Snowboard (January 3-6)

Today is the last day of my winter holiday. I don't know should i be sad, lazy or happy. In many ways i can say that i'm gonna be happy, but to tell you the truth, i can't deny that i feel a bit lazy too. ihihi. Why i'll be happy? It's already January which means final exam is coming soon. I'm not happy because i'm gonna have the final exam, but i'll have another holiday after it (ahahaha).

Anyway, i'm gonna let you to look back at my past few days during my winter holiday.

On January 3rd, me and my friends (mas asad, mba rani, rama, mamet, and kiki) started our holiday trip to Nagano. We went there by night bus from Shinjuku. I was so nervous yet excited because i'm gonna see snow and play snowboard. 

When we arrived at Mandarao, Nagano, it was around 5 in the morning. Finally i saw the snow. hehe. Yeah actually i should have a little memory of snow from my childhood, but unfortunately i couldn't remember it. Having a short break then rent some items for playing snowboard. I really hate the fact that there's no snowboard clothes which fitted on me. It was too big. And so was the gloves. But luckily i could change the gloves with kid's size. hehe.

First Day (January 4th)

Sunny day. I didn't feel cold at all even there is snow. Took a half day snowboard school to get some basic skills. But to tell you the truth, it was so hard during the school, i couldn't even stand up (and even to walk on the snow was extremely hard for me). Maybe i was still too nervous and afraid of falling. But after the school, i practiced together with mba rani and mamet and fortunately getting better. Of course, i had some 'accidents'. hehe. But it was okay. Playing full day until 4 pm. Got too tired and slept too soon (i slept around 8 while others were still hanging up to 10)

Second Day (January 5th)

Cloudy day in the beginning. Playing again! Tried to speed up. But because of that, i had some extreme accidents. I fell with superman style several times and trust me it's hurt the most. Especially once when my face hit the ground (yeah there's snow on the ground) first, then the board hit my head a little, oh yeah that was hurt so much. Like i was keeping silent did nothing just sit and tried to calm down my self before continuing to the finish line where i could find the lift to get back to the start line. And that day, i couldn't force myself to play a whole day because i was so dizzy and feeling sick of my whole body. Anyway that day turned to be snowing, dark, i guessed i made a right decision to finish earlier.

Third/Last Day (January 6th)

Snowing Day. At the first time, i was sooo lazy to play because the weather was not really good. It's snowing and also dark because of the thick fog. But then i thought it's gonna be my last day, so i decided to play. But i just kept on the low speed when sliding the board cuz i already had enough 'accident' yesterday and didn't wanna get some more or maybe i'm gonna get worse injury. hehe. Tried to practice with the next level of turn over skill but didn't work out. Okay, maybe next year i can make it. So sad i should leave the snowy place and get back to the hectic city tokyo.

Yeah, i think that's a brief story of my experience during my winter holiday. Wish i could go there again next year.

Our Team

*ps. sorry for the quality lack of the photos, since none of use brought a camera when we're playing, so we could only use the cellphone's camera.

Japanese New Year SALE

I think we all know that during new year there are usually a lot of SALE everywhere. They put discount even up to 80%. I remember when i was in Indonesia, i often went to the mall before or after new year to enjoy the big sale.

I just had my first new year few days ago (ok, maybe not really first time, since i have also been here for about 3 years when i was a kid). I just discovered something unique here related to the big sale. In Japan, there are a lot of stores which sell Japan local brand (i mean not such international brand) and believe me the their products are quite expensive (since the production is really in Japan, not in china or india or anywhere else, we can say that the quality is very trusted). Now something that i mean unique before is, those local brand stores almost every new year sell a happy bag called FUKUBUKURO. 

Any of you know what fukubukuro is? So those stores, beside selling their products as usual, they also sell something like a set of clothes (or anything else), they put that set of clothes inside a (mostly) cool bag (or even a suitcase). But most of the stores don't let us to know what are inside the bag. So, it's a kind of luck. You may get all the stuffs good as you deserved, or maybe some of the stuffs may disappoint you, or the worst is that you don't like any of them. The stores sell the fukubukuro in some prices depend on how many item inside the bag. But the choices of the fukubukuro's prices are mostly  10,000yen or 5,000yen (without tax). But don't worry, if you dare enough, the real total price of the items inside the bag may be worth 5-10 times than the price of the fukubukuro.

Yesterday i went to Shibuya to enjoy the new year sale. Many long queue in front of many stores (trust me it's so weird. i never saw something like this before in indonesia). But this year i couldn't challenge myself to buy any of the fukubukuro. For me now, it's too risky buying something which i don't have any idea what are they for 10,000yen (i need to go to morning baito for 5 days to collect that much money..hehe). But mba rani (my senior), finally challenged herself this year and bought one fukubukuro. And she's so lucky. The items inside the bag are good. And also mba desy (another senior who already graduated then stay in japan), she also got many good items from the fukubukuro.

Me? I bought something. Yes, really. And i bought an item which i didn't plan to buy, but since there was a very great offer so i decided to buy and let myself poor. What is that special item? I'll let you know later :)

mba rani was buying the fukubukuro

people who (maybe) didn't like the items that they got from fukubukuro were asking for exchange with others. so crowded, right?

Just Wanna Say..

And i'd also like to say thanks to my bestfriends ever for spending the changing of the year together last night via skype. I miss you girls. I really wish i was there spending a night together at rina's house. Ow yeahh i really miss that home. I think it has been more than a year since the last time i paid for a visit there. Suddenly i remember, at my high school time rina's house was a kind of base camp for us. We really loved to stay there, even just for chatting, gossiping, watching dvd, and eating meatball.

なつかしい。。
Anyaway, wishing you truly happiness in 2010 :)