廃校 - Haiko Cafe

As I wrote this down from Indonesia, a country far away from Japan, I have no picture of the real cafe here. I only have this sketch of my imagination about Homei Haiko in the future, when people are coming again to this beautiful place hidden in the village of Yamaguchi Prefecture. I had took this photo approximately 2 months before the real event was finally done.

I had been living in Japan for around 3 months in between these places called Haiko, to be exact in an awesome prefecture named Yamaguchi. Just for your information, "Haiko" is a Japanese term of closed schools due to the phenomenon of declining birth rate in Japan.

This was one of the Haiko that I visited and have been working on during my internship in Japan, namely Homei Elementary School in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.

Last November 20th, 2016, there was a local village event, namely Homei Art Festival. Homei Haiko had the opportunity to become the first haiko in Yamaguchi to open the Haiko Cafe. This cafe will be a mobile cafe, will only sell simple products, and the most importantly, will only be open in the Haikos, in line with its name and concept to revitalize Haiko in Japan. The aim of this cafe is to invite people to come visit Haiko and see the true value behind this nation-wide issue. Hoping to make people realize, that revitalizing Haiko in villages can improve the basic necessity of life itself, the humane relationship again.

Apart from Haiko Cafe, they also collaborated with some local parties around Yamaguchi area, such as the bamboo-bike for village revitalization initiative, Spedagi Ato, which a branch of Spedagi Indonesia. And even local animation artist who showcased her works there, about beautiful things through her simple yet modern animation.

Isn't it amazing to see one abandoned place turns into a meeting point of many future posibilities?

For Haiko Cafe photos and more information, please contact: http://openhouse.co.jp/haiko-cafe/ . Do not worry, they do speak English too.


I know not all Japanese understand English, and not all Indonesian understand English.
Yet still, I wrote this not in Japanese, not in Indonesian, but in English. At least this is the only way I can help Haiko issues to reach more people, more perspectives and hopefully more idea for our sustainable future.

ID.29.11.2016
#laviniaelysia
#JapanLifeLesson

Bakul Gorengan Malang

Terharu itu ketika kamu masih dikangenin sama bakul gorengan Malang.

"Eh mbak'e, pripun kabare?"
"Apik bu. Ibu pripun kabare? Tumbas gorenganipun, nggih, kangge bu dokter"
"Sae mbak. Koyo biasa nggih mbak. Jare bu dokter peyan ting Jepang mbak"
"Nggih. Sampun Jepang'e bu"
"Kok balik mbak? Ning kono mawon toh kerjo enak"
"Lha ten mriku mboten enten gorengan'e ibu, yo kulo balik rumiyin isi bensin"
"Walah mbak, perlu kulo kirim pos po?"
"Matur nuwun bu, tapi lak yo mlempem bu dugi mriku"
😂

MLG.26.11.2016
#laviniaelysia

廃校 - Haiko Summit

"Haiko"  means "Closed Schools" in Japanese term.

Japan is now suffering from national low birth rate and high migration of the youth to the cities, leaving the schools in villages abandoned, and finally forced to closed.

There are around 8 Haikos in Yamaguchi Prefecture today, the buildings and infrastructure are still so good, the surroundings are still so natural and untouched. The best part is, the elderly people are still so young in mind and heart to share whatever possible to bring us, the young, back to these villages again.

They even created The Haiko Summit, in order to bring back life to these closed schools in the villages. They are gathering ideas from wherever and whoever possible to help waking the Haikos up again. I am beyond blessed to be trusted a chance to help them gather ideas on designing these Haikos into a new center where people will love to gather around villages again. If any of you would love to help them, just leave them a message of your young and fresh ideas, even if their site is in Japanese, they do understand English well.

Honestly, being a youth in this room had trully brought shame to myself and my generation. I know our generation are mostly born in the cities, not in villages. 

I know our generation are in love with convinient stores, not in ricefields and rivers. But we should also know, that our earth was basically born out of the nature, not out of the industries.

Therefore, let us respect and help those who knows this earth better, the elderly and eventually, the earth itself. We may be the young today, but we will be the old like them too, one day.

Thank you for reminding us to believe in life beyond the inconvinience. I am sorry for making you experience the convinience of my generation, we call it: your first-time-ever-selfie :D


Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/yamaguchiclosedschoolsummit/
http://openhouse.co.jp/


JP.09.10.2016
#laviniaelysia
#JapanLifeLesson

廃校 - Abandoned Treasures in an Abandoned Place

Every day is a story and every person is a story teller.

