quick post.

18.35. 5 menit menuju boarding dari Bandara Juanda ke Soekarno Hatta.

dan sekitar 12 jam lagi kembali ke dunia nyata.

.....sudah siap kah? :""

welcome back!

Taiko, Tea Ceremony, and last goodbyes

Assalamualaikum!

on the last day of NASSYE program, we were invited once more to NUT campus and experience taiko and tea ceremony. taiko is a traditional drum play from Japan. here, they have their own club and often play drum in Nagaoka annual festival. I've seen people playing this taiko at many game centers, either back in my hometown or here in Japan. osu!, one of the rhythm game I play (lol jadi inget maro sama lilis kalo bahas osu) has this taiko mode too; but I never understand how to play and click all of those fast moving circles. I prefer the piano mode. if you like rhythm game, you definitely have to try this one! they provide bunch of bitmaps, free for download, different levels and modes, etc x)

this is osu!.

watch NUT students play taiko was interesting, and try to play it by ourself was lit! it was actually not that easy to catch the rhythm; even the slow one, but we enjoyed it much. they also had a cool club uniform and let us took photos with it.

taiko

after taiko, we went to a special room for tea ceremony. tea ceremony club welcomed us warmly, and as they prepared to serve the tea (that we had to mix it by ourself), one of them explained things about tea ceremony; the events, participants, procedures. in the end of the session, we drank our own-mixed matcha tea

it was extremely bitter.

as they told us, for summer season, we added 3 gr of tea powder into a small bowl, and mixed it with certain amount of water. but for winter, with the same water scale, they mixed 30 gr of tea!

...hmmmmmmmm couldnt imagine how bitter it is, thanks :))

although its bitter, I really love the scent

dear me why so short

and we were all actually curious how these guys can stand to sit in that position for a long time; as all of us were suffered enough only after couple of minutes.

these activities ended at 11 am and we still had plenty of times until the last ceremony on 1 pm. thus we decided to go into our laboratory; tried to meet our lab mates and say our last goodbyes. sadly we only met two of them; but as Lisa called the others, they flew to the lab as soon as possible! we also had our last lunch together. thank youuuu! you guys were awesome, we were all touched by ur kindness :"""

I once again say thank you for all of our lab mates, hope our moments together will always stay in our hearts!

<3

in the end of this day, I went to Don Quijote by myself to buy certain of things. I've asked lot of things to my NUT friend, took screenshot for all of the directions, estimated the time.....

but still got lost. takapeu. huhu.

well luckily I managed to find a grocery store on the way and they provide Free Wi-fi. Google Maps saved me then. alhamdulillah.....

bolang bolang

shoes sponsored by Sulis and Heldy :))

I took a night bus and explored Tokyo on my very last day; see you on the next post then!

group work and Nagaoka sightseeing

Assalamualaikum!

our Tuesday and Wednesday were spent by having games, group work, and final presentation with the other NUT students. turned out that since the bachelor degree students were still in their summer holiday, we met our lab mates once again in this session! thought we would never meet them anymore.. a musical chair games opened this session, and we were divided into 6 groups, combining NUT and NASSYE students. I was in the group 4, together with Lim (Malaysia), Dew (Thailand), Yuta and Hiroto (Japan). we were told to make a presentation about 'the differences between my country and Japan'.

we also had this game where we have to build a paper tower, as tall as possible. seems so simple, but it was actually hard and challenging...; no tape, glue or any sticky things at all. congratulations for the runner up place, guys! :p

at the afternoon, we went to three different places for Nagaoka sightseeing (one place each group). I visited Niigata Historical Museum. although all of the explanation were written in Japanese, they provided us an english explanation audio player, which had a sensor/receiver. every section in the museum equipped with transmitter, so that every time we brought the audio player near the display, the english explanation audio was automatically played. hmhmm more efficient than changing all the display explanations.

