In July 2026, I joined a workshop led by Hitomi Tigabelas at LQID Creative Space in Jakarta, to learn how to make a swirling brooch with fabric cord. The workshop was part of an art exhibition called “BLUE” by YOMPAT, a group of artists featuring Yoko Takebe, Hitomi Tigabelas, Tomoko Honda, and Eiko Nishida. The name YOMPAT combines the Japanese word 四 yon and the Indonesian word empat, both of which mean “four,” reflecting the group’s four members.

During the workshop, While I was struggling to thread my needle, Tomoko-san looked at my half-finished brooch and said,

いい感じで！

Ii kanji de!

I was really confused. As far as I knew, Japanese has three writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. So why did she say “kanji”?

Eiko-san, who was sitting next to me, noticed my puzzled expression and explained,

“It means, ‘That looks good!’”

A few months later, in early October, I went to Hiratsuka City in Kanagawa for a reunion. I’ve been a guest teacher for the online English lessons run by Tanpopo Glocal School for almost three years now, and since I currently live in Japan, they invited me, along with some students and parents, to join them for a dinner party at the house of Momoko Urakawa, the owner of the school.

The menu for that night’s dinner was a mix of Japanese and Indonesian cuisine: shoyu soup combined with Indonesian meatballs, known as bakso, that I brought along.

I had never made shoyu soup before, so I asked Momoko-san how to make it. I also arrived a few hours early at Momoko-san’s house so I could help prepare the dishes for the night. She took out a cutting board and started chopping some of the vegetables.

こんな感じ！

Konna kanji!

I was confused again. What did “kanji” mean this time? I knew that こんな konna comes from これ kore, meaning “this,” so why did she say “This is kanji”?

“Oh, it means something like, ‘Please do it like this!’” Momoko-san said.

Later, after dinner ended and everyone had gone home, I asked her why “kanji” has so many meanings. It turned out there are two different Kanji, and you can’t tell them apart just by looking at them in the English alphabet. She wrote both down on a piece of paper to help me understand the difference.

“There is 漢字 and 感じ. Both are read as kanji.”

漢字 means the characters themselves, while 感じ means a feeling or impression, which is why “いい感じ” is “a good feeling,” or “looks good.”

That was the day I finally understood a little more, the secret of this beautiful and fascinating language.

But still, Japanese Language is very hard to understand!

Time passes, seasons change, and things never stay the same. As the trees grow, the wind blows, and the water flows, life is created and life disappears. Someone is born, and someone passes away. A Start meets its end.

Early this year, I decided to start sharing my own writing. A blog for ideas, moments, and how I see and appreciate my life. Looking back, how fast time has passed! 2026 will end soon, and a new year will soon begin.

Though the world may feel more uncertain these days, in fact it has always been uncertain. But one thing is certain, that our time in this world is limited. As the famous 2001 song “Demi Masa” (For the Sake of Time) by the Malaysian group Raihan says:

“Gunakan kesempatan yang masih diberi moga kita takkan menyesal. Masa usia kita jangan disiakan kerna ia takkan kembali.”

Make use of the chances we’re still given, so that we won’t have regrets. Don’t waste the years of our lives, because they won’t come back.

The song then continues with a chorus inspired by a saying of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him):

“Take advantage of five before five: your youth before your old age, your health before your illness, your wealth before your poverty, your free time before your work, and your life before your death.”

Life is too short. Let’s make it count.

My little seven-year-old buddy came to my room and wanted to learn how to draw. He brought some paper that he usually carries in his school backpack and handed it to me. I took a brush pen from my pencil case and started drawing on one of the sheets he gave me.

“Stop!” he said. He took my brush pen and copied what I drew on another piece of paper. He handed the pen back and asked me to continue.

I didn’t know what to draw, so I just drew whatever came to mind. He started to laugh when he noticed I was drawing a portrait of him. He took the pen again and drew an arrow pointing to the head.

これはあたまです。
Kore wa atama desu.
This is head.

He doesn’t understand kanji just yet, so he wrote the word in hiragana. あたま, or 頭 in kanji, means “head.” He then continued creating arrows and letters, explaining what each body part was called in Japanese.

これはかみです。
Kore wa kami desu.
This is hair.

これはかおです。
Kore wa kao desu.
This is face.

これはみみです。
Kore wa mimi desu.
This is ear.

Last week, I went to Nagano for the second time to join the rice harvest. After a whole day in the field, a Japanese man, a father figure with limited English who had become a good friend, came to me and asked me something in Japanese.

ちょうしはどうですか？
Chōshi wa dō desu ka?

ええ？
Ee?

I didn’t know what the sentence meant, so I responded with ええ？, a Japanese expression that means something like “Huh? What do you mean?”

He took his phone out of his pocket and typed the sentence into Google. The results popped up with the meaning of the sentence in English, along with an explanation of how to use it.

ちょうしはどうですか？
Chōshi wa dō desu ka?
How are things going?

Thankfully, I knew how to reply in Japanese, so I said to him:

とてもいいです！
Totemo ii desu!
Very good!

“We thought you have autism.”

