Corona Effect

I sent face masks to my friend in HK on February 14th, and arrived around eight days later. It was not as long as I thought. 😄 I'm glad she's happy to receive the mask and my birthday gift for her.

I feel lucky as well because a month ago it was hard to find face masks, but now? it's harder than ever. I'm not sure if it makes more difficult, but because since I live not so far from Kyoto Station where most people gather (commuters and travellers) so I can't find masks around my home. Another thing I feel lucky about is as a worker in convenience store, I have a chance to order a box of mask, but still I have to wait around two weeks to get mine 😭

For your information, the delivery of goods of non-daily items (not food, drink, and bread) comes three times a week and since there are mask scarcity, every single store has purchase limit. There are many kinds of mask 7-Eleven is selling but the box one, with 60 masks inside, only can be ordered one per delivery per store. Can you imagine I'm working in 7-Eleven, for example it has 20 workers, and all want to buy a box of mask, and we need to queue, so last person will get the mask in seven weeks 😂

Now not only face masks, but every store has purchase limit for toilet paper, kitchen paper (for store use), and sanitary napkins. Usually we wash our hands and dry them with paper, but since there is scarce we dry our hands with kitchen cloth that can be used many times. 😂

I'm here still fine and not doing any panic buying. I almost finished my rice and I'm not trying to stockpile toilet paper (we can wash with water only why need paper? 😂) The thing that really changes on me is, eating out. I love trying new food and eating out. But since this corona thing happened I rarely eat outside. The last time, I ate outside was 11 days ago in McDonald's and drank coffee in a coffee shop. For me 11 days is such an achievement 😂

The only eating out I did after that were eating my friend's cooking and 7-Eleven food that I get in my working place. Now almost everyday I cook.

See what I cooked today! My purple (red) cabbage soup 😂

Now I'm having a runny nose so I'm trying my best not to go outside. It's really hard to stay whole day at home 😂 I always want to go outside.

Okay la, take care everyone. Stay healthy!

No Taiwan Trip

I supposed to meet my Hong Kong friend in Taiwan tomorrow (14/2). We booked the flight more than a month ago and we planned it since it is her birthday as well. But then, the novel coronavirus things happened and she even cannot leave the country and go to Taiwan.

She wants me to go Taiwan but actually my motivation to go Taiwan has already gone even I don't mind to travel alone. It's just because we planned to see our friends and celebrate her birthday together. I was still thinking should I go or not since my mind is full of bubble tea.

But then when I worked last week my store manager asked me if I still going to Taiwan, and she said that her advice is better not to go to Taiwan. I was still considering to go actually that time. Until after I came home, I saw my mom message and she asked me if I still going since Indonesia has already banned people from Taiwan (is it? but anyway many countries already has entry ban for visitors from Taiwan). In the day time, my Taiwanese friend sent me message asking same question, and she said better not to come now.

So, I'm sure now that I am not going.

Sigh.

Yea, and now is still hard to buy mask. In 7-Eleven I'm working in, as a worker we can book 60 pieces box of masks but since everyone is booking, need to wait maybe few weeks. So I even haven't booked, I still have stock at home though. So, delivery of goods only come three times a week and one store only can order one of the 60 pieces mask box.

Yesterday my Hong Kong friend called me and asked me if I can buy mask for her, even though after that she said "it's okay it's okay, no need" but I want to send her. I remember in my 7-Eleven the delivery of goods come every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, so I decided to wander around to visit every single convenience stores near my home.

Around 00.30 am (12/2), I rode my bicycle and visited the nearest 7-Eleven, and it was exactly when the goods came! I successfully bought one pack of masks (only five pieces inside). It has purchase limit, so I can only buy one. The second 7-Eleven, I visited, nothing. The third 7-Eleven I visited was the heaven.

I asked if they have mask, and the staff just put them on the shelves. And I saw the 60 pieces box one 😢 I was really happy I want to cry 😭😭 I just grabbed the box and asked if they have purchase limit, and he said NO. I wanted to cry again 😂

I feel bad if I buy all (and some are small sizes as well) so I was considering which small packs I wanted to buy. Then a Chinese couple came to the store and looking for masks, so I grabbed six packs of them (almost half of them though haha). I felt so uncomfortable since they were looking at my basket so I just 'ran away' and paid it at cashier.

They asked for the 60 pieces mask box but they have only one. They bought all the face masks left. I feel happy I was earlier, but feel bad at the same times because people are sick 😭 I visited another convenience stores but most of them not selling masks and in some stores I bought small pack of masks.

