Coming soon~

Coming very soon, insyaAllah in this Ramadhan 1438 H. I'm going to share my experiences whether happiness, sadness, tips and tricks for solo or group traveling and many more.  See ya!

Graduation? Higher educations?

What is graduation?

What the essential things that should be considered before and after graduation day? 

Okey, please answer those questions in your mind.

Decided to continue your study whether in your home country or abroad, you have to consider lot of things:

1. Motivation. For someone (especially for undergraduate- students) who wants to pursue it, how important a higher education for your future?

This is also essential for your actions on track to achieved your goals, you should keep yourself highly motivated, not easy to be depressed or desperate. 

2. Money. This part couldn't be neglected. From where you have money to pay the fees? these fees mean for tuition fee, English proficiency test fee, transportations, documents submission so on. To be realistic, you have to save money whether you have to work first or anything else.

3. Scholarship. Still related to the money, but it would be extremely important to achieve for you who couldn't pay the tuition fee and/or living allowance by yourself, because if you check on several university websites, the tuition fee for international student almost 3 or 4 times to local students fee. The scholarship itself requires you to fulfill some requirements. You can check what kind of scholarship you choose. For example: If you choose Japan for your targeted country, then Monbukagakusho scholarship can be your scholarship list, or the top scholarship in Indonesia now is LPDP, so you can choose the top university in many countries of this globe. 

4. Language proficiency.  From when I/ We should prepare the materials and do the practice for language proficiency test. For example: the university or the scholarship requires English proficiency then I/We should fulfill the requirement. Please check which is your pursuing country.

This part I (the writer) am preparing for the English proficiency test within this one or one-half year.

5.  Professor and Research topic. Confused about this point? then you have to make mind-map of your future research. What field of study, or major, or speciality, or interest? For example: I am a material engineering student, I am interested in advanced materials and renewable energy, and I want to study in developed country (e.g. Japan or England). 

So, you can search in any search engine, which university that has those criteria in each countries→ visit their university website → type any keyword related your interest (generally it will show you the lists of professors or faculties or laboratories ) → visit the faculty website of laboratory website → choose professor (you can choose based on their research interests or publications within 10 years) → if you are interested in their research DON'T hesitate to contact the professor by email. Then the next question is.... How to email the professor in good manner? There are tons of examples of How to email to Professor in the search engine.

6. Du'a (Do'a). The last but not the least, don't forget before and after you make any actions of those points, ask your parents for du'a.

Your effort is linear to your result. Good Luck!

Balikpapan, March 1, 2017

The last three months- 27 Ramadhan 1437 H

Hi guys,

To be sorry for such kind of messy writing of my blog haha..

In this time I'm going to jump to another topic. Last post I said I'm going to write about my (could be) last winter. But, today Summer already started XD

These months would be my 'challenging' months, yeah it could be my last three months in Japan..

Thesis battle has begun..

With all my messy and incomplete data, I should write whole chapters of my thesis. Hopefully My Lord Allah SWT gives me ease in every single day until graduation.

I couldn't promise, but I want to share so many things after almost 2 years living in Japan, sadness, happiness and so on.

See you soon. Love.

Tips when you travel around Japan-1

Hey hey!
It's  almost 1 year passed. I just started to write an article in this year, 2016. As the second year master student here, I just realized that I should prepare my nearest future after graduate. Well, In this rticle I won't share about that.  As I told before, I'll write in English, but quite ashamed on myself because maybe you'll find lots of grammatical mistakes in my article hehe. In the sake of training myself to write in other language, I'll do my best :)

In Japan, the big event as homecoming for Japanese is in the end of each year. For Indonesian could I say as Mudik Lebaran. Yep, they will take there holidays around a week for holidays or homecoming to their hometown. Different to others country, here, you won't (almost) find  any fireworks here, except if you go to somewhere like Huis Ten Bosch in Nagasaki area ( there's a story about that later).

Please be carefull, if you realize that your pocket already reach its limit, before everything about Holidays promotions come. If you'll travel around Japan, you can choose two options, my low fare or normal fare. The most popular low fare of public transportation for Indonesian students here is train, especially Japan Rail pass (red: 18kippu). 18kippu or Jyuuhachikippu is the train pass to travel around Japan for 5 days only JPY 11850, wow! This rail pass will be sold around three times a year during school holidays, Spring, Summer and Winter holidays. Further info 18 kippu here.

Fyi, each area of Japan also provide another pass, such Kyushu rail pass, Kanto rail pass, etc. Everything about JR rail pass you can find it here

JR east, JR west, JR Kyushu, and JR Hokkaido. Or if you're going to experience Shinkanshen (bullet train, please refer this JR central, in this case you should prepare more money :D 

Here some suggestions for you who want to travel Japan

1. Save your money more than expected holiday expenses

2. Plan your itinerary in detail, at least your destinations and which transportations will be used. Prepare more than one plan, that prevent your holidays messed up because your missarranged schedule. Don't forget to check weather forecast everyday! Surely , the application shows the predictions >90% accurate.

3. Find low fare (red- backpacker) lodging. Consider the address of the logding, choose the lodging which is nearest station, no need to take another public mass transportation, here you can enjoy walking.

