I’ve just finished watching a Japanese Drama series, Karei naru Ichizoku (The Grand Family).

Here’s the synopsys (taken from DramaWiki, too lazy to make one ):Originally a novel by Yamazaki Toyoko, and later a 1974 movie, Karei naru Ichizoku depicts the conflicts within the Manpyo family, famous in Kansai’s financial circles, amidst the tumultuous reorganization of the financial industry of the late 1960s. Unlike the book, the eldest son, Teppei, and not the father, Daisuke, is the central character of the drama.This drama is set in the late 1960s decade of Japan and depicts the rivalry between Manpyo Daisuke (Kitaoji Kinya), a powerful banker, and his eldest son, Manpyo Teppei (Kimura Takuya), the executive managing director of a steel firm. For reasons not yet entirely clear, Daisuke seems to dislike his own son and when Teppei finds out why, the Manpyo family is turned upside down.  

Wow, this drama really touches me, because the main ‘fighter’ is a metallurgy engineer who runs a (family owned) steel company. He is very idealistic in pursuing his dreams to develop Japan’s steel industry, keeping to his idealistic values and gains sympathy from people around him (except the bad greedy guys :P).  The story is much about father-son fight; father uses schemes, while son uses fair values.

Because of a financial reorganization by Ministry of Finance Japan, Hanshin Bank run by Daisuke (the father) is threatened to be merged with other banks, thus possibly losing control of the bank. In order to survive, he has to make some scheme where his ‘little’ bank can take over a bigger bank, by trying to look for scandals in those big banks. Towards the end, the only option was to sacrifice Teppei’s (his son) project of building a blast furnace (which is his dream to develop Japan’s steel industry). The project failure will be used to blame one other big bank which support the project. Turns out not only the project is sacrificed, but also Teppei’s life (suicidal, but because he thought it would be better for the family).

There’s a lot of drama going on; some are arranged marriages for family connections, and the questionable fact who Teppei’s real father is. This drama gave me a push to remember the true motivation behind my dream,, and pursue it no matter what. His never give up spirit, though he loses in the end, spreads inspirational values even to his father, making him a winner anyway. Not like other dramas, this is a sad ending drama… the hero dies, but his dream lives on….

Woow… with only sudden plans on going home, I finally made it back and forth to Indonesia..It was a long trip, each way having to go 3 flights: Fukuoka-Narita-Singapore-Jakarta… Yups.. 2 transits each way, make it overnight for waiting at Changi Airport, Singapore. Turns out there was a better route through Korea which I found out only minutes after transferring money for the Fukuoka-Singapore flight!!! Oh well, at least I know how airport works now, Fukuoka International, Narita (and Haneda), Changi, Soekarno-Hatta, yess, I know them alright,, haha (evil laugh). I even took a risk for losing my baggage, because the immigration officer suggested me to rest in the terminal (for waiting the next flight in the morning). I thought that unclaimed baggage were kept safe by airline staff, but turned out it was placed in the lost & found! And when I took my baggage they didn’t even check the tag. It’s so strange, thus anybody can steal other’s baggage (in Changi Airport). Even for domestic flights in Japan they check my tag with the baggage. Good thing my baggage was alright, and no valuables were inside (well.. I brought spices and food supply… that’s very valuable to me!! ^^)What did I go home for? Well,, there are many reasons, the most important is of course personal reasons. Meeting loved ones, and ones loved : friends, families. Also meeting a Prof. who will be my final project adviser later, sharing my experience in Japan with friends. Wow.. one and a half week sure goes by pretty fast. Why only 1,5 week? Coz classes already start here in Japan.. hehee, but I asked for permission first to the lecturers of course.. I even did the homework and tests which were intended for the two weeks… ouch ^_^I arrived back in Oita midnight 24 April,,, cold night.. so different from Jakarta (which was warm and humid). Now I have only 3 months left in the exchange program, so short, but I’m very excited for the classes and research to be conducted. It’s gonna be a compact and busy semester, wish me luck! Gambarimasu (*^-^) 

Hooray, I rode on the three main roller coasters in Fuji-Q Highland.
I went there with my relatives by car, and it took around two and a half hours trip. On the way we saw great views of Mount Fuji. Turned out we were going to see it from a better site. ^^

First I got on the Fujiyama, which held the Guiness world record in 1997 for the highest rollercoaster. Straight from the beginning we were taken really high, 79 meters high, then dropped just like free fall. After there was no rest for turning, dropping, twisting, even a 90 degrees sideways turn.

