13 Best Stephen King’s Books I Owned & SK Project 2012

Do you know this man?

Well…he is Stephen King, the only author whom all books I want to read. As I have said many times, I know he is not the best writer in the world but he sure is one of the best story teller in the world. You can read my list of SK’s books I have read and to be read in Counting Down Stephen King’s Books.

No need to explain about him because he is already damn famous

This post has 2 purposes for two different blog events.

The first purpose is my first participation in a meme called Thursday Thirteen. I first found this meme in Alice Audrey’s blog. The idea is just to share 13 things every Thursday, the thing can be ANYthing. I am not going to do it every Thursday, only occasionally

My first is to share 13 books by Stephen King that I considered as his best in my collection. I have around 20 books by him with 2 books missing (someone borrowed them and never returned them, I am more careful in lending books that misfortune).

Those books are (in no particular order):

World Cinema Series

A good friend of mine, Caroline, came up with this fantastic idea:

The idea of this series is to take a trip around the world in movies.

The goal is to watch and review at least one movie per country. It will take how long it takes but two movies per month would be great. More than one movie per country is of course OK as well.

I realized that in 2011, I watched less Hollywood movies than I ever be.Hollywood has lost their charm on me due to SOOOO MANY remakes, superheroes, and sequels.

This situation with Hollywood’s lack of creativity makes me want to watch more movies from other countries. It will difficult to find movies from not so famous countries but I would like to try as best I can

Here are the movies I have for this fun event:

Sweden: Låt den rätte komma in – Let The Right One In

Japan: 十三人の刺客 – 13 Assassins

England: Amazing Grace

Ireland: The Wind That Shakes The Barley and Perrier’s Bounty (a look into Ireland through Cillian’s Movies)

Indonesia: The Raid : Redemption

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And I know I can easily find movies from Korea, Thailand and Taiwan (or China)

Those are all I got so far, will see what I can find later

Come and Join Us!!!
Here is the original page by Caroline> World Cinema Series
Another Participants : TBM,

Let’s learn Japanese – 日本語を勉強しましょう

あたし の 第八百八十八ポスト は 日本 に あげています.

I give my 888^th post to Japan

This month’s Hello Japan! Mini Challenge , hosted by Nat of In Spring It Is The Dawn, is about learning something about Japan.

The original idea for this mini-challenge was to encourage you to learn some Japanese, a few words, or greetings, in either the spoken or written language.

By participating in this challenge, I have donated 500 yen to either the Japanese Red Cross or JEARS (Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support)

First, I want to share you about why I want to learn Japanese. Second, I want to share my journey to achieve certificate from Japanese Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験). Third, I will share my favorite Kanji.

Japanese Death Poems

July’s Challenge from Hello Japan is about Haiku. We can either write our own haiku or write about books of haiku, or everything related to haiku. When I heard about this challenge, I instantly remember about a book that I’ve read somewhere in 2004, a book titled Japanese Death Poems. It was a compilation of Haiku written by Zen Monk and Haiku Poets on the verge of death. The poems were compiled by Yoel Hoffman.

It’s a long tradition in Japan to write a poem which will be put on their death stone. Here, I chose 4 poems that I like. Why 4? Because 4 is a number that related to death or bad luck.

And to make it more meaningful, I try to write it in Japanese characters (I might make mistakes in some of the kanji because the book only writes the poems in Romaji and the translation, I have to guess which kanji is used for it)

素晴らしい 漫画

This is supposed to be a monthly post. I had written my top-5 post earlier this month, it was about Men to Drool On…however, because the timing is so perfect to make another Top-5 list, I’m willing to bend my own rules. This month, I’m having 2 top-5 list

Why am I making another Top-5 list? You all can blame Tanabata for this her Hello Japan! Mini Challenge forces us to write about Manga. I have written my first experience in encountering Manga and I think to make that post perfect, I need to write my most favorite Manga of all time.

I’m going to write this from number 1 to number 5.

