Happy Birthday TC!

Happy Birthday TC! Thx for giving me so much fun!

Whatever you guys are doing right now, good luck! Pursue your dream!

*TC was the name of my band in high school. Don't ask me what TC stands for. It's kinda embarassing.. :)

Photos..

These are pics that I edited recently. I like these ones! Thx to Corel Photo Paint! Yeay..

Pic above is photo of Osaka Castle. I took it during my trip to Osaka, when the sakura was just bloomed.

Pic above is a photo of one shrine building inside Shitennoji Shrine complex.

Yea, you know this one, no? This is Tsutenkaku. One of the pride of Osaka.

Hope you enjoy those pics also! See you..

Back again! (& story from atomic bomb memorial 2010 in Hiroshima)

Heeeeeyeeeyyy!!!

I know its like a decade ago since I posted my last post. Blame my never-ending reports, seminars, presentations, and exams!! I curse you, reports! Seminars! Presentations! Exams! Damn!I want to rectify what I wrote in this blog that the assignments here are nothing compared to ITB. It's reaaaaalllyyy tiring. I definitely must improve my time management ability.

Ok, enough complaining. Time for giving something new to this blog.

This time, I want to tell you about the memorial of atomic bomb dome in Hiroshima. Obviously, it is held every year (6th August) to recall back the moment of atomic bombing in Hiroshima.

The memorial was divided into two parts. The first part was some kind of ceremony that was attended by many important persons in this world. The second was some kind of free concert in the park and the releasing of lanterns to Motoyasu River in Peace Park Hiroshima. Because I had class in the morning (hell, yeah), so I could only attend the concert. It was great though. Here are some pics from the Peace Park.

The Picture above is the (famous?) atomic bomb dome in Hiroshima.

The people in those boats are in charge of releasing all lanterns to Motoyasu River.

The Crowds. It was pretty crowded though. I guess there were more than 1000 people there at that time.

Those are the lanterns floating on the river. Pretty, huh?

At that time I realized one thing: My camera is sooooo damn bad! Especially for taking picture in the dark with less light. Need to buy a new one I think. Haha. Lets see..

That's it for today. See you in next post. Hope it wont be too long this time. ;D

Toba Lake

Hi world!

This time we meet again quite soon, eh? haha.. Yup, thx to my mood for editing these old photos, I can get the spirit to update this blog again. This time I wont tell you about Japan. I will tell you about Toba Lake in Sumatra island. For you guys who don't know or never been there. I'll explain a bit about it to you.

Toba Lake is the biggest lake in Indonesia (cmiiw). It is located in northern part of Sumatra island. You can see the location of the lake in the map below.

As you can see in the map below, the uniqueness of this lake is there is an island in the center of the lake. The island's name is Samosir island. The lake is located in the central of North Sumatra province, besides the city of Parapat. It takes about 4-5 hours to get to Parapat city from Medan (the capital of North Sumatra province) by car.
Pictures below are pictures of Parapat city, Toba Lake, and Samosir Island. Since these pics are very old ones and I took them from my cell's camera, so the quality may not be that good. But, anyway, just enjoy the beauty of Toba Lake! ;D

These are the pictures of Parapat city.

These are the pics of the lake.

There is one hill on the side of the lake that is called "batu gantung" (hanging stone in English). If you can see in the pic above (may be not. Sorry), there is a stone that is hanged naturally. The locals have their own story about this stone. If I'm not mistaken, the story is about a woman who was betrayed by her boyfriend, and decided to kill herself by jump into the lake from the hill. Suddenly, she turned into stone.

Anyway, these are the pics of Samosir Island.

In the island, there is a very old, famous wooden puppet that is called Sigale-gale. This puppet, controlled by human, can dance the tranditional dance of Batak tribe (the tribe that originally from North Sumatra), Tor-tor dance.

See, you can even dance with the puppet with traditional music of Batak tribe called "Gondang".

That's all for this time. If you have chance, just visit Toba Lake and enjoy the beauty of Toba Lake and Samosir Island yourself. ;D

See ya.

Tottori (鳥取 )

Hello world..

This Semester is just like hell!!! So many assignments, papers and presentation to do. And this week, for the first time since I arrived in Japan, my sinusitis relapse again. Nice timing, don't you think? Also, you have to know that medicine in Japan is weak but expensive. So, even I've been taking medicine for about a week, I still have this damn sinusitis.

Ok, stop complaining. This time I want to tell you about my trip to Tottori. Tottori is located between Okayama and Kyoto. It took about 4 hours to get to Tottori from Higashi Hiroshima by bus. I went there on June 19, but thanks to this busy semester and this laziness of mine, I can only post it now.

Tottori is not the biggest cities in Japan. Even though Tottori city is the capital of Tottori prefecture, but it is definitely much smaller than Hiroshima city. Here are some pictures of my trip:

Yes, another Shrine in Japan. This shrine actually sells some kind of charm that could bring you wealth. (it is what the staff told us).

Then I went to some kind of lake (sorry, I dont know the name of the lake) where there are many unique, big corals. They are pretty, though.

