Family menu

Ibu is not the master of cooking, but perhaps she would like to brag about her cooking here.

First,Tempura.
Yeah-yeah-yeah it's the easiest piece on earth. Just prepare the fish-onion-spinach, dip it into tempura flour, and deep fry. Absolutely very easy.
The sauce ? mix the shoyu(japanese soya sauce), sake, mirin, and dashi stock(by boiling some water with katsuo bushi and konbu)


Second, Manado porridge
Don't laugh! It's even easier to prepare that the Menado used to believe that manado girls made this dish because they can't cook but only plunge vegetables altogether. The truth is..its true!!! You just need to make chicken stock, remove the chicken. Then, use the stock to make the porridge. When the porridge is about to cook, put the pumpkin, spinach, shallots, salt, sugar. Voila...

Third, Rice crocket
When wisnu refused to eat rice but only apples for breakfast, this is the strategy.
Prepare the rice. Sautee the chopped onion and carrot. Then put one teaspoon rice on your palm, stuff it with the sauteed onion-carrot, insert the mozarela cheese, then put another teaspoon of rice on the top of it, roll the rice on your palm to make a round shape. Then, dip it into beaten egg, then bread crum. Finally, fry it... Serve them as you like (I use the lettuce and apples as garnish, though.

Wanna give yourself a try?

X'mas in Chiba

No white Christmas in Yokohama. No snow.
Japanese left Yokohama to go back to their hometown or stay at the resorts for Christmas, just like Indonesian during Lebaran. Yokohama became very quiet, traffic was lighter. If there were some in the bus or train, they were all dressed-up and carrying gift heading to their relatives or friends' house.

We decided to visit the Flasar in Chiba since they visited us earlier. Ibu had some galangal, pandan leaves, chilis, tamarind, shrimp paste, kaffirlime leaves, shallots, lemongrass to share with the most generous Tante Niken who has been sending us apples, kaki (kesemek), risoles, kastengels, nastar, senbei (Japanese rice crackers), clothes for Wisnu and Akira.

We took the bus at 11.18 and arrived at Yokohama at 12-ish. Wisnu fell asleep in the bus, and continued to sleep in the train-- Shonan Shinjuku line. We thought the train would stop at Ueno but it turned out that it went straight to Omiya. (this is what happens if you could not check the train schedules and destination due to the failure internet connection). We stopped at Omiya to buy some bread as it was already 2 pm and we were just starving to death that we needed to find bread and onigiri before we could reach Kashiwa.

From Omiya, we took the train to Ueno then to Matsudo and then to Goko. finally, at 3.30 pm we could call Tante Niken and Oom Michio to inform that we eventually were really coming. Oom Michio picked us up at the Goko station and Tante Niken had been ready with her mouth watering homemade pizza, kimlo soup, lumpia and the best is the nastar ibu had been dreaming of...!!!

They have a big beautiful tidy house with the Christmas tree that wisnu can't help to touch. Ayana seemed to enjoy watching Wisnu dancing around while watching the recorded Inai Inai Baa program from their giant TV.

Ibu managed to let Ayana sit on her lap together with Wisnu.

Tante Niken could not help but laughing realizing that we were wearing thick jackets as if we were freezing (we are actually) while Oom Michio was only wearing thin pants and light jacket (as he was born and grew up in Austria).

Unfortunately time ran fast that we had to catch the last bus from Yokohama at 10.30 which means we had to leave the Flasar's house at 7.30 pm. Oom Michio kindly dropped us at the Goko station then we took the Jobo line to Matsudo then changed to Ueno. From Ueno we went by Keihin Tohoku line and arrived at Yokohama at 9.20. We took the bus at around 9.30 and got to our apato at 10-ish.

The theme of Christmas 2005 : good friends, good food.
Thank you for the memorable Christmas for the Flasar's : Tante Niken, Oom Michio and Ayana!!!

