underage :-).

When There’s Someone That Care More Than You Do...

Picture upload by Picasa

There were several moments in my life when I just let go everything and just followed where the destiny took me. I’m not saying that I gave up and quit the fight. I still kept on fighting, but I did it without any passion at all. I was just feeling empty at those times, and thinking that anything that might come surely would be enough for me. (And one of those let go’s landed me here in Japan. I’m not complaining at all, I’m more than happy that I can be here, and it’s not just a lip service...).

And recently the same kind of feeling came again. With about 6 months left, I was still undecided about where to go after finishing my master. I was thinking that I just do what I used to do: do everything properly, not more and not less, and just take anything that will come from it

Anyway, something that happened yesterday changed my vision a bit. One of my junior gave me a luck charm, and she also wished me the best for my doctoral study plan. Well, it was just a simple thing (and I also don’t believe in charm since my religion forbid it), but the fact that someone cared about my future more than me myself really got in me. I think I’ll change the way I think a bit and try to consider about what I’m gonna do more seriously. Well, I’m not trying to say that I’ve already got in my mind what I fancy to do after graduation; I am still undecided about it, but now I’ll try all the chances that I shall come across with all my passion. I’m not trying to say that I’ll only seriously think about the future; I’ll try to take every single chance to laugh and have fun, since it is pointless to do something if I couldn’t enjoy it.

And about the charm, I think I’ll keep it. It’s not that I believe about the power that it has. I’ll keep it because it will remind me that there’s someone around me (and I also believe there’re several others out there) that cares about my future more than I do, and it should help me be more grateful for all the gifts that God has blessed on me...

The Things That Will Happen If You Borrow the Car of A Friend of A Friend of A Girlfriend of Your Friend

My mother used to make us birthday cake on our birthday, but ever since I went to university, I never had it anymore (because I never home on my birthday - and birthday with my friends always enough only with pizza). However, this year Seada made me one (my first in 10 years) and it really brought back the memories of old days...
Picture upload by Picasa

There was indeed something special that happened on my birthday this year, and some of my friends had asked me ‘to disclose’ it in details. I’d like to do that, however, for the sake of protecting the innocent (singular - without ‘s’ to be exact :-) ), with much regret I have to refuse the request :-). Yet, to indemnify the disgruntlement that it may cause, (Why do I sound so formal? Anyway all I want to say is: To make up if you’re feeling upset with me, ...) I’ll write something that happened on my other birthday (Lucky me, there’s almost always something unique or strange that happens on my birthday, which worth to remember).

It was in 2001. Ari had planned to celebrate Bonggo’s, Lisya’s, and my birthday at muara karang (MK) (additional fact: three of us were born on the same day, only differed by hours). I was planning to ask Irma too, but because I’m a very shy type of person (okay, I can hear you tripped off your chair and start to throw up, but I’m indeed a shy boy :-) ), and that we were still just friends at that time (so I didn’t know for sure whether she would be fancy to go or not), I put off asking her until the D-day. I also didn’t tell the others about my intention, and planned to tell them later when I had already got the ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer (to be exact: I would only tell them if I got a ‘yes’ answer :-) ).

The MK plan was on the night, and I went to Irma’s place in the afternoon (she knew that it was my birthday and I had told her that I would come). To make it short, she gave me present and wished me a happy birthday. We then went out, originally for dining, but since it was too early to eat, we went to Gramedia (I think Ari would say “You two went dating in bookstore?” when he knew about it :-) ). The sky had turned deep grey by the time our stomachs screamed starving, and Irma said that it might be better to go back to her place and tried to find something to eat nearby. So, we went back.

It was not long when the drop of water started to fall, and soon it was raining cats and dogs. By the time we reached her place, it was almost impossible to get out without getting wet, even with an umbrella. It was then when the lady that owns the home that Irma rented came and said that she worried about the roof of the house. There was some problem with it before, and she worried that water had sipped inside the house through it. Irma went to her room (it was in the 2nd floor), and found that almost everything had turned wet.

We spent the next half an hour to clean the room. She said sorry countless of time and said that it was no fun way to spend a birthday. But anyway, it was fun for me. Well, at least because of that I came to know that she had a pokemon poster in her room (she picked the poster merely because she like the color) and that she had our picture on top of one short cupboard (that made me know that it wasn’t one way love back there :-) ).

Ari called not long after we finished cleaning the room, and I realized that I had not asked her about the MK plan at all. Thus, I told Ari to hold on a sec and quickly asked her. Like I had already said, I’m a very shy type of person (I hope you didn’t trip off this time :-) ), but I can asked her quickly that time without any hesitation. (I think that was because I had seen our picture in her room - it made the odds of having her saying ‘yes’ higher :-). Furthermore, the “pokemon effect” also had created a big impact. You can safely guess that someone is fun if she doesn’t mind having pikachu face hanging on her wall :-) ). To my delight (and as you may have guessed), she said that she’d like to, so the next moment I told Ari that I would bring someone with me. He said that ‘twas okay (but I think he hid his laughter that time :-) ), and asked where he could pick us up.

