Hiking!

Last Sunday, June 9th, I went hiking with some of the anthropology class members. We went to Mt. Takao and Mt. Kobotoke Shiroyama. The professor told us that we walked for around 10 kilometres in total that day! Weeew, no wonder that my feet are still tired even today. Hahaha. So, let me share the adventure through the video below. Enjoy! :)

Graduation Yeay!

Alhamdulillah...

Finally I officially finished my undergraduate study last March 20th. Felt so blessed and happy that I got to spend the day with my family (minus my dad though because he refused to come --") and friends. The happy moment became more wonderful because of them :D

At the university where I studied, students who are graduating for undergraduate and graduate schools do not wear graduation toga like at most universities in Indonesia or other countries. But there is a custom for female students (especially the undergrads one) to wear kimono and hakama (袴). In the past two years, my Indonesian female seniors wore Kebaya. Then I thought it would be nice to wear kebaya because it would let people know about Indonesian traditional clothing. But kebaya isn't specifically worn for graduation. We can wear it for other events or occasions. I wanted to wear something indicating graduation, you know, for the sake of special memory :p That's why I chose to wear hakama :D It's common for Japanese students to rent hakama from rental shops. Although they're Japanese, not everyone of them has kimono and hakama because they're expensive. So I also visited the rental shop which was cooperating with the university. I chose a simple kimono, which was cheap, but was the only one available at the campus so that I wouldn't be worried that I'll run into another girl who wears the same kimono. And I chose a simple hakama, too which has some sakura flowers in the bottom part. I registered the rental even when it was around half year before graduation day! hahaha. I hadn't even started writing my undergrad thesis by then :p I might seem to be over confident about that, but hey, that could be my motivation to finish everything :D

I was already happy with everything until one day in February, my advisor told me casually that my final GPA is the highest in the department. At that time, I think it's okay to feel even happier but since he told me so very casually so there's still a part in my mind that thought well he might be kidding or whatever. hahaha. But two weeks before graduation day, the official letter from university came and informed me that I got 「国際バイオビジネス学科　成績優秀特別賞」. 

So, here are some pictures from the graduation day :)  

Me wearing hakama :)

Mom, brother, sister

Nodai family

Receiving the award from Univ President

Yeay :D

With some Japanese friends

Guys from the same laboratory

PPI Nodai graduates and family

Me and a friend who always be there, Dhilla :) Thank you for the Duffy!

With my sexy friends! Hahaha Gonna miss you all!

Girls from the same laboratory and my advisor :D

Me giving my graduation speech for the first time ever!

Me and my lovely Joyce

Guys from many other parts of the world :D haha

Yeay our laboratory's graduates!

Submitted!

Officially submitted my thesis today :D
Just yeay :D

Hey Summer!

It's summer already and the temperature is very hot lately in Tokyo (and most parts of Japan). Here it comes my fourth summer in Japan. Unlike the last three years, I'm not so busy with school's exams ahead the summer holiday. Since I've completed enough credits for my undergraduate study, this semester I don't take any classes other than the seminar class at the laboratory where I belong to. So I've been spending my semester by thinking about and building the concept for my graduation thesis and also preparing for graduate school entrance examination (which was held last week). And thanks God, I'd probably stay for two more years after March 2013 to continue my study.

filtered using Instagram

Btw, it's the second week of Ramadhan this year. Despite the very hot weather, I think I've been doing okay with fasting. No dehydration nor heat stroke. Alhamdulillah. And the most exciting thing is that I'll be going home to Indonesia this weekend :D Can't wait to be home!

Things I'm Thankful For In The Last Few Days

First, for the fact that i got a chance to be one of the honor students from my department again this year. I didn't think that i would make it again this year. Anyway, being an honor student is not suppose to be the goal of studying. I see it more as a bonus reward for the hard work we've done. Don't you think so folks?

Second, for the chance to learn how to sing a Japanese song with a talented singing couch. I love listening to the music, i love singing, but i never really able to sing well. And today i learned to sing a Japanese song entitled "Pop Master" by Mizuki Nana. Well, i didn't practice for the whole song though, but for the parts that i practiced today, i would say i got better :)

Third, for the unbelievably amazing team work i had with three other people in preparing a presentation for bio-business case study course. All of us didn't really know each other before, we are all different in interests, passions, etc. But we could manage to be ready by the time we need to present it. And as for me, it's a real challenge to deliver a presentation in Japanese language. Blah. The hardest part was when the audiences started to ask questions, it's like they didn't care whether me, a foreigner who has limited proficiency in Japanese, understand the question or not (-__-). And guess what, i didn't understand many of the questions so i had my team mates to explain the questions in more understandable phrases. LOL. Otsukaresan, minna :)

So, those were three things i'm thankful for in the last few days. Well, of course there are a bunch of other things which i should be thankful for that i don't think those should be listed here. hehe.