I will try tomorrow again. Since now I only collected around 100 masks for her.

I will try Daiso as well, 100 yen for 30 pieces of masks! 

Hope I also can get the 60 one in 7-Eleven la. 

Drugstore, I'm not sure.

I'll send to my friend on Friday. Hope all good.

Actually my other purpose is to send her birthday gift!

Hope she likes it!

I will update after she receive it.

Mask Scarcity in Kyoto

I think the mask scarcity now is all around the world, though. But I just want to wrote about the scarcity in the city I live in.

After the new coronavirus news appeared in media, my Chinese friends were (and still are) busy to look for surgical face masks to send to their family and friends in China. Few weeks ago, I was still confused. I was still relaxed,  I knew I still saw many face masks in the convenience stores and drugstore so why did they so look tired when telling me about sending thousand masks to China?

Next day, there was a Cantonese-speaking customer in my 7-Eleven and bought almost 30 packs (7 sheets inside) masks. Whoa! I was still like relaxed. Until I realised, there are so many Chinese people in Kyoto and we don't know whether are they from Hubei or not (even not, all Chinese provinces already infected). Now I am scared! I know now I have to wear mask!

And then the Japan's first new coronavirus human transmission appeared, and the patient is from Nara, neighbour prefecture of Kyoto. And then, a Chinese foreign student living in Kyoto also confirmed infected by coronavirus.

I went to Daiso and saw still many masks but there is a limit for a person only can buy 1 pack of each kind of masks. So anyway, I bought one box of 30 pcs of small face mask (and it's quite small that's why they still have a lot of it!), and two packs of other mask (7 sheets inside).

People waiting drugstore open

All sold ou

I was lucky that day since I worked in 7-Eleven in midnight shift and delivery goods come in midnight. There are some masks but so few. A box of 60 masks had already booked by my colleague, and there are still some 5 or 7 pcs-packs masks. In the morning I asked the owner if I can buy those masks, since other stores limit one person one pack. She said I can, so I bought seven packs! Spent almost 2000 yen 😔

Yesterday, I finished my work around 6 am and I went to Lawson 100 my workplace and luckily I could buy a 30 pcs box mask for 100 yen (13000 rupiah). I also got another masks from a Japanese friend also so now I still have stocks of around 100 masks (half of them small one though). I think I am fine but if I see mask I will still buy maybe if my friends need.

I dunno how bad is new coronavirus but at least prevention is better o~ other than mask we need to maintain our hygiene. I'm trying my best to take shower everyday 😂 and always wash my hands.

Homophones Across Languages

Around two weeks ago, I went to 7-Eleven nearby my home and charged my Nanaco (7-Eleven membership and prepaid electronic money) card. I wanted to charge for 1000 yen. I gave my money to the staff, he charged my card, then used the Nanaco to pay stuff I bought.

But then he put 1000 yen one more time to my card. Wait, but he charged already in the beginning right? Hmmm... And then he wanted to give my 1000 yen back. I rejected since it was the money to pay my card charge. If I received then I would get 3000 yen for free 😂

While walking home, I checked the receipt, and yeah, he put 2000 yen on my money. I was thinking a little bit, should I assume this as my luck or should I go back to the store to tell this that the staff made a mistake. I ended up doing the first one 😂 Greedy human.

And the staff who made a mistake was an old man and his name is たい (Tai).

Few days later, I went to the same eleven around 11 pm. That time, the staff who served me is the owner and his name is also Tai. Out of curiosity, I asked him whether Tai-san who is always work in the morning is his father, and immediately the owner and another guy said, "Yes, he is our father." Then I realised another guy also has the same name: Tai. They are brothers. 

I asked them whether they are Japanese because this is my first time to know Japanese family name Tai. If Chinese family name Tai, many people has it. The owner said many Tais are from northern part of Kyoto. The owner brother told me the kanji of is 'ta' of 'field' and 'i' from 'well: 田井.When I got back home, I checked and even there is a town called 'Tai' in Kyoto.

Then I got more curious whether they have been to Indonesia or not. What if they reserve a hotel room, and the receptionist ask them, "So the booking is in the name of Mr. Tai?"

And since Japanese most likely using their family name to introduce themselves then they will say,

"Hi, I am Tai."

And what if they start to learn Bahasa Indonesia, and they will say, "Saya Tai."

