Thank God, everything went pretty well and as what we have dreamed of. Some part are still not perfect but its not too significant. We dreamed of this day and finally it has been realized and have encompassed our expectation. The first part is the engagement event, the second is the afternoon event which is the procession where we are declared as husband and wife. The third part is the ceremony where all the dances and food are. Perfect. Our dream comes true

please enjoy our wedding pictures :

Taken from Flickr Photo Album

Engagement

Wedding Procession

Wedding Ceremony

Check it out.
/story-map/?lat=-6.171104992193459&long=106.89777731895447″>Kelapa Gading on the Story Map

I received several questions regarding the Indonesian ceremony. A friend of mine who is Non-Indonesian and has attended the party once said, you are fortunate if you are invited to one of the Indonesian wedding. Why? They have so many cultures, so many different ethnics, so many different ceremonies that you just cannot imagine how it looks like especially if you are coming from the west.

Well there you go, so to tell you more on how it is like, let me explain you a little bit of the wedding.

Indonesia has so many cultures, each cultures has sub-etnics group and each ethnic practices different ceremonies and different norms. Imagine if one individual from one ethnic marry different ethnic. The mixture of these would be reflected on the marriage ceremony, the clothes they wear, the food they serve, the event they play and etc.

When you receive a wedding invitation to Indonesian wedding, you must have many questions. What dress should you wear, what gift should you prepare, what things you should consider not to do or to do and etc. Let me tell you more on each of these specific questions from the perspective of the marrying couples.

First, Indonesian couples would invite many people. The more you invite the merrier. So, Indonesian would invite their relatives, high school friends, college friends, neighbors, work friends, and so on. So even if you do not receive a personal invite, you are still welcome if you know the bride or the groom or even if you just know their parents or their family members.

It’s weird when I say this since I am an Indonesian, but Indonesian are truly honored by your presence. When you attend the party, you are being respected and honored to the rest of their lives. You are considered to be their inner circle when you come to the wedding for good. When you don’t come, for me personally it is fine. But for the Indonesian culture, it could be an insult. So for those who are invited, you should definitely make it. But you are of course not obliged to come if you can’t. For me, people have their reason, for whatever reason it is, the blessings are always welcome.

Second, the invitation card. Indonesian loves to share this great moment by making special kind of invitation card. This invitation card also reflects their care to the invitees. In some areas, the invitation is done by visiting you at your place. Basically, the blessings are the most requested prayer and the attendance would form it quite well.

Third, the marriage ceremony. For this special occasion, marriage ceremony usually is attended by the family members or close relatives. But you are always welcome to join the ceremony as this one would probably be using the most traditional ritual from the selected ethnic norms. If you think you are not invited to this event, please ask to the family members or the couples directly. I am sure you are almost welcome to join.

Fourth is about what you should wear to the ceremony. In muslim wedding, the men guest probably wear nice batik long sleeves clothes or business suit attire (if it is too hot, you can wear safari suit or just a simple shirt with cotton pants). And the women guest probably wear head scarf with a nice long sleeves dress as well. The color does not matter so much but if you know what color the brides might wear (the hint is from the ethnic they are from) then you should avoid the color. But really, you can be relaxed not to worry too much of the color of your clothes. For foreigners, you are more than welcome not to wear the head scarf even though the other guests might wear it. It is not an insult what so ever. Just make sure you wear a long sleeves for the women and long skirts or pants down to the ankle so you feel more comfortable.

Fifth, the gift. In the old days, people would bring some appliances like set of cooking pans, silverwares, beautiful ceramic, set of cups or plates, etc. However, these days, some wedding mentions that they are “no longer” accept those kind of gifts for many reasons. One of them is just because they don’t want to get duplicated things. Plus, the hard cash is easier to spend for the need of the couples. So, these days, in the entrance of the wedding place, they place a big decorated box that has a small insert on the top. Guests would normally put their discretionary money gift inside of the envelope. Then they would hand over that envelop to the usher. The usher would then put the guest name and the amount on the envelope so the groom and bride would know from whom the gift is. The envelope could be of any normal envelope. It does not need to be fancy or decorated. As for the amount, it is up to the guest of how much they would give. There is no standard value. Some people give about 100.000 rupiahs (about 12 USD), others give as much as 2.000.000 rupiah (about 220 USD) or even more. In Indonesian wedding, don’t expect that the bride or groom would return you with a “thank you” gift that is as big as the value of the gift. They would probably give you with a small token thanks like a keychain or some stationary stuff. So, don’t be surprised and offended of this culture. Anyhow, you are not obligated to give any gift if you feel you don’t want to.

