Why Indonesian Kids Looks like They’re Obsessed with Doraemon

I’m telling you why. Because we grew up with Doraemon.

During my childhood in the 90s, TV channels in Indonesia have this “marathon” of cartoon shows (mostly Japanese cartoon) on Sunday morning from around 6 to 11 AM almost in every channel. To be fair we don’t have that much of TV channels at that time. There were only like 5 or 6 channels if I’m not mistaken.

The highlight of these cartoons is of course, Doraemon, which is aired in RCTI at 8 AM. Even until now, it’s still aired at precisely the same time. I think it’s started since I was born (?) and never change until I’m already 25 years old now. How cool is that?

As a little kid, we can relate to Nobita who’s always asking Doraemon to give him the magic tools that come from the future so he can do the impossible things like flying, go anywhere we want in a blink of an eye, or tools that makes you smart without having to study. 

It makes innocent kids like us thinks, “Hey, I want my own Doraemon!”. 

Sadly we won’t have our own Doraemon until like, 200 years from now, probably. So we keep Doraemon in a special place in our heart.

Hence the obsession.

Last month the movie Doraemon Stand By Me is on theaters in Indonesia. I know that in Japan, Doraemon regularly have a movie that comes in theaters, but not in Indonesia. This is the first time that we can watch Doraemon in theaters, so everybody who grew up in the 90s is so excited. Plus, the plot of the movie is that Doraemon is going back to the future and leave Nobita behind. It feels like the end of Doraemon and it kills a little bit of our child soul deep down inside.

The tickets sold like crazy! Even I had to buy online about a week before the premiere day. And when me and my friends went to the theater to see the movie, MY DEAR LORD I’ve never seen such crowded theater in my life. After I done watching the movie at 9 PM, people were still in line to buy the tickets!

Funny thing is, when I talk about how excited people in Indonesia about this upcoming movie of Doraemon to my Japanese colleague, they don’t seem slightly interested at all. They’re like, “yeah lately I saw a lot of Doraemon commercials on TV in Japan but I’m not really sure why” or “you DO know that this is NOT the ending of Doraemon, right?”.

Now I see why we seem a little bit obsessed about Doraemon. Even my boyfriend calls me a “Doraemon Otaku” when we visited Fujiko F Fujio museum in Japan. If I’m being called obsessed over Doraemon, I’m taking all the 90s children in Indonesia down with me to the Doraemon Otaku land. LOL.

Guangzhou Travels: Guangzhou Pearl River Night Cruise

One of my Chinese work colleagues took me and my other Indonesian friend to Guangzhou Pearl River Night Cruise while we were there for a business trip. This boat cruise is supposed to take you around the river, back and forth, to see Guangzhou Tower a little bit closer.

Guangzhou Tower is also known as Canton Tower, I don’t know which one is the popular name. When I was there, I thought it’s famous as Guangzhou Tower instead of Canton Tower. But I’m not really sure because everybody was speaking Chinese, LOL. 

Guangzhou Tower looks like Tokyo Sky Tree, in my opinion. Both of them also functioned as Television Tower. Guangzhou Tower’s height was beaten by Tokyo Sky Tree in 2011. I visited Guangzhou tower during night time so I get to see it color changes. The color changes in like, every 5 seconds, I guess. It came out colorful, or one color like gold, blue, purple, red, etc. See the left picture, it's soo colorful. Meanwhile, Tokyo Sky Tree doesn't change the color periodically in one night, and I visited it in day light, so I only got this picture in the right.

 

From my hotel in Tian He district, it took about 20 minutes taxi ride to reach the boat port. It’s a small port for tour purpose only. I’m sorry I don’t know the port name, or the location name. I just went where my colleagues took me. Haha.

In front of the port building

The ticket was about 80 yuan/person if I’m not mistaken (about USD 16.00). This is for probably around 1 to 1,5 hours ride (vaguely remember).

I went there at around 8 PM so it was a bit windy, but I visited in April so the weather was still pretty nice. The boat was decorated with colorful little lamps around it. I think it’s a little bit tacky, but oh well who cares. 

The boat decorated with lamps all over it

Inside the boat, we were served with Chinese Tea (refill) and peanuts. There were tables covered in white sheets just like in a restaurant, with a wide window right beside these tables.

After sitting for 10 minutes, we decided to go to the top of the boat. There were also tables here, but the atmosphere is more romantic with all the candles and the flowers and the starry sky. Just the right place to propose your girlfriend (yeah right).