Tai means 'shit' in Indonesian 😭

One day, I went to Kebab store near my school with a Nigerian friend. He talked about Nigerian snack he is missing called Puff Puff. I think it is similar with poffertjes or doughnut. I checked immediately on Google with keyword: puff puff Japan. And what I found was, "puff puff is a Japanese term for the placing of a person's face between a woman's breasts, often for sexual pleasure". 😭😭😭

Nigerian also has snack called 'chin chin', and it means 'men's genital' in Japanese. 😂

What if a Japanese visits a family in Nigeria and they serve chinchin and puff puff for him/her 😭

In my school there is a lady called 'Saaru'. In Japanese, 'saru' means monkey, and in Javanese 'saru' means 'obscene'. Another case, there is a teacher in my school who has an Arabic name, and it means 'monkey' in Nepali 😂

Yobisute 呼び捨て

I didn't have wi-fi for more than two weeks.
I felt so lonely... and missing out too many showbiz news a.k.a celebrity gossip.

So I just moved to a new house, it didn't have wi-fi. Finally I got it only few days ago! Now I can watch Atta Halilintar Youtube videos whenever I want.

No.

I don't watch Atta's videos. Well sometimes if it came on recommended videos by Youtube.

In this post, I will talk about Japanese culture on addressing other people. I think most of you know, that in Japan, normally they add -san, -kun-, or -chan behind the name of someone they call. Calling a person you don't really know without appropriate suffix is considered as rude. When people call someone without suffix, it means they are close or their subordinate at work.

Also calling someone with his/her family name is quite normal. Not only in polite situation, but sometimes two people know each other since little but they call each other with family name. It's just normal. In other hand, I know some Japanese people who don't like to be called by their family name.

There is a word in Japanese 呼び捨て 'yobisute' which means calling someone by their first name, and without any suffix. Yobisute literally means 'throw away the calling'. So basically, 'throw away' the suffix. When someone does this to other person, it means they are close, or this someone is trying to be rude.

When I lived in Australia, I met so many Japanese. And of course, they use their first names to introduce themselves and they will call other person (foreigners) without any suffix. They will just call me 'Una' without any suffix.

But then, I met some of my Japanese friends (who I met before in Australia) in Japan, they just changed to call me 'Una-chan' or 'Una-san'. It is just super fine, but '-san' a little bit kaku though. Maybe they feel something missing 😂, if they don't add any suffix behind the name.

So I searched on Google what is the antonym of yobisute. I thought it was 呼び拾い 'yobihiroi', which means 'pick up the calling', but this word doesn't exist. The opposite word of yobisute is さん付け (sanzuke) which literally means 'putting the -san'.

For me doesn't matter they call me with suffix or not. In Indonesia, my younger brother and cousins with more than 5 years of age apart also call me without any prefix (a.k.a 'mbak') 😂. Only name is okay, I feel I am as young as them. 

Cat’s Tongue

As we know, cat’s tongue is a type of cookie. As Indonesians, we call it as ‘lidah kucing’, but also in most of the part of the worlds they call it the same, in their own language. For example, in Netherland they call it ‘katte tong’ and France it is known as ‘langue de chat’.

If you’ve ever been to Japan, you might see cat’s tongue cookies in many stores as local souvenir. But they use word ラングドシャ (rangudosha), which is Japanized word of French ‘langue de chat’. They don’t use word: 猫舌 (nekojita), which means cat’s tongue, for this cookie.

Best Japan's 'cat's tongue' cookies: Shiroi Koibito

Instead, in Japan ‘cat’s tongue’ or ‘nekojita’ has completely different meaning.

Nekojita is used to explain a condition where a person cannot enjoy hot food. People who are nekojita will wait the hot soup or noodle until certain heat before they can enjoy. Never try to give my cats hot food, though. 

Do you have ‘cat’s tongue’?

I think I have. When my friends can immediately eat the soup served by the waiter, I had to wait a little while until it was getting cooler. Until I cannot enjoy hot coffee or tea except it is a cold day.

I also cannot eat spicy food, not sure my tongue is cat's tongue, or manja tongue 😋

My thoughts on religions in Japan

I was on the bus and there was a ruko-styled building caught my attention.

It has an European neoclassic architecture on its exterior and there's written 'HAPPY SCIENCE' without any Japanese characters. I was wondering what kind of shop is that. I didn't immediately search it on Google, but when I returned home, I googled it, and it turned out it is a name of new religious movement in Japan.

Happy Science or 幸福の科学 (koufuku no kagaku) was founded by Ryuho Okawa in 1986. It is spreading around the world and claimed to have around 11 million members. Currently, it has entertainment divisions, publication company, and even university. I don't have comment about its teaching, but anyway this religion said to be controversial and a cult.