Nagaoka sightseeing team!

our final presentation was held on Wednesday. it was like a session to enrich our knowledge and information about the other country's culture and daily lives. everyone had their own uniqueness to present (well, we also watched sudden performances of Thai and Chinese dance x)) we ended this day by having a farewell party, almost all of our academic adviser and professor also came. 

yay sudden Chinese dance

thank you for our lab mate fellas who thoroughly prepared these two days! we all know that you guys also had to work for your research projects since you were all master and PhD students. it was very nice spending time with you all again. hope meet again very soon!

company tour

Assalamualaikum!

in Monday, August 28th 2017 we were scheduled to have a company tour. we left our hotel at 7.45 AM by bus (which was extremely early compared to our daily-9-10-am-schedule before). first company we visited was Echigo Seika, Co., Ltd, a food processing company. their base material was rice; all of their main products were derived from rice. no wonder, Niigata Prefecture best known as The Rice Capital of Japan. we could easily find a paddy field almost everywhere, especially in Nagaoka city. wherever you drive, you can always see green enormous paddy field from the roadside. I also saw many houses had their own garage filled with agricultural machinery (4-wheeled tractor, combine harvester, transplanter, etc) along the way.

grreeeenn

yap, this fact was really interesting as I never witness a wide modern agriculture application from this close before.

back to Echigo Seika, we were introduced about their latest food processing technology; high pressure treatment. this treatment help to reduce bacteria and microorganism heat resistance. they used this method for making a cooked-rice pack (yep, its cooked, not the raw one). this is the image of this rice pack product:

the thing is this rice was made with no chemicals at all; pure water and rice, and they said that this rice pack shelf life could reach almost years! 

we also got a factory tour but we couldn't take any photos.

after we finished the tour, we went to the second place; Shinanogawa (JR East) Hydroelectric Power Plant. this company used Shinano river, the longest and widest river in Japan, as their source of energy to supply JR company across Tokyo. this power plant includes a quite enormous area, as it covers some lakes, bridges, and factories (?) *how to say it, the place for turbines and generators?*. they stop the water from Shinano river using dam, make it flow through some tunnels and lead them to the turbines and generators. 

water tunnels

generators

although the river is blocked by the dam, they still provide this 'stairs' for fishes 

who want to swim across. super cute!

in the end of our tour, we visited Shinanogawa Hydroelectric Power Plant museum, where lies some history of JR East and explanation about the Shinanogawa Power Plant. there were some interactive corners inside; QnA section (but in Japanese)(couldnt answer any single question), drive our own train, turbine simulation, etc.

miniature of the power plant

true of false

they also have this big and green backyard where we held a mini photo session!

gangster. somehow (?)

full team!

arrived back to the hotel at 6 pm, we agreed to meet again at 6.30 pm and had a dinner together. we all went to a Japanese restaurant near hotel and ordered some meals. 

the funny moment came when it was the time to pay, and we had to calculate those money from around 12 peoples. we ordered different dishes; moreover we also had to deal with the 8% tax. and almost everyone paid with coins!

"Okay, its 800 yen.."

"And this is 90 yen.."

"Then 800 yen plus 90 yen..." ((grab calculator))

"....."

"Oh no! We're engineer, guys! TT_TT"

*conversation credit to Qisthi*

the endless coins

yup, thats all from the company tour day!

hujan post part 1 selesai.

alhamdulillaaaaaaah. #cangkeul

siapa yang pernah bilang kalau akan lebih baik mengabadikan memori, tidak hanya dengan ribuan foto, tapi juga dengan untaian kata?

masih ada part 2. ini terhitung produktif karena dari kemarin kepikiran...

17.27 sore di kantor Farm Kencong.

wassalamualaikum!

Niigata trip

Assalamualaikum!