For the rest of the night everything seemed to go smooth for me and Irma (The rain had stopped, and at least we didn’t have to mop somebody’s room again that night :-) ), but unfortunately not with Bonggo. Because Ari’s car was not big enough to bring us all to MK, Bonggo was borrowing the car of a friend of a friend of a girlfriend of his friend (if my memory doesn’t fail me, that was the right order :-) ). Actually everything was going as planned, until he took a prohibited turn in order to save time, and as a result had a police car followed him. Being in state of panic (because he was not driving his own car and it would be very awkward if he had to tell the police that it was the car of a friend of a friend of a girlfriend of his friend that he was driven that night), he ran the car into Ancol (one of the amusement park complex in Jakarta), and luckily the police gave up the chase. Still, he then had to awkwardly respond to our question: ‘Why the hell should he go into Ancol?’

The trip was then going with no big incidence (unless if the fact that Ari (who’s driving with Lisya) mistook the highway could be categorized as incidence). We arrived at MK very late from schedule, but MK is even better if you come late, so we weren’t complaining at all. Furthermore, Bonggo said that with all the things that happen that night, all of us then have a nice story to be told to our kids and grandkids :-).

We returned almost morning (close to 4.30), and I quickly walked Irma to her home. She said that that night was really fun and that she glad she went with us. A little bit out of the story, we started going steady four months later, and even we’ve broken up now, I’ll follow Bonggo’s advice: I won’t cry because it’s over, but I’ll smile because it happened...

And I do smile every time I recall it...

Love Inside Takoyaki: Why a Gift Clothes Feels Warmer When It’s Worn

I didn’t bring much clothes when I came to Japan, but still my baggage felt quite heavy to carry. Besides books, my bag were filled with some gifts from my friends (which actually not essential for my stay in Japan). Yet, I never regret bringing them here, because they constantly remind me that there are some people that care for me, (hopefully) as much as, or even more than I care for them...
Picture upload by Picasa

I think you often read something like this before, but I’ll write anyway...

It always feels good to go eating with my lab friends or my home-stay family, since they are much more concerned in any ‘edible objects’ that I eat than me myself. Not only they always try ‘to feed’ me with more high-calorie food (to help me gain more weight :-) ), they also always check first whether the food contain meat or not (I refrain eating meat here in Japan for a reason related to my religion, except it is stated clearly that the meat is okay for me). Like when we bought Takoyaki (たこ焼: baked octopus) on our way back from batting center; they didn’t forget to ask first whether the Takoyaki contain meat or not. The waiter quickly replied that there was no meat there, and that they only used seafood for the ingredients. Feeling safe with the response, we proceeded to buy some, but the waiter halted us by saying that actually they added something else to the food. We started to worry that it was something that I shouldn’t eat, when the waiter told us that ‘that something else’ was aijou (愛情: love :-) ).

We couldn’t help laughing at that time, but by the time we ate it, it did taste a little bit different. Of course it should have been tasted the same as (or at least similar to) any other Takoyaki that I had eaten before. But the notion of “love inside Takoyaki” was enough to change the Takoyaki into something different. Something special (special enough to be mentioned here :-) ).

Well, by now you should have already figured out what are the words that I think would properly answer the question above (i.e. because there’s love inside it). However, it will lead to the next question: does it always feel warmer to wear gift clothes? If you don’t often buy your clothes yourself (like me... :-) ), may be you won’t feel the warmth all the time. It is because you already get used to it and often don’t think much about the fact that somebody gave it to you. Similar to the Takoyaki case: if the waiter didn’t mention about the bonus ‘love’ inside, the Takoyaki wouldn’t taste differently. No matter how much love that they put inside it, your clothes won’t feel warmer if you don’t think about the giver. It is their love to you and your love back to them that synergistically help to make it feels warmer. Without it, the love inside won’t glint, and you won’t feel the esoteric geniality lies inside. (By the way, although I mentioned the word ‘love’ quite a lot of time here, it is not only gift from your lover that I mean. Even sometimes your family or friends can love you to an extent that your lover can’t...).

And of course, clothes is just an example (I picked it up because I received clothes from lots of people :-) ). Any gift from your friends, family, or other people that cares about you is filled with their love. By knowing that they love you and having the same feeling to them, you’ll be able to sense that, however simple the gift is, it indeed something special.

Japanese Lesson in Five Minutes

This is the picture of Sotetsu line, where the Futamatagawa station is located. Sorry for the small picture, but if you're really lucky enough to be able to read it, you would be able to see the Futamatagawa station (it right on the branch of the line) and Kibougaoka station right next to it.
Picture upload by Picasa

Last week we had party in my professor home (we have it every year), and on the subway to the party I got additional important word to my Japanese vocabulary (actually it depends on how you define the word ‘important’ :-) ). It was started with Chris and Tang-san showed me one station that we would pass on our way to the party. The station name was futamatagawa (二俣川), and when they reckoned that I didn’t find anything interesting with the name, they asked me whether I knew the meaning of ‘futamata’ (二俣, or sometimes二股).

I tried to consult my dictionary, but their explanation, added by Kim-san and Makii, was able to enlighten me more than any dictionary ever exists in this world :-). Futamata means ‘to have it both ways’, and it is also often used to express the act of having two lovers (and of course this meaning that attracted their attention :-) ).

Eventually, ‘the lecture’ developed into discussion on why a river (川: kawa or gawa: river) was given such a name. Even though the most logical explanation is that because the river forks into two directions, it seemed that everyone agreed that the river got its name because there are a lot of people with two lovers visiting the river (As an addition, the name of the station next to futamatagawa station is kibougaoka (希望が丘) station, which literally means ‘hill of hope’. And according to our ‘consensus’, this is the place where someone who wish to have two lovers go... :-) ).