If you come to Kyoto (not sure about other part of Japan), there are some people standing in some crowded areas to spread Jehovah's witness or mormon. While their missionaries usually wear white shirts and black pants, the people who 'advertise' mormon on the streets are usually middle-aged and so fashionable.

I once went to Mormon Church in Australia. The people are so nice and friendly. But about the religion itself... no comment 😂

Now I'm gonna talk about my experience about 'new religion' in Japan. For privacy concern, I won't mention the name of the 'religion'. I don't understand what's the meaning of privacy concern in this case, I just don't want to say it without any reason 😂

One day, the boss of one of my part-time job places talked to me about the religion she's doing. She talked about very seriously and could show me how she's practicing this religion very whole-heartedly. I was curious because I heard this religion name before from an Indonesian friend. Long story short, my boss invited to me to join that religion event. Basically, it was just watching that religion group conference through television.

The conference was attended by members from all over the world. I even could see Indonesian there from their batik shirts. There were also speeches from Japanese members and one Spain member.

I haven't really read or study much about this religion. What I know, the members adore the leader so much. I can understand since the leader I believe is a very great person but for me they seem kinda 'worshiping' the leader, that's what I a bit uncomfortable. You know, in Islam we are taught not to worship other than God, not even Muhammad.

Other than that I'm fine, I mean I listened to my boss story about how is she doing the religion and she said she always feel energised after praying or reading the leader's teaching. That's a really good thing 😇

I believe what religion you're doing, as long as it's good for you and not disturbing other people, all izz well. 😇 Even if you don't have or believe in religion, all is fine.

One day, I talked to a Japanese friend about religions in Japan. And she said to be careful, because there are some 'religion missionaries' who will arrive in front of your house door to advertise the religion. She said the people at first look nice, but after that you will be ask for amount of money.

Then she said, "Religion is not bad thing, it's actually good. But, it's better to follow religion what your parents teach you. And it's better not to invite your friends to join your 'religion', it will worsen your friendship. You know, many friendships are broken because of religion stuff."

Well, I'm quite agree with my friend.

Instagram Jealousy

“Ugh, I hate to see her posts on Instagram and she always shows off her new bag or luxurious trips. I prefer to see Syahrini’s posts sitting in private jet or traveling to Bora Bora,” said by a friend.

She was not joking. She said it seriously as she was really jealous of her friend.

I understand that Instagram makes people insecure. Instagram likes are addictive, everyone is trying to show off what he/she has, and anyway, everything people do is like for the sake of content #demikonten. I myself will be very happy if my Instagram post get 200 likes or my stories viewed by 200 more people (since my followers are only 1300).

What I don’t understand of my friend is, she was jealous of her friend because of her Instagram posts, but, in my point of view my friend always posts her pictures of traveling around the world. I knew she came from well-off family and pretty sure she never stayed in cheap hotel or backpacker hostels. If you check her Instagram, you can tell she often go traveling abroad, and I think no post of her taken in Indonesia. Why is she still jealous of her friends?

Well, the grass looks greener on other side.

Jealous or not, Instagram is not healthy if you use it a lot. Currently, I’m using Instagram to check famous people that I’m curious of, and rarely give likes to friends’ posts. I’m sorry 😂 I even don’t bother to scroll pictures on Instagram home 😂 If I see Instagram stories, I only see the few first ones.

Anyway, there is a song I currently like titled 'Instagram'. It is a song by Korean singer, DEAN. I'm addicted to that song.

Kikangentei Yowai 期間限定弱い

期間限定 (kikangentei) means ' limited time' or 'period of time'.
While 弱い (yowai) means 'weak.'

The word '期間限定' can be found in the shops or products. Basically it means 'limited edition'. This time I'm gonna talk Japanese food products, for example beverage or snacks.

If you ever been to Japan, you must know that products in Japan always lure us to buy. Cute packaging, good taste, and also the 'seasonal or limited edition' products. Sometimes the limited edition products are based on season. For example, now is autumn so many products make their own 'autumn limited edition' and usually the most 'widely used' flavours are chestnut, pumpkin, and sweet potato. You would see Pocky, Calbee chips, Starbucks drink in pumpkin flavour or sweet potato, and many more. Also in spring, there are so many peach or sakura flavoured products.

