The joke called “Gay Pride Parade”

Gay Pride Parade
Seriously..??
The common parade which I know normally such as flower parade, parade during Independence Day, or disable person parade.
Flower parade, a parade in which the vehicles are decorated with thousands of flower, followed with marching band or people in costume. They are showing the unique flower of their origin and the identity of their nation. They showed the pride of their nation and the beauty of their flower.
Then, there is parade which celebrated by disable person. This parade is held to change the way people think about and define disability, so people more understand them and more accept disable people.
And, what about gay pride parade? This issue was recently booming after USA Supreme Court legalized gay married in June 26, 2015 in all 50 U.S. states. This parade was started long time ago in June 28, 1970 to mark the date of Stonewall riots. And since then, all the Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) feel like the world is theirs. LGBT fans celebrating through social media, how happy they are to get the equal right of marriage.
According to Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_pride_parade), “Pride parades are used by LGBT community to celebrating the LGBT culture and pride”. These parades held in NYC, London, Brazil, and many more cities all over the world. Which make me wonder, what kind of pride they’re celebrating?
According to dictionary, “pride is a feeling of deep pleasure or satisfaction derived from one’s own achievements, the achievements of one’s close associates, or from the qualities or possessions that are widely admired.”
To be honest, what is the pride of being LGBT? What is their achievement that they want to show off? For me, these parades are used to encourage other people to become gay. Also a moment for LGBT to meet, expand their gay acquaintances, or hunting. With this parade, LGBT trying to send message to people who still not sure about their identity that “they are exist, and you are not alone, don’t be shy, it’s normal”.
This parade is surely a treat for normal social life. Yes, I’m using the word “normal”, because I believe LGBT is abnormal. There are a lot of debates and arguments to define the abnormality of LGBT. Previously, it was categorized as sexual orientation disorder, and now it is categorized as sexual variation. I will not define the abnormality from religion point of view, because I’m not a saint, and because religion is private relation between human and creator. I will not define the abnormality from morality point of view, because morality is decided by society where people live.
As you know, LGBT cannot naturally create another human. What if all people are LGBT? Surely, human will vanished from earth, extinct. And it is enough reason for me to call them abnormal.
They are different, but they are still human who have rights to live. I don’t really care what the world has offered them. They can marry, they can take critical position in the government, and they can pray to God, it is really not my concern.
What I really worry is the future of my kids. In my opinion and experience, LGBT person is really aggressive. Maybe it is because of the fact that LGBT population is 5% – 7% of population. I myself have been become target of them twice, even though they knew I’m straight and have a good marriage.
This world has a lot of thing to offer. Don’t let your kid fall to the trap called gay pride parade. This is the most ridiculous parade I’ve known. Protect your family, and parent should show the kid what the truly love is, by giving good sample through themselves.
This writing is merely my own opinion. Anyone who has different opinion and data are welcome to put their comment.

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Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine

This temple is a Shinto temple which located in Kamakura City, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.

To reach the shrine, we can use train to Kamakura Station. From Kamakura station, the gate of the shrine can be reach within 15 minutes by walk.

Some interesting view that you can find in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine is as follow:

Front gate (Torii) – which is the sign of the existence of Shinto shrine which can be built in various material and color.

Torii gate

Komainu – A pair of guardian dog can be found in both side of the entrance to the shrine. The pair is not always dogs as they can appear as lions or foxes.

Komainu

Main and Offering Hall – Depends on the architectural style, the main and offering hall sometime built separately or become one building. The innermost part of the main hall is filled with shrine’s sacred objects.

Offering Hall

Purification through – Shall be found near the entrance. The water flow out from the fountains is used to purify. We can clean our hands and mouth before get in to the main hall.

Purification through

Stage – This stage can be used for bugaku dance or noh theater. I was quite lucky, when I came to the shrine, there’s a marriage celebration on stage.

Stage

Ema – It is a wooden rectangular plate in which visitors can write their wishes, and these Ema shall be leave at the shrine, hoping that their wishes become true. Mostly, the visitors wish for good health, success in business, passing exam, love and wealth.

Ema

Omikuji –  Is a piece of paper drawn randomly from a box which contain the fortune of the one who drawn them by pay it for 100 yen. The paper contain prediction from good fortune (daikichi) to bad fortune (daikyo). By tie it up in the three branch, the good fortune hopefully become real and the bad fortune can be averted.

Omikuji

Shimenawa – Is a straw rope with white zigzag paper. The purpose is to mark the boundary of sacred place, which commonly found in torii gate, around a big trees or stones. This rope also worn by yokozuna, the highest ranked of sumo wrestlers during ritual ceremony. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any picture of this 😦

The giant ginkgo – This giant tree is a very famous tree in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine as it always appear in every old print of the shrine. Unfortunately, the tree already rotten when I came and greatly damaged on March 10, 2010 at 4:40.

Giant ginkgo

Well, that’s it! If I have time, I try to visit another tourism spot in Japan 🙂

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Using Google Maps to Find Address and Route.

I want to share about using Google Maps to find route and more information such as address and travel cost.

Well, the story begun when I started working in Yokohama, Japan.
I’ve been asked to extend my passport validity. In my previous company in Jakarta, when I needed to go somewhere, I’ll just call the lobby and ask the operator to prepare a driver to me to get me anywhere. In Japan, it’s a little bit differ because you have to go by yourself with your own cost which you can reimburse later.

The problem is how is you don’t know how to reach the place, as in my case, I just new in Japan, and to find address in Japan is completely difficult. There is no name for the road and the number of building or area is not in correct number of sequence. I guess only the postman who knew how to find address in Japan.

In this case, I have to thank to Google Maps because it’s make a lot easier to find address. I’ll show you how I can get the direction to Indonesia Embassy in Tokyo, while my office is in Yokohama City.

Firstly, open Google and click on tab “Maps”. Fill in the keyword KBRI Tokyo (green circle), and you will got as depict below:

Some places might be written in Japanese character Kanji (brown box), but by selecting the test and copy paste to google translate, you can find easily what the meaning is.

After I’m sure that it’s is the place I want, right click on the maps will show you some option. Then choose “Direction to here” (red circle).

The screen in google maps will show the following:

The location that I put as target (red box) which mean “Indonesian embassy” will be mark as “B” and in the column “B” will show the complete address.

The next step is to find where the place that I’ll be use as my starting point. I zoom out the map, I move until I find Yokohama city, then I zoom in the location that I quite recognize. I browse until I find the train station “Sakuragicho” which is the nearest station to my office.

In the map, precisely on the test “Sakuragicho”, right click and choose “Direction from here” (red box).
And automatically, Google Maps will processing the data because the start and end point already defined. And the result will be as shown below:

Notice the green box, there are some alternatives you can use to reach that location, for example automobiles, trains, and on foot. If we select a car, of course, google maps will show the route of the road. Google maps here suggesting for a train with a few choice lines as indicated in the brown box. The alternatives train route shown completely with the travel duration and total cost… really impressive.

In the red box, we also can define when we will start our journey, the date and the hour. These things quite important because the train schedule is not the same on weekdays or weekend, and also the interval is different according to rush hour (7-10 am and 3-7 pm).

It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?

If we pick one of the alternative route, the maps will show you the path (pink marked in google maps), the transit station, which line to be used and the direction, and how many station you will pass… (wow), as shown below:

Really informative, isn’t it?
This is indicate that the mass transportation in Japan is really efficient with a very accurate and up-to-date data. If our target should using bus, Google maps will also show the data of the bus.

So, that it is. I hope this information will be useful to you too.

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