Ahoy! Happy New Year! Hopefully the year is still sufficiently fresh that the greeting has not yet become obsolete.
Well, I actually have quite a few items of news, but they can wait. After all, what better way to start this year's blogging than looking back to the previous year and enumerate my failings? So, without further delay, here's that list of things I thought I should do last year, with commentary!
1. Get Good with the Piano. No. Not good enough yet. Just some basic chords. Fail.
2. Write. I'll give this a half-mark. Granted, I haven't written either any songs or published items, but I did manage to acquire a notebook to write things in. It's shaping up quite nicely, if I do say so myself. I'll continue filling it up. It's a very nice notebook, by the way, it has a small folder for small pieces of paper attached to its back cover and an elastic loop for a pencil or pen. Very nice. Love it.
3. Exercise. Eh. Sure, I walked more than the previous year, but the energy output did not increase significantly. Not enough. Fail.
4. Beg for Forgiveness. Fail. I think for this one the pressure did not help. Won't try that again in the near future.
So, for me, 2013 was pretty much a failure. Oh well. Screw 2013.
As for 2014, I think I'll just have one item on the list.
1. No Smoking. At all.
Okay.
Now, for the aforementioned items of news!
I spent the final week of 2013 in Japan with my family. It was fun. There were some things that crossed my mind that I managed to write down in that notebook of mine, let me see....
Ah, here they are. Number one: politeness. In Japan, we were bombarded from all sides by politeness. Very, very unsettling for me. It was all "sumimasen" and "kudasai" and "arigato" and "yoroshiku" everywhere. Bowing included. At first, I felt as if the people there who interacted with me (waiters, janitors, bus drivers, cashiers, etc) were so scared that, if handled with less than perfect gentleness, I might just break. Or as if that everything else might, so they went around everywhere being so very polite to everybody, just in case. At first, as I said, it was very unsettling. But after I went home to Jakarta, I realised that it was not because I hate politeness. It was simply because there were indeed different atmospheres between the two cities. In Japan, all public servants (not sure I'm using the term correctly here, but by it I mean people who work in the service industry in public) were so pleasant, nice, polite, that if I didn't respond in kind I would feel like such a huge... jerk. You might say that I was kindly forced to be nice. Perhaps the term 'maneuvered' would be appropriate here. But you can see clearly how it quickly grows on you. Contrast with Jakarta, where I asked a pair of booth attendants whether a certain DVD was in stock or not, and they laughed. At me. Oy vey. Granted, I'm not sure if I'd like having to pay the amount of attention to manners as the Japanese do everyday, but if you can't be polite, I think you can at least be not rude. I might be wrong, of course.
Number two: onsen (温泉). Or, public bathing. Yes, I got naked in front of other men. Initially, of course, there was some anxiety, but when the time came... there was really nothing to it. Really. If you don't make it a big deal, it will not be a big deal. Made me wonder where all the preoccupation about size (I'm talking about males here, ladies, I don't know your thoughts about size - yours or ours) came from. Onsen was fun. Essentially it's hot springs, just like you might find in Bandung, but they provide you with showers and stools and soap and shampoo and, yes, conditioner, not to mention a towel, and those little delights went a long way. Also, I think it would just be icky if people were to wear swimsuits into the baths. The Japanese, in public bathing matter at least, did something right.
Lastly: Shinkansen. Bullet train. So called because if you get hit by one, you'd probably be injured in some way. Just like a bullet. Right? Oh, and it was fast, too. How fast, you ask? Let me put it this way: if two shinkansen happen to pass each other, and you happen to sit by the right-side window, you'd be able to see right through the other train's windows to the other side without much noticeable obstruction. The trains pass so fast that the walls between the windows don't have enough time to get in the way of your sight. Magnificent.
That's all I got to jot down in the notebook, sorry. Sure, several more things happened during my stay there. Such as Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Mount Fuji, natto, Senso-ji Temple, Kiyomizu Temple, and Osaka Universal Studios, but I'll just mention them in passing. Oh, wait, I just did. Okay then, no harm done.
I loved Japan. I'd be happy to go there again.
