My All Time Favorite Dorama (ドラマ) – Japanese TV Series

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The original plan was to either write about my top 5 male voice or top 5 American Band. I couldn’t decide which one to write first…however, when Nat remind us that this November Hello Japan Mini Challenge is about top 5 of anything from Japan, I came to a decision that I will do a top 5 Japan related post. The other two top 5 will have to wait till next month.

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I know exactly what I want to write for my top 5 from Japan…it’s my favorite Japanese Dorama of all time. I know that this topic probably won’t get many comments sharing their version of top 5 as not many people watch Dorama like I do.

Dorama (ドラマ) actually comes from the word Drama. You can also call it as TV series. Some call it as Japanese Soap Opera, but I refuse to call Dorama as Soap Opera because Dorama never extend to LOOOOOONG episodes like soap opera. Unlike other Asian TV series, such as from Korea or Taiwan, Japanese Dorama rarely extends to more than 12 episodes. There are few Dorama that have more episodes but mostly only until 12 episodes. That short episode is one of the reasons I like Dorama. The other reason is the story, Dorama has wide variety of stories…not merely about love and family conflicts.

My favorites are never about love It is really difficult to choose as I like most Dorama I have seen.

Let’s move on to the list, shall we

Indonesia Banget 14 – Similar Food in 2 Countries

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For this month Indonesia Banget, I am going to do something a bit different. This is not something I plan to do all the time. I just think this month is perfect to do a post that connect two countries (which used to be in war but now tied in friendship) together. Indonesia and Japan are two countries in the vast Asia continent, one is very famous for its technology while other is not as famous as the other one. As you know, I come from the not so famous country

See all the posts I made for this challenge by clicking this button

Every month starting from last year, I always write something special about my country, both the good ones and the bad ones…and almost every month I joined a fun challenge hosted by Nat of In Spring It Is Dawn, the challenge is to write something about Japan. This month’s challenge is to compare  2 things Japanese, but since last year I got away by making comparison of Ringu and The Ring, I guess it is okay to compare SIMILAR FOOD FROM INDONESIA AND JAPAN.

I was planning to choose 2 similar food but it would be a very long post so I decided to write just 1 similar food. Although the title is similar food in 2 countries…but I actually want to call it like this:

Lontong versus Onigiri

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.

Onna No Mangaka (女 の 漫画家)

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As I have already said in my post for Hello Japan! Mini Challenge last year, I have been a Manga reader for the past 19 years (or 20 years) now. But I am more into Shounen Manga (少年漫画) or Manga for boys rather than Shoujo Manga (少女漫画) or manga for girls. The reason is quite simple, because Shounen Manga offers more interesting adventure story than those romance story in Shoujo Manga.

However, I am not totally pushing away ALL shoujo manga, I still read some of them, mostly manga from the mangaka (漫画家) or manga author I am going to talk about. These mangaka mixed romance with some adventure and complicated story. They didn’t write something merely about how a woman met the man of his dream like most shoujo manga.

1.      Kyoko Hikawa (冰川京子)

I copied this from goodreads.com

Does mostly light-hearted comedy stories, but very entertaining. She does surprisingly great action scenes (haven’t seen many shoujo artists try at a Western before!!).

Her stories ranges from cute to action, but all done unparalled attention – the drawings are refined and the storylines bring the readers into what the characters feel. Her page layouts and camera angles varies a lot, and thus keeps the interest of the reader.

Rose of Versailles – The Most Beautiful Manga In The World

“No matter what, a knight should never act based on feeling…no matter what…But, I am only human.”
Brigadier General Oscar François de Jar Jayes

Rose of Versailles is definitely, by no argument at all, the most beautiful Shojo Manga I have ever read. I don’t mind a bit reading the excessive love story throughout all 10 volumes of this manga. This manga has powerful story and the characters are all well built, it was no surprise to know that a lot of Japanese Kids started asking their history teacher whether Oscar really exist in the history or not. Once I picked up the first volume, it was so difficult to stop till I finish all 10 of them even though this is my third read. I have seen the anime at early 90s, and then read the manga in Indonesian. The 2^nd read was in Japanese, but I was lost in translation when they started talking about the history. This 3^rd read is Indonesian again.