4. If you're a Muslim, and can't read Kanji ( Japanese characters), would better you bring cheat sheet of Halal- Haram kanji, or you can find Halal restaurants which has been establishing year by year, Alhamdulillah. There's a good information from KMII ( Indonesian Muslim Community) about living in Japan as Muslim (check this out)
And don't forget to bring Sajadah or another sheet, it's make you easy even if you will have your Shalat in the park or outside the building.

5. Separate your pocket into: cards pocket, money (sheet), and coins. That's make you easier to take your money asap. And I suggest you to have commuter pass, why? You can deposite your money inside the card, not only to pay the train but also you can use it to pay your meal/snacks in convenient store, cafe, or shop. For Tokyo and Yokohama area there are two types, Pasmo and Suica, different with another area such Kyoto have Icoca, and Kyushu have Sugoca. A good news for traveler, Pasmo and Suica also usable all around Japan, yeay!

My stories about winter holidays will be posted as soon as possible.
Happy reading and don't forget to give me the corrections if any mistyped, misspelled or gramatical error! Cheers! :)

More than 6 months after

Start from now, I tried to write blog in English. The reason is I want to know  how far I express my feeling in my writing especially in other language instead of my mother tongue. Okay, please comment and give me opinions if there is misspelling or grammatical error in my post or ideas. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu 

More than 1 year? I didn't wrote any story here, just because I didn't spare time to write as before.First, I will share some  stories relate to my experiences more than 6 months far from my home town, Indonesia.  I had a chance to spend 2 years in Japan to take master program, using Indonesian government scholarship, well known as LPDP RI (click here, LPDP RI info) 

The best question of people surrounding me is Why I chose Japan as my destination to study?I'm not sure I can explain clearly the reasons, but actually I really adore to Samurai and Sakura. Just realized when  several years ago, maybe around 2011-2012. I have a senior, her in the same department as me. She had a chance to be exchange student to Japan. I remember when she wanted to go back to Indonesia, but I asked her something impossible, "please, bring the petals of Sakura", I didn't have it until now,haha . And why I really adore Samurai? except their 'culture' to do Harakiri (click here to know it). There are 7 wisdom, 儀　(justice), 勇 (bravery), 仁　(benevolence), 真　(veracity), 礼　(politeness), 名誉　(honor) and 忠義 (loyality). Each value I guess has positive and negative side.

For another reason is when I decided to continue my undergraduate research topic relate to Fuel Cell, I searched on the Google and I found this. I look into my ability in English in that time I chose Non-English native speaking country, haha. I searched some universities that have International program, compared it and I chose Tokyo Tech. And fortunately, I have 2 seniors there, so, I can asked to them about campus life.

Next step, I searched How to apply master program in TokyoTech (procedure) and also I searched How to apply LPDP from their webpage. Don't forget, if you want to go abroad, make sure that you have English Proficiency score, depend on your country and university destination.
And, after struggling in the hardest part, voila.. (exactly not as easy as your thought)

I came to Japan, and I'm doing my research here until around  1.5 ahead.

Now, the summer season has been started, Welcome!

Continued...

Next posting, my first Fall, Winter and Spring in Japan

My (new) life starts from here #1

Lama rasanya hampir 2 bulan saya sudah meninggalkan tanah air untuk menuntut ilmu disini, negara yang saya tulis di secarik kertas yang tertempel di dinding meja belajar kala itu, "My Dreams".

Kali ini tulisan saya mungkin agak acak alurnya karena satu dan lain hal, serta 'petualangan baru' saya yang nantinya (insyaAllah) akan saya tulis di blog ini.  Sekaligus belajar untuk ngeblog dalam bahasa inggris, mohon koreksinya ya. 

Bismillah, Ya Allah ridhoi dan mudahkanlah langkahku. 

Nagatsuta, Yokohama 16/11/14

PK-17 LPDP, Our stories begin..

Alhamdulillah
Inilah calon-keluarga baru saya setelah beberapa proses saya lalui untuk 'hunting' beasiswa untuk melanjutkan S2 saya.

PK-17 kami merupakan awardees dari Beasiswa Pendidikan Indonesia dari LPDP. Hingga hari ini masih belum ada kepastian jumlah dari satu angkatan kami karena masih ada kemungkinan rekan dari PK lain yang masuk ke angkatan PK kami.

Kami masih berada pada masa pra-PK. Sejauh ini kami telah melakukan pertemuan  a.k.a Kopdar dibeberapa tempat seperti Jakarta, Bandung, Jogjakarta dan Bali. Kemungkinan besar PK kami berlangsung 14-20September 2014. Kami tidak sabar untuk bertemu satu- sama lain untuk membentuk kekompakan, kerjasama dan kekuatan satu angkatan yang kami bangun saat pra, saat PK maupun pasca-PK.


Berikut ini aksi narsis kami,hehe yang sempat terekam di kamera.
Untuk cerita perjalanan PK-17 yang zuper kece (Aamiin..) akan dilaporkan berkala. Happy reading!!

Kopdar #1 Jakarta

Kopdar #2 Jakarta

Kopdar #3 Jakarta

Kopdar Bandung

Kopdar Jogjakarta

Kopdar Bali