Ah, here's a picture of a pork-and-cheese-filled bun in the shape of Hello Kitty.
Now I'd like to end this entry with a quote. The same one I used in the short eulogy I gave for my maternal grandfather who died two days after I got home from Japan.
"The term is over: the holidays have begun.
The dream is ended: this is the morning."
That was from Mr. C.S. Lewis.
I am not sad.
I'd really like to sing "My Grandfather's Clock."
Have another good year, everybody!
4. Beg for Forgiveness. Fail. I think for this one the pressure did not help. Won't try that again in the near future.
So, for me, 2013 was pretty much a failure. Oh well. Screw 2013.
As for 2014, I think I'll just have one item on the list.
1. No Smoking. At all.
Okay.
Now, for the aforementioned items of news!
I spent the final week of 2013 in Japan with my family. It was fun. There were some things that crossed my mind that I managed to write down in that notebook of mine, let me see....
Ah, here they are. Number one: politeness. In Japan, we were bombarded from all sides by politeness. Very, very unsettling for me. It was all "sumimasen" and "kudasai" and "arigato" and "yoroshiku" everywhere. Bowing included. At first, I felt as if the people there who interacted with me (waiters, janitors, bus drivers, cashiers, etc) were so scared that, if handled with less than perfect gentleness, I might just break. Or as if that everything else might, so they went around everywhere being so very polite to everybody, just in case. At first, as I said, it was very unsettling. But after I went home to Jakarta, I realised that it was not because I hate politeness. It was simply because there were indeed different atmospheres between the two cities. In Japan, all public servants (not sure I'm using the term correctly here, but by it I mean people who work in the service industry in public) were so pleasant, nice, polite, that if I didn't respond in kind I would feel like such a huge... jerk. You might say that I was kindly forced to be nice. Perhaps the term 'maneuvered' would be appropriate here. But you can see clearly how it quickly grows on you. Contrast with Jakarta, where I asked a pair of booth attendants whether a certain DVD was in stock or not, and they laughed. At me. Oy vey. Granted, I'm not sure if I'd like having to pay the amount of attention to manners as the Japanese do everyday, but if you can't be polite, I think you can at least be not rude. I might be wrong, of course.
Number two: onsen (温泉). Or, public bathing. Yes, I got naked in front of other men. Initially, of course, there was some anxiety, but when the time came... there was really nothing to it. Really. If you don't make it a big deal, it will not be a big deal. Made me wonder where all the preoccupation about size (I'm talking about males here, ladies, I don't know your thoughts about size - yours or ours) came from. Onsen was fun. Essentially it's hot springs, just like you might find in Bandung, but they provide you with showers and stools and soap and shampoo and, yes, conditioner, not to mention a towel, and those little delights went a long way. Also, I think it would just be icky if people were to wear swimsuits into the baths. The Japanese, in public bathing matter at least, did something right.
Lastly: Shinkansen. Bullet train. So called because if you get hit by one, you'd probably be injured in some way. Just like a bullet. Right? Oh, and it was fast, too. How fast, you ask? Let me put it this way: if two shinkansen happen to pass each other, and you happen to sit by the right-side window, you'd be able to see right through the other train's windows to the other side without much noticeable obstruction. The trains pass so fast that the walls between the windows don't have enough time to get in the way of your sight. Magnificent.
That's all I got to jot down in the notebook, sorry. Sure, several more things happened during my stay there. Such as Tokyo Disneyland, Tokyo DisneySea, Mount Fuji, natto, Senso-ji Temple, Kiyomizu Temple, and Osaka Universal Studios, but I'll just mention them in passing. Oh, wait, I just did. Okay then, no harm done.
I loved Japan. I'd be happy to go there again.
Ah, here's a picture of a pork-and-cheese-filled bun in the shape of Hello Kitty.
Now I'd like to end this entry with a quote. The same one I used in the short eulogy I gave for my maternal grandfather who died two days after I got home from Japan.
"The term is over: the holidays have begun.
The dream is ended: this is the morning."
That was from Mr. C.S. Lewis.
I am not sad.
I'd really like to sing "My Grandfather's Clock."
Have another good year, everybody!
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