Anyway, enjoy the remaining of the week by being productive friends! Bye :D  

Welcome New Semester :)

School has finally started since last week. Luckily i'm enjoying the most of it. Now i think we could really feel that life has actually been normal aftersince the disaster.
This semester i'll start to be a member of new lab *we don't do something like chemical experiment though*. I'm excited to know more Japanese friends here. But one thing that might be more important is that i have to start thinking of my graduation thesis from now on. I hope this tiny brain of mine could work well :)
Anyway i'm updating this post using my new gadget! Yes i finally got myself an iPhone :)

Field Work Experience

Hi friends! So finally i'm writing this post which has been postponed for way too long. It's about my trip to Niigata perfecture which was started on Feb 3rd until Feb 13th. This trip wasn't for holiday but actually it's for field work practice as one of the required course for the sophomore students in my department at college. 

I chose to go to Joetsu Tokyo Nodai, during winter *not summer which is actually the most common time to go for agriculture practice* for some reasons. Anyway, there i was with 4 other friends spending 10 days together and doing some agricultural practices. Since it was still winter, there weren't so many things to do. All what we did were doing dried pumpkin packaging, harvesting autumn poem, and the best i've ever experienced there--harvesting radish.

I'd tell you why i think that harvesting radish is my best experience that i had there. So, long time before i went there, i've asked my professor what would we do there since it was winter. And he answered, "We would harvest the radish." Then, after i spent more than a week there, we still didn't do that. So, i was a kind of waiting for the moment while my friends wished that we would never do that. hehe. Finally, after waiting for quite long, we were asked to harvest the radish in the last day of our field work period. To be honest, it wasn't an easy job. We needed to dig the snow for about 1 meter deep. I was like wondering how i could i do that since i had never done that before. But, with full of spirit, i managed to dig the hole by myself and could harvest 5 radishes. The most wonderful part of that work was, when i could finally pull the radish out from the ground (it's hard, trust me!), i raised the radish up high and screamed happily. I felt like i was a champion of something. hehe.

So, here i put few photos that were taken by cellphone's camera. The quality isn't so good, sorry for that, but i hope it still proper enough to share my experiences there :)

The Trees and The Moon

It's winter already but the snow hasn't fell yet here in Tokyo. Can't lie that i'm quite excited for the snow to fall, but in the other hand, i don't really like how it bites every little inch of my skin. 

There was no class today. I think that's because tomorrow there will be a college entry exam held in all over Japan (well, i don't know if it's right or not actually. hehe), and my campus will be one of the places to hold the exam. A bit thankful for not having any classes today cuz i haven't finished my reports, but also feel so bored. Then i took a ride around the area with my bicycle, dropped by at some stores to buy food and some other stuff, enjoyed the bright sunny day, alone, just by myself. Being alone sometimes is just exactly what i need.

Anyway, they just cut the trees in the dorm. Kinda sad because only few branches left, but also happy at the same time because now i have broader view from my room. That's the moon, the remaining branches, and the building no. 18 of my campus. Feels like it's gonna be a calm night :)

Itsumo Kokoro Ni, Aosora Wo.

Hi folks :)

How have you been doing? I wish everything's great. It's been so long since i wrote the last story from my daily life. Was i disappear? Of course not. hahaha. I was just too busy with school activities, project activities, and also leasure activities (LOL). 

During the timebeing i went to Tokyo Joypolis--a kind of amusement park in Odaiba and got  extremely dizzy after riding Power Sled (i was rolling for 720degree about 5 times!), then i had a chance to watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part 1 which was a really great movie, then , i also had a chance to go hiking to Mt. Takao last Saturday. Well, those were the leasure activities! and i won't tell you the other activities. ahahaha.

Anyway, what is that picture about? So, today i had a class. In that class, after the professor explain some materials of the class, he always shows us some videos each week. The video are mostly from NHK program called プロフェッショナル. The video that i watched today was about a Japanese woman who works as UNICEF Representative in Tajikistan. The content of the video was very touching and i was almost crying in the classroom (hiks..T_T). And i love one quote that the Japanese woman said..「いつも心に、青空を。」 which 'maybe' means always feel the blue sky in our heart.