Then, look at the food I ate in the restaurant there! The food was superb! That meal set had some kind of sashimi (fish, oyster, and shrimp) that you can grill, crab rice, and soup. You can even take more shrimp as much as you can! It was all-you-can-eat-type. Wooooww.. I cant resist the temptation of uploading this picture. Hahahaha..

Here we go to the best part of my trip ;D ...

The best part of Tottori is its mini desert. Yes, desert in Japan. Amazing, no? But, I think the desert is artificial one, since there are many artificial things here. Haha. At least it is beautiful.

And, next to the desert, there is a sand museum. Sand museum? Yes, every statue or sculpture here is made by sand. Because when I went there was the time of World Cup 2010 in South Africa, so the theme of this museum was 'Africa'.

As you can see, the theme was Africa. Haha. Great, no?

Ok, that's the report of my Tottori trip. See you in my next post.

And, please wish me luck on my next math exam. T_T

Konbini

Hell-ow again world.

This time I would like to tell you about KONBINI in Japan. Konbini is a convenience store in Japanese pronounciation. And, yeah, you can see one of these konbini every 100 meter. There are loads of the brands of konbini in Japan, but I think the ones in the pictures below are the most popular here.

First, Family Mart.

You know this one. Yes, true. Seven Eleven.

Lawson.

Popura (it literally means "popular" in English).

And, you also know this one. Yup, this is Circle K.

Picture above is the area where I live in Saijo, and you can see the symbols of Family Mart and 2 of 7 Eleven stores there.

These konbinis will help you so much during your life in Japan. Even though Japan is an advance country, but you will rarely see shops that open until midnight, especially in small town like Saijo. The shopping center and restaurants usually closes at 9 P.M and the department store near Hiroshima University campus only open until 11 PM. So this konbini really helps a lot when we need something in the middle of the night, or in the very early morning.

Because these konbinis literally mean "convinient stores", they are really convinient. Different from convinient store like Circle K in Indonesia (sorry, I dont know the condition in other countries :D), you can get many additional services here. First, they got ATM service. This helps you when you really need money and no bank open. Especially with this "unique" ATM service provided by banks in Japan. The services are only available mainly from 9 AM to 6 PM. Yup, no 24 H ATM service beside in konbinis in a country as powerful as Japan.

But, please think twice when you plan to withdraw your money in konbini, because they will charge you around 200 Yen (2 dollars) for each time you withdraw your money. So, if its not for emergency state, I dont recommend you to withdraw your money by Konbini.

Second, you can pay (almost) any bill here. Gas, electricity, water, even health insurance bill you can pay here. convenient isnt it? You do not have to go to the office of those provider, just go and pay in nearest konbini from your place.

Third, they got you unique snack, like Japanese "Oden" and liquor and many alcohol drink, like wine, beer or anything.

Fourth, they got porn magazines and books sold freely here. Yes, freely. You just have to be older than 20 years old to be permitted to read and buy this stuffs. I think Japan is the only country in Asia that allows porn magazines and books sold freely. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Owkaaayyy... That's all for today.

I am sorry that I didnt have time to take picture of these konbinis, so I took them from other source in the net.

Thx to:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2161/2148009539_1f0dc16061.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrlDmmqazVh2gTy96pnlG1w4y7wZw524Q0XVAN7DhXo3gUtS9VW2JjUAp2rgHMsQENcTLcUB3XAKfL8kINuW2XswcMIWr3rx2-xTs4xqao6adpYOYzaz025i-NX9o4rmbia4RH1EcYc48/s400/DSC_0274.JPG

http://g-edu.kmd.keio.ac.jp/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/lawson01.jpg

http://www.uni-europa.org/UNIsite/Sectors/Commerce/Activities/Tokyostore2.jpg

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX1JwWJlFiFIFFCJNUoS8VcqRfJd7tIPrOEx4JSjslxjrM3_rM66C27S16K-H_nagTJ94MH7x4vvIqdDz-B5MzVExNjBrgBoTWGqov3nO4HrpYVwp4s0jwyMT3u2mR6Q9Sg8eAHr3N_Bs/s400/Konbini+4.jpg

Patriotic Song

Hell-o world.

Just visit someone's Facebook profile, and I got this beautiful song. This song has been one of my favorite since I was a kid. Its title is "Tanah Airku Tidak Kulupakan".

And, yes, this is a patriotic song. For you who's not Indonesian, I'll do some favor to you and explain about this song. This song tells us that wherever in this world we go, even to the most beautiful countries in the world, we will never forget our homeland, Indonesia.

And, since now I am living in Japan, the song got its point even more. I feel even in Japan life is much more comfortable, but for me, still I heart Indonesia the most. Its people, its traffic, its nature, everything.

You feel the same for your own homeland, don't you? :D

Here's the song:

This is the lyric:

Tanah airku tidak kulupakan
Kan terkenang selama hidupku
Biarpun saya pergi jauh
Tidak kan hilang dari kalbu
Tanahku yang kucintai
Engkau kuhargai

Walaupun banyak negri kujalani
Yang masyur permai dikata orang
Tetapi kampung dan rumahku
Di sanalah kurasa senang
Tanahku tak kulupakan
Engkau kubanggakan

Composer: "Ibu" Soed