When I was little, my parents told me that I had difficulty speaking. They sent me to a child psychologist for therapy so that I could talk like other children my age. But somehow, that wasn’t the case with English. 

I remember a time I had a lovely conversation with two Americans on a train from Nagano to Tokyo — two best friends from Massachusetts and Hawaii, both around their fifties, traveling together in Japan on holiday.

“Have you been living in America?” one of them asked.

“No,” I said.

“How about another English-speaking country?”

“I wish (haha), but unfortunately I haven’t,” I replied.

They gasped in disbelief.

“Then how could you have such a great English accent?”

As I was waiting for my departure in the airport lobby, I saw a familiar face sitting not far from me. It was Sacha Stevenson, a Canadian who had inspired me to work on my English accent.

Sacha had been living in Indonesia, married to an Indonesian man from Bandung, and often appeared on television during my teenage years. Back then, she liked to make commentary videos on YouTube about Indonesian public figures and their English-speaking skills, and her videos helped me learn how to spot accent differences, improve my pronunciation, and sound more like a native speaker.

I walked over to her and asked for a picture. I told her I was a big fan of her work and had grown up watching her videos. She was my childhood inspiration, and I never expected to meet her in person. After the picture, we ended up talking for almost two hours, from casual small talk (like how are you, what do you do, and so on) to advanced topics like economics and politics. We kept talking until it was time for our plane to leave Haneda Airport.

“Who is that? Is that your friend?” my mom asked me.

“No, she is Sacha Stevenson. A famous YouTuber!”

“She is? I didn’t know. I thought she was your friend. You seemed like you were having so much fun talking with her, but I couldn’t understand any of it — your English was too advanced for me to follow!”

Back home, during dinner, my mom told my father about our trip to Japan and the long conversation I’d had with Sacha Stevenson at the airport. Then my father started to tell me a story I had never heard before.

“When you were around 2-3 years old, most of your friends your age had already started talking. But you hadn’t said a word. We were so worried,” my father said.

“We thought something was wrong, so we sent you to a child psychologist and moved you to another preschool that could help you speak,” my mom followed up.

“But now, well, you still don’t speak that much in Indonesian.” They both laughed. “But when you talk in English, you talk a lot! We don’t understand it!” they confessed. “It’s so strange since neither of us could speak English that fluently.”

Then a question popped into my head. “Mom, Dad, I wonder what my first preschool looked like?”

“Well, we sent you to one of the best preschools in town. It was an international preschool. But it turned out to be not as good as we expected, so we transferred you to another one, a local one.”

I opened my phone and looked up the preschool’s website on the internet. English was the main language in class.

“You signed me up for this?”

“Yes,” my parents nodded.

“Ah, so maybe that’s why. I just didn’t understand Indonesian yet!”

Turns out, I learned English at preschool before I could speak Indonesian. That’s why I didn’t speak a word and confused my parents during those early years.

But it made me realize that those early years turns out also played an important role in shaping who I am today, more than I ever realized.

Life is full of imperfection. The moment you reach the level you desire, there are always spots you think could be done better. But as life goes on, what’s left are the memories and experiences that teach us lessons. Whether we win or fail, both are progress that helps us grow. We will never reach perfection, and that’s what makes life exciting.

There are many things that happened in the world since the start of the year 2026. It was full of surprise and uncertainty. Many noises and distractions floating on the cloud, influencing people’s minds and reactions and decision making. It is a very interesting year.

Last month I thought 2026 was a very long year. But now I realized, soon it will end. We are about to leave this interesting year in less than 4 months. Because 2027 is coming. A new year, a new world, some people say. But I don’t know. I always don’t know. But I know for sure, I can adapt, survive, and hopefully thrive.

In mid-2023, I made ArtArt Trip, an account to track all the art galleries and exhibitions my father and I have been to, and so far we have visited almost 200 of them. Though it seems a lot, there are still many places we haven’t explored. Indonesia’s creative industry has grown rapidly since the end of Covid restrictions. Yogyakarta and Bandung used to be the top destinations for those who are interested in this world of art and design. And who doesn’t know Bali and its beautiful culture and artistry? But now, Jakarta, Surabaya, and Semarang have also entered the field, making this industry more competitive than ever before. There is almost not a month without art exhibitions, design talks, architecture festivals, and cultural events in Indonesia. 

The word “competitive” might sound tough. But I see this phenomenon as a positive sign. Cafes and restaurants are now competing to create the best interior design and dining experience to attract more customers. Hotels and accommodations are partnering with artists and designers to add more value to their properties. Shopping malls and public spaces are building gallery-style experiences to create a unique and distinctive atmosphere. The multiplier effects are big, and so is the money circulation. Though I don’t have the actual numbers and data to back up my hypothesis yet, based on my personal observation, I believe the future is going to be more exciting.

Early this year, I read a book called Princes of the Yen by German economist Richard Werner. It’s a book about how Japan’s central bank secretly shaped and control the country after World War II. The book was originally written in Japanese, then later an English translation was published for international readers. I already have the digital copy of the English version, but I also wanted a hard copy on my bookshelf. Sadly, it was not widely available in Indonesia. So while I was in Tokyo, I went on a search.

