Every Cloud has Silver Lining...

I was planning to go to Tokyo Tower on the new year eve, and due to my special ability to get lost :-), I mistook the street on my way there. Finally I was able to reach the tower, but I didn't stay long there, since it was cold and there were couples around while I'm on my own... :-) Anyway, on my way of getting lost :-), I accidentally went to Aoyama doori, and I found Haagen-dazs store there. Well, it was a good place to rest and try to reroute again my way...

Sushi Festa

After finishing my Ramadhan this year, Yanagita, Konishi, and Kurata invited me to have a dinner outside, in an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. It was no ordinary restaurant, because if you don't reserve beforehand you can't dine there (Yanagita always knows special places to eat :-) ). And after eat my first sushi there, I quickly know why the place is special - the piece of sushi is half the normal one, but it really delicious...

When we had to pay the bill (different from most of the all-you-can-eat restaurant where you have to pay beforehand, we pay after we finished here), Kurata just dragged me outside and let Yanagita and Konishi paid. He said that this was a party for me for finishing Ramadhan so they treated me that night... really touching, specially when it came from non-moslem like them...

Great News for Ozoners

Congratulation for Octo for the birth of his daughter!!!! (and the second of the Ozoners' heir...) Hope Ghania will grow healthy and inherited not only the great trait of her parents, but also those of her fabulous uncles and aunties here :-)
Additional fact about Octo, he once gulped (a bit) of phenol solution while doing ozoners experiment. So, if any of you out there (intentionally or not) happened to have an experience of drinking phenol (as if plenty who like to have phenol as their softdrink :-) ), don't worry, you still have the chance to have offspring :-)

Kitten Home Stay

My neighbor needed to go out of town for a while, and they asked whether I would like to take care of their kitten for a night. It's been years that I didn't live with cats, so I quickly receive the offer.
Well, the kitten was cute, and as a normal kitten would do, it sniffed curious around my room, and also followed me wherever I go. Anyway, there's no big accident during the kitten stay, and I'm glad that I can return her save and sound the next morning....

The First of the Ozoners' Heir

Well, he should be, unless one of us has hidden children... :-) 'Aabid, mbak Eva's son, around 1 year old in the picture (I forgot to ask the birthday...)
Hope he'll be grow to be an amazing person... just like his parents... (I don't know what mbak Eva said if she read this... :-) )

Argentinean Niece

This is Alma, my first niece from Argentina :-).
Well, my friend Fernanda gave birth to her baby girl last June (and unfortunately I just got their picture today...)
Fernanda is very special woman, and I'm really proud that I could call her friend (and that's why I put their picture here). Like I told you above, she gave birth to her baby in June 26, while the following month she had to do her master defense (and of course, writing her thesis in the course). And everything went splendid for her, her thesis and her baby.
Considering about that, nothing actually change during her maternity period: she still went swimming regularly, attending the classes, and actively participating in the discussion (with her well-known Spanish accent :-) ). Anyway, it always great to have a plucky friends around you, to tap to their strength when you need it (and of course to let them tap to your strength when they need it), and I'm more than sure that Fernanda is one of that kind of friends.
(I wish I could find a girl as strong as her one day... :-), anyway, I always like super-girl...)

High Time for Origamist

Just visited Sendai for Tanabata matsuri. Thanks to Dito, I had a complete vacation of Sendai, visiting all of the important spot there, plus a party (too bad that the karaoke was cancelled...) - さすがA型だね。。。
This is the picture of one of the ornaments hanged on the street during the festival (plus Dito, :-) ). We noticed that loads of the ornaments were adorned by origami, most of them being the crane. Dito said it looked like people that can do origami would get a lot of money if they could sell their talent during the festival... well, I should try to do that next time... :-)

Steal a Glance

I was asked by prof. Sato to become the MC for international student welcome party in May, and after knowing that, Seada told me that she'd take the pictures for me. Everything went well actually, but knowing that Seada was going to take my picture made me steal a look several time to the audience - not to address them but to look for her. And, as the picture shows, she took the photo exactly when I stared at her (well, a little bit embarrassed, because Liu (the other MC) looked very business-like, while I seemed not to take it seriously at all...:-) ). Seada also put this picture on her blog and commented: "still manage to steal a look..."
About a month after the party prof. Sato happened to meet Pecolin (my homestay mother) and she said thanks to her that I was helping her to become the MC at the party (it a custom in Japan - and I think everywhere else - to say thanks not only to the people who help but also to the people who close to the one who help - such as his family - and most of the people here already considered me as a part of Pecolin family).
"He became MC in the party?", Pecolin said after accepting the gratitude. "Well, I should ask him to become MC in our party next time!"
And all I could do now is wishing that she forget about that MC stuff...

Girl in Skirt

You know how hard is it to find girl wearing skirt in TITech? (well, may be it's also fair to say that it's hard to find girl here :-) ). As the school name suggests, it's an engineering school which means that more boys than girls, specially in my part of campus where most of the building belong to chemical and mechanical engineering. So, one day when I found Yesim wearing skirt, I just asked her to follow me to the emergency stair (where hardly anyone pass) and asked whether I may took her picture. Quite a strange request, but Yesim didn't mind at all, so here is the picture.
(Good that she didn't suspect me anything - and scream :-) - when I asked her to the emergency stair...)

To Begin with...

This picture was taken by Tita when I was attending international day at Magome Kindergarten. I chose this picture to begin with, because it was Tita who gave me the idea to start this blog.
I started a blog in wierdo's spiel, and it was actually just for blogging experiment, since at that time I still didn't know what kind of blog that I wanted to conjure. I just threw anything I have there, and watched it develop as time went by. However, weirdo's spiel evolved faster than I thought, and after only several entries it had already found its form, that made me not able use it as experimental playground anymore (and some of my friends told me that they like the contents, which make me feel bad if I change its style...). Much that I love to write for other people, sometimes I like to write for myself, where I can do it freely and not be care too much about what other people thinking. I think about starting a new blog privately, but I couldn't make up what kind of tone that I wanted to brush, so the idea just hanging there for quite sometimes... until one day when I went hiking and Tita was in the party.
It was after I took some pictures that Tita started to notice something.
"You know, the way you take pictures is different with other people that I know."
"Really?"
She nodded. "You're not taking pictures because you think the object is charming, isn't it?"
After thinking for a while I began to realize that she was right. Most of the times, I take pictures not for an aesthetic reason, I take it because I find something interesting in it that can be told. And from Tita's notion, the idea of the new blog dawned on me: why don't I make a blog that the main content is just something that I think interesting enough to put? It doesn't have to be my own work, it can be anything - really anything - that I think interesting enough for me. No matter what others think - it is really a blog of my own...
So here it is.
And a bit about the picture above:
It was on one play that we had in Magome kindergarten's international day. There's a story about farmer that found a big radish, and he tried to pull it home. It was so big that he couldn't make it by himself, thus he called the whole family, including dog, cat, and mouse (farmer has a mouse as a pet?) and finally they succeeded in pulling it off the ground. And what happened next can be easily guess, they cooked the radish and had a party.
And as the picture suggests, international students were supposed to be the radish... :-)
And different from what I usually do, Tita took the picture not because she thought that there'd be a story that could be told from it. She took it because she thought that I look cute with the radish headband :-)