Soul of Asia

Stop! Here is how a word “stop” written in Korean.

Now I will continue my previous postponed writing about Korea. Seoul has a motto of Soul of Asia. Easy to remember right. Just take out the “e” from Seoul then you get the motto. I have talked about the first day. Now let’s go to the second day.

The second day we woke up quite early. I took fresh milk and two pieces of bread for breakfast. By 8:30 we had to leave the hotel. We took subway and went to a place near Insadong to have a Japan – Korean seminar. The seminar was in mainly billingual, but sometime trilingual. It was either in Korean, Japanese and sometime English.

In the afternoon we had a tour to the centre of Seoul. We were guided by a Seoul City Officer which we met at the Seoul Central Park. Walking for ten minutes to the North, we then arrived at the famous Cheonggyecheon. It is a rebuilt stream, flowing from West to the East of Seoul with a length around 5.8 km (Wikipedia). There used to be a highway constructed there until 2003 before they started to demolish the highway and build a stream there.

It was my second time going there. That time I came also in the afternoon. It’s a bit pity because some people said this stream is very nice in the evening. Maybe it’s like the view near Sanjo, along the Kamogawa River at my previous posting.

Nara

We went to Nara yesterday.

It was a nice tuesday with a temperature in the morning was about 14 C. We took a local JR train at 9:23 am from Obaku Station heading to Uji and there changed to an Express train. At the express train it was difficult to manage Sarah’s baby stroller. Our baby stroller is quite big and even though it is foldable, it still occupies a big space. But yesterday it was quite fine after I adjusted my seat.

The express train was a train from Kyoto to Nara. Even though it was a week day, the train was quite full. We could not find an empty (double) seat. There were also foreigners in the train. As I would guess they all also stopped in Nara.

Nara is the oldest permanent capital of Japan. Before Nara, the capical city of Japan had moved for several times. If the emperor changed, the new capital was established as well. It was in Nara then when the capital of Japan was first started to be permanent. After Nara it was Kyoto. No wonder why, in these two cities, there are so many temples and old heritage buildings remaining up to present. As a result the two cities are among the top tour destinations in Japan.

Seoul the 3rd

This is about my third landing to Korean Land (March 20-22). Land of Kimchi, land of Ginseng

However this time is different. I came together with my lab mates. We’re in a lab trip. Last year we went to Awaji. But this time we had a chance to go to Korea.

Early flight, early woke up

The flight was 9:30 am from Kansai International Airport (KIX). It meant we had to be very early from Kyoto. Four o’clock I woke up in order to catch the train on 5:35 from the station. But the weather was bad, it had been all day long raining. Anyway I got to go. I met my friends in Ohbaku Station (two) and later on some more at Kangetsukyo (three). We could have gone by MK van, but it costs almost double price. The good thing about MK just because they pick you up right at your house. However I love train better.

We arrived at 7:40 at Kansai train station, in time! Then we met the other members and we were all complete except our prof who later on came and met us. This time we flew with Asiana, a Korean airline. Asiana serves smaller aircraft than Korean Air. We flew with Airbus 321. Normally Korean Air serves Boeing 747. But for food, it is much better in Asiana. Korean Air only serves Sushi rools and drink. That’s all. Asiana serves bento, with larger porsion and of course more delicious . I love Asiana!

Escape to Timbuktu

Have you ever heard about Timbuktu? If you are Donald Duck lovers, this will sound familiar to you. It is a name of a city where Donald wants to escape everytime he has a problem.

Today, by chance, I found a literature about Timbuktu and eventually found the photo of the city in case any of us wants to escape there . The information is from Center for Development and Environment, Univ of Oslo, Norway.

source: http://www.sum.uio.no/research/mali/timbuktu/timbuktu_overview_800.jpg

According to Wikipedia, Timbuktu is  a city located in Tombouctou Region, in the West African nation of Mali (wikipedia). Maybe I can also add this place later as my future travel dream, who knows

December: my baby and research

Hectic weeks, but thank GOD, we manage it.

First of all, the new baby born has required us to have “extra” work. I and my wife divided the job. All the baby’s documents are my responsibilities while the daily needs of baby are my wife. In addition to that we are very greatful to my father and mother in law who have come to help us here. Otherwise it could be much more hectic.

Today I just finished all the documents for Sarah. The final documents (beside those that I mentioned earlier) include visa and also re-stamp by the city hall. I arranged the visa on wednesday and it was completed within a day. A friend of mine earlier had informed me that it would take around 1 – 2 weeks. But I was surprised as I received it just 1 hour after I submitted. So amazing! And today I brought the visa, showed it to the city hall so that the city hall could re-register her alien registration card.

My next fieldwork place

After more than a year staying here, including: conducting literature review, doing a lot of contacts, shifting the research themes a little bit, finally I will conduct the next fieldwork. I am happy for fieldwork because fieldwork is the way to get proper data that we need. My previous research studies: for my BSc and MSc, fieldwork helped me to get good data and sub-sequently good results as well.

Traveling Dream

Starting another “traveling” dream, why not? Last year I had a dream for traveling to Brussels and Munchen. Finally it turned out into reality in this year.

This time is already the end of 2007 and therefore it is the right time to “dream” again. Why not dreaming to visit some places that I have never been? Hmm, I sense a couple of options but see whether it is my luck or not, to go or not to go. But it is not bad to try dreaming and try “doing” some effort to fulfill the dream.

Several places in my mind are: Lisbon, Colorado, Seoul, Vladivostok (Russia), or elsewhere?

Which one will be fulfilled? I am not sure Just keep fingers crossed and let the time answers that  

  caiyoo!

Sarah: Kid’s documents

Our little princess is called: Sarah. The complete name is: Sarah Haniel Sagala. We call her Sarah-chan. Chan is a calling for a kid in Japanese.

Since last Friday (Nov 30th), up to today, I was very busy preparing for her documents here. Those include: registration for a citizen at Uji City Hall, National Health Insurance, discount for health check up, support from city hall for baby and including two more things today: making the passport and birth certificate. It’s funny to see that Sarah has her own passport with age less than two weeks. For the passport, she needed to have a facial photograph. It was not easy since she still could not easily balance her body and open her eyes. But after several attempts, my wife could get the best shot for the photograph. And in addition to that, Sarah needed to have a finger print to put on the application. So, this morning we tried to get her finger print. However as she is still very small, her finger print means only red ink printed on the paper without clear textures .

Indonesian: Don’t need visa to Korea, if ….

Just information which I obtained today about Indonesian Citizen who wants to travel to Korea.

Dear customer,

Thank you for visiting Korean Air Website.

Regarding your question, Indonesian passport holders are not required visa for Korea under following conditions;

Our Baby Born!

  

Our daughter has been born on 16:00 November 24th, 2007 in Uji Hospital, Kyoto. We are very thankful for all the support and prayers from parents, families, and friends . Baby and mom are in very well condition. Our daughter born with weight of 2.95 kg and height of 48 cm.

Thank you very much (mina san, honto ni arigatou gozaimasu) for all the greetings, prayer and wishes for us, especially for our lovely daughter. On the second day, I finally had the chance to embrace her. I could not hide how very happy I was when she was warmly and comfortably smiling in my arms. .Ureshikatta (I am so happyyyyyyyyyy!!).