Then we got on the World Bucchigiri Coaster Dodonpa (don’t know what it meant). The special feature was its acceleration speed in the beginning, from 0 to 172 km/h in just 2 seconds. The fastest acceleration roller coaster in the world. The drop is notorious. And I got to sit on the front!! ^^

We had lunch afterwards, and then got in a very short line for Red Tower. It was basically a free fall from a height, and the nice thing was the great view of Mount Fuji.

It was already late in the afternoon, so it was time for the main roller coaster, Eejanaika. It is by far the scariest, but most fun ride there. We get flipped and twisted and all kind of bad thing coasters would do to us. It holds the world record for most inversions. It’s really wild, and the videos should speak for itself. Well.. words can’t describe the feeling of riding coasters anyway ;p
The great thing is, after riding I felt so energized from the adrenaline rush… would love to ride again someday (definite recommendation) ^_^

I just tried out Safari, and loved the interface. It just looks and feels nice. Too bad I really like Firefox, so I wanted the feel of Safari in my Firefox

iFox Metal is the Safari skin for Firefox. Not 100% but at least it looks nicer to me.

There’s also Yet Another Smooth Scrolling. Makes reading easy on the eyes ^^

And I accidentally stumbled on Furigana Injector useful for showing up hiragana pronunciation on top of kanji words. I also found out about Rikai-chan (I used Perapera-kun, modified Rikai) that shows up meaning of Japanese words. Should’ve known since 6 months ago, oh well, never too late ^^

Our last day of the Kansai trip; this time it’s different, time for something un-traditional.. Universal Studios Japan.

There were lots of people, especially little kids. Even the special train to Universal City was jam packed with people. It was scary how so many people existed there (and we were one of them)

We wanted to go ride the roller coaster first, but the waiting time was 120 minutes, so it really turned us off. We regretted not getting in the end. Spiderman - The Ride was first, we waited for around one hour, it was great and exciting!! It was a simulation ride with a feel of heat when getting flame burnt by a villain, also splashes of water. Short but nice.

Back to the Future - The Ride was next, the funny part was a Japanese girl behind me who screamed “Mommy… Scary…” in Japanese the whole ride. The ride was a simulation of a flying car flying through space, into a hot lava planet, it was an awesome ride again, really loved it.

Jurassic Park - The Ride, this time it is a real ride, on a boat! We didn’t know we were gonna be wet!! It is definitely a must-ride in USJ. I was in the middle, so I didn’t get afraid of getting wet, but one of the dinosaurs squirted on me.. so I got a little wet ;P
The end was a 25 meters near vertical drop.. really scary, like a roller coaster.

We saw the Fantastic World show, turned out it was intended for little kids, so we left early to line up for the roller coaster.

Hollywood Dream - The Ride , Waiting Time: 180 mins
Oh my, we waited longer than that, the waiting line was more twisted and longer than any existing snake in this world. There were also two times of trouble, one of them was when I am already next group to enter. Each inspection was 30 minutes, maybe something dropped on the track and the train got stuck. Finally after 4 hours of waiting paid off, the unique feature is that we can listen to music while on the coaster. There were Pop, J-Pop and Classic Rock. I chose Classic Rock, turned out it was “The Beatles - Get Back”. I enjoyed the song and danced around until the first drop.. after that, it was just sounds of Japanese girls screaming
Really worth it!! I want to ride roller coasters again ^_^

(Photos not uploaded yet)

We didn’t get to finish Kyoto, so we decided to go there again. On the way, we stopped at “Tower of the Sun”. It was known as the symbol of Expo ‘70 and currently is preserved and located in the Expo Memorial Park in Suita, Osaka, Japan. We wanted to take a picture of it because it was featured in some comic books, such as 20th Century Boys.