Rose of Versailles was the first manga with historical fiction as its theme, and it wasn’t Japanese history, it was French history. Just like most Manga in Japan, it was first publish in teenager magazine from 1972 till 1973, and then they republished it as a series Manga. Rose of Versailles was the first manga that become best seller in the history of Japanese Manga…And not only that, it was also published in many countries. When the anime was made, it was played all over the countries that speak French.

Okuribito (おくりびと)

Beauty sometimes comes in Death

That was my first impression after watching Okuribito (Departures). I once watch Six Feet Under which is a US TV series about the life of people who runs a funeral house, but I found that series as boring and has no heart at all. With the same theme, Okuribito managed to deliver EVERYTHING…the laugh, the sadness, the beautiful art of sending the dead to the next life, and most of all the heartbreaking moment that everyone must face sometime in this lifetime.

Okuribito was directed by Takito Youjiro. It tells the story of a man named Kobayashi Daigo (Motoki Masashiro) whose dream was to become a professional a cello player but his dream was shattered when the orchestra was disbanded. Along with his wife, they moved from Tokyo to Yamagata. He got the first job he applied in that small town, he was sort of tricked into it. The ad said it was a job dealing with journey…but the journey turned out to be a journey to the next life.

Not ‘helping out journeys’, it’s helping out peaceful departure.

Onepiece Gifts

For this month’s The Amazing World of Onepiece I am not going to talk about the world of Onepiece, I am going to talk about things I have received because of my love toward OnePiece…and it is nice to know that my love for Onepiece has made someone remember about me when she saw something Onepiece-related.

One of my favorite Challenges is Hello Japan, where Tanabata of In Spring It Is The Dawn challenges us to write things related to Japan. In June 2010, she challenged us to write about Manga. I was ecstatic about that challenge because I LOVE MANGA. The prize for that month’s challenge was one volume of the manga of your choice. I wrote 3 posts for this challenge. My first encounter with Manga in Hello Manga!, Most Often Cosplayed based on Manga’s Characters, and my top-5 manga in Subarashii Manga.

My joining the challenge is never about winning the prize, it is simply because I love things Japanese…but somehow, I really wanted to win the prize. I want to have Onepiece volume 55, it hadn’t been published in my country yet. And miraculously, I won!!

New Beginning in 2011

Happy New Year everyone
あけました おめでとう 皆さん 
Selamat Tahun Baru semuanya

I’m going to start this 2011 by changing the most important thing in my blog…My Blog Name. I have to admit that I’m not good in choosing names.

Let’s step back a little, shall we?

The first blog I made was in blogdrive with url:  butterlfysleep.blogdrive.com. Both url and blog has the same name. I consider that as a cool name, unfortunately I didn’t create that name, I took that from L’Arc~en~Ciel’s song. Then I changed my blog name into LarcMuseHolic because I often wrote about L’Arc~en~Ciel and Muse.

And then, I discovered WordPress. I moved all my stuff from blogdrive to wordpress. I chose bokunosekai as both url and blog name.  僕 の 世界 (Bokunosekai) means my world in Japanese.

Then I realized that I didn’t write about myself in my blog, so I changed it into楽 楽 の 文書 (Raku-Raku no Bunsho) which means fun articles. I only used that for few months.

I’ve forgotten all the names I had chosen before the one I’m using right now.

I think it was late 2008 that I started using Novroz’ Favorite Things because I blogged about things that I like (and sometimes dislike).

Since the beginning of December 2010, I felt like I need new name, something better than Novroz’ Favorite Things. I’m getting bored with that name and also I find that name as something not cool