Well, I think now you’re no longer wondering from what source I got my vocabulary of such words... :-)

Passage to The Past

Picture upload by Picasa

Ari, Ratna, and I had planned to gather old pictures of gp96 (alumni of Gas Petrochemical Engineering Department, class of 96 - where three of us belong) to be put on the net. While it is their job to gather the pictures (and they did their job well so far), it is my job to find suitable space on the net where we can put them on - and I’ve just found the place recently, which make it a real delay to our work (sorry!). Anyway, for the last couple of days we finally had most of the things ready and we could start our “long-awaited” project.

During uploading files, I deliberately took some times to look at those pictures again. Even though the scene looks as if it starts to fade away - eroded by the passing hours, the episodes portrayed inside those thin rectangular frames really bring me back to the moment. It is as if I find a time portal that makes the time turns counter-clockwise, and the old scenes reveal themselves all around me again.

Seeing things came and went - some events that went as planned, while other went astray; some promises that be said and done, while other will never come true (as the person you made the promise with had passed away); some of the friends that you think will stay with you till the end of time had left with no trace at all, while some “outsiders” had proven to stay beside you through your darkest hours - make me see that there’re lot of good times and bad times standing between me and me from the past. It is amazing to see that the naïve, unseasoned me could past all the hardship to become the present me, sitting here right now. It was not the experience back there, but the hope and spirit that help me went through all the hurdles looming on my way. And those hope and spirit can still be felt up to now, scintillating through the layer of dust from those old photographs.

I indeed can use that spirit again to light up my way through the maze of time I currently in. Like me in the past, it doesn’t matter what complication that shade my way ahead. As long as I could keep the hope alive inside, there’ll always be a way.

So, let the hope and spirit shine...

Ball on Top of the Tree

Picture upload by Picasa

My lab peers like to play volleyball on the ground just beside our building, specially on those fine afternoon after the seminar over (sometimes it turns to dodge ball, depend on our mood - if our “sadistic” level were high enough and we fell like to have other people as a target for ball throwing, we do dodge ball :-) ). The picture above is actually the picture of us playing (even though it just looks like some rascals trying to steal mangos from their neighbors’ yard). It was when Kawatoko saying that he will do a 天井サーバー(tenjou saabaa), literally means “ceiling serve”, a hanging serve that goes high as if it would touch the ceiling of the gym (from where it has got the name); unfortunately for him, the ball ended up on top of a tree, and he had to climb it to recover the ball. Since then we use the 天井サーバー term to call every ball that (unintendedly) ends up on top of the tree :-)

Then I just realize that language can evolve that easy in just a few minutes. And so can life...

Bloom and Shine Like the Ajisai

(This picture was taken several days ago, on one rainy day when Seada was half asleep in her lab :-) - well, actually I was also so sleepy that day. I’m glad she’s not protesting when I asked her to pose in front of the Ajisai...)
Picture upload by Hello

I heard and use the word Ajisai before I even knew what it actually is, and later I started to like it even before I ever saw it. Well, Ajisai is a name of a flower (紫陽花 - Hydrangea, don’t ask me more about it, since I don’t know much about flowers :-) ), quite beautiful flower indeed. Although it not as striking gorgeous as the sakura, it’s simply alluring. Like I told you before, I like the flower, and even Panasonic Scholarship Office (PSO) uses Ajisai as password for one of their sites (I can’t tell you which one for the site still on today).

What’s so special with Ajisai that makes PSO chose it as password (and makes me like it too)? Well, the main reason is that Ajisai is the Japanese flower for the month of June, and June is my birth-month (well, this is my reason, but (unfortunately) not the PSO’s :-) ). Why PSO chose the flower of June as their password was based on the story behind the flower.

Mr. Saito, the president of PSO at the time I came to Japan told us about the story. He said that the month of June is the rainy season (梅雨 - tsuyu) for most parts of Japan. Rain falls down almost everyday, and when it is not raining, the air is hot and damp, make it hard to spend the day comfortably. Because of the rain, most of the blossoms are destroyed, left the gardens of Japan with almost no flower to grace them. Among the small number of flowers left, there’s one that not only can stand the wearing weather, but also able to bloom elegantly, and (you’re right) it is Ajisai.

We can simply compare Ajisai to other flowers, and we will find that there are lots of flowers that possess the charm more than Ajisai. Well, it is not the look that makes Ajisai so special, it is its ability to successfully accomplish what other beautiful flowers cannot do that define its characters. The Ajisai illuminates the gardens when the season seems to make lots of people to be on the edge their temper, help them to calm down a bit and easing the severity of the days. It is not much that Ajisai can do, but it does what it supposed to do, and that little part that it does completes the wholeness of this universe.

In his speech, Mr. Saito asked us to become like the Ajisai, who could stand the hard times and keep on shining, to carry out something that it means to complete. Be like the Ajisai, who radiate it spirit around, helping other to stand the harshness of the day, even by doing so it has to stand tiring season that could vaporize the liveliness away.

So, when you feel that the path that you take becomes rough and makes you wanna give it up, just remember the Ajisai...

