Itoen's Commercial

At Honjo Foundation's year end party, and Dito and I were wondering how would we do if we have to do a promotion for Itoen. I really don't know how to act so the result is above... I wonder whether people will still buy Itoen's beverages if the picture is used in a promotion campaign... :-)

Feels Like Home

I was staying in Ari's place during my stay in Jakarta, and know what, the moment I stepped into his apartment, I quickly know that it was his room. Well, no matter whether he lives in a student boarding house in Kukusan or in a sky-crapping apartment in Kuningan, you'll quickly know that it's his place... :-). Well, it's messy, but really comfortable to live in... :-)

I wonder how will his house will be after he marry with Elah... :-)

To Steal A Heart in Less than An Hour

I attended conference in Jogja this December, and since my professor told me that it's okay if I wanna take a time to go home (Jogja only several hours by car from my hometown), I took the chance (anyway, it's been 3 years that I'm not home...). Yuki, one of my Japanese friends, happened to be in Jogja, and she asked whether it was okay for her to visit my home. My family said it's okay as long as she can stand the mosquitos (there are loads of them in my home :-) ), so when I finished the conference and went to Sidoarjo, she came along.

Yuki quickly established good relation with my family (because her blood type is O? :-) ). However, Dinda, my 4 year-old niece, cried the first time she met her. Mbak Ope, Dinda's mother, told me that Dinda was jealous that Yuki came to our house. She tought that if Yuki's around, I'll spend more time with Yuki than with her.

However, it only took less than an hour for Yuki to win Dinda's heart. I just can't explain, there's something about her that make you quickly like her. Even my sister said that even though she just met Yuki for a couple of days, she felt like she'd already known her for a long time. May be it's just simply that Yuki's quite straightforward, that my family quickly trust her, and consequently, like her.

Anyway, the next day when Dinda visited my home, the first thing that she asked was, "Where's aunt Yuki?"
Seemed like her heart was really stolen... :-)

Perfect Couple

I brought Japanese dolls as souvenir for my friends, and when I told Ari to take two (one for him and one for Elah), he picked these two. The blue one is 新撰組 (shinsengumi - read 流浪に剣心(Rurouni Kenshin - Samurai X) or other 幕末漫画 (Bakumatsu manga - comic with setting in the end of Edo period) if you don't know them :-) ), and the white one is 花嫁 (hanayome - bride).

I think Ari indeed know what the two of the dolls portrayed, that's why I wonder why he's picking them... is it mean that I will receive 'the invitation' soon? :-)
No offence bro... :-)

Lunch Box of The Expedition Leader

It'll be sunny this weekend! Pack your back, we'll go hiking!

Autumn is a great season for hiking, for it's already cool and the foliage would sure take your breath away. Sato-san asked whether I would like to join the trip to mount Takao, and even though it's already close to my departure day for a conference in Indonesia, I said I'd be glad to join.

The night before the day, I received a mail from Fujiko-san, who told me that she'd prepare lunch box for me, so I need to bring no food at all. Fujiko-san always makes Gratin for me during pot-luck party, but this is the first time she would make something for me for a hiking, so I was thinking that there's something behind it :-). However, since the team would depart early the next morning, I just said yes, and decided to asked her first thing in the morning why she'd bother prepare the lunch box for me.

We gathered at Nagahara station, and the first time I saw her I asked her the reason.
"Sato-san asked you to be the team leader today, so I prepared your lunch box for the reward."
"Team leader? I've heard nothing about it."
"Then I forgot to let you know...",Fujiko-san laughed, "But anyway, you've been going hiking for many time, right? I think you don't need any preparation to lead the team."
I protested in vain, and when Sato-san saw me, he just simply said "チームリーダー宜しくお願いします！" (Chiimu riidaa, yoroshiku onegaishimasu! - I can't find a good translation for this sentence, but more or less it means "Please become the team leader". However, it feels different when you hear it in English compared to when you hear it in Japanese).

So I became the team leader. Anyway, Fujiko-san had bribed me with the lunch box, so I had nothing to complain about. Lucky me, the hiking went without major problems, and as usual, I got lost on the way :-). I could lead them safely to the destination, anyway.

"It's not that hard, isn't it?", said Fujiko-san when she handed me my lunch box.
"Well, it's okay, but I would really appreciate if you told me beforehand next time."
Fujiko-san laughed. "I'll try next time, if I don't forget."

