Various Activities in Bogor in February

Posted on Feb 23, 2016 by


Hello, PARE friends! 
Finishing my research in Rantau Rasau in the end of Jan, I have come back to IPB in Bogor with 240 kg baggage including soil samples and research equipment to airport by myself! The experience taught me one of the difficulty to conduct research in the outdoor field. In this post, I show you my activities in Bogor in Feb.

1. Soil Preparation

I dried and sieved soil samples to import to Japan and to analyze with kindly help by Indonesian soil science friends and my junior students from Hokkaido University. What I have to do is to put soil import permission from ministry of agriculture, forestry and fisheries on the box containing soil because soil is designated import-prohibited article in Japan.
Sieving dried soil 1, Helped by many students
Sieving dried soil 2, Darker soil means more amount of organic matter
We adjusted the soil weight because the permitted weight is very limited.

2.Taking Promotion Video of International Dormitory

Some IPB students in forestry departments planed to take the promotion movie of international dormitory and asked international students to join the movie, then I agreed the plan.

Scene of chatting in the garden in front of the dorm.

 3."Setsubun" Japanese traditional activity

I scattered peanuts in the dormitory on 3rd Feb. as the event of “setsubun”, Japanese activity, to prepare new season in old Japanese calendar. Beans are believed to have power to beat demons in Japan therefore we Japanese scatter beans in order to wait for new season without demons.

Peanuts were scattered in the floor in dorm. This place must be safe from demons.

 4.Celebration of Chinise New Year

My Christian friends and I ate pork to celebrate Chinese New Year, Tahun Baru Imlek in Indonesian on 8th Feb.  Not only Buddhist but also all Indonesian people celebrate the day, which make me feel that many religions respect each other.
 
Traditional pork dish from Medan, North part of Sumatra. So good!

5.Challenge to buy Indonesian LINE Stickers

I tried to buy Indonesian version LINE stickers. In Indonesia, some Japanese stickers change to Indonesian version and they are sold to LINE account registered with only Indonesian phone number. Though I struggled to change my account setting, I could buy Indonesian ones finally. The stickers motivates me to learn Indonesian and communicate with Indonesian friends with LINE.

One LINE stickers Japanese version
The same stickers Indonesian version

6.Attending Japanese Culture Club(INARI) Meeting

I attended the meeting of INARI, Japanese culture club activity in IPB and shared knowledge on Japanese animation, comic, language and so on. Their interests to Japanese culture were surprising me because they knew a lot of animation or comic even though I didn’t know and sometime enjoyed them in Japanese language not English! Their passion to the activity impressed me so much.

 
Students sit down floor during the club meeting. This is usual club style in IPB





Drawing pictures as one activity in the club
One work by a member of the club







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Diary of staying at IPB

Posted on Feb 22, 2016 by Anonymous

  Hello, my name is Sota Nishi, Hokkaido University student. This is the first time blogging.
I participated PARE program and arrived at IPB at February 14th. Now, I stay at IPB for 8 days with good health and safety.


  This is the first time to go abroad, but I can feel relieved and enjoy this stay thank to the help of Indonesian friends, my senior student and friend came together. I would like to say thank you so much for them.

  The day before yesterday, we went to soil sampling in the teaching farm of IPB, palm field, teak forest and cassava field. We are taught the methods of soil sampling by Dr.Suwardi and took some soil samples for chemical analysis. These soils are be drying in the air-drying room. We will start soil analysis from tomorrow afternoon.
soil sampling and soil cross section
 

fruit fo dragon fruit and cross section of palm fruit
 
  There are many tropical plants in the teaching farm of IPB. We were surprised and interesting in these plants that first time we saw them. Look at the palm cross section picture. White one in the center of palm fruit is seed and orange one around the seed is fruit. Usually, palm oil is squeezed from fruit (orange one). Palm has the best oil extraction efficiency about 3000 kg oil / 1 ha. This corresponds to 5~10 times that of soybeans and sunflower. I felt amazing this fact.
 
  In addition, we visited Botanical Garden in Bogor "Kebun Raya Bogor". It was nice weather to walk, not so hot and not rainy day. There are not only tropical plants but also some exibition of Indonesian animals. I was interested in these plants and exibition.
 
  So really really to be lucky, we met Indonesia President Mr.Joko Widodo!! (Leave a note to publish photos) when we walk in KRB. We were very honored. God Bless for President...
 
 
Thank you for your attention.
See you next time.


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Life in IPB on February

Posted on Feb 19, 2016 by

   I'm Kaho Yasuda. I come from Hokkaido university to IPB. This is 5th day in IPB. Climate in tropics is too hard for me, but I still keep my health.
   Here, in IPB, almost all things are different and surprising. I will show some of them.

(1) Food
   I tryed some of Indonesian food. I feel Indonesian food is sweet or spicy. They don't have the middle taste. And they use much oil.
    I like spicy foods but sadly, my stomach doesn't accept their oil.... I have to adjust my stomach to Indonesian food.
    I also tryed Indonesian "Japanese food," so I'll show it below. The drink showed in photo is called "Teh-Manis." Teh means Tea and Manis does Sweet. This is one of  common drinks in Indonesia.


(2) Traffic 
    Students of IPB use motorcycle for moving around. So we can see many ones at Campus and traffic around IPB is heavy.


(3) People 
   Indonesian students are very powerful and talk frankly. I cannot imagine that in case of Japanese students.
   My supervisor in IPB introduced us his students and they take care of us kindly. It helps me practically and mentally. In this stay, I will encounter more students and others. I would like to take the chances as precious ones.


Tommorow, we will go to sampling. We can start our experiment next week. I'm looking forward that.




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