HIROSHIMA. HIPPO. JAPAN! -PART 1-
6:17 AMSo this is gonna be a gawky prologue again.. i think?
Hello everyone and yes i'm back (for good or nah idek) again and you must be reading this post title like whut is this woman talking about huh?! Bit by bit, word by word, allow me to elucidate those three words;
HIROSHIMA : http://www.hiroshimainternational.com/
HIPPO : https://www.lexhippo.gr.jp/english/
JAPAN : Yes, i went to Japan recently （‐＾▽＾‐）
Some people asked me even my foster Japanese mother asked me once, "why did you come to Japan?". I stuttered. Not that i am lying but sometimes there are things that you have a soft spot on and you yourself dont even know what is the reason of the fondness. That applies to me, admiring Japan. Back to the question, i could only answer the most basic reason that everyone used, "I love Japanese culture". But once again, i am not lying. If you are saying i love Japan because of the artists, bands, J-Dramas, nope absolutely nope because i love BigBang (Korean obviously) and i watched more K-Dramas than J-Dramas (Hana Yori Dango and Jun Matsumoto are exception tho) so Japanese entertainment are not on the list. Lets cut it short, i love Japan and this country has always been in the number 1 top country in my vacation dream list (weird sentence arrangement).
To be going to my dream country alone, without my mom and siblings around, i didnt have that in mind though. But it happened anyway. For 10 days, i was there without any of my family members. The advertisement for this exchange student program held by Hiroshima International Club was informed during the month of February or March this year in my school. At first i was just joking and dreaming around about participating this program since i knew the cost would be the major problem but I DONT KNOW IT JUST HAPPENED THAT MOM GAVE ME THE PERMISSION. There are like many other countries you can choose from their website and no it is not under the responsibility of my school nor your school. This program is organised by Hiroshima Club under Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM).
Just imagined my eagerness of waiting for the date of 7th December 2015 after submitting the application on the month of April while having a mental torture by the upcoming SPM. Yes i did gone nuts. I cried a lot this year :_: Of course, the suffering stopped anyway. I went there with some of my schoolmates Aqilah, Najat and another 4 boys from my school. A day before departure we stayed at Corus Hotel in Port Dickson for orientation. We aint gonna go there blindly with nothing for our preparation right (ꐦ ಠ皿ಠ )
"I know your souls are already in Japan and what are left in here are only your body", our sensei said this and it was faultlessly true. Monday, 7th December 2015 was the departure day. We took Vietnam Airlines that was due at 8.30 p.m. and we had to transit at Ho Chi Minh City first. Thank God, we departed from KLIA and not KLIA2. So, our journey began.
My adventure time to Japan already had an interesting beginning from our first flight. I have this sort of excitement towards In Flight Meal and was very looking forward for the meal served in Vietnam Airlines because it was my first time taking the airlines. And so the stewardess served us the meal and.... there was this odd looking ham salad and right at the moment i knew something was wrong. The truth unveiled, it was pork, lol.
Later on, we landed at Ho Chi Minh City and had like 2 hours waiting time for our next flight. The challenge of speaking Japanese started at the airport. As me and my friends were sitting there were these 3 Japanese aunties that tried to talk to us. I understood nothing. But still it was really pleasurable as we were already receiving the Japanese vibes. In the next flight, i had to sit with idk Vietnamese or Japanese old couple but we didnt have any conversation as i took very long sleep along the journey. Finally, we arrived at Kansai Airport.
Some of the Japanese Family were already there to pick up my friends but for others and me, our family were waiting at the Hippo Family Club Office at Osaka. So we headed there by bus. I was feeling very nausea as i only had my sleep in the flight and arrived at Japan the respective day. The next thing i knew, we arrived at the office. We took the stairs and as i was taking off my shoes to enter the room for somewhat like an Arrival Ceremony, a Japanese lady tapped my shoulder and called me "Hello Widah!!" and gave me a warm hug. She was my Japanese mother, my okasan. At first i really didnt know what to feel as i was not at my best health. My okasan told me we couldnt join the party and games as our home, Kyoto was far from Osaka so we needed to go home immediately.