Sixth, the food. Usually when the wedding is held in the afternoon, there would be a buffet lunch style. Or if its in the dinner time, it would be a buffet dinner style. Don’t expect that there will be a round table where you are going to be seated based on the names. Afterall, the guests are going to be hundreds. So providing seats and tables for this many people would be a lot of hassle. Instead, you can expect that people are going to just lining up to get the food, then to eat them standing and talking with other guests. There will be some seats but most of the times, the guests will be standing to watch the events. Normally, you would get the food after you line up to shake the groom or bride’s hands. So, after you say your blessings, you can go to the food area and start the dinner or lunch. Talking while eating is allowed so please don’t hesitate to start a conversation to talk to other guests if you want.

Seventh, Leaving time. You can leave whenever you want. After all the events, or even during the event, you can leave. Usually after you say your blessings, you grab your food then you talk to the family members then leave. You are not necessary to say anything before you leave to the wedding couple. The wedding time usually lasts about 2 hours.

Anyway, if you want to know more on how the wedding like, you can see below clip. The clip is a Sundanese wedding clip. They are not related to me whatsoever but it would give you an idea what Indonesian wedding looks like Enjoy!

We also went to Gotemba Outlet mall which is close to the Fuji-san area. There are a lot of branded shop which we all like but we did not buy anything.. the place is quite huge! It takes a day to just walk around and look for shop I think. We ended up going back late to the station so we missed the last train. So, instead of taking the express train, we took the local train which takes 1 hour longer to the way we were.

We also went to Shibuya, visited the most crowded intersection in the whole world. The funny thing is it is not as chaotic as the traffic in Jakarta I should say

It was a really great time. I wish she could visit me again and spend the time together. But for now, here is our memory to share.
Can’t wait to see her again.

Enjoy!

Semoga ini bisa dijadikan panduan. Kebetulan tadi pas lagi browse internet, ada link tentang panduan hidup di jepang dalam bahasa indonesia yang dikeluarkan oleh CLAIR (Council of Local Authority untuk International Relations). Dokumen ini sangat membantu bagi teman2 yang sedang berada di jepang ataupun yang akan datang ke jepang. Ada baiknya apabila kita bisa tau option2 yang ada supaya bisa hidup enak di Jepang dan bisa melakukan kebutuhan sehari2 sebagaimana orang jepang biasanya. Document indonesianya bisa didownload dari link dibawah:

Document in Indonesian: http://www.clair.or.jp/tagengo/general/id-top.html

Topicnya mencakup sbb:

Halaman Web ini menyediakan informasi sehari-hari dalam Bahasa Indonesia yang bermanfaat untuk orang asing yang tinggal di Jepang, seperti:
(1). Informasi yang bermanfaat ketika Anda sakit atau luka, tentang rumah sakit, pengobatan, asuransi kesehatan, dan sebagainya
(2). Informasi yang berkaitan dengan tinggal di Jepang, tentang pindah rumah, perumahan, mencari kerja, perburuhan, visa, dan sebagainya
(3). Informasi yang berkaitan dengan cerai dan hak atas anak, tentang pengadilan, problem rumah tangga sehubungan dengan pendidikan/sekolah anak, dan sebagainya
(4). Informasi yang berkaitan dengan keadaan yang sifatnya darurat, kecelakaan lalu-lintas, gempa bumi, kebakaran, kejahatan, dan sebagainya

Juga masih banyak lagi informasi yang dapat membantu anda menyelesaikan masalah yang sedang Anda hadapi.