Sejenak bersama Akira

Mina.... genki???? Halo para pembaca blog yang budiman dan setia, kali ini Akira mau angkat bicara. Anda tahu semua bukan, saya anak ke-2 keluarga Sanjaya--dan akan punya adik (wahh padahal tadinya saya mengira bakal jadi anak bontot, abis... bli Wisnu selalu memanggil saya " ade"...) Asyikkk..!! Berarti saya akan jadi kakak dooong.. keren kan kalo dipanggil "bli Akira"???


Umur saya sekarang 6 bulan. Berat? ahhh..cuma 6.29 kg ! Kenapa? Kelihatan gendut ya? Itu kan karena muka saya yang bundar dan hidung saya yang (tuing) mirip aji... Padahal kata dokter rata-rata anak Jepang seusia saya beratnya berkisar 6,5 -8 kg!!! Yak ampun...mereka itu pada makan apaan sih???


Ibu mah ngasih saya susu 1080 cc sehari dan bubur saring yang terbuat dari 1 sdt beras. Itu aja sudah bikin saya kekenyangan!!! Sampai-sampai saya gumuhh teruss dan pup sehari 2 kali (mana seringnya jam 4 subuh dan jam 5 sore sebelum tidur). Musim dingin begini emang bawaannya laper sih!

ehh.. kembali ke soal anak-anak Jepang yang guendut-guendut itu, saya jadi mikir...kok orang Jepang dewasa pada langsing2 ya? Abis makan paginya cuma nato sama miso shiru, siang makannya secuprit, malem juga. Lahhh...coba kalo bandingin sama ibu/aji yang makan paginya aja udah heboh: nasi goreng atau kalo makan roti ntar pake acara makan lagi yang lain2... corn flakes lah, nasi pake telor lahh... dan kalo makan siang/malam ...nasinya buanyak benerr...

Berarti nanti saya juga ada harapan jadi gendut dong ya? Aah...yang penting sehat lah, emang mau ngapain mau pake acara gendut segala? Mau jadi sumo? Nggak kan..???

Sementara ini, bli Wisnu-lah teman bermain setia saya. Lihat aja..dia suka heboh begitu, meluk-meluk kegemesan..diihh..gerah ah!

Tapi enak juga ditemenin sama abang laki-laki, mainannya asyik-asyik : mobil-mobilan, truk, kereta, motor, dan segala macem barang bisa dijadiin mainan. Kadang kita berdua bisa ketawa cekakan main ciluk-ba. Kadang bli juga nangis tiba-tiba, padahal saya nggak ngapa-ngapain cuma teriak 'ahhh', ehh..dia kaget kali pas lagi bengong denger suara saya yang keras. Alhasil nangis lah dia...!


Tapi kata ibu, nanti di Jakarta saya bakalan punya teman main cewek--kak Alexa dan tetangga depan , kak Mala. Wah mau main apaan ya sama cewek-cewek gitu? Mereka mau gak sih diajak maen mobil-mobilan atau berantem-beranteman???

Ah... saya ikutan bli Wisnu aja dehhh nanti. Pasti dia punya taktik dan ide jitu untuk main sama tuh cewek-cewek.

I made it!!!

Sometime ago, when we were still in Gumyoji, Ibu bought me this toy at 100 yen shop as I began to pile up the books, stacked the kitchenware such as cups, plastic containers, bowls, etc.

Aji showed me once how to play with this, but then he left it to me to try on my own.


Maybe either because I am just a beginner or this toy is not really well-designed, it sometimes drives my nerve to make any construction.


I tried several times--almost succeded but it fell off so easy that I could cry.

But ibu was busy cheering me up and taking pictures, so I guess I'd better try again, again and again. As she sings for me , " Jangan cepat putus asa, jangan cepat putus asa (don't give up easily)" with her you-know-the-qulity voice.

Finally....I came up with something! You might think that it's so simple to make, but I spent almost 45 minutes to do so!!!