Luckily, i left with Ammar (my schoolmate) and her mother. By luckily i meant that i was still trying to getting use with the situation AND HELLO I HAD A JAPANESE MOTHER THAT I MET FOR THE FIRST TIME OF COURSE IT WAS HARD FOR SOMEONE SHY LIKE ME. So we took the train and the toughest part was dragging my cutie pink luggage that weighed like hell while still in a nausea condition :") I survived :")
We had some conversation in the train because it took like 5 stations from Osaka to reach Kyoto. Then i knew that we were rushing because we were going to Ammar's house as soon as we arrived and then to a Junior High School. As we arrived in Kyoto and were heading out of the station, i realised something .. that everyone was holding the train ticket and me? nothing :") That moment i knew that when we inserted the train ticket at the first time, the ticket will came out from the machine again and we need to take the ticket but i left mine. Yay !! Thank God my okasan helped me and the person working at the station said it was okay.
We went straight to Ammar's home and took her okasan's car to the Junior High School. Once again, i was relieve that i didnt go to the Japanese School alone but with Ammar instead. The first day was very tough because i had nausea along the journey, i had to drag my luggage everywhere except when i arrived at Kyoto, i had no rest then went straight to school which was actually my biggest fear because i wasnt ready :(
Hanazono Junior High School, it looked small from the front view but when i went in further, it was very mind blowing. We entered the school, met their English teacher and talked about Malaysia and Japan. I told them about Malaysia's school system and told them i just finished Malaysia's toughest school exam and entering University soon. They were really surprised. As what i remember, for Japanese, if they wanted to enter any University they desire, there will be an entrance exam that differs for every university. The teacher said they prefer Malaysian's school system better .. she will regret it if she studied here lol. Then me and Ammar met their Principle and Vice Principle. And the last person we met was Ammar's foster sister and her American friend, Tyler! Tyler was the only American and foreigner in that school and of course he spoke English.
So here comes the gripping part.. We went to the school cafeteria!! And that was when i ate the first Japanese food in Japan, Udon, the least of my favorite T_T So my okasan insert a coin into this one machine and pressed the only thing i can eat, Udon, because basically anything else has chicken (tori niku), meat (niku) and pork (butaniku) in it. Then a coin will come out and we need to hand the coin to the workers in the cafeteria. OKAY NOW DON'T ASK ME WHETHER IT WAS HALLAL OR NOT BECAUSE IT WAS PLAIN UDON BUT IDK OK IDK. Ended up, i couldnt finish the udon, of course. I really didnt want to show any bad impression for my first day with the Japanese but i just couldnt force myself to eat it anymore.
Later on, we headed to the religion class (Buddha). The class was damn huge and we needed to sit in a bersila way on something like a table with a cushion below. I didnt have time to take any picture because basically i couldnt use my phone yet since i didnt want to go against the rule for my first day and it was just too awkward to take any picture and the teacher monk looked... fierce. Basically whatever the students did i just followed. When they opened the Buddha book, i opened it. When i wanted to see what page were they reading, i turned to Tyler. When they read somewhat like an incantation, LOL NO I DIDNT FOLLOW THAT BECAUSE I DIDNT KNOW A THING ABOUT KANJI (Japanese language). The most merciless part is when the teacher monk asked all of us to only looked at the candle he lighted up, observe and smell the scent from the candle, for like 15 minutes :") So the class ended afterwards and both of the teacher monks came to us and speak to me in Japanese and i was like WHAT??????? and he just laughed :(( but when he talked Japanese with Ammar, he replied it well because Ammar said he watched anime a lot so yeah.
The last thing before we headed home was Tyler took all four of us to the Myoshinji Temple which was just 5 minutes walking distance from school. All the temple i visited in Japan was so heavenly exquisite because of the weather of course, then the cleanliness and the bizarre design of the temple. Based on what Ammar said, i talked a lot with Tyler. Uhh k i didnt realize that. But Tyler was very very very very very very nice to me! Just me dumb enough of not asking him for his social web and all :-) I thought he studied in Japan because of the usual reason, parents working there but i was erroneous because he himself ventured out to study there, living with Japanese family for almost a year. Indeed, his act dazzled me. I really miss talking with foreigners that are friendly and wont bother about how one looks and all.
So that was all, i headed home with my okasan after that, arrived at my temporary cute Japanese house and met my onechan and ototo, Sara chan and Hiroki chan. I said to my okasan i needed to pray so i had some me time and that evening i went downstairs, had dinner, talked with my okasan a lot, played with Sara and Hiroki then my another beautiful onechan, Yui chan came home from school. It was the longest and tiring day i had, maybe, so i headed to bed early around 9 p.m. I guess, that is all i need to share for the first day. I will continue the second part later and if i had anything left untold i will share it in my next post.
If any of you had curiosity with this program i joined, just leave a comment below or in my chatbox. I will gladly unveil the curiosity. Good night, Happy New Year, and have a great day tomorrow everyone! Thank you ♥
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