Okinawa no Hanami (Summer Edition)

Happy summer guys, hot, sweaty, sunny, sun glasses, sun cream, sun bath, beach, snorkeling, diving, or something else you have to do to raise your summer. But, not only us who are celebrating summer holiday, do you know that some flowers in Okinawa are also blossoming? let see, I succeed to capture some Okinawan flowers, hope you enjoy with those pictures!.

Pic. 1 Yellow flower, has 5 petals, and this flower is also common in Indonesia (tropical region)

Pic. 2 Reddish flower, I do not know what kind of flower it is, but it has big tree, big steam, and small leaves as you can see.

Pic. 3 Purple Bougenville, we can find this kind of flower easily in tropical region, and also has many variant in color (red, white, even yellow)

Pic. 4 Kind of grass, I do not know the name but I like this grass even though it is not flower. 

Pic. 5 A flower surrounding University of the Ryukyu 

Pic. 6 Such white flower with 6 petals, small in size, but still it is beautiful, living nearly grass. 

Pic. 7 This flower is also could be found in Indonesia or another tropical country, as I know, there is white color variant, but I have not found here yet. 

 Pic. 8 Yup, I captured this grass at night, it gave another sensation effect, and make me more loving this grass :)

Pic. 9 In Indonesia this flower is known as Bunga tapak dara. As science student, I have been learning the chemical structure containing in this flower extract, Vincristine and Vinblastine, these compounds have activity as anticancer, wew beauty useful :) (Inspiring me as a woman hahahhaha)

 Pic. 10 Bunga Sepatu (Indonesian) This flower has Latin name Hibiscus-rosa sinensis, hehhehe

and we can easily find this flower in another tropical country.

Pic. 11 Bud of Hibiscusrosa sinensis

Pic. 12 Unknown flower

Pic. 13 white and yellow combination flower, small size but beautiful. 

Pic. 14 Yellow flower, I found this flower near by traffic light at University of the Ryukyus. 

 Pic. 15 Pinky flower, It has high tree and less leaves.

Pic. 16 Yellow flower, growing like grass but beautiful.

Yellowish and reddish flower are dominating Okinawan flowers, the question, why do they yellowish or reddish? do they have correlation among color, location, temperature, texture or something else? Interested, so that's why I really love science :)

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium Part V

Another part of Churaumi. Deep sea organisms, which is can not be seen by bare ayes, at this site we had privilege to see them by bare eyes. When I saw, it amazed and inspired me that there are a lot of organism live in a deep see, lack of light and may be not so many foods or nutrients, but they can survive, how come? nature has a lot of fact that difficult to be understood, but they are exist. Challenged to do research on these organisms? I did chemically some, but there are so many organisms, let's we do!!! hopefully it can be very useful for human life :)

Pic. 1 This organism had been found in 200 m in dept

Pic. 2 This guy had been found in 245 m in dept

Pic. 3 This fish is also known as Pinecone fish, there was no information about how many meters in depth was collected about this fish.

Pic. 4 This crab is also known as Japanese Spider Crab, and this crab likes to stay, the question, how does he grab his food? does anyone know? yup, I would say, nature has a bunch of mystery :D

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium Part IV

The next part of Churaumi is Shark research lab, this is very challenging, you observe a dangerous animal and may bite you anytime, I just say "wow" to them, they are amazing person, for me, better doing research in my lab than working with such killer animal hihihihihihi :D good luck anyway to them :)

Pic. 1 this is picture of mummy's shark, they keep it safely. This shark's name is great white shark, and it was found in Okinawan ocean, gender : female, and it had body length 508 cm, and body weight 1325 Kgs. Wow... :D

Pic. 2 This shark could be found in southern Japan and also tropical oceans, and it has color grayish-black or grayish-brown in color, and they to be able to grow to 3,3 meters in length. Its skin looks like silky, so that's why it is called Silky Shark.

Pic. 3 This shark is also known as bull shark, and I'd like to call fatty shark. I see this shark just looks like funny fish, and I like, but it is too big for me to play around with him :'(, yup, would say better playing with sponges or nudibranch hehehhe :).  

  

Pic. 4 First time I saw this shark, I felt something weird here, I have not yet realize but anyway this shark has white dot on his body, and also has been known as Bowmouth guitar shark, funny name, may be it is given from his shape :).