And now..I'm just too exhausted mentally and prefer to lie down next to my cute brother.
Perhaps in my dream I can figure out easier ways to build another construction.... Zzzzz

Potong Rambut Sendiri

Berapa harga potong rambut di barbershop Yokohama? paling murah 1000 yen dan itu juga potongannya sekehendak sang barber, dalam artian kadang2 nggak rata gituuu...
Nah aji terakhir kali potong rambut bulan Agustus, sekalian potong rambut Akira dan Wisnu.

Jadi hari kamis pagi, ibu berhasil menemukan pisau cukur yang sejak kita pindah ke apato baru tertumpuk dengan barang2 yang bisa dikategorikan unclassified alias gak ada tempat/wadah untuk menampungnya (yah..mau dibeliin wadah, bentar lagi kita kan boyongan ke jakarta!).


Dan aji bercukurlah dengan bantuan cermin di wastafel, plastik bekas laundry sebagai penutup tubuh yang dijepit dengan jepitan jemuran, dan dialasi plastik untuk makan wisnu dan disertai dengan doa ibu dalam hati 'semoga hasilnya memuaskan'..he..he...





sebelum dan sesudah --beda kan???













Hasilnya? Masih kelihatan guantenggg dan awet muda kannn? Dan yang terpenting......ngirit 1000 yen dahhhh!!!! Lumayan buat beli susu akira nihhh...

the Big Buddha , Kamakura

When we visited Kamakura, we took a chance to pay a visit to the Big Budha. (Thank to Ide Sensei and Chie) and take abundant awesome pictures



By the way, about this big Budha in Kamakura is very special, eventhough there are 3 Big Buddha statues in Japan; Kamakura, Kyoto and Nara. Among those three ,the one in Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu, Dai=big, Butsu= Buddha) is the only one which remains in its original form.

How big is this metal statue? Well,… 15 meters in height (the face itself nearly 2.5 meters long), and 93 tons in weight. Upon the head are 656 hair curls, a traditional characteristic of the Amida Buddha. The silver boss on the forehead (from which emanates the light that illuminates the universe) weighs 30 pounds.

It is said that the one in Kamakura is actually the statue of Amida Nyorai (Amithaba--in Sankskrit) who was known as Hozo Bodhisattva (Skt. Dharmakara). Some people believe that by chanting his name : "Namu Amida Butsu" with utmost sincerity they will rebirth in the pure land and attain enlightment (free from the cycle of birth and death).

The interesting point is that this statue is worshipped to ward off calamities that occur in the "unlucky ages"(yakudoshi in Japanese); according to the Japanese, the years especially prone to misfortune for men are 25 and 42, and for women 19 and 33. (hey , aji and ibu will turn 33 next year--so probably we should go there next year before we leave for Indonesia)


We saw a pair of giant sandals hanging on the wall , but unfortunately we could not take pictures conveniently as it turn out to be the background decoration of the smoking area and we have to squeeze ourselves in among those smokers ..uhuk..uhuk...uhuk!!!


There are such a crowd visiting temples during autumn. Do you wonder why? it's not that they have the urge to save their prayer, well..some of them do come there for that.. but they are more interested in enjoying the koyo. Koyo is beatiful leaves which are as beautiful as the sakura or cherry blossoms during the spring. It might sound familiar to go to the gardens to see leaves but why going to the temples? The answer is the temples plant a lot of trees such as mamoji (japanese maple trees) and ichou trees (ginkgou biloba trees).


This is called ichou (japanese) or ginkgou trees. Ginkgo is considered the oldest tree species to survive on earth, with a history dating back over 200 million years. Yes you've probably have heard "ginkgou biloba" many times in certain ads on vitamins/supplements. These are the leaves which have been used in chinese medicine for various reasons: to treat skin and head sores as well as freckles, lower serum cholesterol levels and have some clinical value in angina pectoris, to improve short term memory, to treat the erectile dysfunction patients (oops!!) .The seeds are used as an astringent for the lung, to stop asthma, enuresis, and excessive leucorrhea. It is thought to benefit ch'i (qi; vital energy), cough, and regulate urinary frequency. The trees are good for environment as they are long-lived , remarkably resistant to disease, pests, and fires. They also are extremely tolerant of air pollution, and are often planted in harsh city environments where most trees will not survive.

this one is called Mamoji(japanese) or maple trees(Acer Palmatum). There are actually 3 kinds of japanese maple trees. the colors change as the season changes.

