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...)
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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?)
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(“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...
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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...)
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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...)
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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... :-) )
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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...
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(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... :-)