Pic. 5 The last shark that I could capture is tiger shark, he has cool name right?. Have a look there was a small fish follow this shark anytime, anywhere. Guess what? yup, symbiosis between them is happen, small fish and giant shark could live along together, so why do not we? no reasons to fight each other, just follow this fish philosophy and we can live together peacefulness :).

Happy week end, see you guys :)

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium Part III

The next session of Churaumi is invertebrate organisms. There are several invertebrates organisms which had succeed to be capture. Actually, this is my first time to catch such organisms lively. Any way, these pictures was taken by an amateur photographer hehehhehe (c.phenol) originated by me. So, hope you guys enjoy!!!

Pic. 1 This beautiful an umbrella like is moon jelly fish, you can see their shine, and when I saw with my own eyes, it was very amazing, just like glowing in the dark.

Pic. 2 Have you ever seen this kind of jelly fish (especially for Indonesian)? to be honest this was my first time to seeing this guy, but do you know guys, this jelly fish has name Papuan Jellyfish. the point that I got after visited Churaumi was every region they have specific characteristic, even for small living organisms, this guy as sample.

Pic. 3 the next organism is zebra moray, I guess the name of zebra was given because of its color, almost dominated by black and white, although less reddish.

Pic. 4 the next funny guy is cuttlefish, lucky me I could capture precisely on its face. Could you notice its mouth? yup its mouth texture looks like tentacle, and actually it was used for its moving. Yeah I knew something new and I am happy to share with you guys.

I think enough for this session, will be very missing you guys, see you around and have a great day a head and thankful to our God for his blessing as always. :D

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium Part II

I was too busy doing my experiment, wish me luck guys hahahhaha
and here I come back to continue my crap blog, hope you guys enjoy or just trash it somewhere away from you hihihihi

Here we go!! The next part of Churaumi that I had been there is about organisms which are living in a sea surface or shallow water (please correct me if I made mistake as I am a chemist hihihihi)

Pic. 1. we call this guy Box jellyfish. (This guy can be found at tropical and subtropical water. So It could be found at Indonesia's water, hopefully because I haven't yet found it hahahhahaha. Anyway, their colorless bells are almost perfectly square in cross-section so that's why it is called box jellyfish)

Pic.2 This huge guy usually called Giant spiny lobster and can be found easyly in Okinawa. It has five kinds, all of which have long thick antenna and sturdy legs but no claws (so dont worry they won't hurt you hihihihi)

Pic. 3 This guy is one kind of Giant spiny lobster

Pic. 4 This guy too, one kind of Giant spiny lobster (Unlucky me, I just captured three kinds of Giant spiny lobster)

Pic. 5 These guys amazed me, do you know why? Yup, I saw Japan's Flag drawn on their body, then I tried to capture hihihihihi, hopefully I could find another nation's flag, Indonesia??? could be hahhaha

Pic. 6 And, another guy which was succeed grab my attention was vegetarian fish. Yup, they eat algae grown on the stone, funny, I want to know their teeth texture and metabolism, may be one day I will get hehehhe

Pic. 7 Yeah, this guy is one kind of amphibian organism, it has four feet, like walking on the bottom of water, but so sorry, I don't explain too much about this guy, but my point of view, it looks like reptile hahahhaha

Pic. 8 Yeah! frog is the most famous amphibian in the world, this frog is also called Okinawa tip-nose frog

Pic. 9 Colorful and little crab, hehehhe These guys have different color but same name, people call it fiddler crab. They have one big claw on their left hand side.

Pic. 10. the last picture for shallow water organisms is garden eel fish, just like a plants grow on the sand.

Yup, I hope it is useful for us guys

and see you around :)

to be continued Part III

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium Part I

Okinawa Churaumi Aquarium is the biggest second aquarium in the world. Luckily, I am living in Okinawa, I have privilege to come to this aquarium, yeay!!! Yeah here we go..

Actually we had taken this picture before we entered the main building of Churaumi, and it was fun, especially me, this was my first time to visit Churaumi even it is too close, I am sorry I was pretending to be a busy student hahahha...