Well, okay i think that's all that i want to talk about. 

And if you are interested to watch the video, you can access the video here ( it's in Japanese and i guess you need to pay around 315 yen to watch though, sorry).
So, have a good day all :D

The 119th Nodai Harvest Festival

Hellooo people! I'm back after those tiring days starting from the preparation till the 2 and a half days of selling indonesian mie goreng at The 119th Nodai Harvest Festival. So, this is my second time joining the harvest festival, but what happened during this year's festival was soooo much different with the last year's. Lots of unpredictable situations happened. And the most unexpected thing was the number 14 typhoon, which then known as Chaba Typhoon, hit most of Japan's eastern area, including Kanto area. So, the second day of the festival was really hard. It was raining heavily, then the wind was also getting stronger since the typhoon was getting closer. Since i was in the promotion section, so i wore a raincoat  (thanks to Dhilla for lending me the raincoat ^^) and tried to promote mie goreng together with my promotion partner, Rama. Cold, wet, frustated (haha), a lil bit down, maybe that's how i felt on the second day. Moreover, on that day, we could only open the store until 12 pm, because of the typhoon. sigh. Then to attrack customer, we lowered the price from 300yen to 200yen. Even it's quite effective to attract customer, but we couldn't get so much profit because of it.
Anyway, overall, harvest festival this year, is all about training my muscles. hehehehehe. just kidding (but also true actually ;p).
*sorry i don't have any photos to post*

Weird Feeling ;p

Yes, i'm having a weird feeling now. You might be wondering what the weird feeling is. Hehe. Ok, i'll tell you. Don't worry ;p

As you might have noticed from few posts before that i'm currently having my final exams week. Actually i was studying until few minutes before, then i felt this weird feeling. I don't know if i ever felt this way before or not. hahaha. Somehow studying makes me happy! It's weird, isn't it? Or is it only me who think that it's weird. Well, anyway maybe the next time i feel sad or upset, i should try to find something to study about ;p

I wanna Go Home

Actually i will go home soon. Yeah very soon after the final tests over. I really wanna go home not because i don't like being here in tokyo, but simply because i miss my home, my family, my friends, and of course my dearest boyfriend.

But, i'm not ready for the tests yet which will be held starting from next wednesday *actually i just had one today*. It's really hard to find a will to prepare (study) for the tests. I'll have 3 japanese tests, bio-business network test, bio-bussiness accounting test, and also toeic prep class test. Yeah, those all make me stress. Especially japanese and accounting *why did i register for this class??*. 

By the way, i will be going to some festivals for the next two weeks; Kyodo Matsuri, Fireworks Display, and Setagaya Matsuri. Actually i'm hoping i could arrange my schedule so i can visit my host family before going to indonesia, but seems like it's sooo impossible ;(

So, everybody! Wish me luck ;)

Quote of The Day

learned this quote today at my english class. Jesse, my english teacher, suddenly remembered these words said by his english professor in the past time.

Random Thought

Errrrgh, somehow that japanese class which is held every wednesday morning from 9.00 am to 10.30 am makes me hate japanese. I hate it i hate it i hate it. While the other japanese classes which are held every wednesday from 10.40 am to 12.10 pm and every friday from 9.00 am to 12.10 seems to be fine for me. 

And now i'm doing a report for tomorrow presentation but stuck in the middle. Help me!!

平成２２年度の特待生

Hi everyone! I'm telling you about this not because i want to show off or be arrogant. NO. I just want to share my happiness, my gratitude for what i just got today. Well actually i've known about the news that i was chosen as one of the 特待生 (read: tokutaisei) about a week ago. That day, when i just arrived at my dorm then checked my mailbox, i found a mail there. Then i read the sender. It was coming from 東京農業大学　学生生活支援課 (it's a kind of student service center). What i had in mind at that time was "oh my God! might it be a warning letter because i went back to the dorm late several times??". I was extremely nervous because it was hard for me to read the letter because it's written in Kanji. Some points that i recognized were a date and a place where and when i have to attend and also that i have to wear suit or blazer. That's it. For what? I didn't have any idea.

I went to my room and met my senpai. I asked her, but she said i need to find the meaning of some kanji that she weren't so sure what were they. So i tried to look for the meaning of those kanji. And my dictionary said that tokutaisei means an honor student. Speechless. But i could feel the smile on my face.