If you cannot record, just take photo.
If you cannot take photo, just write.
If you cannot write, just draw.
Whatever you do, keep a track of it.

Because you will never know,
That after 30 years,
Some random kids may find your story so inspiring.




Yasuhiko Tanaka, whoever you were, you're rock! Thank you for sketching the history in details. Your sketches have successfully taught my generation patience and proofed that pictures really do speak a thousand words.
@ Ato Bunko, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan

JP.24.09.2016
#laviniaelysia
#JapanLifeLesson

An End

Everything has to come to an end, sometime.

Some people are not meant be in your life, because they do not have the power to help you improve it, it is not that you do not wish them well. But maybe it is just enough to meet them at the crossroads in life and agree to take separate paths. Time might bring you all together again at some other places.

From the moment we are born, people tell us that the world is like this and like that, this way and that way. It is simply natural, that for a certain period of time, we end up believing what we have been told. But we must soon push these ideas aside to discover our own way of living reality.

It is always important to know when something has reached its end.
Closing circles,
shutting doors,
finishing chapters,
it does not matter what we call it,
what matters is to leave the past those moments in life that are over.

Stories never really end. Even if the worlds like to pretend they do. 

Stories always go on. They never end on the last day, any more than they start on the very first day.

SBY.12.03.16

#laviniaelysia

Elang opo Pitik, Eagle or Chicken

My recent evenings were spent catching up with my long-lost friends,

most of them are design and architecture graduates.

When things get too much, we gather and talk again,

mostly in the center of the city where it will not be too far for everyone.

The more often we meet, the more we share and learn from each other.

Well, at least we still have each other in this city far from our hometowns all around the country.

***

Starts every 8 am up until 6 pm (with approximately 1-2 hours break), 5-6 days a week:

I thought they will gladly share their stories on how design works has developed in their offices.

Or on how they have learned new things beyond the books in previous classrooms.

On how they can grow their links from clients and experiences.

Or maybe on how they find a boy or a girl in the studios.

Or maybe on how fun each projects is.

But they never did.

After 6 pm, or after the official-work time is over:

I thought they will happily take a warm bath.

Or make and eat their dinner as they get home.

Or turn on the television for a simple football match

or play those online games they called DOTA or CTR or whatever that is.

Or make a proper phone call to a family back home, or maybe to their boy/girlfriends.

Or maybe just a simple lay down on their beds.

But they never did.

After dinner (or even never had a chance for dinner) up until 2 am:

They continue with some freelance works.

A sad truth is, not because they love to, but because they have to.

Some firms never value operational budget nor overtime works.

Time is expensive, it gets more expensive in cities by distance.

Bikes might be cheaper, but the energy for work has gone as they drive under the sun.

Cars might sound more efficient and air conditioned, but the fuel is never affordable.

The salary for fresh grads are not humane for a living in a city,

never enough for a boarding house payment,

never enough to send back home for their parents (who mostly already claim for some).

All they have left is 3 am until 7 am:

4 hours of rest or 4 hours of reflection.

Some reflect on what they have to do tomorrow,

some reflect on what the hell I am doing with this routines,

on up until when they will have to do this on,

some reflect on nothing as they are too exhausted, mentally and physically.

***

Well I know those are the common problems with office works,

I knew this since long before I graduated.

Those are the problems when you work because you think have to,

not because you love it.

Choosing a path not taken is never an easy one.

You all may envy me or angry at me,

but remember that no one is the best,

no one is the worst,

we are all learning in this life,

and relax guys, no one get out of this life alive anyway.

As an interior designer,

yes I admit that I am the least productive compared to all of you in interior design formal practices,

so it is your right to feel curious at a friend like me.

They believe that I am the only one who already has everything in my hands,

but at the same time,

I am still being the only one who seems to do nothing worthwhile these days,

who only teaches students which is commonly considered as an unworthy-job with an unworthy-payment,

who spends time sketching old buildings on street as a hobby,

who rejects various highly paid freelance works

but chooses to accept only unpaid design for humanity works,

who never tried to apply to any design firms around

in which they believed will never reject someone like me,

who have not send any scholarship applications until this second.