The Rabbit, The Cat, and The Affection

(There are lots of cats in my campus, and this is the picture of one of them (quite old picture, I took it with my cell phone) . Actually today I went around my campus to find a cat to be taken as the illustration of this writing, however, I can't find one - where the hell are they when we need them?)
Picture upload by Hello

(“Rabbit” and “cat” in this writing refer to the pet that we had. Since there are lots of kinds of rabbit and cat and even each single rabbit and cat have their own characters, I don’t mean to tell that all rabbits and cats behave like ours)

When we were kids, my sister and I wanted to have dog as pet. However, our grandma didn’t like about the idea, and to make us forget about it, she bought us rabbits. Very cute, with those shiny eyes and bushy tail, those rabbits quickly charmed us, and we soon forgot about the idea of having dog.

However, our “hysteria" of having rabbits didn’t last long. After three weeks or so we’ve already got bored with them. Perhaps it was because they weren’t home pet, so we had to put them in their hutch at night and not bring them inside, leave alone to have them sleep in our bed - that’s why we didn’t fully feel that they were our pet. Moreover, even though we had already spent much time together with them, they still looked indifferent toward us. They weren’t coming when we called them (despite the fact that we also waved carrots in front of them :-) ), and even sometimes ran away when we get closer. It seems like the affection that we showed was fruitless.

About one year later, we had new pet in our house. Similarly shiny-eyed and bushy-tailed (longer, though…), this new cute little creature was cat (this time our grandma didn’t mind since she also likes cat). We didn’t bought her like we did with the rabbits, the cat just came one day in our house (at that time my father was eating fish in the veranda and I think the cat was "enchanted" by the smell :-) ). Anyway, in the next few minutes the cat already slept in my lap, and soon, the whole family also fell for her. We played with her almost everyday, and she even slept in our bed at night, where she lied on my or my sister’s knee’s bend (it was warm and felt good at the beginning, however, since my home town is a hot place and the heat from the cat quickly build up in our knee, we soon feel uncomfortable and move her some other place. Yet, when we’ve already slept again, usually the cat returned and rolled her body on our knee again, made us uncomfortable again, and the process repeated all night - no wonder we have a bad habit of sleeping... :-) )

Unlike the rabbits’ “hysteria”, this time we didn’t get bored with the cat. It’s not that we never got upset with her. My mother got mad at her because she used curtain to shone her claw (and ruined it as a result...), and I also once got really upset with her because she just jumped in my bed with mud all over her (I think she just fell into sanitary duct), lied on my knee and started to sleep, pretending nothing had happened. Anyway, there’s no relation without problems, and outside few troubles that she caused (well, it couldn’t be said few actually... :-) ), her presence really bring something new to our house, like she was just another member of the family.

And the more important thing, the cat can love us in return to our affection. Unlike rabbit that still looked uneasy after some times, the cat almost always come when we call (specially when we bring food in our hand :-) ), and often sleep in our lap when we watch tv up to late at night. The cat also seems to know when we were sad. Whenever we’re feeling blue, the cat often come to us, and we usually talked to her about our problem, pretending that she’s listening (may be she does listen...)

Well, by now most of you might have already guessed that I will told you to find a friend or lover that can love you back like the way our cat did.

Actually not.

You can still try that if you want to, but I think it would be hard to accomplish, since whether other people will pay back our affection or not is beyond our influence. What I actually wanna tell you is not to find a "cat", but to become a "cat". Pay back every single affection that you get, and it will make not only your days, but also others’ days more colorful. And not only wait for others to start, you can be the one who initiates by showing that you care. Even a smile can make a big difference - it can lift us up whenever we’re felling down and push away the sorrow that hanging in our heart.

Well, I think I ever told you that I often take my time strolling under the sakura rows in front of main building of my campus even when the blossoms already gone. May be it was not only the memory of the flowers that makes me feel good taking a walk there. There’re also some cats and "cats" (literally and figuratively) there, which fill the atmosphere with cozy felling, make it comfortable to linger there unwinding your cloudy mind...

You will Give Up on Beautiful Girl at Third Sight

This is the picture of Ivy, the girl that did homestay at Kurusu family last month. As usual, this picture actually doesn't have direct relation with the content, however, there's a reason why I chose this picture for the illustration. Click here or on the picture, then you'll get an idea about it...
Picture upload by Hello

I’m taking Japanese composition class this semester, and on the first day of the class we had to write a short introduction essay. After filling the first and second paragraph with standard detail (name, where I belong, what kind of thing that I like to do on free time, and the like), I was running out of idea for what to write next. Prof. Yoshizawa who saw me puzzled tried to give me some idea: “You can write why you want to join this class or what you like and don’t like about Japan. You can even write the type of girl that you like...”

And, as you all might have guessed it correctly, I choose the last one.

The following week professor Yoshizawa handed us back our work with some correction. For my work, she commented that the last sentence of my essay was sounded a little bit unnatural in Japanese. I was trying to write ‘I prefer a cute girl to a beautiful girl because you won’t get bored on the cute one even after time has passed’, and because I never heard my Japanese friends saying something like that, I was writing a more or less literal translation of that sentence (きれいな女性より、可愛い女性の方が好きだ。まぜなら、可愛い女性は時間が経ってもつまらなくならないから). Professor Yoshizawa told me that a more Japanese-like expression of what I wanted to say was 。。。可愛い女性は時間が経ってもあきらめないから, which more or less means ‘...because you won't give up on cute girl even after time has passed’. She also told me that she didn’t have problem in understanding what I wanted to say, because there’s an old saying in Japan that says 美人は三度目にあきらめた, that means ‘You will give up on beautiful girl at third sight’ (I’m not so sure about the Japanese sentence. I’ll ask Professor Yoshizawa again next week to confirm it...).