And they are just too tempting 😢

Today, I finished work at 12 in the midnight and I visited a convenience store where I knew the clerk who always is in midnight shift is so handsome 😂 (last time I only saw from outside). Actually, I just wanted to see the guy (almost 30 year old here, but I just realized that looking at handsome really can wash your eyes, a.k.a cuci mata lol) but I ended buying Starbucks Sweet Caramel Pudding Latte. Just because there was written in the shelf: limited edition.

The taste? So so. And I won't buy for the second time. I really don't like the aftertaste.

Anyway, there is a famous term in Japan 'kikangentei yowai' which literally means 'weak of limited edition'. This term is used to describe someone's trait who always lured by the word 'kikangentei'. People who are 'kikangentei yowai' cannot see the word 'kikangentei'. Whenever they see that word, they see will have desire to buy the product.

One of them is me.

But not all products with 'kikangentei' attract me to buy, though. I always buy seasonal edition Starbucks products in convenience store but I never been attracted by seasonal Starbucks drinks in Starbucks stores. Limited edition Kitkat also cannot tease me.

I'm looking forward for winter. Wondering what 'limited products' are coming...

Drinking alcohol

I had never enjoyed drinking alcohol until two weeks ago.

Can't remember when I first time drank an alcohol drink. I think it was in a wedding reception of my mom's friend. There was served glasses of red and white wine, so I tried. And I didn't like it. Since we don't have culture to drink alcohol, I didn't have many chances to drink.

Out of curiosity, I have tried some other kind of alcohol ranging from beer, whisky, tequila, cider, even the traditional Peruvian drink: Pisco Sour. I didn't like it. I would order coke or water in the nightclub.

The only two that suit my taste were plum wine and Jägermeister. Even not all plum wine I like. I like plum wine with ice or soda sold in izakaya (Japanese pub), but I don't like which is sold in convenience stores.

I have been to two beer factories, a beer museum, and few wineries in Japan. But it was just because I like factory tour, not because I want to drink. Usually in the end of the tour, they offer us free tasting and what it means by tasting is three big glasses of beer. Beer tastes good for me in first two or three sips, after that I can't.

The time I drank most was last year. It was my friend's birthday party and she had many bottles of beer and ciders. I drank two bottle of pear ciders. It was okay, but I don't really think it tastes really good.

Two weeks ago, my friends and I went to izakaya. It was my first time to come to izakaya after coming to Japan. I ordered plum wine mixed with soda, while my friends ordered yuzu sours. I like my plum wine, but I also like what my friends ordered. So I also ordered yuzu sour. It was sooo good. I feel it was my first time to enjoy drinking alcohol.

I started to try alcohol sold in convenience stores. And Japan has various kind of interesting alcohol can 😭 Since I am weak of 'limited edition', I bought some seasonal edition chuhai (similar to sour).

Autumn pear chu-hai, and almond and mango chu-hai. Can you imagine almond flavour?!?!

I just realized I just do not like the bitterness of alcohol. I can enjoy chuhai and sour because they are sweet and taste like normal soda.

Do you read spoiler?

I read.

I'm quite lucky since my brother is subscribing Netflix and one account can be shared to up to four devices, and I can use it freely without pay as well. The thing is every time I open Netflix Home Page, then I always don't know what to watch. Most of the times I only watch Japanese drama and movie, sometimes I will watch random Hollywood movie, but recently I watch Korean drama.

It has been long time since my last time watching Korean drama. I am not a fan of Korean drama, but few years ago, I watched some. I just hate the way Korean dramas always make the viewers baper 😭 and most of them are 20 episodes with 1 hour duration every episode. Too long. For comparison, Japanese drama only 45 minutes in an episode, and one drama only has 7-13 episodes.

So I started again to watch Korean drama since last week. I watched Fated To Love you and My Secret Romance. Before I finished the drama, I checked the spoiler first 😂 And for me reading spoilers doesn't affect me, I mean, I still can enjoy the dramas or movies.

Now I'm thinking, Korean dramas are just too long. I better watch something useful for my brain 😂

Can you give me any recommendation?

Impulsive

Two weeks ago was my lowest point financially after coming here.

I only had 1000 yen left on my bank account.

It is not that I am poor but I had to pay quite amount of money at once for moving and I was waiting for my salary and scholarship received 😥 Then I gave up and asked my mom to send me money, but unluckily it was failed because the account number filled was wrong. It was not wrong, it is just Japanese banking system which makes me confused (so in my case, my Japanese bank account has two different account numbers, and the staff said both can be used 😭).

Finally I received my salary and yesterday I was feeling I want to go holiday 😂

So just now I bought flight ticket to go outside Japan 😂

Impulsive.