Hmmm.. as the winter is coming, we are hoping that snow will fall in yokohama at least for one fine day to take pictures. :}

(contd)Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine

In the first posting you have read about some religious marks around the shrine, but there are more to see!!! Let's see what they have here!!

This stall sells sugar coated apple. Wisnu loves this because first, it's sweet as it is made of sugar, second he can bite the sweet apple inside and third the color is striking red thus very enticing and mouth watering! Only 300 yen for the big apple and 200 yen for the small one.


They also sell many modern Japanese masks , 500 yen each --quite expensive for a mask . Luckily Wisnu only pointed at those masks and not asking to have one!

Children who visit the shrine would love to buy the candies. They come in different shapes--round, heart, and colors: pink, blue, green, white .

It seemed that there were many ceremonies held in the jinja . We saw some parents with their babies and children in kimonos. Japanese children go to shrines and wear traditional costumes at the age of 3 and 7 for girls, and at the age of 5 for boys to wish for good future.

Wisnu managed to take pictures with these two japanese girls.

When we were about to leave the shrine, we ran over a bride and a groom heading for the jinja. Just see how elegant and gorgeous Japanese wedding gown is!

It turned out that Japan still preserve the traditional transpotation , if China has rick-shaw, and Indonesia has becak, here you can try to ride jinrikisha which means "human-powered vehicle" . unfortunately we did not have the time to ride on this jinriksha and by the way it's freezing here that we just got to rush to find something for lunch!!!



From tsurugaoka Hachimangu Jinja, here we are sending you our biggest smile!!!

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine

On Sunday, December 11, Eisaku Ide sensei (aji's thesis advisor) and his wife, Chie invited us to go to Kamakura to see the beauty of fall. They picked us up at 9.30 and we headed for Kamakura.

It was cloudy all day but their hospitality and generosity warms our hearts and fill the journey. Wisnu was so excited that he laughed many times in the car. Akira also seemed to enjoy this experience as he stared at building from the car's window and hardly cried during the trip.

The first place we visited was the most important shrine in Kamakura: Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. It was founded by Minamoto Yoriyoshi in 1063, and enlarged and moved to its current site in 1180 by Minamoto Yuritomo, the founder and first shogun of the Kamakura government.

The shrine is dedicated to Hachiman, the kami (shinto's gods) of war, which used to be particularly popular among the leading military clans -- Minamoto family and all samurai in general.



Do you know that temple is different from shrine to Japanese? Budhists go to temples to pray but many Japanese who claim that they do not have religions do go to jinja to pray for good luck, health or wealth. When you visit shrines (jinja) in japan, usually you can see :


1. Torii
the gate which marks the entrance to a shrine and designates holy ground. The Gate marks the gateway between the physical and spiritual worlds. The Torii is traditionally made in three pieces, three being a sacred number of the Kami, the gods in Shintoism. It has two upright supports and two crossbars on the top, and is frequently painted vermilion. As hinted by the kanji characters (they mean: tori = bird, i = place), a torii is designed for birds to rest. This is because in Shintoism, birds are considered messengers of the god.


2. Purification fountain-- near the enterance

What to do here? Take the wooden ladle provided to fill it with fresh water and rinse both hands. Then transfer some water into your cupped hand, rinse your mouth and spit the water beside the fountain. You are not supposed to transfer the water directly from the ladle into your mouth nor to swallow the water.




3. Ema --wooden plates to write wishes
The ema are left hanging up at the shrine, where the kami (spirits or gods) can read them. They tend to be fairly uniform in size and shape, but many have different pictures painted on them, of animals or other Shinto imagery, and they often have the word negai (願意) or 'Wish' written along the side. Stereotypically, the image on the plaque would be of a horse, uma or ma in Japanese (馬); ema means, literally, "horse picture".　This name originates from the fact that real horses were once offered by the wealthy in exchange for blessings at shrines.