Because of that sentence, the topic of the class that day shifted a little bit to the meaning of the old saying. Professor Yoshizawa told us (even though she wasn’t 100% sure), that the meaning of that saying is that people will soon get bored with physical appearance. It is true that everyone would easily be attracted by beauty, but as soon as the person get used to it, s/he will get bored if there’s no other attractive ‘feature’. It is different with the case of cute girl, because Japanese consider a particular girl is cute not only from the physical appearance, but also from their behavior (at least that what Professor Yoshizawa told us. I cannot guarantee that this is valid for every single Japanese here). Thus, even after people get used with the beauty of the girl, they won’t likely become bored, for they also like her from her character too.

The story above reminds me of what my sister told me when we were kids. She told me that in the ending of the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, may be the Beast didn’t actually turn into handsome prince. It is only because the Beauty had already known him well that the Beast look more handsome in her eyes. What my sister tried to say here was that inner character will give a lasting impact comparing to physical character. (And after thinking about it again, I just realize that my sister was quite a wise kid back there... :-) )

Anyway, this just another story that tell you character is better than just beauty (well, of course it is much more better if you could have both :-) ). You might find it true or not, however, most of the time, it is easier for me to get along with a warm and affable person (well, of course it will be much much more easier if the person is warm, affable, and also beautiful :-) ).

Why I prefer Batman to Superman: To Always Aim for the Moon...

The figurine in the middle is actually the figurine of Batgirl (it looks a lot like Batman, though...). I got it when I bought cocacola on my trip to Yamanashi prefecture. At the same time Ogata and Yanagita also bought cocacola, and (unfortunately) they also didn't get Batman (they got Joker and Bat-mobile), that I can't exchange the figurine with them (they know that I like Batman a lot...)
Picture upload by Hello

I think most of my friends have already known that I prefer Batman to Superman, but I think little of them know the reasons behind it. Because I had promised to write about it long time ago, I think I’m gonna write it now.
(Anyway, all that I write here are just my personal opinion - no offense for Superman fans out there...)

So, why do I prefer Batman to Superman?

One: Batman’s costume is cool, while Superman looks (in my opinion) completely like a buffoon. I’m not saying that red and blue combination resembles a hick, but I wish I never have to wear red underwear - moreover if I have to wear it outside my pants (I prefer Spiderman taste of costume on this one...)

Two: There’s still possibility that I can become Batman (although maybe only for one in a googol), while it’s already certain that I’m not Superman. I wasn’t from Krypton (if the planet even ever exists). I’m not faster than a speeding bullet, neither more powerful than a speeding locomotive, and I couldn’t leap tall buildings with a single bound. Unless my parents do it very successfully, I don’t reckon them to hide any spaceship wreck in our basement (one more thing: we don’t even have basement!), and so far I never bumped into girls called Lana and Lois. On the other hands, I still can build bat-cave, fill it with load of super-sophisticated equipment to fight crime, and ask someone to make the costume for me (or just buy a cheap one :-) )... and hey! I’m Batman! (um, actually all of this can only be made real with one extremely important condition: I must be very very very rich - but still possible then...)

Three (getting a little bit serious): Batman teaches us to stick on what we believe is right, and put effort to make it come true. Actually, Bruce Wayne could use all of his fortune to have a calm and peaceful life. Instead, he used some of it to become what he wants to be: Batman. I’m not trying to say that Clark Kent isn’t a good person here - he’s also a good one because he is using his gift (his superpower) for something good. What makes me prefer Bruce in this case is that Bruce doesn’t possess the gift like Clark, but still, he pulled together his effort to make his dream comes true. Not only limited on spending his wealth to get all of those advanced gears, in countless of time he had to put out the best of him to face perils that lied ahead while he’s wearing the costume.

Like Bruce, all of us have our own “Batman” to accomplish. And unfortunately, most of us are not “Clark”, who possesses the gift to make his way less tiring. However, it’s not a reason to just abandon our dream and choose a “safer” dream to be made real. If we really want our “Batman”, it’s never wrong to stand up and make a shot. It’s okay if in the end we fail to reach it, as long as we had already put our best effort on it. Like one of my friends told me before: aim for the moon, if you miss, you’ll be among the stars.

Well, I think I still need to put some more extra effort to fulfill what seems to be a dream for me right now. It might not be easy, but I still can try. Anyway, I’m not Superman, but at least I can still become Batman (if I’m very very very rich... :-) )

"Shall We Dance" or "Shall We ダンス" ?

(The title of the original version is "Shall we ダンス". If you wonder why only the word "dance" that being written in katakana, you better see the Japanese version too...)
Picture upload by Hello

Last Friday, Miya had two free movie tickets for “Shall We Dance?” (starred by Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez), and she asked me whether I wanted to see it too. I always love to see movie (moreover, when it is free :-) ), so in the next few minutes we had already rushed to Kawasaki to catch the next show.

