Seeking The Change our Country Needs

Awhile ago, we requested our professor if we could cancel our class for today because we wanted to attend to the university's grand rally for our best friend and classmate who is running for the position of the student council chairperson. For three years in the academe, i have always witnessed how bloody a grand rally can be: two parties showing off their candidates and their general plan of actions, convincing the student body to vote for them. Even if mudslinging didn't happen, the fierce shouts of the candidates and the supporting parties were enough to keep the place tense.

We arrived a bit late, when the introduction of the candidates were almost about to end, gladly we made it in time to support our friend. But that's not the only reason we went there: we also went to listen to the critical questions the student body could ask the candidates in an effort to be able to clearly know who the right people should be leading us for the next school year. 

Despite the fact that everyone was able to answer the questions well, there was just one question that I think I finally have to give my say on, considering the fact that i believe that i had the most credible answer basing from experience. The question was about the Philippine's shift of its academic calendar from the deviant June-May to August-June, following the international standards for the compliance of the coming ASEAN integration.

From a personal point, it irked me when the candidates talked like they know the real implications of the calendar shift, disagreeing for several reasons. Reasons like:

1. As an agricultural/tropical country, it is not beneficial for us since students will be studying in the hot season and harvesting season, preventing students from giving it their all or even having the motivation to attend classes due to the heat.

2. It loses our nationality because we give in to internalization.

3. We are not ready for change because we still have a lot to change in our country.

And the list of reasons goes on and on. But before I give my opinion on these points, let me share my experiences as a former exchange student first.

I have already been into two foreign exchange programs, the first one was for International Christian University as a one year regular exchange student in Tokyo, Japan last September 2012-June 2013, and the second program was recently held in Seoul, South Korea last January 15-22, 2014, with the program being called the 15th ASEAN-Korea Youth Exchange Program. Luckily these two programs were all for free, but with a very big sacrifice, I had to skip school here for one reason and yes, its because of our different academic calendar. 

Before I first stepped into foreign territory, I was a Filipino with no sense of Nationality, always complaining on how dirty our government is and on how we can never progress. But as soon as I met the world and got to know the conditions of other countries, these perceptions all changed. I realized how the Filipinos have the capability to be the best. Try talking to young Filipinos who went on exchange programs, and you can see how hopeful they are of their country's progress. That's because when we see the world, yes our country may be at the end of the list when it comes to facilities, economic standing and such, but that's the opposite case for the people. We already have the skills and capabilities, only that we were not given an avenue to show them. Our cultural talent of singing? World class. Our English Proficiency? Far better than the rest. It is only through international exposure can we say that we have what it takes. Because of this, our pride as Filipinos also strengthens. 

Now for the people's reasons for disagreeing with the shift of the academic calendar. Agricultural reasons? Well how about the other agricultural/tropical countries, have you seen them fall because of the shift? I don't think so. If you say that this shift will lose our nationality, well try to read the previous paragraph again and tell me how i felt, I'm sure other former exchange students also had a strong sense of nationality after they went outside. We're not ready? Well if we aren't, when will we? When will we be ready to accept change in our country? Most of us always complain to our government on the problems we face, but what we forget is that we fail to give SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound) solutions to these problems, which may be the reason why we don't seem to see change after our decades of rallying and wanting for change. 

Even if this shift brings problems/difficulties to our country, what we don't see is that this gives MORE progress than what we expect. For one, because of the internationalization of the academic calendar, we will finally not deprive the Filipino youth of their chance to see the world (maybe for free) and come back to the country with more hope and a fiery desire for change. This also makes the world come to us, making us exposed of diverse cultures, and this not only increases awareness, but it increases our tourism, brand equity, and economic stability brought by more domestic transactions. 

I may not be able to argue about all points on this issue, but I firmly believe that this is the change we've been long looking for. This is the start of our progress. I do hope everyone will feel the same soon.

With regards to the student council elections, if we really want our country to succeed, a good, unbiased, and objective choice of the right student leaders is a way to start things right, and a way to see the change sooner than we think. So vote wisely for our nation, everyone.

Finally, My Say About UP Otakufest 7: New Golden Age

February 08, 2014

For others, this might be an ordinary day. But for me, this was one of the most challenging and memorable day I have ever had. And I owe it all to UP Otakufest 7.

For those who do not know UP Otakufest, this event is Cebu’s biggest collegiate cosplay and hobby convention in Cebu. It had humble beginnings on its introduction waaaay back in February ___, 2007. In fact, I was there when I witnessed how it started. I remember as clear as day. It was still so simple: only a few people, no official rented stage, and there weren’t many booths in the event, it was just a gathering of all “Otaku.”