DAFTAR ISI
Cara pemakaian

1 Saat keadaan darurat
2 Mengenai tempat tinggal dan kepindahan rumah
3 Kehidupan
4 Prosedur tinggal
5 Pendaftaran orang asing
6 Pengobatan dan kesehatan
7 Kesejahteraan
8 Buruh / Tenaga kerja
9 Pendidikan
10 Pajak
11 Kelahiran dan pemeliharaan anak
12 Lalu-lintas

]]> http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/03/13/uncategorized/livingguideinjapan/feed/ 0 http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/11/uncategorized/prewedding/ http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/11/uncategorized/prewedding/#comments Sat, 10 Feb 2007 15:54:58 +0000 andini http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/11/uncategorized/prewedding/ When I went back home last month, we took some pictures for our pre-wedding. It is mainly to test some of the camera angles and the camera lights and stuff…but we thought we should use that for our little album where we would show it in our wedding day later. The pictures are quite impressive even with a low light. I really love the way she wears that Sari, the dress from India. The culture we follow is quite a mix of culture. It has some Betawi touch to it but she is definitely more Indian than Indonesian. We thought we wanted to try different things. We are going to do the ceremony later in a place where the atmosphere is going to look more middle eastern / central asia culture so we thought we wanted to have something that has some of that taste to it. There we are, finally smiling away. I love the way she smiles. Her smile is so beautiful.

Wait until all pictures are loaded before you click…

/story-map/?lat=-6.256959329922541&long=106.83700919151306″>Click here to see where the pictures took place on our Story Map

]]> http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/11/uncategorized/prewedding/feed/ 4 -6.2569594 106.8370056 http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/06/youtube-video/over8/ http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/06/youtube-video/over8/#comments Tue, 06 Feb 2007 08:43:57 +0000 andini http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/06/youtube-video/over8/

About a week ago, I got an email from old friend of mine when I was in Waseda, Maki Yokoi. She is telling me that her movie will be featured in an independent movie called Over 8 which is going to be shown in small independent theater in Shimokitazawa area. Her movie is called ?????ャ????????????? or “Haru no Yuragi”. I believe her boyfriend, Itou-san, also producing and directing some of the movies in Over 8. If you are in Japan between 1???27??ワ?????鐚?鐔?2???16??ワ?????鐚? you should come by and see. The movie is played at 20:30 hour. Here is the trailer of the movie.

/story-map/?lat=35.661480478403355&long=139.66691493988037″>Click here to see where the video took place on our Story Map

]]> http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/06/youtube-video/over8/feed/ 0 35.6614799 139.6669159 http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/05/youtube-video/azpublication/ http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/05/youtube-video/azpublication/#comments Mon, 05 Feb 2007 05:24:20 +0000 andini http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/05/youtube-video/azpublication/

International Design Center Exhibition Berlin A-Z guide insider tips about travel guide of the berlin sites. Designer, Architechts and Magazines are giving tips about the interesting places that normally commercial travel guide book does not cover. My well respected Information Design teacher when I was in Waseda and currently a friend of mine is mentioned in this Internationally broadcasted article. His name is Andreas Schneider. I learned a lot from his class, his works, and his thoughts (Design Factors). He is one of the contributor for the opening event designer as well as the publication concept creator. The publication is only translated to 2 languages (Japanese and Korean) at this moment but when the needs are grown I believe it would soon be expanded later. With his help, I also worked with him in the Deutchland in Japan 2006 project (www.doitsu-nen.jp) as the affiliate of iidj (Institute for International Design Japan – www.iidj.net).

/story-map/?lat=52.52374150329883&long=13.408470153808594″>Click here to see where the video took place on our Story Map

]]> http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2007/02/05/youtube-video/azpublication/feed/ 0 52.5237427 13.4084702 http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2006/11/20/uncategorized/in-love/ http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2006/11/20/uncategorized/in-love/#comments Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:28:52 +0000 andini http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2006/11/20/uncategorized/in-love/

On around August, Dini visited Tokyo to see how it is like. Then I showed her around and we went to Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea. The day was hot as an oven and I was really dark because of the sunlight. But we really enjoyed it! She was soo happy and I was enjoying the moment as well. Then I made this small music Video which is compiled from our love memories in Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea. I love her so much and this video reminds me of her lovely smile and her loving affection which I really miss the most.

Anyway, here it is, enjoy guys and spread the love!

/assets/images/world_go.png” border=”0″/>Click here to see where the video took place on our Story Map

]]> http://www.madura.sakura.ne.jp/andini/2006/11/20/uncategorized/in-love/feed/ 1 35.6295357 139.8811951