Helping Baba's (Grandma's) garden

It's getting warmer and my mom said "It's time to plant vegetables!"  I heard Boys screaming "YEAH!!!!", they are so excited! Luke asked Baba if he can plant his own flower somewhere are garden. Of course she said "Yes!" Now they are extra excited and boys were beg to take them to the store to get flowers. Yes, we wet to quick stop at the store and boys choose flowers!

Luke's flower garden. He choose all purple flowers.

This is Ian's flower garden.

Somehow my boys always end up like this when they go outside... muddy, muddy, muddy! I know it so much fun to get dirty---hahaha    I guess I just need to change their clothes four times and they need take bath twice a day--that's all, not big a deal, right? Hahaha

Kids usual day in Japan

It's still cold in the night and morning, but if there is little sunshine, 

kids usual day start with "Park" in the morning.

 

Today, there are more children in our near by park.  Luke and Ian were little shy to talk to them at first, but some of the girls and boy came over and showed Luke and Ian a bag--full of "Frogs" in it!

Now, Luke and Ian were so excited and look for more frogs.

Here is the one that they found.

After the park, we noticed that cherry blossom is almost finish. It was so beautiful when the strong wind come, cherry blossom petals are in the air just like snow--it was snowing in the spring time! Petals are all over the place. Luke and Ian asked me if they can sweep them.

They are working very hard.

 But of course, they end up play with water--as usual :)

It was another fun day!

Building the Scientific Mind 2013

I participated in the International Colloquium on Building the Scientific Mind (BtSM2013), held this year in Lembang, Indonesia. It was nice to among a group of international intellectuals. We had a wonderful week of discussions about building knowledge and education, while enjoying the beautiful setting of the historic Bosscha Observatory observatory campus, which was established in the 1920s, and is now part of Bandung Institute of Technology.

Picnic at park

It was beautiful day, we decided to do something outside. My aunt called us if we have any plan, so I suggested picnic. She liked the idea and we choose the park nearby my aunt house.

It was fun day!

Java Cove

After spending time in Yogyakarta, visiting schools and working with Santa Dharma Unversity there, I had a few days to enjoy the beach in West Java. It has been several years since I have been to the beach on the south coast of Java, where we once visited every year when living in Asia. Yukari and I had many wonderful times here, and enjoyed surfing with our many friends that live in this area.

The Java Cove hotel even has a pool now! Things are changing...

Fishing

Luke and Ian went to fishing first time today! When I was kid, my dad take us fishing often. My favorite was rainbow trout fishing. Luke found my dad old fishing pole that mom save it of his memory, and Luke showed very interest for fishing. My mom promised Luke can have the fishing pole when he get older! He was so excited, and now he's asking about fishing all day!
"Okay!" my mom said, "Let's go fishing!!" So, we call my aunt and uncle--usual gangs, and we went to rainbow trout fishing!

 Luke was surprised me. I thought he might doesn't like touching slimy fish, but he was fine with it, even he enjoyed clean the fish (we caught twelve rainbow trout and we clean them at the fishing place--he was a good helper!).

Now it's time to eat! We thought what we are going to do for twelve fish... but that was no problem. Luke ate five of them, and Ian ate three! That was delicious.

Culinary Tour of Central Java

There is a huge variety of foods and snacks that are famous in Central Java. Yesterday I set off to sample a few favorites, and try a whole lot of new ones.

The first stop was a shop and factory that makes a famous snack that is often given as gifts to friends and family when one returns from a holiday or vacation. In Japan, they call the practice omiyage, and here in Indonesia it is called oleh-oleh. You could think of it as a souvenir, but usually something small to eat. It is like saying, "I'm sorry for going away and having fun while you were here at work. Please accept this box of treats with my apologies".

Evidently, a famous oleh-oleh from Yogyakarta (where I am staying now) is a small, round snack called Bakpia Pathok. I'm not sure exactly what they are made of, but filled with beans, chocolate, cheese, or pineapple. I bought a mixed box, but not before taking a short tour of the factory in the back of the shop.

Walking in the back, I really didn't expect to see this many people making the snacks. It is a holiday weekend in Indonesia, so they told me that there will be many people here on holiday buying oleh-oleh, so they have a bigger workforce to handle the needed production. Interestingly, as you can see here in the photos below, these are all rolled and formed by hand. Oh, by the way, there was another room with women working, doing the same tasks.

I didn't get a good photo of the oven room, but it was all charcoal stoves -- which they say is the secret to the taste. But boy it was hot in there! The poor kids (they all looked in their late teens) working the ovens were soaked in sweat. There might have been a fan here and there, but mostly it was in the upper 90s throughout the factory.

You could purchase other snacks here as well, including things such as fried eel, fried intestines, and other things that we in the West simply are not used to eating!

The next stop was an area of town known primarily for selling sweet rice-based snacks. I did see this nice food stand on the way (below), and this Padang style of food is one of my favorites in Indonesia.

Here, below, are the sweet snacks. It seems that all of them are made of sticky rice that has been pounded to a paste, along with coconut milk, and made into various forms and colored. I tried about 8 things off of this table and the one next to it, and everything was tasty!

I was already full, but I did want to try another Yogyakarta delicacy -- Nasi Gudeg. The word nasi is rice, and gudeg is the type of pot used to cook this dish. There are several options, but jack fruit is traditionally included, along with duck eggs and tempeh (which is made of soybeans, thicker and chunkier than tofu). Here we also had the option of chicken heads (!), but I didn't eat any this time :)

To finish up this culinary tour of Yogyakarta, I had a Ronde drink at the Kraton, the Sultan's Palace square. There is a lot of activity around the square in the evening, with families renting these bright bicycles (see photo below) and many small street vendors selling treats. I had a traditional drink, the ronde, made out of sweetened ginger tea. It is served in a bowl, along with fruit slices, peanuts, and dumplings that are made out of -- you guessed it -- sweetened rice. All and all, a great look at the culinary delights of Central Java. Many thanks to Via Via Yogyakarta, who put together this interesting cultural tour.

Ketoprak Tobong

In an open-air theater in the outskirts of Yogyakarta, I had the rare opportunity to talk with the actors and watch a performance of the Ketoprak Tobong, the last surviving Javanese nomadic theater troupe. I have seen dancing performances and puppet plays in Indonesia before, but those were usually put on for tourists. Therefore, I was interested in seeing the Ketoprak Tobong, as it draws a crowd from mostly the village where it was given some land -- the troupe does not travel around this part of Java anymore. Like many things, this type of theater, accompanied by the gamelan -- a traditional percussion instrument of Bali and Java -- is not popular with the young people here.

The audience had a wonderful time. Several people came over to thank me for coming. I was surprised how many children were in the audience, given the late hour, but they were thrilled with the drama -- the gamelan playing loudly when the action picked up.