From there, slowly it grew popularity yearly, more people talking about it, and more improvements and theme changes for every event. In fact, this was one of the few reasons as to why I decided to enter UP, hoping that I could play an important part in this event someday.

And it did happen.

I remember how Otakufest was on its fourth year when I entered the university, and on how I was just a mere volunteer/marshal through being a member of UP Nichibunken (ユピ日文研), the university’s Japanese culture appreciation organization. It was tiring to run around and be a messenger to the heads but it was fulfilling. And at that same time a new dream and challenge opened to my interests: to be UP Nichibunken’s head and to head UP Otakufest on my fourth year in college (since Otakufest was a yearly event made by the fourth year batch organization, a tradition that happened as years went by).

Once again, it happened.

I was still on the middle of my foreign exchange program in Japan last 2013 when I gained the confidence to volunteer to my batch mates that I will be leading the next Otakufest. It was not because I was thinking way over my head, but because I believe that I could make use of the things I learned from my one year stay in Japan and hopefully inculcate it in organizing Otakufest, and to hopefully make it as innovative and the best Otakufest ever, and to make it a different convention than what other people go to yearly.

So when I went back home last July 2013, a lot of things happened that may be a sign of success to lead this event. I immediately became UP Nichibunken’s head, and as I was struggling to catch up with my studies, I and with my fellow batchmates and UP Nichibunken, had our first meeting on that month. They were surprised that it was early, too early maybe. 7 months before the event and yet we already have decided on the theme New Golden Age and on the things we wanted to have on the day, and we were already starting with promotions and advertisements.

I also remember on the first day of our online promotion in Facebook, it already gained a lot of likes and noise on just its first night. That was what got us so excited. From then on, we started with the final conceptualization and stared on the papers, actions, and more meetings.

As months passed, stress was getting over me. I never expected for this event to be REALLY big. To top it off, the pressure and anticipation of everyone was getting to me, and as the head organizer I cannot help but make an event that exceeds their expectations.

There were a lot of problems that we encountered as we were getting nearer and nearer the event day. And please allow me to rant on things I kept to myself for months on this blog post.

One was on the delays, both evitable and non-evitable. Non-evitable things like delays on operations due to the recent major earthquake and supertyphoon that hit our country. They were somehow okay, but the evitable delays got me the most. As a business student, I organized this event on a business perspective, applying all the things I learned. One of those things I learned from my professors was to never be late on meetings, deadlines, and tasks no matter what the reason may be (except death). And it really gets in nerves when people put up a lot of reasons as to why they were not able to do such tasks in the given time. One of the reasons was that they were not the only ones who were busy. I was busy too, in fact, more busy than them perhaps. Another one was that when you promise something that you can do something, it is then expected of you that you will do it, regardless of what. Lastly, delays give out a lot of consequences financially. But despite those things, after all those project crashes and patience, things went okay (for most of it).

Another problem we came up with was on the issue of including a Kpop Dance competition in a cosplay and hobby convention, which has never happened before. There was a lot of clamor when we posted the official guidelines, with people claiming as to why there be a Korean Contest in a “otaku” convention, and with people saying that they would not attend because of this. Because of this, we posted an official statement a week after and thankfully it cleared out the issue, and everything was calm again. But there were several reasons why I decided to include a Kpop competition in Otakufest: one was that from my exchange program in Japan, I first handedly experienced the Otaku culture, and knew that there was a growing community of Japanese kpop otaku. Second was that I had to be innovative. Otakufest, being in its 7^th year, definitely would not remain stagnant. Lastly, being a kpop and anime fan myself, I wanted to try these things to be together and somehow people could get to appreciate these things.

The rest of the problems were already minor issues (like on the ticket prices and the code of conduct) and I was glad everything went okay.

As the event got nearer, we were starting to get sleepless nights, lots of arguments on issues, and losing focus at school. We had a lot of challenges to conquer, along with our studies. Probably one of the greatest challenges I had was when I left for Korea for an exchange program, 2 weeks before Otakufest, and I had to balance work, studies, and managing the event.

Stress was increasing until it came to the day of the event. Finally, all our labor realized. With 3 hours of sleep, exhaustion, and nervousness for anything might go wrong, I just did what I could, and that was to stay strong.

Despite the rain that delayed the program, and some minor problems, I’m really thankful for the success of the event. I have a lot to be thankful for. Thank you to everyone who came and enjoyed the show, to the sponsors, partners, and contributors for helping realize this event, for my friends and family for the support, for our special guests Ae Ri, Lyron, SIXX, and F Prime of X for attracting a lot of people and for gracing our event. For our hosts Ara and Gab for keeping up with us and for making the event more lively despite the gloomy weather, for the whole team for enduring months of exhaustion to give an awesome event, and lastly, to God for helping us make this event happen.