Okay, before I talk too much, I would tell you guys about Churaumi itself. let's start from word "Churaumi", Churaumi comes from "chura" and "umi", "chura" comes from Okinawan language has meaning "beautiful or cheerfulness" and "umi" has meaning "ocean", and this words has been used since 2002 when Churaumi had been opened for public.

On the way heading main building of Churaumi, we could see Iejima Island. Iejima island has been well known as one of beautiful island surrounding Okinawa island (but I have not gone there, hopefully in the near future hehhe). The distance between Churaumi and Iejima island is not so far, but It is separated by deep sea, as we know that Okinawa Island is surrounded by oceans, so that's why they have deep sea and such a strong wave.



If you are interested with Churaumi, do not forget to visit okinawa while your vacation in Japan :)

Have a great day guys....

Article for University of the Ryukyus

well well well
Finally, I have to share about my the very first article for my University.
I am not that confidence actually, but I tried my best, hopefully this is a great article and could be a new motivation to the readers. Have fun reading guys,

From Small Marine Organism to the World

1^st year of Master of Science, University of the Ryukyus

Do you know stars? Although they appear very small when we look at them from earth, they paint the darkness of the night with their bright light and therefore create a beautiful painting in the sky. My dream is to be one of these stars. I want to be a part in this painting, contributing to illuminate the darkness and in the same time remaining relatively small.

I consider myself as a chemist who specializes in marine natural product. During my undergraduate studies I fell in love with two important things:　“The marine world and Japan.” I would like to thank my previous supervisor, Dr. Andi Setiawan, who introduced me first to the ocean world and its implication to chemistry, and second to another country, Japan, through scientific collaboration. Since then, Scientists from Japan, especially in field of marine natural products, have been my source of inspiration.

Finally, after my graduation I was really eager to continue my studies and reasearch. Naturally, for the reasons mentioned above, I looked for Japanese universities which carry a marine science program. I learnt that University of the Ryukyus was going to accept new students with scholarships. I immediately sent my application, few months later here I was, ready to start a new chapter of my life in Okinawa, JAPAN.

My former supervisor is an inspiration for me and so is my actual supervisor, Prof. Junichi Tanaka. Day in, day out, he keeps on teaching me, from, of course, chemistry to life. I knew Prof. Tanaka through his publications, I had never known how he was, but now, I have the privilege to communicate and receive countless advises on a daily basis, how lucky I am.

In Tanaka’s Lab, we are interested in new bioactive compounds from marine organisms. What I have been doing here is extraction for many samples and screening with their cytotoxicity and other biological activities, then by checking NMR spectrum we can elucidate what the interesting molecule is. The problem that we face is not only finding an interesting compound with bioactivity in a hundreds of samples but also other reaserch groups, as we know, there are so many marine natural product researchers in this world. But, if I could, I would like to be one of them. Nice put is enjoying your work, be brave to dream, work and study hard, as my Professor advises me as always.

The important thing that I want to say is, by doing research hopefully it can be very useful for science world, people, at least people around us. So, do our best, seize the day to reach our dream, then let the results come to us, and cheers.

Dear Ramadhan

Bismillah, Ramadhan Mubarak Minna San

The holy month has been running this time, and this is my first time to be a part from ma gorgeous dady, momy, family, beloved friends. Even though I am being a part from my parents, still, I am felling Ramadhan's atmosphere itself in Okinawa. We have not had a mosque yet, but we are planning to build a mosque here (Aamiin).

As a minor community in this country, but people in this country have very big respect to us, oh God thank you so much for giving us nice friends in strange country. and proudly I would say that we are enjoy doing Ramadhan in this Country, (God please bless this country).

Although we do not have Mosque, but we still be able to pray jamaah here, they let us to pray in a international room, many friends from Arab, Pakistan, Afganistan, Egypt, Banglades, and many more are gathering there to do sholah jamaah, Great....... Alhamdullilah :)

And now, Ramadhan will be ended, make us feel so sad, right? Hopefully, Allah will let us to meet Ramadhan in the next period, and hopefully we will be a better muslim, respect each other and create a save world no war, no pain, no cry, because life is too short just for hurt someone else...

For everyone who celebrate ramadhan in this year without family, please do not be sad, because may allah always with us, everywhere we are.

a love to family and friends from Okinawa
please forgive me :)
(Summer in Okinawa)