Lim said that since she was already gone to Niigata with her labmates before, she wouldn't join our Niigata trip on Sunday. Yani and I planned to make an itinerary, but ended up with nothing, because... yea, we thought that maybe, there were not so many tourism objects in Niigata. hours later, our Canadian friend, Chelsea, told us that Niigata had this Sightseeing Loop Bus. so in the morning, Yani, Brian (he just joined our trip 15 minutes before we go) and I started our Niigata trip. 

loop bus trip!

as written in the plan, we first moved into Niigata Manga Animation Museum. turned out that there were some mangakas (how do they call this in englih?) came from this prefecture. some of them were kind of familiar; lets say Samurai X, Toradora, Death Note, Bakuman.. some explanation also available about how to make manga and animation, the history of each manga, etc. there were also these interactive corner where we can design our own comic page, 'draw' our own characters, and even experience being a 'seiyuu' and dub our own voice into an anime scene.

we were a bit late for the second destination because apparently we waited in the wrong bus terminal. but in the end we made it to Former Saito Family Summer Villa; an old and huge guest house of Saito family, one of the old Niigata's 3 most powerful business conglomerates. if im not mistaken, this house area was 5000 m2; and around 4500m2 part of it was a garden. fhew. very huge.

the villa

then we flew to the other 2 places, beach and Hakusan Shrine. we reached this beach by visiting Aquarium; the closest tourism object with sea. we didn't stay there for a long time since it was very hot. we moved to Hakusan Shrine, where they also got a park, giant lotus pond, and some town facilities around it. 

beeaachh

gate of Hakusan Shrine

i went up this. pretty cool. #rasapenasaranterbayarkan

another very-japanese-corner

our plan were quite good until we randomly picked a wrong station to get out from the train on the way home (it should be Nagaoka Station, not Kita-Nagaoka Station, guys....). no one there. extremely empty and quiet. we waited for about 20 minutes for the next train to come; so grateful that our train was not the last train from Niigata going to Nagaoka that day.

that all, and after this we go to our second week!

Nagaoka trip

((i wrote this one just night after having the trip but couldn't manage to publish it until now ;;;))

it was raining hard at 4 am in the morning. i went to breakfast without having any exact plan to do in that day, while most of the others already planned either to go sightseeing Tokyo, go around Nagaoka with their labmates, etc. luckily I met my two Malaysian friends, Lim and Yani, and we agreed to go sightseeing Nagaoka together! it was actually quite hard to stroll around the city with only public transportation, because it did not cover most of the tourism places. better to go with car or taxi. well, no car here though so we just planned to go around Nagaoka Station, to some places in only walking distance. 

today's partner in crime!

our first destination was Tsuginosuke Kawai Memorial Museum. there, we were told about some recommended places to go around. knowing that we couldn't read or understand any Japanese brochure, the officer then came with three copied English brochure in his hand! he also said that he used to work in one Japan company in Jakarta. then, with only map and brochure  (sadly not any of us having internet connection in our handphone), we were ready to explore Nagaoka. thank you very much sir!

we went to Yamamoto Isoroku Memorial Park, where lied a very old house surrounded with trees, fountain, statue, and garden. we did the Dzuhur prayer inside this house then moved to Saifukuji Temple and Peace Forest Park. we were also walk through some conjunctions and met Hiragata Shrine. 

walk and walk

the old house

well, it was basically some Temples, Shrines, and Museums we could reach here by foot. so this was kinda like.. a historical yet traditional style of Nagaoka trip? and it was actually sort of fun! very 'Japanese', wk. along the way, we also bump on some interesting moments like having a nice short chat with a kind and cheerful 66-years-old Japanese man, observing cicadas, ducks, strooling around the river, passing some beautiful Japanese-style houses.. sometimes, travel by foot is the best choice because we might have chances to see and experience more things. 

lastly we visited Kioku Mirai (Nagaoka Earthquake Disaster Archive Center), and enjoyed most of the times to walk around, sit (and sleep...), and tried to read katakana and hiragana in children book. guess I have to learn more, because it took almost 15-20 minutes to figure out all the letters and meaning of every sentences. in only 2 pages. with a big picture. :") such and amateur.

we also performed Ashar prayer in Kioku Mirai too.