I won’t talk in details about the movie itself - since some of my friends had already mad at me for telling them some bloopers before. Anyway, to my surprise, the movie was great – it was much better than what I thought before. Well, I wasn’t expecting much from the movie, since I think it just like another romantic drama which only tell you that you may do anything you like in the name of love (you know which movie that I mean :-) ). This movie is different. It simply develops to the direction that I like, and left us (us to give emphasis - not only me!) with a warm splendid ending where (almost) everyone in the movie life happily ever after. And the most important thing, I think you can learn a lot from this movie (I won’t tell about it here, though).

After the show Miya told me that she had been looking forward for this movie since the first time she heard about it. The reason for this was not because it's starred by Richard Gere (well, she did mentioned that Richard Gere was so cool in the movie several times, tough :-) ). She wanted to see it because the movie was originated from Japan. Actually it was started from one japanese best-selling novel (with the same title) which then being brought into wide-screen about 10 years ago. She told me that the Japanese version was also as amusing as the Hollywood one, and she advise me to watch it too if I have time (Anyway, she didn’t told me to read the novel too, because I think she know that even in the most optimistic estimation, my ability to read novel in Japanese still equivalent to a 6 grade elementary school boy - thanks to all those kanji).

Following her advice, I hunted for the movie at Tsutaya (the name of video rental house in Japan) and lucky enough to get my hand on one copy. The movie was indeed entertaining. It flows naturally, and when the Hollywood one give a western impression, this Japanese version really give an eastern impression (what I mean here is that you will think the movie can actually take place in Japan without any scene felt out of place). Since the flows of both movies are more or less the same, it is interesting to see that two different cultures can picture a similar tale - with each culture colored the story by its own characteristic - and still, yield a similar impact to their audiences. Some people might like one of the movie over the other - that's just natural. However, it's not to say that one of the cultures is better than the other. It's just that each culture has its own characteristic that can make things in life look more lively, and each single person views it differently.

Anyway, I’m here not to give you lecture on cultural difference. I just wanna tell you that if you plan to see the movie and have the chance, it is better for you to see both versions. Each has its own flair, and I believe you won’t regret to see both, regardless the fact that those movie have the same story to tell. Trust me, it's worth the dime.

When You Trapped To Do Something You Don’t Like in Japan, Buy Ginger

(This picture has nothing to do with the content. It's a picture of ginger ale, and I put it here because it made from ginger (well, at least its name contains the word "ginger") and I started to drink it here in Japan, specially on party because I don't drink alcohol. Anyway, if you ever play Japanese RPG, you will find it there, and it can restore your hit point or increase your strength during battle - depends on the RPG - this also has nothing to do with the content... :-) )
Picture upload by Hello

Before you actually packing ginger in your bag for your trip to Japan, you better read this first.

I’m keeping one series of riddle about how to put an elephant in a freezer, and it usually works well on a casual talk with new friends, regardless their nationality (i.e. they will laugh on it and keep on asking for the next riddle). I almost think that it is a universal riddle, when I finally found that most of my Japanese friend didn’t laugh much when they heard the riddle. (Well, may be it is because my Japanese still wasn’t good enough when I asked that question :-) ). Anyway, although that riddle doesn’t do the trick, I later found out that wordplay works well on most of my Japanese friends. And lucky me, there are a lot of homophone in Japanese words (the slight difference only on the intonation), that make it easy to do wordplay with them. For example the word hashi can mean both chopstick (箸) and bridge (橋), where ame can mean both rain (雨) and sweets (飴). (The intonations for both words are usually different for each region in Japan. For example, the intonation of hashi that suppose to mean 'bridge' in kansai (関西 - area in Japan where Osaka is located) would mean 'chopstick' in kantou (関東 - area in Japan where Tokyo is located)). And while it is usually hard to intentionally start a joke with those two words, there are other words that can be very useful for icebreaker.

Here are several wordplays that I have found work with my friends here:

しょうがない(shouganai)
The phrase above is equivalent with “there’s nothing else that we can do” in English. It is said when you get trapped into a situation that forced you to do something that you actually don’t want to do. Since shouga (生姜) can also mean ginger, the phrase above can be loosely translated into “there’s no ginger”/”we’re running out of ginger”. And the question now is: what can you do when you running out of ginger? Of course you can just buy ginger! So, when somebody tells you "しょうがない" (there’s nothing else that we can do), you can simply said "生姜買えばいいじゃん？"(Shouga kaeba ii jan? - We can just buy ginger, can’t we?)
("しょうがない" is actually a colloquial phrase. The grammatically correct sentence is "しようがない"(shiyouganai). That ginger trick won’t work on this, however, since shiyou (しよう) sounds a lot like shio (しお - 塩) which means salt, your response can be easily modified into "塩を買えばいいじゃん？"(Shio wo kaeba ii jan? - We can just buy salt, can’t we?)

憑かれる(tsukareru)
This will work when you use email (because the trick is on the kanji). When your friends ask you to go to party together and you are too tired to go, you can simply said that you are tired now (今ちょっと疲れているけど。。。- ima chotto tsukareteiru kedo...). There’s nothing wrong with the answer, however, if you switch the kanji into "今ちょっと憑かれているけど。。。"(both the kanji have the same pronunciation), it won't tell your friends that you are tired. Instead, it will tell them that you are being possessed (by ghost). If your friends have a good sense of humor, they will only laugh on it, however, if they are a serious type of person, I think they will pay you a visit soon with some psychics experienced to do exorcism.