I went to Kinokuniya Shinjuku and headed to the international book section, no luck. I typed the title into their computer, and it appeared, but showed “Stock unavailable.” I headed to Tsutaya Books Daikanyama, still no luck. I went to BOOKOFF Akihabara, a secondhand book retail chain, but no stock there either.

Then I went to the Kanda Jimbocho area. There are a lot of small vintage bookstores around here, and I hoped they would have the book I was looking for. Unfortunately, it’s also not available. But I discovered something interesting. These vintage bookstores have a lot of foreign books, and many of them were written in German. Books about art, design, architecture, finance, economy, technology, and history. I can understand a bit of German, that’s how I know they’re German books. But why German books in a Japanese vintage bookstore? That’s when I was a little confused. But then I remembered what I read from The Princes of the Yen.

Werner wrote in his book:

“How could the [Japanese] wartime planners so quickly design such a consistent and efficient system?”

“[They] did not have to invent it from scratch, either; they took most of their ideas from European thinkers and economists, with the biggest input coming from Germany.”

Why Germany? That’s something you should find out yourself (haha). But even though I didn’t get the hard copy I was looking for, at least I learned something new. Sometimes, you don’t need to think so hard to find a solution. You just need to look back at the past.

明日おやすみ！

Yesterday afternoon, a friend of mine said that to me in Japanese. He is 6 years old and a 1st grade elementary school student in Japan. He just finished school and ran to me with excitement.

明日おやすみ!

I already know that “Ashita” (明日) means tomorrow and “Oyasumi” (おやすみ) means good night. But I was so confused. Why would he say “Tomorrow good night”? It doesn’t make any sense. Later I asked his father what his son was actually trying to say. He told me that “Oyasumi” (おやすみ) also means rest or day off. So, “明日おやすみ!” is not “Tomorrow good night!” but it means “Tomorrow I have a day off!” The boy is happy because tomorrow school is closed due to a typhoon.

When a typhoon is coming, some schools in Japan are temporarily closed for safety. I checked on Google and it said that there is a typhoon moving up in the pacific coast of Japan—which is called Typhoon Jangmi (Typhoon No. 6), bringing heavy rain and strong winds to the Kanto region.

As I wait for the rain and the wind to stop, suddenly my head filled with enlightenment. I don’t know if “enlightenment” is the right word to say, but it feels like God has given me an answer for the confusion I felt lately. Sometimes, life might feel so clear. You know what to do and you are optimistic about the future. But sometimes also, life might feel so confusing. The direction is unclear, the view is clouded and hard to see, and you feel afraid and pessimistic about the future. But actually, instead of thinking about what the future would look like, think about what you can do in the present. By focusing your energy on the present, you are preventing yourself from overthinking the uncertainty of life. Because life will always be uncertain. Just like how the boy is happy about the coming typhoon, there is always a good reason in every storm.

Recently, I bought Orico EV8 Charger, a charging dock for my AA rechargeable batteries. The one I owned was broken, so I needed to replace it with a new one. The Orico EV8 featured a more modern design compared to what I owned before — aluminum-alloy body instead of plastic, a magnetic detachable lid with LED indicator for charging status, and a USB-C charging port. But when I put my batteries into the charging dock, the batteries were not charging at all! Instead, the light indicator shows red and flashing green, which means, based on the manual included in the box, there are errors with the batteries. I was so confused. I own many rechargeable AA batteries, and all of them are still working normally. I use them for my Audio Recorder, VR controller, wireless mouse, remotes, and so much more. I also use them for my IKEA Bettorp LED portable lamp, which can also charge batteries when paired with its wireless charging base — and that lamp had no problem charging them at all. There must be something wrong with the new charger.

Turns out, there is a small detail that I missed before I bought the charging dock: it is only compatible with AA batteries made of Lithium-ion or Li-ion. The ones I own are rechargeable batteries made of Nickel-Metal Hydride or NiMH. That’s why it doesn’t charge. Later I found out, even though they look the same, but there are many types of materials used to make batteries on the market. The most common and cheapest one is Alkaline AA batteries. They are single-use batteries, can’t be recharged, and you have to discard them once they run out of power. Batteries that can be charged have a label “Rechargeable” on the branding, most of which are made of Ni-MH or Li-ion. It’s more expensive than Alkaline batteries, but cheaper in the long-term and more environmentally friendly as it last longer. Lumencraft made a dedicated video about it that I found really helpful, If you’re interested to learn more about different types of batteries. In short, not all batteries are built the same.

Knowing that my Orico EV8 charger does not support my NiMH batteries, I decided to buy another charging case, IKEA Litosfar battery charger. Though it’s not as cool as the Orico EV8, at least it can do the job: charge my NiMH batteries. I also bought some Li-ion AA batteries, so I can still use the Orico EV8 charger and see if it performs better than batteries made of NiMH.

So before you buy a battery, make sure you know what type of material they are made of. Also, make sure that the charging case is compatible with the batteries you own. Don’t make the same mistake as I am!