a corner in Nagaoka town hall

on the way home, me and Yani accidentaly found this Japanese restaurant which sell Japanese food (ofc) like udon, soup, and okonomiyaki. the thing was they said that lot of Muslim already visited this place. the owner were already fully understand that we didn't eat any meat (except seafood), consume sake, or mirin. thus we ordered a big portion of seafood okonomiyaki for two person. thought first that we wouldn't make the pan empty, but yea we were actually hungry enough that we finished this big dish in almost no time. first time having the real okonomiyaki too, yay! 

that's all for today. see u!   

first week in Nagaoka and NUT #part 2

Assalamualaikum! lets continue;

#4th Day: Another Lost; and Motion Control Laboratory

this day was a bit loose because we were told to be in Innovation Lounge by 10 AM. I was too lazy to move and make a breakfast in cafetaria (sometimes, it was hard to find halal meal in cafetaria. last time I could only eat rice and salad...), thus I stayed at room enjoying Mie Gelas and cup of Koffee Luwak instant, wkwk.

I left my room around 9.50 AM. 

and... I got lost.

I thought I remembered the path clearly, but turned out that I couldn't figure the right building to come. this Innovation Lounge actually didn't belong to any department, so it didn't have any specific building. the only things I could remembered were the hall was all white, it just a step beside Fermentation Lab, and the room number was 211.

....dont be panic and lets find someone to ask then :)))

I bumped on a student and ask him (apparently he might be one of NASSYE student labmate...), and we thought that it might be in Bioengineering Department (since it close to Fermentation lab). 

as we walked there, we also found a room number 211.

but apparently, this Innovation Lounge was not the only room which had number 211 :" 

I was late about 20 minutes, and, desperately, decided to go to International Division Affair office and asked for help. minutes later, Kawai-san, my TA fetched me up.

TT_TT

malu euy, you know. 

I promised myself, after this session, I had to look around, remember every path, and never get lost anymore :))

for today lesson, we went to Motion Control Laboratory and learned the system of rehabilitation robot. nowadays, many robot considered dangerous to human as it didn't have any position or velocity control for its own. thus, a robot with force control and impedance control were developed in order to increase its safety toward human. 

in this case, we studied about the application of force control and impedance control in rehabilitation chair for people with disabled/paralyzed feet. this rehabilitation chair let the user push a certain weight by their feet to train their muscle. in this research, instead of having a constant weight, this chair connected to a motor that acted like a spring. this system gave amount of weight based on the force exerted by user. thus, it would be more suitable for patient in rehabilitation process.

the chair

first time using matlab and those block diagram ;;;

#5th Day: DIY Magnetic Carbon Active

we were having an experiment in Kobayashi lab, guided by some of our labmates, NUT students from Material Science major. we made a magnetic flocculant out of activated carbon, iron chloride, and NaOH. wastewater management was a really important issue, and one of the problem was that this wastewater often contain a dye, a colored substance that has an affinity to substrate to which it is being applied. activated carbon could remove dye, but it was difficult to collect after being used. with this magnetic flocculant, we could gather the used activated carbon by using magnet.

while waiting for our flocculant to be done, we went to tempura shop for lunch. finally! after days with salad and half-boiled eggs.. in the evening after finishing the laboratory works, we all went to a Dango shop. it was actually a very old traditional house, built in around 1700. the view from this shop were magnificent. we could clearly see hills and rice fields from here. I wonder how it would look in winter, spring or fall.... because in summer all they have was green :(

and then we drove to Daiso. yay. 100-yen shop. everyone's favorite shop :))

#6th Day: Future Photovoltaic and Conversion Technology

in the morning, we went to energy laboratory tour, especially for solar cell technology. they had an innovation which combine the 3J solar cell (high efficiency solar cell to get direct sunlight) and bi-facial silicon solar cell (to get the diffuse sunlight from surrounding). the result were astonishing; they succeeded to make a photovoltaic with 37% maximum efficiency. as my ELP final project was about solar cell; and I involved in another project that also use solar cell; this one was really interesting. the solar cell in my ELP final project result was only 11%; and they also stated it clearly in the class that normal solar cell would only have average efficiency below 20%. 