The scenery from the top of the boat

All of a sudden there was this Chinese guy shouting with loud voice and was pointing to a certain area on the boat. I was shocked and thought if there’s an accident or someone was jumping out to the water. But people were so calm and they started to make a line. Apparently it was for taking pictures, and people have to move very fast to take turn to get a good picture angle when the boat was passing right below the Guangzhou Tower. 

It was so fast that I didn’t have time to gather up my cute face and suddenly the cameraman told me to move my ass because it was the next person’s turn. The picture was printed immediately while we’re on the boat and we have to pay 20 yuan (USD 2.00) to take it. You don’t have to pay if you don’t want the pictures, though. But it was already printed, and it looks like this business strategy is paying them off really well.

Also they print your picture in a small size to put it into a keychain. It was a D.I.Y. All you have to do is take one key chain and put your picture in it. Voila!

Tada.. Awkwardly posing while holding my camera

About 6 months after I visited Guangzhou Tower, I went to Japan and visited Tokyo Sky Tree. I sent my Mom the pictures of these 2 towers, and I proudly tell her everything about them and how happy I am to have the opportunity to visit them. But she’s all like: “Why are you so obsessed with towers? Last time it was tower in China, and now it’s tower in Japan. What is so special about towers?”. Apparently I suddenly became a tower-freak to her.

4 things that I can conclude from the streets in Tokyo

When I went to Tokyo, I found some amusing things that we don’t have in Jakarta. Or that I found new and different from Indonesia. This is the thing. I can guarantee the people who only know Bali instead of Indonesia is still exist. While Japan, who doesn’t know Japan? Cultural-wise, there’s gonna be A LOT of differences. And you’ll find me journaling the differences on this blog.

Here they are. Some findings I saw generally in the streets of Tokyo.

1. Color variation on houses

It’s like they only have white and brown paintings in Tokyo. I can’t recall finding any house that was painted in orange or blue color. When I stroll down the houses and apartments in Nippori area, I was a little stunned by how ‘plain’ the color of the houses is. I’m talking about the wall’s color here, not the doors, stairs or gate’s color. They make it look very mature, though.
Meanwhile in Indonesia, we do have a lot of painting color variations. Of course white color is still dominant, but you WILL find private houses painted in orange or green or even red. Bold. We’re creative that way.

Plain Japanese house

Bold Magenta Indonesian house

2. Color variation on clothes

Again, it’s like they only have white and brown and additional dark blue and grey color of garments in Tokyo. Well it’s not as plain as the houses and buildings, but I really I think I was the only one who wears red jacket when walking on Shibuya crossroad. Awkward. SO awkward.

In Indonesia, we can have 10 colors all blended in 1 T-shirt, or so. Well, it’s probably because Indonesia is a tropical country. Somehow, people from tropical countries seem to love colors so much. Just picture 2 persons who came from Hawaii and from Russia walking side by side. See my point?

Bold red jacketed Indonesian me in Shibuya crosswalk 

3. Traffic light

There are sooo many traffic lights and crosswalk in almost every little crossroads. Even for a very small road that barely has cars passing on it, it has a traffic light! I’m not joking about the small road. I don’t think it can fit 3 cars passing at the same time. And for every intersection, there’s a traffic light. I just don’t see the point of those many traffic lights. Probably it’s just in Tokyo. I don’t know.

I’m not sure if it’s something that Jakarta should have too. We only use traffic light in big streets and have lots of cars passing on it. People can cross the roads wherever they like, pretty much on all small streets here.

4. Building size

It’s obvious, actually, but I still want to point it out. Geographically, Japan is a small country comparing to Indonesia. That’s why, Japanese are very effective in using space they have. So I think you wouldn’t find any spacious malls or house with spacious backyards in Tokyo. Oh please don’t forget, we are now comparing it to Jakarta. Indonesians will feel that they can barely breathe in Tokyo’s shopping center.

Indonesians seem to get used to huge space in everything. Roads, malls, backyards, etc. Take one example, Grand Indonesia Shopping Mall in Jakarta. If you stand in a corner of west mall and your girl/boyfriend is standing in the opposite corner of east mall, you are now having a long distance relationship. That’s how big Jakarta’s malls are.

Typical spacious backyard of Indonesia house

Those are the things that I saw in Tokyo streets. Pictures other than Shibuya are taken from other websites.