We first visited an Inari shrine in Kyoto; Fushimi Inari Taisha Fushimi Inari Taish is the head shrine of Inari, located in Fushimi-ku, Kyoto, Japan. The shrine sits at the base of a mountain also named Inari, and includes trails up the mountain to many smaller shrines. Merchants and manufacturers worship Inari for wealth. Donated torii lining footpaths are part of the scenic view. (Torii are traditional oftenly seen orange Japanese gates at shrines). Foxes (kitsune), regarded as the messengers, were oftenly seen at Inari shrines.

Sanjusangendo Temple was next on our list; the temple name literally means Hall with thirty three spaces between columns, describing the architecture of the long main hall of the temple. Outside was a pretty garden with sakura and koi fish. Inside surprisingly were some guardian statues with 1000 Kannon statues. It was one of the longest buildings in Japanese traditional history.

We wanted to see something different, so we visited Nara. In Nara Park, there were deers which were friendly with visitors. You can touch them without fear, I got kissed several times (my jacket). Maybe I’m delicious..

At the end of the day we had dinner with our “juniors” who were very kind for letting us disturb their dormitory since we didn’t have the money to stay at hotels Our sincere thanks to Bahar and Alfian.
At Dottonburi, Namba Shopping/Food District, Osaka, there was an all you can eat Indian restaurant. The main menu was Naan and Curry. What a surprise, eating Indian food in Japan!! ^^

We left late at noon because we were tired of yesterday’s trip. We head to Kyoto without a single map, we just looked up the main stations there, and asked for a map at the information centre of a train station. The map was very useful as it had bus routes, and our “3 day Surutto Pass” (Free transportation pass: non-JR trains, bus, even subways and monorails) was used frequently in Kyoto.

Our first destination was Kinkakuji Temple. It is translated literally as Golden Pavilion Temple. The color of the temple is gold, as it is coated in pure real gold. An astonishing view across the Mirror Pond. There were lots of foreign tourists as well.

We wanted to head to other temples, but it was already near 5 p.m so we were worried if we could make it in time. A sudden wake up call in the bus when we heard “Mamonaku, Kyodai…..something2..”. It looked like there was some kind of festival; lots of promotion canvas were showed off. We just got off the bus and turned out it was Kyoto University! The promotions were clubs trying to attract new members, from animation clubs to computer clubs. The campus was very nice, pretty big as well. By the end of the short “educational” visit, it was decided to visit Gion, a shopping/restaurant district.

We spent 2 hours at Gion, just strolling around, didn’t know where we were nor heading for. The architecture was traditional Japanese. Koi fish ponds, wooden houses. By the time it got dark, it is a definite romantic destination. The streets are small, and peaceful. The feeling is like where ever we go, the only thing we know is that we have someone beside us to go with; even though the place we are heading for is unclear. Very romantic. There were cheap snacks, also expensive luxurious restaurants. It was a miracle finding a normal priced restaurant, and we did! We had “Yakimetsi” or Fried Rice. ^^

There were lots of souvenir stores at Gion, and I couldn’t resist buying special items for a special someone. It was a relaxing and fun day, no rush, just enjoy the walk around traditional cultural city; Kyoto.

Well, not everything goes according to plan. Me and Reza did our Friday prayers at Kobe Muslim Mosque. It was a small but clean mosque. We saw some Japanese people coming to know more about Islam. There were a few imported food and halal food stores.

After that, we head to Himeji Castle. It was a long trip by the Sanyo line train. The castle was pretty big, and the inside was preserved compared to the previous Osaka Castle which was reconstructed as a modern museum.