the lab

after lunch, we visited electrical engineering lab which mainly focused on electrical conversion technology. in this case; AC to AC, AC to DC, etc. this lab already succeeded in making a smaller charging station for electric car by cut off one conversion step. they also now working on a technology that let people charge their electric car by only drive it on a special road. 

conversion system. nope, our lab work was not this complex...

this day ended as we all moved from our home stay in NUT campus to a hotel near Nagaoka Station.

anddd im hungry now. so, see u later!

first week in Nagaoka and NUT #part 1

Assalamualaikum! 

#1st Day: Introduction 

We arrived at Nagaoka station around 6 AM in the morning, and took a number 7 bus directly to Gidai-mae, the terminal for Nagaoka University of Technology. while waiting the bus, we met another NASSYE participants, Numan from Turkey. he happened to bumped on two NUT international students from Thailand, and they were kindly guided us along the way to the campus. 

it was on the very first day that we met each others. besides 3 participants from Indonesia, the rest 17 of us came from another countries like Malaysia, Thailand, China, Canada, Mexico, Korea, and Turkey. on the first meeting, we were explained about the schedules and activities we would have in this program. the staffs guided us for a mini campus tour, and the girls ended up in NUT Guest House while the boys headed for NUT Club House; these are places for us to stay for the next 5 days.

our room

I really loved the guest house. although I happened to lost my room key on the very first hours I came ;;; (luckily I  managed to find it back yay). the house was very cozy, and the room was in a traditional Japanese room style. my room mate was Qisthi. they provided shared toilet and shower (alhamdulillah I had to do my Shubuh prayer so early in the morning then could manage to take a shower before anyone else). the facility was very complete too. ah, and the most important thing was; they provide LAN cable in every room :") I can reached internet by using my laptop as the wireless hotspot.

#2nd Day: Baking Class

in the beginning of our 2nd day, we were introduced by our Teacher Assistant that would guide us in these 5 days laboratory work. my lab mates from NASSYE program were Fah from Thailand and Chelsea from Canada. on the first day of laboratory work, we learned about fermentation technology from Bioengineering Department. and the lab work were making a bread; one of the food that being made using fermentation technology, yay!

in the end of the lesson, we managed to eat our bread along with some staffs in the department.

yummmm

my lab mates from NUT said that they would bring us to eat outside in the night. but it was so sad that she couldnt come, so we went with another NUT students to the 100-yen sushi shop. it was a really good time to meet and get along with the other students; they were all very nice, kind and cheerful! it made me hard to believe that most of them were now pursuing their graduate studies for master and doctoral degree... ^^;; they also helped me read the ingredients of food I wanted to buy in grocery store, and even suggested me for which food I could and couldnt buy. 

#3rd Day: Laboratory Visits and Fermentation Idea Contest

in this day, we were having some tours on different labs. the first lab was in Department of Environmental Systems Engineering. we were introduced to a system of water filtration using both anaerobic and aerobic process combined with a reactor filled with sponge. this sponge was special as we didn't need to change it regularly. the aim of this project was to minimize the cost and wastewater produced in the fishery industries. there was also a modified model of this reactor, which shaped like a windmill machine. with the help of electrical motor, it spins and filter the water. the second department we went was Department of Bioengineering where we observed that by using fluorescence paint, we could 'color' the small parts of single cell and observe it by using confocal microscope.

the green dots were nucleus

after having the lab tours, we went to classroom where the Fermentation Idea Contest were held. apparently this was one of the prestigious annual contest in bioengineering study area across Japan. after preliminaries, six team with best paper were invited to have a presentation in front of the judges. the judges were all the experts from each region; there was even a Professor who were a member of team that won a Nobel prize.

....but the presentation was in Japanese :") couldn't understand any single words but pictures.

idea contest