Anyway, we went downhill after the lunch (and some pictures :-) ), and I'm glad there was no major accident in the 'first expedition' that I led. Because it seemed that Sato-san would like to asked me to be the team leader again next year when we go to mount Fuji, this time I really have to prepare, so I won't make my team lost in the way... :-)

Why's Indonesia Never Get Advanced...

... because even tough we have work to do, we always have time to stop and take pictures :-) (quoted from Zalfany). But for those of you who have keen sense of limelight (i.e., you tend to turn and make a "V" sign with your finger every time there's someone focusing their camera on you :-) ), don't worry: as long as you can differentiate between the time you should concentrate on your work and the time when you should worry about how photogenic you are　:-), you won't have problem. 空気を読めれば。。。

More photo's from 工大祭 here...

Omikoshi Festival

Omikoshi festival at Jiyuugaoka. Cool costumes, too bad that we had to return it...

The Right Time

Do you know that sometimes the right timing plays important role in what you do? Like when you say to the girl that you like that you like her at the right time, everything will go smooth?

Well, the picture doesn't have any relation with love anyway :-). It was when I went hiking at tsukuba-san with some Hippo members. There were some gliders cruising around the peak when we reached the top. Tita was telling me that she would like to have her picture taken with the glider, when, as if hearing what she said, the glider turned and move closer to where we were. There was only few seconds to take the picture and the result was shown above.

The glider never went close to the peak again that day. It's really the perfect timing... :-)

Why's everybody should be in pink?

Matsuda-san invited me to a bon-odori festival in Yokohama. Since I've never been to a bon-odori festival before, and since Matsuda-san also gave me a jinbei (甚平 - one of Japanese casual wear for summer) to wear there, I automatically accepted the invitation. Miyuki happened to be there, and since Matsuda-san had just taught her how to wear yukata's obi (帯 - belt), she said that she'd come wearing yukata.

The day came and I went to Matsuda-san house. Not only me, two girls from Korea and one girl from Malaysia were also invited to the festival. The moment I entered Matsuda-san house I was thinking that it was valentine - (almost) everybody wore pink (well, pink yukata is quite a cliche wear on Japanese festival). Yuna-chan and her friend wore pink yukata, while even though not wearing yukata, Nazli wore pink hijab. Of course the (cliche :-) ) compliment came from me: "可愛い (kawaii: cute!)" (well, it's cliche, but they indeed look cute in pink :-) ). Thanks God that Matsuda-san wore pale-blue yukata, so I didn't have to go with all pink group :-).

Miyuki mailed me that she still had problem with the obi ("it started to fall down when I walked"), so we went first. It took around 30 minutes to the festival, and I saw some more pink there :-). (It might sound that I hate pink, but actually I don't hate it at all. It's just that I got tired to see cliche things around :-) ). A lot of stands there, and the first stand that we visited was... goldfish scooping (Ryo-kun, Matsuda-san's son wanted to try that. I'm glad that the goldfish was red, not pink :-) ). Well, it is also a cliche game at a summer festival, but at least I could show off some knack there - specially in front of girls (too bad that Miyuki had not came yet :-) ) . I finally gave the goldfish that I got to Ryou-kun.

The bon-odori finally started, and now I began to wonder whether the dress code of the festival was pink :-). Rumi-chan dragged us to the dancing ground, and I started to dance - among the pink :-). Well, it was quite fun. There was a break for the dance, and some elementary school students perform taiko (太鼓 - Japanese traditional drum). At that time I heard Miyuki voice from behind, "お待たせ (omatase: sorry to make you wait)"

I turned, be prepared to see yet another girl in pink and say the cliche word "可愛い", but when my sight struck on her, "格好いい (kakkou ii: cool!)" was the word that came from my mouth (automatically, well, she indeed looked cool... :-) ). Miyuki was wearing a dark yukata with (unfortunately again :-) ) pink obi, but at least there was a different sight eventually :-). And it seemed that the obi was alright, not falling :-).

The rest of the festival was fun, even though it's full of cliche things. There was some more dancing and lottery (we won cooking oil :-) ). And like all cliche date on Japanese summer festival (by what definition could I call it a date? :-) ), Miyuki and I ended up sharing takoyaki (たこ焼き - octopus ball) and drank ramune (ラムネ - Japanese traditional carbonated drink). All that's missing was hanabi (花火 - firework)... Well, the cliche thing didn't end just like that. When we went home, again we said the cliche greeting: "楽しかったね (tanoshikatta ne: It was fun, wasn't it?)"
(Actually, the standard expression is "楽しかったです(tanoshikatta desu: it was fun)", anyway, Miyuki and I had said that we would never used polite Japanese to each other, so we used the plain form...).