I know for sure that my number 1 Manga WILL NEVER change, I can not be so sure about my number 2, 3, 4, and 5 Manga…they might change one day.

So…here we goes!

#1 One Piece by Eiichiro Oda

Do I need to say something about this Manga? Hahaha I already make it so clear – crystal clear – of how I feel about this Manga. The fact that Onepiece has its own category in this blog also shows how I feel about this Manga. I can not say it better than I have said it before, therefore, I’m only going to quote my old post here:

Onepiece is the complete guidance on the power of determination and perseverance, the will to survive and relive dreams, the strongest bound amongst friends, and the joy of adventures. So much positive vibes can easily find in this manga…it is more than just a fun laughing kick-ass manga…it’s an inspiration to live life to the fullest. Looking beyond all of the fighting scene from this comic and you will see incredible quotes.

I want this Manga to continue forever because Oda-sensei has not turned this Manga into something boring, he made it even more interesting and more intriguing. I re-read this Manga EVERY YEAR, no matter how much books in my TBR list, I still find time to re-read all Onepiece volumes …it’s not only fast-read or just looking at the picture, I read all of the sentences as if it was my 1st time reading it.

Actually, I want to give number 1, 2 and 3 to Onepiece…but that wouldn’t be fair

Birthday Stories

Birthday Stories is an anthology selected and introduced by Haruki Murakami. The only reason I borrowed the book is of course because Murakami’s name is printed on that book. I’m trying to read all his works because he is my number one Japanese author. Beside his name on the book, I was also curious of what kind of story would Murakami like.

There are 13 short stories related to birthday in this book, 12 of them are written by western writers and only 1 story is written by Japanese writer, which is Murakami himself. Murakami also writes a brief introduction for each writer in this book.

Here are the summary of every short stories in this book: The Moor by Russel Banks; it tells the story of a man who encountered an older woman who once had an affair with him. Dundun by Dennis Johnson; it’s a story of a man named Dundun who killed someone on his birthday. Timothy’s Birthday by William Trevor; it’s about a birthday party prepared by Timothy’s parents, but Timothy sent his friend to come instead of himself (I make a teaser out of this story> here). The Birthday Cake by Daniel Lyons; it’s a sad story of an old woman, alone and forgotten by her children. Turning by Linda Sexson; it’s about 3 old ladies who came to a boy’s birthday party and told him a story of The Emperor Who Had no Skin. Forever Overhead by David Foster Wallace; I don’t know what it is about because I stopped reading it after 2 pages.

Angel of Mercy, Angel of Wrath by Ethan Canin; a story of an old woman whose birthday was forgotten by her own son, but someone else come and gave her what she wanted. The Birthday Present by Andrea Lee; it tells the story of a wife who gave her husband a couple of whore for his birthday present. The Bath by Raymond Carver; it’s a sad story about a boy who laid in the hospital bed on his 9th birthday. A Game of Dice by Paul Theroux; another sad story of a man who has an unusual wife. Close to The Water’s Edge by Claire Keegan; it’s a story of a man who lived in lies. Ride by Lewis Robinson; a story of a boy who took a ride with his father on his 16th birthday. Birthday Girl by Haruki Murakami; A girl who had to work on her 20th birthday was suddenly given one wish…a wish that will come true.

I have read Haruki Murakami’s birthday Girl in his collection of short stories, Blind Willow Sleeping Woman. And it was one of my favorite stories in that book.

Overall, I find Birthday Stories as a bit unusual. I like the fact that he didn’t just choose the happiest story because most people think that birthday is one of the happiest days of one’s life…but some of the stories are to boring to read. Forever Overhead is one of the most boring short story I have ever read…I couldn’t even finished reading it. Although some are very interesting.

Somewhere in the middle, I wanted to stop reading and picked up another book…but I managed to finish it after all. Maybe I’m not the kind of person who enjoy reading a collection of short stories written by many authors (take example of The Dark House…I’m not sure when I’ll be able to finish it). It was fun to read many authors in one book but it’s also a risky act because somewhere between all those stories, we might stumble upon an extremely boring or annoying stories. And the variety of writing style also gives a sense of lost.