This event helped me add more fuel and motivation to achieved my dreams. I hope I could be able to organize more events soon and learn from them to be better (and hopefully organize kpop events soon? :D)

Otakufest 7: New Golden Age: the biggest collegiate cosplay and hobbies convention in Cebu was the first event to inculcate kpop in a mixed convention, was the best Otakufest of all the seasons in terms of earnings and attendees, and was the first event in Cebu to have an international audience (all thanks to our Japanese partners and for the advertisements). This event, despite being a student-organized event, and having no compensation on our part, was really for everyone to enjoy, and for having a day where people with interests can gather and be happy. This event gave me a lot of insights and realizations on what I needed to improve as a person and on my skills.

The Seoul-Searching Adventure of a Lifetime

Last January 15, 2013, I embarked on another life-changing exchange program, the 15^th ASEAN-Korea Youth Square.  The program, sponsored by ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations) and the Government of Republic of Korea, aims to gather youth delegates from the ASEAN region and Korea and form relationships and memories for 7 days that would soon promote good internal relations between the said states.

 

Representatives from the ASEAN states, Korea, and heads of organizations

From our arrival at Incheon International Airport, we were greeted with warm smiles from Korean delegates and started on the orientation and we started to get to know other delegates. It was intimidating for me, knowing that these delegates were some of the best youth in their countries. Yet it also served as my challenge and inspiration to do my best to represent my country well and to form good relations for our countries.

Since then we had a lot of activities. We went snow sledding at Gangwon-do, ate a LOT of food (who wouldn't want to miss on this?), travelled around Insadong, Namsam Tower, Hongdae, and Myeongdong, and most importantly, had our ASEAN-Korea Food Festival and Performing Arts Presentation.

This program had the theme of “Promotion of Cultural Understanding Between the Youths of ASEAN-Korea Through Performing Arts.” We had two main events, which are the ASEAN-Korea Food Festival and Performing Arts Presentation. In the food festival, each country prepares their native food and showcases it to everyone for cultural understanding (since food is an effective way to learn a country’s culture).  And in the whole duration of the program we are randomly grouped to prepare for the performing arts festival, a day where we showcase different performances from a parade of each country with their national costumes, dance, chorus to martial arts and Kpop. In the performing arts festival, I belonged to the Kpop group, so we performed EXO’s Wolf and Psy’s Gentleman. Practices were tiring, as they were pushed in all our resting times from the tiring activities. Yet in the end it was all worth it. In the end we closed the program by a formal dinner program with our national clothes on, and our pride and hopes for a stronger ASEAN in us, as we receive our certificates, take pictures for memories, and exchange contact information for future references when we become the future leaders of our respective countries.

Honestly, my main reason of joining this program was because I can grant my wish, and what every foreigner k-pop fan would ever dream of: travelling to Korea and buying all the Kpop goodies there!!! We had our free time, and we travelled in Insadong, Hongdae, and Myeongdong. Despite the very short time (programs like these should have more time to travel! You know, get to know and appreciate Korea more lol), I was able to buy some of the things I wanted to. And, being a Super Junior and EXO fan, I was so happy when I was able to buy things not sold in my country! But most of the time, it was all just eating lol.

Here are some pictures from the program:

At Seoul National Museum

Snow Sledding at West Hilli Park, Gangwon-do!

Winter Memories

Cambodia at the ASEAN-Korea Food Festival

Our Kpop team at Insadong!

With my Food buddy, World (missing you right now! orz)

Locking relationships at Namsam Tower

Legit Korean Samgyupsal!! 

Hello Kitty Cafe at Hongdae!

At our Free tour day. Went Skiing and shopping at Myeongdong!

Our famous Biko (sweetened coconut rice) for the ASEAN-Korea Food Festival

If only they were real. XD

Dinner with Kpop team!

Nature Republic's EXO standees!

Team Philippines with our appa and omma! :D

We'll miss you, Sangwoo! T.T

With the awesome Organizers!

Am I Korean now? lol

Philippines and Korea!

I'm extremely thankful for this program for a lot of things. For letting me make new friends from around the world, for fostering stronger relationships with new friends from ASEAN, and for giving me a chance to appreciate Korea more (and I got to wear Korean traditional clothes!). I want to take this time to thank everyone: the organizers for this successful event (but seriously, more time for shopping next time :D), for the whole ASEAN and the Republic of Korea for promoting youth participation in stronger relationships, and for my friends, family for the support. 