We then head to Kobe for an all you can eat restaurant (our destination was crabs). It was in a shopping complex named Mosaic, there was a ferris wheel, a cruise ship, a “floating in the middle of the sea” hotel, a distant tower and sophisticated building in sight. A very romantic place indeed, definitely a must go destination to Kobe. Kobe turns out to be a quite big city. The name of the restaurant was “Fishermans Market”. It had fish, prawns, spaghetti, pizza, sushi, fruits, drink bar, sushi, dim sum, delicious garlic bread, variety of ice cream, chocolate, crabs; by far one of the best all you can eat I’ve ever had. The road from the JR station to the location was very nice with many little lamps on the trees.

We had two “small exciting incidents”. On the way back I looked at a strange sign that showed my campus initials ITB (it was 1T and a sun kanji to be exact). I wanted to take a picture of it but I couldn’t find my camera. I thought I left my camera at the restaurant; thus we head back to the restaurant. Just before the other station I found out it was in my inner jacket pocket.

Then, we arrived at the North Gate of Osaka University at around 00:04 am.. and the gate was locked up. Woah.. we had to do something otherwise we’re gonna sleep outside in the cold. Turned out we managed to find a very sneaky way in. I feel exhausted right now, I think we should start the trip later tomorrow and enjoy more of the sites.

Yesterday; me, Agus and Reza had a 10 hour journey from Tokyo to Osaka using only local and express trains (we used the juhachi-kippu/18kippu which is a five day or persons train pass for JR non-shinkansen trains). We had to transfer trains until 6 times, mostly until the final stop (suten).

We left in the morning at 9.30am from Saito-nishi Osaka Monorail Station, and arrived in Osaka Castle at around 11.30am. We took pictures from outside as usual, and also noticed how Osaka people is different from Tokyo or other parts of Japan ;). The inside was more like a mall than a historical landmark, but it was a nice view of Osaka from the viewing tower.

After that we searched our way to Osaka Aquarium (Kaikuyan) which is said to be one of the largest in the world. We bought a set of ticket for the aquarium and the Imax 3D Theatre. The aquarium was awesome, but short.. We saw otters, seals, penguins, dolphins, sharks, deep underwater creatures, and the mascot; a gigantic blue whale. I saw the whale being fed, and the water was like rushing into the mouth at the same time.

The theatre was next, the theatre was awesome, but the history of dinosaurs topic honestly made me sleepy. Well,, there goes 900 yen.. But on the way back I bought a special souvenir, from a strange souvenir store which is owned by a strange lady in a strange building (it was already crooked). It was a yukata, for a special someone

We head back to the Osaka city to look for a crab monumental store around Namba/Dotonbori.. It was a real effort finding it, with really tired legs. I was getting very exhausted until we tried the Takoyaki at Dotonbori (pretty nice) and had an all you can eat dinner (tabehodai) in Hep5.. It felt so good

We were tired but had lots of fun, still with 5 more full days of adventure

Enjoy holidays guys, while you can ^^

Why did I suddenly try the open office suite?
I wanted to know what people should use (instead of pirating) if they didn’t have the money to buy the widely used MS Office or purchase the licensed software cheaply from academic institutions (like me). It is also widely used on Linux OS PCs.

I installed the OxygenOffice Professional 2.3.1 version because it had a clipart gallery I want to check out, and also their pre-installed plugin for opening Office 2007 files.

First, I tried opening the docx format from Word 07. It worked out fine except for the equations (didn’t show up) and images are resized to small, which is annoying.

Then, I tried opening the pptx format from Powerpoint 07. Slide background and text were fine, but animations, slide transitions, and charts didn’t get transferred. Didn’t bother to try the spreadsheet, most likely the charts were also unable to be imported.

In conclusion, the installed OpenOffice is not a full replacement of the Office 2007 suite. We have to look for other ways to convert the format, or wait for the new OpenOffice 3 which is rumored to come out in September 2008.
The clipart gallery is nice btw.

Thanks for reading ^^