睡眠(suimin)
You can use this for your self-introduction (自己紹介 - jiko shoukai). When you need to mention your hobby, you can just say that your hobby is suimin (私の趣味はすいみんです - watashi no shumi wa suimin desu). While it sounds a lot like swimming (Japanese sometimes using English words in daily conversation), it's actually translated into: My hobby is sleeping.

Caution: Please check whether your friends have some sense of humor or not before using them. There are times when - no matter how hard you try - they just doesn’t work, and you don’t need to push it. Just get back, relax, and try to find some other jokes... :-)

The Alchemist: Quest for What We Really Are

Three 'Santiago' in Odaiba, still unsure which path to choose...
Picture upload by Hello

(Written after read Nia's blog. For Nia, thanks for the idea... - hope you don't mind I composed this based on some of your thoughts)

Last week, Dito (uptown-girl from Sendai :-) ) visited Tokyo, and as good hosts, Nia and I showed her the way around. After our trip to Akihabara (standard place for Indonesian who visits Tokyo), we started to talk about The Alchemist. (The talk actually began with some ‘hiks’ that will be too long to be written here. Moreover, I only know little about those ‘hiks’ and I think Dito and Nia will skin me alive if I write it anyway :-) ).

Back to the alchemist - the story itself tells about a Spanish boy called Santiago (If you haven’t read the book and think that some of the funs of reading it will be lost if you know some of the events beforehand, you better skip these two paragraphs and start reading the third paragraph from here, or even better if you can get a copy of the book, read it, and back to this page. Finish it? Good, and back to the story...). From his childhood Santiago always wanted to travel and see new places other than his homeland, which led him to choose to become a shepherd, so he can go from place to place bringing his flocks to a new pasture. The story started when Santiago finally decided to ask for the hand of one girl that he liked and probably give up his nomadic way of life. At that time, when he was sleeping inside a ruin of church, he got a dream about treasure that he supposed to find. Unsure about the meaning of his dream, he asked a gypsy to read his dream. The gypsy told him (which cost him half of the treasure that he had not found yet) that there is treasure wait for him near the pyramids. Didn’t know what to do for quite sometimes, Santiago finally sold all of his sheep and set his quest for the treasure.

The road that he took was not at all an easy path. Got swindled to lost all of his money, caught between war in desert, it took months for Santiago to finally reach the pyramids. During his journey, he also made some new friends (one of it was the alchemist that became the title of the story), and also met Fatima, his (supposedly :-) ) true love. His journey went on, and to his surprise, once he got to the pyramids, he did not find any treasure. He even nearly beat up to death by a group of thieves. Did Santiago take his journey in vain and the story ended just like that? Of course not. Santiago got a hint from one of the thieves that there is a treasure buried under the ruin of church where he had slept and got his dream about the treasure before. The story ended with Santiago set his journey back to the ruins to claim his treasure, made the payment to the gypsy, and headed back to the desert village where Fatima waiting for him.

Well, it just a story, but we can always learn something from almost anything (even the pearl from the bottom of the sea has her own glow to be shared with us). The story told us (or at least I and other fans of Coelho – the author of the alchemist), that each of us has our own role living in this world (beside the religious aims that is identical for all). It is called ‘personal legend’ in this story. Although some roles seem to be bigger (or ‘cooler’) comparing to others, every single role is of the same importance. Personally, I sometimes envy some of my friends that seems to be luckier than me (having bigger/cooler role than me), when finally I realize that may be some other people envy me for what I’ve got. There is no need to envy others, because we have our own path, which will lead us to our own ‘treasure’ (well, inevitably I still cannot help envying others sometimes...).

Other thing that I like from this story is the spirit to always follow where the path that we like took us, to fight for it, and to be patient with it (for God always be with those who are patient). Like the Santiago story, he relentlessly fought his way to the pyramids and be patient with all the hard time that he had. It is right that he didn’t find his treasure near the pyramids, but it is from his journey that he got the revelation about the actual place of the treasure. Had he decided to abandon his quest to the pyramid, he would not found his treasure (although literally he had slept on it). And equally important, he will not meet Fatima, his true love.

From personal experience: I was nearly not coming to the Panasonic scholarship’s final selection when I got the invitation. I decided to come in the final moment because I thought there would be no harm if I follow the process. When I finally got the scholarship (even only as a substitute) and it is proven that I cannot found full scholarship in other places :-), I took the offer. May be it is really my path to come here in Japan and find my ‘personal legend’. And even if I cannot find it here, it is no big deal. I had learnt a lot from the past two years here, made new friends, chanced adventures, and I believe that there are still more new things to learn, new faces to meet, and new events to taste. Anyway, much much more important, may be I am supposed to meet my Fatima here... :-)

Sakura: Beginning of New Hope

Picture upload by Hello

My third spring in Japan, and also my third time to see my campus be filled with blooming sakura (桜, cherry blossom, prunus). Before ‘our’ first encounter two years ago, I thought I will soon get used to the flowers and become not too excited of having the chance to see them again in the next spring (one of it because I’m not too fancy with pink). However, it proved that I was wrong. Those fine-looking flowers still could take my breath away, even now. When winter comes close to an end and the south wind starts to blow the scent of spring (in Japan, the beginning of spring is marked with the wind from the Pacific), I always look forward to see the blooming sakura again, to simply stroll below the pinkish stalks even long after the sun has set, and to have party underneath the branches with my friends and let the petal falling on us like a wedding confetti (without bride and groom :-) ). And lucky me, this time nobody (at least here in Japan) would think of me as a lunatic stranger for doing so. Lots of people hold party underneath sakura tree at these time, and it is called hanami (花見; literal meaning would be ‘flower viewing’ - hana(花): flower, mi(見): see/view; dictionarial meaning is a picnic under the cherry blossom). In early spring you can get bunch of hanami invitations (last week I had hanami in almost every single day - and one of it lasted way until close midnight, and even one of my friends got three hanami invitations in the same day).