Extreme cold temperature, strict schedules, and so much little time we had. Yet it was extremely life changing for a short period of time given.  “The youth is the future of our country,” a quote from Dr. Jose Rizal, the Philippines’ national hero. This stands true today not only in the Philippines, but for the world. Yes, we the youth are the future of the world. If we connect and hold our hands, together we can help improve our own countries for a better world for the next generations to live in.

Memories

This picture was the very first picture I took on the dawn of 2013. Being in Japan, it was tradition to be able to see the first sunrise of the world for the year, so we went to Ikebukuro's Sunshine 60, waiting for that first sunrise only a few people get to witness. And as the sun was slowly shining everyone of us, welcoming us to 2013, I promised to myself that just as how beautiful and colorful this scenery of the sunrise is, I would do my best to make my 2013 just like that.

And it was.

Looking back through the years, I believe that 2013 was definitely the best year of my life. I was able to spend half of this year in Japan as an exchange student. A lot of firsts on travels, food, and experiences. I made a lot of new friends and strengthened bonds with old friends. 

I guessed I travelled a lot this year. Mt. Fuji, Disneyland, Kansai, Kyushu, and more. A lot of first times too, like eating my first motsu (cow womb), seeing the sakura leaves dance for the first time, and more.

After I left Japan I continued with my student life back home, and from the remaining months of the year I was able to have fun despite all those works and papers. 

And now we're here again in the new year, facing 2014 with all the uncertainties life has to offer. I made a couple of small resolutions, but also thought that I shouldnt wait for a new year to start and make changes. Quoting from a January 2nd, a fic that I read:

"But resolutions were the loneliest sets of words in existence: they were looked at and kept on a high shelf briefly, only to be cast aside once their truth was realized.

When the world realized that they were too difficult to keep."

So for this year, i'd do my best to try and cherish every moment of my life, not waiting for things to come my way, rather catching up to it. 

Thank you to everyone who has helped my 2013 become the best one. Let's face 2014 together with a smile. :)

Recollections: Shin-Okubo, Tokyo

     Since I am currently on rest from the semestral break we're having, lemme try to write down all the experiences I can recall on my travels during my 1-year stay in Japan. For now, its on to Tokyo's Korea Town, Shin-Okubo!

      Being a fan of K-pop, I decided to visit Tokyo's Korea town, Shin-Okubo. It's a station north of Shinjuku when you ride JR's 山手線 (Yamanote line). Together with my friend who was also a fan of K-pop, as soon as we stepped out of the station we were already anxious of going around. Even inside the station you could already see posters of K-pop and K-drama artists on their advertisements. You will be greeted with stores selling K-pop merchandises, korean skin care products, Korean food, everything Korean! We were spazzing over the overflow of K-pop goods! 

Some pictures of Koreatown:

From CDs

To Calendars

And Posters

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Autographs of Artists are put along Store walls

     Since we were both ELFs (EverLasting Friends),  a name for fans of Super Junior, we were looking for the famous Super Junior Town somewhere in this area. After minutes of GPS searching and walking along the alleys, there it was! Hidden in an alley was our long-searched Super Junior Town! Even from its sight I was already dying to get in. We tried to keep our calm to avoid eyes at us. But as soon as we went inside, the fans inside us literally tore through our control. Everything, from the walls, music, decorations, accessories, even to the food, everything was filled with Super Junior goods! I think the waiters are accustomed to customers like us, since no one minded us losing our minds inside. We ordered the store's special: Super Junior Kimchi Cheese. While we waited and ate our food, We were entertained by the showing of SJ's Super Show 4 concert in Tokyo. Even other customers were enjoying everything. And we were giddy when our biases would show up on the screen. After eating, we chatted for a while, and even if it breaks our hearts, we left, but swore to come back often as much as possible.

Some pictures of Super Junior Town:

They even have an Ikemen bar. Wonder if they're as good looking as the real SJ

Name an album? They have all

Sapphire Blue Lights!

They even have their twitter account!

And they have each member's pic on the wall and customers can freely post their feels lol

Their Mr Simple posters

Enjoying SS4's Oppa Oppa Performance

SJ Kimchi Cheese! <3

SJ Posters from all albums!

Id wish for frequent rain if I'd use this!

Precious mementos!

     After lunch, we had to separate since we both had other appointments. As for me, I had to make use of the 1-day train pass, a pass that gives you unlimited rides around Tokyo for a day, that I bought. After Shin-Okubo, I walked around Hamamatsucho and Roppongi to stroll around the Pokemon Center and take a nice walk around Tokyo Tower. The tower looks beautiful when the sun sets. After that, I went to Shinjuku to stroll around and be amazed on its illuminations. 

     Here are some photos of the trip. Enjoy! :)

Tokyo Tower in a distance 

Amusement below the tower

From a lower perspective

Light up!

A starry night 

Music and City Lights