Though I planned to save more money 😒

Somehow it motivates me to work harder though 😂

One Week in Ishikawa Prefecture: Japan Tent

I spent a week from August 22th to 28th in Ishikawa Prefecture. It was more than an ordinary vacation! I joined a program called Japan Tent where I stayed in Japanese family house during the event. I am so grateful to be able to join that program. So if you are foreign student in Japan, do not forget to join this event in next year summer!

Since now I do not write regularly on my blog (even I haven't write any post on my LINE timeline for two weeks maybe?), I feel confused what to write first about this event. I feel I have burden to share the stories here since it was one of my happiest moments after staying here for 5 months.

Okay, so I will write brief explanation about Japan Tent.

So, Japan Tent is a yearly one-week summer program held in Ishikawa Prefecture. The participants are 300 foreign students living in Japan. This year is the 32nd Japan Tent which means this program has been already held for 32 times! The program allows the participants to taste Japanese culture while staying with Japanese family. It is really big event involving hundreds of staff, volunteers, and host families. By the way, despite of the name, we didn't stay inside tent.

The first half-week, we were spread to 16 cities and towns all over Ishikawa Prefecture. While the last half-week, most participants stayed in Kanazawa, the capital of Ishikawa, while some participants stayed in towns not so far from Kanazawa. One host families can host one student or more. What is interesting from this program is every single student has different experience to another student. Because we stayed in different towns, different families, and of course different stories.

My first half-week, I stayed in a town called Tsubata-Machi, where is located not so far from Kanazawa. Only 20 minutes by car or even 14 minutes by train. In this town, the foreign students who were located here only 7 people! There was a cooking event, which made me stressed since I never cook Indonesian food. But it was safe luckily! And my host family also took me to many places!

Then I stayed in Kanazawa for my last half-week with a very unique family. I learned many things from this family. The dad was so busy I even couldn't see him. In this house, there was also another Japan Tent participant who stayed with me, a beautiful Iranian girl called Sara.

Things I got and bought from Ishikawa lol

This post is only summary!

I will write many posts about my experience in Japan Tent in next time!

Feeling Blue

Despite my previous blog post title is 'Having Fun',  last week I was feeling down for several days. Last week, I went to work, concert, festival, my schedule was kind of full last week. Now I can feel, depression is real 😂

What made me feeling blue is my workplace situation. I have three jobs currently, one job is fine, another job some coworkers are harsh and bullies, but I'm still okay, but the last one, my coworker is such a bully, and I was feeling uncomfortable.

I am still on training and I was confused to do a thing, then my coworker said to me, "You're stupid. I told you already." I may not have many working experiences, but I have experiences scolded by coworker, but this time really made me feeling down. Another reason, he was always looking down on me and laughing when I am doing my task.

What the funny thing is, five minutes later that guy told me, "I'm sorry. No need to care too much about that."

I just said to him, "If I have mistakes, please be angry." 😂

How to not care? I was like,

"Am I that stupid?"

"Am I that weak?"

"Should I quit the job?"

I know I shouldn't care too much but I dunno this time really made me so weak. It was really hard for me to smile, like for real. And I kept thinking how to return to happy me.

Yesterday, the boss talked to me about her life and we talked a lot. She is 70 year old and had cancer before, but she is always happy. Suddenly, I got her positive vibes, and became to be able to smile again 😂

Having Fun

There is a guy at my school who always called me "urusai hito", which means 'noisy person'. Another friend told me I'm so 'hyperactive', cannot stay silent and always need to move 😋 I'm always excited to talk about new beverage I drink, new McD menu, new place I saw, etc, and my another friend told me, "You look like having fun."

Well, I am having fun.

Some of my friends I know at school do not like living in Japan. Those people do not really speak Japanese and are working really hard. They said life here is just too busy and strict.

I agree about the busy life.

Life is just so busy especially if you also do some part-time jobs. Currently I have three part-time jobs (I still work no more than maximum hours I can work per week 😂), I'm joining two choirs (just performed two times last week), and sometimes joining events in Kyoto. Sometimes, I do language exchange with friends, hang out at the cafe, go to new places, etc. My schedule this month all full already. I will participate on summer program as well in other prefecture.

Always have new stories everyday.

A little bit busy, and but yes, I am having fun.

Look how fat I am.
Our performance few days ago (2/8), where I was chosen to sing intro part together with a friend (the hijab one) T_T

How To Lose Weight

According to my height, my ideal weight should be around 45 kg. The thing is I don't have ideal weight. In the beginning of this year my weight surpassed 81 kg. 😅 Way too fat...