In general, Japanese consider this season of sakura as a special one. May be this is because sakura has special meaning to them. Blooming sakura are so fragile and ephemeral (the blossom only last for about a week, and it is easily destroyed by rain or wind), and Japanese think that it is resembles life and beauty (so delicate and fleeting). Beside that symbolism, sakura also closely associated with new beginning or new hope, for they marked the beginning of a new cycle of the year. The sakura blooms after the tree seems to ‘sleep’ during the winter, and the new buds bring out new hopes for the new season. (This part reminds me of the A-bomb story in Hiroshima. It was believed that for about 5 years after the bombing nothing would ever grow in the land nearby the hypocenter of A-bomb. However, in the next spring, the grass started to grow on the site, and so did the hope of Hiroshima people to build their city again. It was not sakura back then though, but the moral of the story is quite the same).

It is the second symbolism that comes to my mind whenever I see the flowers now. I came to Japan 2 years ago with a mix of feeling. Happy, for I finally could continue ‘my quest’; Sad, for the problem in my ‘love story’; Worried and relieved, since my parents had just recovered from traffic accident. I came to Japan when all my hope started to surface, and I was ready to restart my life again and made up for the mistakes I had committed in the past. And on that very day, I walked my first steps on my campus and got astonished by the view of sakura trees in front of main building. Since then sakura always bring the meaning of new hopes to me.

Now and then during the year, I like to take my time walking past those trees, recalling the moment, and feeling my spirit rise again. When the spring comes like now, it really brings me back to the time, and reminds me that there is almost always enough hope left in this world to restart life all over again. Sometimes the path is not easy, but it’s always good to give a try, for God never forsakes any good effort that we make.

Anyway, I feel that this song always fits my feeling when I stroll below the sakura tree…

...I, I'm a new day rising
I'm a brand new sky that hangs stars upon tonight...

It's times like these you learn to live again
It's times like these you give and give again
It's times like these you learn to love again
It's times like these time and time again...

Goukon - Survival Japanese for Bonggo

Picture upload by Hello

(Partially dedicated for Bonggo :-) )

Whenever I hear this word, it always reminds me of Bonggo, and that’s why I write this (you can call this “Survival Japanese for Bonggo” if you wish).

Actually this word is among the earliest words that I knew after my arrival in Japan. The first time I heard this word was on my Japanese class (it was a great class to have a lecture on this word :-) ). Prof. Yoshizawa was trying to explain us about ‘。。。なきゃよかった’ phrase (it’s a phrase to express repentance - I will not explain it here, though). She was giving example about inviting her friends to a goukon and then regretting for her friends were so beautiful that the counterpart group gave more attention to them. Half way through her explanation she realized that most of us (her students) just came to Japan and thus did not know about this goukon she was talking about.

So, what is goukon? (合コンって何？). From small hint mentioned above, you should have been able to make at least a close guess. Goukon is an occasion where a group of boys and a group of girls (with same number of members) meet and have party together (this is not a dictionarial definition, I can’t find the word in my dictionary). The Japanese character of this word consists of gou (合 – kanji, means fit), and kon (コン – katakana, abbreviation of kompa (コンパ), which means party). Thus, it can be easily inferred that this goukon main objective is to find a ‘special someone’ that fit you (and here is where the word ‘Bonggo’ fits in :-) ).

Goukon can be said as one of the current Japan’s pop culture and I think most of Japanese today’s generation have experience with this goukon. Some of my lab friends have goukon sometimes (they never invite me to goukon, for they think that I still have girlfriend in Indonesia, and I still want to keep them think so). My friend from other lab even has friends that have goukon almost every week. There are also handbooks (that being sold in 100 yen shop) on how to have a smashing goukon (not so surprising since Japanese are known as one of the best to create manuals) – one edition for boys and one editions for girls, each mentions what are the things that need extra attention when having goukon with a particular types of boys or girls (our laboratory have one, and Yanagita told me to read it just in case I need it one day :-) ).

And even though this goukon is a well-known term, like any other terms, there are lots of different opinions about it. One of my friends hints me that goukon can end up into something that I better not mention here (for I don't want this sites of thing to be rated unsuitable for kids :-) ), while my other friend told me that the boldest step that you may ever do when you like someone in your goukon is asking his/her phone number.

For the closing of this “Survival Japanese for Bonggo”, here are sentences for asking to be invited in a goukon.

• Will you invite me to a goukon?
• 合コンに誘ってくれませんか。(Goukon ni sasotte kuremasen ka?) – Polite/textbook sentence (if there is ever a textbook explaining about goukon)
• 合コンに誘ってくれない。(Goukon ni sasotte kurenai?) – Normal conversational sentence (recommended one)

And again, for Bonggo: ganbatte (頑張って), he he he…