Sometimes it's good to be cliche... :-)

Disneysea Cruise

Went to disneysea with girls that 10 to 12 years younger than me :-)

Sani was homestaying at one of hippo members, and when her host asked her to go to disneysea together, Sani asked me to come along.

Anyway, since most of the rides are intended for two, and usually Sani stayed with Shoko (her host), most of the time I rode the rides with Maha - Shoko's friend. She's 12 years younger than me (well, almost 12 years younger actually, since her birthday only 6 days differs from mine), however, we still could hold a great conversation - I didn't feel the age gap and so did her (several times she said disbelievingly, "Are you really 29 years-old?" :-) )

One memorable trip...

Overdrive

(So far, two of my four karaokes this year started with this song (yes, it's not just one of the songs, it's the starting song), and at that two karaoke I was the only non Japanese in the room... well, what I wanna tell you is that this song quite popular among Japanese, specially in summer. Come to think of it, all of my karaoke in Japan always has Judy and Mary's song if there is a Japanese girl in the party... You can see the Judy and Mary's clip here)

もっと遊んで指を鳴らして呼んでいる声がするわ
本当も嘘も興味が無いのよ
指先からすり抜けてく欲張りな笑い声も
ごちゃ混ぜにしたスープに溶かすから
夜に堕ちたらここにおいで。。。
教えてあげる最高のメロディ

あなたはいつも泣いてる様に笑ってた
迷いの中で傷つきやすくて
地図を開いていたずらにペンでなぞる
心の羽根はうまく回るでしょ
音に合わせて靴を鳴らして
あたしだけの秘密の場所

走る雲の影を飛び越えるわ
夏のにおい追いかけて
あぁ夢はいつまでも覚めない
歌う風のように。。。

夜に堕ちたらここにおいで
宝物を見つけられるよ
信じてるの。。。

愛しい日々も恋も優しい歌も
泡のように消えてくけど
あぁ今は痛みとひきかえに
歌う風のように。。。

走る雲の影を飛び越えるわ
夏の日差し追いかけて
あぁ夢はいつまでも覚めない
歌う風のように。。。

(Judy and Mary)

Omikuji Machine

Yuka accepted one girl from Singapore staying at her house for a week, and when they went for a small trip to Kamakura, Yuka asked me to go along just in case there's a problem on the way (actually, there's nothing to worry about since Stella (the Singaporean girl) can speak a comprehensible Japanese, and Yuka's English isn't bad at all).

Anyway, we found this omikuji machine in Kamakura. Omikuji is one of Japanese fortune teller, you shake a box full of sticks with number and make one of the stick go out from a hole in the box. The monk will give you the fortune teller paper based on the number on the stick that you draw. However, with this machine there is no monk, you just put your money and the machine will give you the fortune teller paper directly. Well, a combination of technology and mystic (religion?). Very Japanese indeed... :-)

Spider Attack!

I already take pics several times here, but it's always cool to be taken again...

GP in Tokyo

I don't know why suddenly there's a lot of GP96ers that come to Japan, anyway, Rita was coming to Tokyo, and we had the time to visit Olive and her family...

Radish on the Apron

Another big radish story (read the first entry of this blog if you wanna know more on it). Fujiko-san found an apron for the story, and when she spotted me at potluck party at Sumikawa's family, she dragged me to another embarrass-yourself-in-public mission: to tell the story with the apron in Indonesian (and guess who's the one who should wear the apron...).
I always ready to do that kind of things if I have the right 'accomplice', and since Fujiko-san herself never refuse to embarrass herself in public, the show began... It was not bad for a start, and I think we'll perform better if there's another chance to embarrass ourselves again in the future... and I think there'll be plenty of them... :-)

No Guide Required

Maul came to Japan and when I had the chance to visit him, he asked me to guide him and two of his friends (or bosses?) to Roppongi. Well, actually it was a wrong places to ask me as a guide, because (unlike normal foreigner in Japan) I rarely went to Roppongi (anyway, did I ever mention that I am normal? :-) ), and lots of guys already offered to guide us to 'that kind of places' since we set our feet there :-).
The pictures was taken after we survive the chase of those 'friendly guides' :-). Anyway, Maul told me that the next time he come to Japan, he will ask me to guide him to the places where a guide really needed. Looking forward to that!

Say Cheese and You're on TV

The third Hirose laboratory study tour (study tour was the name indeed, but it's actually a vacation :-) ), and even though we never been part of Hirose laboratory, for the third time Makii and I joined the trip :-).

