♥ Vintagious Sweetheart ♥: 2014

おひさしぶりです.. #JAPPOST

Hello readers, I'm BACK!! Woohooo..

This post will be very special because I decided to put something new into my blog . Yep, an article! Not just a usual article, the article I post contains information from my favorite country after Indonesia (haha). It's Japan . I will use the hash tag #JAPPOST for any article related to Japan that I post here . So for you who like to read some trivia from this country, you can now find it here on my blog . And not just stop right there, I need you who read this post to make your own point of view or statement after you read the article . It will be started with my own opinion of course, then you can share what you thought below on the comment box . Come on read this article and let's start the discussion!
PS : In case you are asking, this article is made by "someone" who knows Japan very well ;)

40% of Japanese University Students Don’t Read Book

I want to ask the university students, how long do you spend time to read book in one day? I guess you spend much time to prepare for classes or to enjoy studying of what you are interesting of. The truth is, for me, I think books are one of the must important items for university students like us.

However, some of Japanese students apparently don’t agree with my opinion. According to the co-op of universities in Japan, 40% of Japanese university students answered “0” when they asked about the length of the time they spent to read book in one day. The co-op asked this kind of question to 30 national and private universities students. Overall, the average answer is 26.9 minutes. People sometimes say Japanese university students don’t study hard, but I guess this result lets many Japanese people to realize more about it again.

According to “YOMIURI ONLINE”, an online-based news which is managed by Yomiuri shimbun, one of the most famous newspaper companies in Japan, co-op of university said “it’s the rank of reading books as amusement and culture that falls among society nowadays, that’s because students thought they could get information easily just by their smart phones. And books became the target of saving money.”

“Saving money” is the most important problem among many university students all over the world. Maybe you will surprise as I say that Japanese students are in the difficult situation about money especially. According to Benesse, which is one of the most popular educational service companies, the expense of a national university student is ¥535,800 each year, which means ¥2,143,200 for four years in college. In private university, the expense depends on its major, but the average is about ¥3,600,000 - ¥5,000,000 for four years. Moreover, students who live alone (in a college dorm or apartment) need more money for their living expenses.

The lack of non-refundable scholarships distress Japanese students more. It’s really difficult to get. According to the research of Japan Student Services Organization (JASSO), 52.5% of undergraduates make a scholarship leasing of JASSO, universities and so on. Many students use the scholarship of JASSO because it’s easy to get, but JASSO actually doesn’t provide non-refundable scholarship. So, in the future students have to pay the scholarship money they took before. Even some students should pay back the money with some interest included.

In short, Japanese university students have difficult financial problem. However, in my opinion, that's what makes reading book becomes important. You know there are many libraries where the students can lend books without buying them, right? From there, their reading time will increase and from books they may pass selection in a job hunting then get good job. Even so, if their grades improve because of studying hard by reading books, they may get non-refundable scholarships too somewhere. Well above all, the best advantage of reading books is that we will get much more knowledge to enrich our life.

So, just go to a book store before saying reading books isn’t interesting. I’m sure you can find books which match with your interests or hobbies. Let’s start to read books!! ^^v

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Ok guys, does it sound similar with what happen with us here in Indonesia? We, as university students, also have to save our money and sometimes we spend money more for our living expenses like eat, “kost” (for the students who come from other cities) and internet, beside the college tuition fees. We do spend money on entertainment or leisure activities too like holiday, watching movies on theatre with friends, watching concert, jalan-jalan and buying stuff. But, is book already become part of our compulsory academic consumption or just another entertainment addition?

Personally, I love reading. I started to read anything (yep, literally anything caught my eyes) when I was around 3 or 4 years old. Then I continued with reading kids magazines called “BOBO” (yeaaayyyy..), manga and story books. Until now, I still read these 2 kind of books : magazine and story book, which now turns into a novel or fiction. The problem in the article above is more into why the university students seem “lazy” to buy and read books everyday, even though they know the advantages of reading books. Frankly, I also not so often to buy educational books or literatures related to my major or any general knowledge books. Some of my friends also do the same. I think if the books don’t have such an urgency to be read (like, in this time, we read more books to help maintain our thesis or final research), university students feel that they don’t have to buy it. Or maybe if the books only have a short term advantages, like its only for helping the literature study of their research, and wont be read again in the future, they don’t have to buy too. Lend from university’s library is enough J.