I might sounds like a crazy design graduates for you by now.

But as a human being,

yes I admit that I might be a little insane,

because I know there are times when your heart, your body, and your mind

need some re-adjustment for a while, so please be patient with me.

Good to know someone still notices this,

but it does not mean that I do not want to do good things like I always did,

share some advice-worth life stories to you like I always had,

but some things take more time than the others.

One day,

sooner or later,

I will live on as this one good sarcastic parable from one of you,

which I thank you for directly said it to my face and to remind me I can still do better than these.

As I think as this is a good advice for everyone,

it is too good not to share it with the world.

For all of you who believe that each of you is special,

never meant to be the same as others, never meant to stuck in one place,

because each of you have your own purposes of living here:

"Kon iku elang, guduk pitik!

Elang iku dicipta’no gawe terbang,

malah terbang’e dewean kadang.

Jelas gak cocok nek dikandang rame-rame,

soale kon guduk pitik.

Ndang terbang’o sana!"

"You are an eagle, not a chicken!

An eagle is meant to fly, sometimes even to fly alone.

Certainly will never suit to be caged in a flock, because you are not a chicken.

Go fly away!"

Ngapunten menawi basa niki kelangkung kasar, nanging kasaenen menawi disimpen piyambak.

Mugi-mugi bermanfaat. Matur nuwun.

SBY.04.06.16

#laviniaelysia

What is a teacher?

In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.

In large part, we are teachers precisely because we remember what it was like to be a student. 
Someone inspired us. 
Someone influenced us. 
Or someone hurt us. 
We have channeled that joy or pain into our own unique philosophies on life and learning. We are always looking for an opportunity to share them, with each other, our students, parents, or in our communities. 
That is why teaching is not a profession, but rather it is a gift.

It is the questions we cannot answer that teach us the most. 
They teach us how to think.

It does not matter what you teach, but how you inspire your students to give their best in order to discover what they already know.

SBY.10.03.2016
#laviniaelysia

To teach is to learn, to learn is to teach (Image courtesy: Austin Kleon)

Eventually Everything Connects

Thanks to this durian lady. Without her, I may not remember I had a blog to continue.

"Sis!"

Sounds like I'm going to shop on an online shop, right? But that's how we call her, Fransisca Callista, that is her name, at least that is what I read on her Facebook. 

2014

By that time, I still had no idea why I joined this ICVR (International Conference of Village Revitalization) and ICDS (International Conference of Design for Sustainability) in Temanggung, Central Java, a place I even never know existed on this island. All I can remember was that I had a huge curiosity on sustainability, and I still had no idea why this urge had never left me since I entered my university life. This was the reason I took Sustainable Design class in my interior design majoir, and this was the main point that brought to ICVR & ICDS. It never crossed my mind that a simple conference registration form had successfully brought my memory back to 2011, a year of crazy decisions.

2011

As I write this down, I recall that interior design was never truly my calling, but sustainability always had, since 2011. People said that finishing high school is nice, because afterward you can just choose to learn only what you love, in a simpler classes, in your own major of passion, which worldly known a university life. I remember applying a sustainability-related majors in some public university in Indonesia, I also remember granted a full-scholarship abroad for an environmental design major, the only thing I loved back then. But since I never granted the permission to leave home too far, so I browsed for a closer one, and I found one here in Surabaya, a city up north just two hours away from my home at Malang. Why interior design? Trust me, simply because it was the only major under The Art and Design Faculty which did not sound so hard, and I need only to pass a surprise drawing test (which I had no idea it was exactly the test day when I submitted my form). If I pass the test, my parents are going to pay for me, to draw people's houses all day long, for four years, and I will get a degree for that. Seriously, why the hell not?

2016

This year I met this Sis once again. Unexpectedly, exactly in the same place where we first met last two years ago. I guess the love of sustainability has brought us back again. We had helped Spedagi built up this Pasar Papringan with other volunteers, a market as a village responsibility and as a bamboo forest revitalization. We had shared many things during the event and Sis told me one day, "Promise me one thing before you go home. Follow your passion, keep sketching, explore sketchbooks, share what you have, make a blog, whatever! Try everything you love. And if you have your blog published, make sure I have the link". Now everything is starting to make sense, the puzzle is completed. Joining that conference was the best thing ever. Because it led me to this Sis. Because it led me to realize that eventually everything connects. Guess what, it led me to this old blog I had since 2007. 