Coming to Japan, I still eat a lot but I do walk everyday, like in the average I will walk 10K steps a day. Also life is getting busier (not too busy actually), so I tend to skip meal, and I lost 7 kg in 3 months. But I realized this is not a good way. But I still want my weight to become 60s this year.

Now, I know how to lose weight. Being busy, really. I still eat, but I don't eat snacks as much as before. I also do manual labor which depends on physical strength so maybe it's kinda exercise also. I also believe that 'busy is blessing'. I feel I don't really waste my time.

Few days ago, I did video calls with several blogger friends who I had not talked for such a long time.

Just so funny, suddenly missing those days when I was in university and what I did was blogging and blogwalking to many friends' blogs. Nowadays, I don't know whose blog to visit. Too many advertisement, hahaha...

Punctual

Today, I am a bit sad.

Many friends said that I have a relax life, and yes that's true, but actually I am quite strict about time. I will try my best to not come late to school or I have promise with friends. I will try my best to submit my work to teachers before the deadline. Except I really have some trouble.

Maybe before I don't really care about punctuality, but now I yes (aku iya. Hahaha.) But I really realize that punctuality shows a respect. I remember I scolded a friend because she was late for 90 minutes, I didn't ask for respect but I really don't like she just wasted my time. I better used the time to finish Rilakkuma series on Netflix. And happened to me only one time I was late going to a class (in current school, not previous one lol), and I was like two minutes late.

Today, I had an appointment with the dentist and it should be my eighth visit to the clinic. But something happened, and I couldn't reach there on time.  I was like panic, and then finally the clinic called me and I was still in the bus, I forgot about the manner (cannot call inside the bus) and I just answered the call. I said sorry too many times, and I asked if I still can visit, the lady on the phone said the lunch time is coming soon so it's not possible. And they have like 1.5 hours break. I predicted I was gonna late for five minutes, in the end I was late more than 15 minutes.

Then I went to another place since I had another appointment. On my way coming home, the clinic called me again, and I booked another appointment. I don't know but I feel disappointed in myself, since I couldn't show up. Next time, I'll manage my time better. 

And many things make me sad also.

The latest one was arson attack in Kyoto Animation Studio which killed more than 30 people. Also, I dunno why everyday I read bad news in Japan, like stabbing, fire (there was always fire near my house like 1-2 weeks ago), suicide, etc.

Lazy to Update Blog

I feel like everyday I have many stories to tell and write. My life is just so colorful. At least in my opinion. And I really want to write everything on my blog but feel just too lazy to open my computer. But I always write kinda diary on my timeline LINE. And almost everyday. Using phone is just much easier than opening the blog dashboard.

Life is fun.

Except I have trouble in one class because I can't understand, hahaha. But even I have trouble and the teacher looked down on me, I still feel it is fun. I have trouble with some friends also.

Oh okay, I will write about a thing.

So in my school, there is one and only black guy from Nigeria. I did introduce myself to him but we didn't really talk until we ended up being classmate. I told my brother that I have African friend, because I never had, and he reminded me that Nigerian people like Indomie.

So the next time I met my friend again, I asked him, "Do you like Indomie?"

He was so excited replying my question, "Oh yeah of course. How do you know Indomie?"

Apparently it's true that Nigerian people don't know that it's actually Indonesian brand. They don't care where is it originally from, they just love Indomie so much. Then he told me, he really missed Indomie so much. He just arrived Japan around 3 months ago and had no idea that he can bring Indomie to the country. Of course, you can! And he doesn't know any shop selling African foods so until now he has survived without Indomie.

Date Format

I didn't know I could be confused with different date order/format.

In Indonesia, we're using dd/mm/yyyy for date format. Even we are gonna use the month using word, the order still the same, d/m/y. For example, December 18th 2019, will be 18/12/2019 or 18 December 2019. In Australia, where I spent my two years of life, they use the same date format.

I came back from Australia then I had a quite long free time so I planned to study foreign languages through the apps called Duolingo. Then, I saw the announcement that Arabic course will be available on 5/1. It was the end of the year when I saw it, so the course will be available only in few weeks. After waiting, the course I was longing for still not available. Then I realized. Wait, which company creates Duolingo? Where is it from? After I checked it is American company.

Oh okay. So 5/1 it's not fifth of January but first of May.

In the end, it was released late than the scheduled date. It was June I think. I'm really glad though finally Duolingo provides Arabic course!