So, it can be said that money for books is mostly being spent into “entertainment” kind of book, such as magazines, novel, fiction, non-fiction story, motivational book, tabloid, manga and so on. And the total money the students spend for buying those kind of books is different from one to another. For me, because I live with my parents, I also read newspaper almost everyday. Why almost? Because if I don’t have time to read, I browse news online hehehe. Like nowadays, I like following some international newspaper online. Not only to know the news globally from all over the world, but I also learn English from reading it. Sometimes I browse for international TV program too to improve my English listening skill. You can also try to do it ya ;)

Here I give you links to some of the online newspapers and international TV program that I usually read, listen and watch :D

- Online Newspaper :
AJW by The Asahi Shimbun, The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun, The Japan Times, Nikkei Asian Review, The Guardian UK, The Huffington Post, The New York Times & The Economist.
- Online TV Program :
Channel Japan by Nikkei-TBS Smart Media
And just in case you dont wanna lose any latest news and information from those media above, just give them your thumb (like! like!) on their facebook page.

This is the end of my first #JAPPOST. Please give your thought below or go into my facebook status where I link this post. See you in the next #JAPPOST v^o^v

Click HERE to see a 'bonus' post

as my apology for not updating my blog

m(_ _)m

A K E M A S H I T E - O M E D E T O U - 2 0 1 4

Hello dear..
Really . It has been loooong time since my last post in August yaa?! So sorry :(
Hectic-ness attacked . And I felt I changed so much within a year . Wanna know why?

2013 I spent with .... TRAVELING!
YAP, INDEED!

It all started when I spent a whole month of February by doing practical research work in a tea plantation in CIWIDEY, WEST JAVA . Then back to Jogja for just 1 week before I departed to MATSUYAMA, JAPAN and stayed there for 3 weeks on March to participate in SUIJI program . After that, on July-August I moved to WEST NUSA TENGGARA to join the spectacular and the most fascinating moment of this year, KKN! Its held by my university and I worked in the field (plus, of course, took a trip to the one and only GILI TRAWANGAN, SENGGIGI, SIRE, MATARAM, TELUK NARE etc) for 2 months there with 27 un-describe-able people I ever met, lol . Back from KKN, I didn't go home straight to Jogja but had my 4-days-and-3-nights holiday in BALI! Not long after the new semester began, on last September my beloved boyfriend, Makoto, visited me . He came far away (approximately 3234 miles, google said) from MATSUYAMA, JAPAN (yes, I met him when I was there on March hehe) . With him, together we went to MALANG, EAST JAVA and SOLO, CENTRAL JAVA . He also attended my cousin's wedding on October before he went home to Japan again . What a memorable 15 days I spent with my FIRST boyfriend in my life . Just in case you wanna know, when I was in Matsuyama, we both still 'friends' so his visitation in Indonesia was the 1st time we spent as couple! hohohoho... :p
The traveling story of 2013 doesn't stop there . Because in the beginning of December, me and the army of Agro-industrial Technology students class of 2010 took a field trip to PASURUAN, EAST JAVA and BALI (again, for me haha) . We're in our senior year so it's so rare for us to spend time altogether . However I already considered this classmates as my families too . And start from this year (2014) maybe one by one will finish their study here and graduate :")

That's it! I hope I still have a chance to traveling again in this year . Hope God will let me meet a lot more of new friends . Bunch already waited to be met in the end of February hohoho . I cant wait to see where God will take my life to . And on top of that, I just wanna be a better person than last year . Because I learned a lot about life in 2013 . So, 2014, go surprise me!! *crossing fingers*

Once again,
AKEMASHITE OMEDETOU!
HAPPY NEW YEAR! \\^o^//

Here are some moments captured by the lens (not in a particular order) :