My rate for this book is , which means it was okay.

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I’m sharing this post in Hello Japan! and Support Your Library Reading Challenge 2010

Sounds of Anime & Tokusatsu

This is my third post for January’s Hello Japan Mini Challenge – Music to my ears. This time I want to do a little flash back to my childhood.

I could say that the 1st Japanese Music I’ve heard is music from the opening of Anime & Tokusatsu.

I’m sure that everyone knows what Anime is…but some of you might know nothing about Tokusatsu. Tokusatsu is Japanese live action superheroes, such as Ultraman, Kamen Rider and Power Rangers (American Tokusatsu).

As time goes by, changes are happenng in Anime & Tokusatsu’s soundtrack…and that’s what I want to talk about here.

When I was in my late elementary years and in the beginning of my junior high years…I saw lots of Anime and Tokusatsu, they were the first reason I like Japan. At that time, their opening songs are so iconic and original. Original because they really made a song for the Anime & Tokusatsu…the songs really defined what the show is all about. Iconic because everyone remembers that song even after years of stop watching it and even the people who didn’t watch the show know about that song.

Kids remembered the lyric both the sub-dubbed one or the original one.

Here are some example of those iconic Anime & Tokusatsu’s opening songs.

Doraemon, Anime that has run for more than 30years, has the most unfogetable song.

Konna koto ina, dekitara ina, anna yumme konna yumme ippai aru kedo, minna minna minna kanaete kureru, fushigi na pokette kanaete fureru…aji sonna tabita ina…ee take koputa…an an an totemo daisuki…Doraemon (Translation: I want to do this, I want to do that, there are so many things I want to do, everything can be granted from the magic pocket…).

Tho it’s been 20 years since I 1st watch this anime…I stil remember the song and I still watch it once in a while too

Google V, it was the 1st tokusastu I’ve ever watched…Power ranger is somewhat like Google V. I used to sing along whenever the opening song started. Since I didn’t know Japanese back then,I made up my own lyric except for this part ‘google Red, google Black, pink, yellow and blue‘

Sailor Moon. I didn’t watch this anime because I was (and am still) not really into Shoujo Anime (anime for girls)…but I couldn’t escape from it’s iconic opening song.

Kamen Rider Black. Talking about this Tokusatsu brings back so many childhood memory. The intro of the opening song successfully made children stop playing and run to their television set. And again, I made up my own lyric ;p

last but not least Saint Seiya. There’s no one in J-Community (people who love Japanese entertainment) who doesn’t know Sant Seiya’s song…the song is still often played in many events.

I made a video of those songs plus pictures to let know the characters of those Anime & Tokusatsu’s opening songs

Nowadays….

Anime & Tokusatsu’s songs have changed drastically….they do not use original songs anymore they prefer to take songs from famous singers or bands. I don’t say it was a bad thing because I get to know some J-music from anime & tokusatsu, such as Asian Kungfu Generation from Naruto, Siam Shade from Full Metal Alchemist, and many more…however, I prefer the old time better, songs that are made specially for the show have better grip than songs taken from famous singers.

Here are the songs I mentioned above

Taiko and The amazing Honoo Daiko

I will go traditional for my second post for Hello Japan’s January Challenge.

My most favorite Japanese traditional music, or should I say percussion, is Taiko. I’ll be in the front line of every Taiko Performance in every Japanese Matsuri held in Jakarta. There will be some videos in this post.

My main focus is the amazing Honoo Daiko, a trio of amazing woman who play powerful and yet beautiful Taiko. I’ve been a fan since I saw them in JI-Expo 2009.

What is Taiko?

Taiko is percussions made by animal skin, there are so many kind of Taiko. In Japan, from south to North, you can find all type of Taiko…some are small some are big, they even have Taiko as big as a house and as thin as uchiwa (a fan). There are also so many way in playing Taiko, some are put on the floor, some are held by hand, and some are carried on their shoulder.