It was in the BBQ that Hayashi-san saw the pocket of Calbee, and he told us that there's a photo contest held by Calbee, with the winning picture will be used in TV commercial. With the additional incentive of Calbee supply for the whole year (that's the actual prize), it wasn't hard to pull all to strike a pose in front of the camera.

Now I just realize that I haven't sent the picture yet to the contest... Don't know what to tell Hayashi-san if he find it out... :-)

Another Jumbo Ice Cream...

Another jumbo ice cream, and this time at Fuuka's and my birthday...
The taste was strawberry, since we'd tried chocolate before. May be blueberry next time?

Old Curse Hard to Wear Off...

Ari used to trust his camera to me to take pictures of gp96 events, and I don't know why, up to now that kind of jobs are often being entrusted to me - even for a non gp96's event.

There was a honjo presentation last week, and since Kawashima-san was off for a visit to Korea, I was asked by Miura-san to take the video of the presentation. The funny thing is that Miura-san never saw me take picture or video before...

Anyway, there was no problem at all with the video taking, and after one week, I received one box of Itoen drink... :-)

Failed Charm

Tita and her son Tomoki were visiting Aki's house, and I was also invited to have dinner together. It's been a while that I didn't meet them, so I wonder how big Tomoki-kun now (he's around one year at that time). When I arrived it was Aki who's opened the door, and at the time Tomoki-kun heard my voice, he started crying.
"It seems that your charm didn't work on boys, isn't it?", Aki was laughing (so far I have no problem with small kids, and even some of them didn't refuse when I hold them around in the first meeting, that's why Aki sometimes think that I use charm :-) )

Anyway, gradually Tomoki-kun began to used to with my presence, so he didn't cry anymore. Tita said that her husband was very busy that Tomoki only had little time to play with his father - the thing that we thought to be the cause of his shyness.

Thinking about it, I and my sister mbak Tini were also shy when we were kids (and still now, I think :-) ), while my brother mas Yudhi and sister mbak Wiwin were very outgoing. I can remember that in my childhood I hardly had time to play with my father (my father was so busy when I was a kid) - seems like the same reason for Tomoki-kun's problem.

I just can hope that Tita can find a way to solve the problem... anyway, I think I would try to spend time as much as possible with my kids (if I have :-) ), and also make them meet a lot of people during their growth, so they won't grow bashful like me... :-)

And more important, I think I should change to a more stronger charm... :-)

Karaoke Party

Yoriko-san was about to leave for UK for one-year stay, and since she's crazy about karaoke, we (we? actually it was Miyuki's idea...) made a karaoke party for her. Yoriko-san was around 50 years-old, so you can expect that most who came were also around her age... among 8 who came, only me and Miyuki who were still under 30...

At first I was worry what kind of song that I would sing... they were all Japanese and I didn't know at all what Japanese songs that were hit at their time. But Miyuki told me that I could sing any song that I want, so I just picked some song that I like. My first song was L.O.V.E from Nat King Cole, and I was really glad that most of them know the song (lucky me, it was used for CM song in Japan some times ago). During the course I tried to control my desire to pick Bon Jovi song :-), I didn't sing Bon Jovi at all, but I sang Aerosmith... :-) In the end, I realized that it doesn't matter whether the other know my song or not - as long as it's a good song, everybody will happy to hear it - and they might try to sing it as well...

Jumbo Ice Cream

Going out with my master-course-time friends, and since Kurata's birthday was close, we order a big ice cream buffet. A big one, but less that 10 minutes it's already over...

Experiment with Natto

Visiting Akamatsu elementary school again, and this time the students made a presentation to us on Japanese culture. There were lots of interesting stuffs, range from koto to manga, but the most impressive one was presentation about natto. They didn't only present the standard fact of natto, but they also presented the result of their own survey (like: why some Japanese don't like natto?). Moreover, they were also experimenting with natto: how to make it easier to eat (specially for those who hate it). Well, according to the test, natto fried rice get a quite good appraisal. I also ate it there (they even made natto fried rice for the audience!), and it was good (I don't hate natto anyway, so my view was not count :-) ).

Coming home from the presentation, I was thinking why I didn't have such a class when I was a kid. It should be fun to have a small project by our own, and then present it to other people. I think to do something that we like will result to a greater result than usual...

Iwashi-gumo

This picture was taken a while ago, when Makii and I went home together. She noticed the cloud in the sky and told me that it was iwashi-gumo, a cloud that tell you it will be snowing the next day. The shape of the cloud is similar to the tail fin of sardine (iwashi), and that's where the name comes from. Anyway, it was snowing hard the next day... :-)