That day I wrote as an escape from my crazy life. 
Today I am writing this down, not to escape it again. 
As life is crazy anyway, so I will write anyway.

SBY.07.03.2016

#laviniaelysia

Nobody's Child

Your children are not your children.

They are the children of Love, as you are to you parents'.

Your children are not your children.

They might come through you, but they are not from you.

Your children are not your children.

They might be with you now, but they might not be tomorrow.
Your children are not your children
They might be around you physically, but their souls are not yours to keep.
Your children are not your children.
They are souls of the upcoming, where you can never visit or dream of.
Your children are not your children.
They will learn from you, but force not them to be like you.
Your children are not your children
They will need your love, so they can learn to love others.

Your parents might no longer living together.
That is not your fault as a child, nor theirs as partners.
Your parents might no longer living together.
That does not mean they do not love you as fully.
Your parents might no longer living together.
That might make you choose whom to live with, but not whom to love differently.
Your parents might no longer living together.
That might make you think and feel, or learn and grow.
Your parents might no longer living together.
That does not mean you cannot see each other, separated does not mean forgotten.
Your parents might no longer living together.
That does not mean they hate you, nor they hate each other.
Your parents might no longer living together.
That means they need sometime alone, like you need sometime together.

You are you parents' legacy.
No matter what they do in the past, their future is you.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter who you are today for them, you are also their history.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter whom you look alike more, you are half of each of them.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter if they hate you, maybe you must have reminded them of someone they loved.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter if they love you in different ways, focus on the love, that what matters.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter if you must go far away, that way they learn the value of family.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter if they have far gone, their souls live in you forever.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter how you hate them, you must love them unconditionally.
You are you parents' legacy.
No matter how they hate you, remember that you were their proof of love.

SBY.24.02.16
#laviniaelysia

Nobody's Child (Photo by Lavinia Elysia)

A Trip to Temanggung

Mumpung baterai handphone masih ada, ingatan masih fresh, dan cerita terlalu unyu untuk disimpan sendiri.

Di stasiun,
waktu mau masuk pemeriksaan tiket ditanyain petugas.
"Tiket dan KTP-nya dek, eh udah punya KTP belum dek?"
Di kereta,
duduk seberangan sama 2 bule yang membaca novel dan foto-foto sawah sepanjang jalan. Sampai suatu waktu, mereka nggosipin saya pakai bahasa Belanda.
Bule A: "Itu anak di sebelah Japanese atau Inlander ya?"

Bule B: "Japanese, masa Inlander masih kecil berani naik kereta sendirian dan membaca buku Inggris?"

Saya: "Excuse me. I am Indonesian, and sorry, I understand Netherland"

Setelah itu kami jadi teman ngobrol sampai Jogja.

Di taxi,

ngobrol sama si supir.
"Eman sekarang ke Temanggung harus travel. Semoga ini Stasiun Temanggung dan stasiun kecil-kecil dihidupkan lagi, ada kok dek dulu, deket alun-alun situ. Sekarang banyak stasiun ditutup dek, lahan rel digantikan dengan lahan perumahan"

Di agen travel,
nunggu bareng tante-tante yang selalu akhirnya suka kepo dan ngobrol.
Tante A: "Saya mau pulang Salatiga, habis berlibur di Jogja"
Tante B: "Saya asli Jakarta, tapi lagi nganterin anak saya nih balik kuliah ke Salatiga"
Tante C: "Bukannya di Jakarta kampus lebih banyak dan lebih keren dan lebih menjanjikan?"
Tante B: "Anak-anak pada ngga betah tinggal di Jakarta, panas, mahal, sesak, ngga manusiawi, 1x naik tol sama dengan 1x makan

di Salatiga"

Saya diam dan mendengarkan saja.

Tante B: "Kamu nik, kenapa juga nggak nge-design di Jakarta? Daripada cuma ngajar di Surabaya dan nge-design pasar di

Temanggung?"
Saya: "Jawaban saya kurang lebih sama tante kok. Selain karena saya lebih suka main bambu daripada multipleks, saya juga lebih rela buang uang untuk makan daripada untuk tol"

#laviniaelysia #spedagi #temanggung
TMG.10.01.2016