My high regard to Japan started since I was five-year-old, when I was fond of Japanese childhood heroes such as Kamen Raider and Ultraman. However, never have I thought of experiencing the very experience of Japanese life until one day when I was listening to a Japanese song, a thought came to my mind. That thought said, “I must go to Japan”. Few months later, that thought came true, and my admiration to Japan grew even higher.
We, four Indonesian students and three lecturers came to Japan through an uneasy way. We had to go through such challenges as flight delay and cancelling. At first, we missed the flight to Hongkong and then Nagoya since the plane that took us to Jakarta was delayed. Then, we had to take another route to Denpasar then Nagoya. Unfortunately, our flight from Denpasar to Nagoya was cancelled so that we were transferred to Osaka. However, we proved that behind every cloud there’s a silver lining. Because of that unexpected change, we could find new experiences such as seeing Kansai International Airport and taking the popular Shinkansen.
The joyful experience that welcomed us in Japan was also added by the hospitality of an officer of Kansai. She kindly helped us deal with the problem with our luggage that in fact went to Narita. She demonstrated impressive hospitality and astonishing wok ethics, which helped us forget our problem for a little while. Then, the trip to Nagoya with Shinkansen also kept the thought about our luggage away from us.
As for myself, the hospitality of the Japanese did not stop there. Just few hours after we arrived at Nagoya University, my host family picked me up. I spent the night mostly playing video games with my brothers Ryosuke and Haruto. The following day, we went to a park where we spent family time together. During the day, rarely did my sister Keina released my hand. She always kept me busy with running and playing hide and seek with Ryosuke, Haruto, and a neighbor’s son named Kesukei. In the evening, we went to a sushi restaurant to had dinner, during which I had an opportunity to taste various kinds of sushi. Overall, living with the Yamamura family was very touching for me mainly because they accepted as a part of their family. Thus, parting with them was very hard for me and I did wish the students could have stayed longer with their host families.
Over the next few days, we had (serious) session which was full of seminars. However, for me, the seminars were very inspiring and thought provoking. Each topic that was brought by the professors allowed me to have a broader horizon about youth, education, and culture in Indonesia, Korea, and Japan. Started by the seminar by Professor Singgih about the international school pilot project which raised many questions from the Indonesian students that mainly centered on the issue of equality in terms of quality of education in Indonesia, the program continued to the second seminar which was delivered by Professor Terada about career formation of Japanese youth. I found the second seminar was also very interesting since the issue that Prof. Terada brought was also faced by Indonesian young generation.
Meanwhile, the seminars by Professor Na and Professor Han also gave me deep understanding about Korean youth and education. Professor Na’s presentation gave a very clear view about the education in Korea while that by Professor Han gave me a deep insight about Korean youth life. To my surprise, Korean youth and Indonesian youth have many commonalities, not only in culture but also in their roles in standing in the frontline of social and political change in their respective country. I also found other commonalties Indonesian youth have with our East Asia friends during Professor Takai’s presentation which discussed the Japanese communication behavior. Over all, I enjoyed all the seminars and found it very useful in expanding my horizon and broadening my knowledge.
In addition to the home stay and seminars, we all also had fun time visiting some places in the city. Accompanied by our ‘guide’, we went to such places as Nagoya Castle, Port of Nagoya, and Sakae, where we could see beautiful sceneries and, of course, took a lot of pictures. We also spent some time shopping to buy souvenirs for our family and friends back home.
As I gained enormous learning and invaluable experience from the program, I hope this program will be held annually so that more students can have the same or even better experience. The continuation of the program in the coming years will also lead to the better cooperation among the participating universities. Lastly, I believe the learning I gained from this seminar will help me pursue my future career, go far in the future, and contribute to the betterment of Indonesian society.
More pictures are availabe at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=247840&id=694442683
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