Memoirs of Japan (1)

It began as a small talk with one of my students when one topic thing leads to another and suddenly she asked if I can speak Japanese –which I can’t despite of my trip to Japan some months ago. As I talked to her, memories come rushing in my mind as I recall the happy ones and the cold ones -- yup, cold as in "Goodness, who turn off the thermostat, it's chilling down here".

The first person that greeted us in Japan was Indonesian doctorate student who currently study in Hokkaido University, the first poster in Japan--in Chitose airport-- that caught my eye got Haruma Miura on it, the first Japanese person I talked with (not counting immigration officers) was an airport policeman that stopped us, asked questions, then kindly advice us to take bus to Sapporo. And the first Japanese food I ate was soba with some tempura--fried shrimps on it.

But the first thing I noticed right before our plane landed is snow,  white layers of snow wrapped the earth surface everywhere and we ahh ohh-ing while looked down from the plane window (I believe is our first time to see snow :p). It was January this year when we visited the northern island of Japan, Hokkaido, right in the middle of winter season. It was my first time in a place that got temperature around zero degree (and for the girl who always wear jacket in air-conditioning room it came as a shock :p)

That day, the sky bright and clear, it was perfect. Alhamdulillah, we were not welcomed by heavy snow even if at night the snow started falling, but fortunately we’re already safely tucked in our bed and survived the worst of it.

Ah, I have not introduce us, have I? Me and my 3 friends, Ambar, Indra, and Wahyu, got a chance to became auditor student in Hokkaido University for 3 weeks. Together we rode the chilling yet crowded “Ekonomi AC” train from Jogja to Jakarta with some of our baggage securely trapped between us so there were little space to place our feet—I’m sure one or two of us got really uncomfortable position to sleep that night, we climbed the seemingly endless stairs in the Jakarta’s station (I quite forgot the name) while dragging our baggage behind (I should thank Wahyu to help me with that), then we crammed in four seat taxi to go to Soekarno-Hatta airport while Indra keep the conversation flowing with the taxi driver (some interesting stories we got :D). And finally, together we waited more than half a day for our plane in the international section. 

After we had seated in the plane, everything went easy, there was no direct flight to Sapporo so we have to transfer in Seoul, South Korea. It took about 6 hour from Jakarta to Seoul (Incheon airport), about 3 hours from Seoul to Sapporo, and 3 hours waiting time between the flight that we used to pray Dzuhur in a prayer room and adjusting to the cold weather. They got a really nice prayer room in Incheon airport with some Al-Quran in the shelf and believe it or not one of them got an Indonesian translation :D. Incheon airport is one big airport with a lot of interesting spots that targeted the bored passengers, there were a spot where you can learn Hangul (Korean’s letter) and sometimes there were performers wore traditional clothes performed traditional dancing or playing some kind of bamboo flute, you can always spot them from their colorful vibrant clothes—and the crowd that surround them. Ah I forgot, there’re also a lot of stores to entertain your eyes—if not your wallet. 

Looking back, it was a wonderful memorable experience, for so many first time I experienced that day, including first time to come to Jakarta, first time to ride a plane, and first time to go abroad.

And that’s a first chapter of our fascinating journey, sorry it have to come to an abrupt end, hopefully I can continue the story about our journey in Sapporo in next writing.