In Japan, where I live now, is using yyyy/mm/dd format. For filling form, it is not so confusing. Because there will be kanji for year (年), month (月), and date (日) on it. For example December 18th 2019 will be like 2019年12月18日. But it is quite confusing, where I just need to send message and I only want to tell the month date. Like before I wanted to say to my friend 5th of June, so I wrote 5/6. But actually I should have written 6/5. 

Small sh*t but sometimes makes me confused.

Terpesona Bangkok

Jadi, ceritanya, aku kan balik dari Australia bulan Desember lalu, dan sudah berencana pindah ke Jepang bulan April tahun ini. Meskipun deg-degan soal visa, sih. Jadi, empat bulan kosong antara Desember dan April, aku bakal berada di Jakarta. Awalnya, aku berencana untuk keliling Asia Tenggara selama enam minggu. Tapi rencana tinggal rencana. Malah jadinya aku memutuskan liburan ke Jepang Bersama adikku selama semingguan.

Yang padahal kalau duitnya disisihkan, bisa buat keliling Asia Tenggara selama dua bulan tuh. Jepang mahal! Dan nggak cuma ke Jepang, aku juga sempat ke Bangkok dua malam bersama teman sebangkuku waktu SMA.

Temanku ini belum pernah ke luar negeri sebelumnya. Jadi aku mengajak dia buat ke luar negeri. Aku bilang ke dia, ayo pergi ke luar negeri, kalau ngga Penang ya ke Bangkok. Soalnya aku pengen ke salah satu di antara itu. Aku tawarkan dia, terserah kapan asal waktunya antara Januari sampai Maret. Aku harus mengikuti jadwal dia, karena aku menganggur sedangkan dia harus bekerja.

Waktu dia laporan kalau awal Februari dia bisa, aku segera cari tiket murah ke Bangkok. Kalau mau cari tiket, bisa ke web-nya Pegi Pegi. Nggak cuma tiket pesawat doang, tapi juga hotel.

Sebelum ini, aku pernah ke Bangkok tapi terakhir kali tujuh tahun lalu apa ya, dan hanya semalam. Waktu itu memang cuma sebentar, karena langsung berencana menuju ke Kamboja. Jadi bisa dibilang, aku seperti belum tahu mana-mana lah Bangkok. Padahal sering baca-baca artikel atau lihat-lihat unggahan foto teman-teman di Bangkok. Makanya kali ini aku bersemangat sekali pergi ke Bangkok!

Karena kami sampai Bangkok akhir pekan, tentunya kami merencanakan untuk pergi ke Chatuchak Weekend Market.

Aku sudah berkali-kali mendengar tentang pasar ini tapi tidak tahu bagaimana wujud aslinya! Dan wondering kok orang pada ke sana ya. Pada ngapain aja sih?

Setelah landing di Don Mueang Airport, kami langsung menuju ke Chatuchak naik bus. Mana kami hanya dua malam di Bangkok, jadi bawaan kami hanya satu ransel dan tidak terlalu berat. Bus kota menuju Chatuchak sangat nyaman dan terjangkau.

Aku tuh aslinya nggak suka banget sama panas, tapi Namanya jalan-jalan di Asia Tenggara ya mau gimana lagi. Kecuali naik gunung kali, baru nggak panas. Dari halte bus ke pasar Chatuchak kami harus menyeberang via jembatan penyeberangan. Dan panasnya bukan main. Hm, sebenarnya sama kayak di Jakarta sih, cuma aku manja aja.

Memasuki kawasan Chatuchak, aku langsung paham kenapa orang suka ke sana. Karena pasarnya besar banget, barang-barangnya bagus kualitasnya, dan yang paling penting harganya murah. Barang yang dijual pun mulai dari tas, baju, pernak pernik, dan lain-lain. Aku ngga bisa cerita banyak, ke sana aja sendiri, asik deh! Hahaha... dan karena aku sibuk lihat-lihat dan sibuk kepanasan, aku nggak foto sama sekali. Oh ya, di sana aku cuma beli kembang telang kering. Itu lho yang bisa bikin minuman warna ungu.

Selain itu, aku juga sempat pergi ke Asiatique. Ini juga tempat belanja dan tempat makan, tapi somehow asik aja tempatnya. Beberapa mal di Thailand juga asik, salah satunya ICON SIAM. Ini one of the best, really. Toiletnya bagus banget, hahaha. Sama Apple Store-nya besar banget dan view dari luar Apple Store keren banget.

Kayaknya tuh kemaren dua malam di Bangkok belum cukup.

Pengen ke sana lagi uwuwuw...