And today, me and the other students who also got the award, had to attend the ceremony. I'm happy for sure. I can't deny it. But it's not the time to be satisfied. I should be more motivated to keep studying harder. Because the real achievement is when i reach the success in the future. Right?

Smile :)

Tick-Tock

Nodai Setagaya Campus, Room 116 Building 13, 13.15~

Here i am now,

sitting right in the middle of the class (i'm not joking nor being hyperbolic) where there's a lecture is held. Not in the mood of studying? Y-E-S. Yes, i'm definitely not in the mood to study. Honestly i don't really like this class, i don't even know why i registered for it. Moreover, i hardly understand what the lecturer is saying right about 3 meters in front of me. Come on, it's in Japanese! How can i?! There's only a boy who sits before me, which i can say he's the only person between me and the lecturer. Instead of paying attention to him, i prefer writing this "note" and taking a look at the people around me once in a while. While looking at them, i can feel my mouth is being curved upwards [read: smile :)]. Some people are sleeping, some girls are looking at their reflections on their mirrors, correcting their make up(s), some people are writing *like me!*, and not more than a half of the students in this class are paying attention to the lecturer either seriously or not.

Do you know about something?? This class and its atmosphere is really far beyond my imagination at the time when i hadn't started my study here. I always thought that Japanese are always serious. But then, i found the fact that it's not true! Well, i'm not saying that Japanese are not serious. No, that's not what i mean. But that saying of "Japanese are serious" seems to be only a stereotype for me now. 

Well, i wish i could take some photos of the class (and of what people are doing right now). Unfortunately i couldn't since my cellphone would make a quite loud sound when i click the capture button *one thing i hate the most about cellphone in japan*.

Errr..why does the time fly so slow?? Still have to pretend to be a good student for 30 minutes more ToT.

-------------------------fin------------------------

Batik Day :D

Just arrived in Tokyo on Wednesday, September 30th. The trip was fine even though my flight from Jakarta to Denpasar had to be delayed. Thanks God this trip was a lot better than the last trip i had. So i didn't feel disappointed anymore.

Being already in Tokyo doesn't mean i couldn't wear batik today. Of course as a nice Indonesian, batik is my dresscode for a whole day (well, except now. as i already in my room and wear my pajamas). Got few photos to post but not really good shots actually.

HAPPY BATIK DAY for Indonesia :DD

ps. In these photos i wear my room slipper. When i went outside, i wear my gladiator sandal. hihihi :D

Anyway, today my college activities start. But i didn't go to morning baito this morning. I was too sleepy. And also rainy day makes me feel too lazy to go out. Still, i had to go out, cuz i had three classes from the 9 am till 5.30 pm. What a long day.

Planning to continue doing my report assignment, but still hard to start. Euuww. What a lazy me!

Second Day of Final Exam Weeks

Hi everyone! I just finished with marketing exam today. feel a bit relief because one more exam has passed. Well now i don't really care about how the score will be (uups. i care but not so much!). Since i'm not good enough in japanese language, so this semester i only take two main courses (marketing and financial statement), english course, and japanese course. Why? Because all the main courses are conducted in japanese. So i think it's gonna be hard if i take many courses.
Now, i still have kanji test, writing essay test, and interview for japanese course; financial statement exam, and english exam.
I hope i can make them all well. Wish me luck guys :)

Edo-Tokyo Museum

Last Sunday i went to Edo-Tokyo Museum with my english class' friends, Denny sensei, and Loida sensei. For those Japanese in my class, Edo-Tokyo Museum was boring. But for me, it was interesting. Because i could learn a lot about the history of Tokyo from the explanation of the tour guide. So, the begining of Tokyo was on Edo Era. The leader of Edo had a very strict regulation about the classification of the people who lived in Edo area. In the highest class were the samurai, in the second class were farmers, in the third class were ordinary people (citizens), and the lowest class were merchants.

After the Edo Era, then it changed to the mix era. When the foreigner started

to come to that area. And finally Japanese emperial moved from Kyoto to Tokyo (which means the east side of Kyoto).

And there are still many interesting stories there, so maybe when you're going around Tokyo, you can stop by there.

From Shinjuku Station, take JR Sobu line. Then get off at Ryogoku Station. It's about 3-7 minutes walk from the station to Edo-Tokyo Museum.

old ginza

kabuki

nihonbashi