4. Omikuji --fortune telling paper
With 100 yen you can get a fortune telling paper-- there are Japanese and English version. After paying, you will be given a wooden box with a hole on top for you to take one wooden stick. When you get one, there is number written there, then the seller will give you the fortune telling paper with the number drawn. The predictions range from daikichi ("great good luck") to daikyo ("great bad luck"). What you need to do is tie the paper around the provided place, just like what Ide sensei and his wife did in the picture, then good fortune will come true or bad fortune can be averted.

Ibu and aji managed to take one each. For ibu, the paper says that ibu will have a good future, the children are healthy, but ibu has to be careful in giving names for children! It also says that if the friendship fails, it must be ibu to be blame. The good thing is if ibu decided to move, ibu'd better hurry! The worst thing is the business goes bankrupt (oh-oh wil it really happen to the company ibu has been working for?)

What about aji? Aji has to rethink about his desires, the business is not good but the children are healthy. Aji also needs to be really careful in choosing names for children. (Believe it or not --some statements are very relevant with our condition)

5. Charms
There are many kinds of japanese charms/amulets we can buy here.

There are charms for good luck, health, study or marriage. (As a matter of fact it's not allowed to take the pictures of those charms--but accidently ibu took one for you to see!) Surprisingly, Ide Sensei and aunty chie bought us one for good health. Thank you, we'll need that!

Anyway, we climbed up the stairs to get inside the shrine. (sorry, we are not allowed to take pictures inside the shrine). Many people pray there. How? First, throw the coin, bow twice, and clap hands twice. After that save your pray, and when you've finished, just bow once.

There are many other interesting things we find around this jinja, so check the next posting out!

(to be continued...)

Kata Akira : Aku ini mirip siapa, sih?

Wajahku sudah berubah lho..karena aku sudah hampir 6 bulan. Walaupun baju yang aku pakai semuanya dulu milik bli Wisnu, tapi boleh dijamin para pembaca blog bisa membedakan antara bli Wisnu dan aku.

Ini salah satu baju bli Wisnu dulu waktu umur 9 bulan, ehh...tapi ini sudah muat aku pakai lho, padahal belum juga 6 bulan umurku!!!

Boleh ge-er dikit ah, kata tante Niken aku kayak anak bule. Tapi bule-nya bule pesek nihh.. Yang jelas sih orang tidak akan ragu bahwa aku orang Indonesia walaupun namaku Akira yang merupakan nama yang sangat populer di jepang (itu kan gara-gara aku lahir di Jepang dan orang tuaku tidak mau memakai nama "Yokohama" atau "Jepang" sebagai namaku) dan berarti bijaksana, pintar, kuat. Apalagi kalau aku sebut nama panjangku : I Gusti Made Akira . Nahhh..tau dong aku ini orang mana? Orang Bali kan? Iya! (Padahal yang dari Bali kakiangku, sementara Niang dari Ponorogo, Aki dari Yogya, Nini dari Sumedang-- yang berarti darah Bali ku 25 %, Jawa Timur 50%, Jawa Barat 25%).


Coba lihat lagi dehhh..apa iya aku persis Bli Wisnu?
Padahal rambutku lurus, mukaku bulat, sedangkan bli Wisnu rambutnya agak ikal dan bentuk wajahnya agak persegi. O iya kulitku juga kelihatan lebih terang dari bli Wisnu. Masih mirip juga???

Coba dong tolong dicek sama pabriknya--ibu. Apakah aku mirip ibu?

Hmmm... mata kami kok berbeda yah? Rambutku merah eh atau coklat gitu, sedangkan rambut ibu agak hitam.

Ahh.. bingung kan? Kalo dengan aji bagaimana?

Ayo dong, komentarnya! Jadi aku ini mirip siapa???

PS: For non-Indonesian readers: Who do I look like? My brother, Wisnu ; my mother or my father? Or you find that I resemble Tom Cruise perhaps :p