December, 3rd 2012, FINAL DESTINATION

It was December, 3^rd 2012. And it’s about 6:00 Japan. We arrived in Narita-AP Tokyo, Japan. Time before arriving I felt so blessed. I really flied in the sky, like burok (such kind of light) that brought Muhammad SAW isra’ mi’raj to meet Allah SWT in the 7^th layer of sky.

From the sky, I could see Japan exactly Tokyo. After needing time about 6 hours from Soekarno-Hatta AP. Finally my friends and I put our foot in Japan. Very cold temperature welcomed us. It was about 9^oC. That’s too cold if compared with Indonesia. In Indonesia was 25-30 degree.

That picture described situation in Narita-AP. It’s so crowded there, but it’s not messy. Narita-AP was so tidy and also clean. New scene was in front of my eyes. The beautiful place, tidy place and also clean place, here I’m. I compared with Jakarta, Surabaya and other towns. Probably, Indonesia had to learn many things from Japan.

I believe Indonesia could be better more than developing country. I was so amazed to see Narita-AP and also Tokyo. Tokyo was center of Japan. The government of Japan was in Tokyo. It seemed Japan was impossible to be great country because of natural source. But, actually Japanese showed that they could do it. And Japan became great country of this world.

The next was time of checking passport and visa. We also had to fill blank from Japanese government. It’s like questioner. Among the cold situation that pricked my bone, I had to queue to be checked my ID. I got problem at this time. The official asked my place address in Japan.

“Oh my God… I didn’t print it yet” (I shouted)

Then I canceled my turn. Lucky, after this the official was changed. Then I gave my ID directly. Hahah… I passed it.

I entered the waiting room. Someone welcomed by saying Ohaiyo gozaimasu (Japanese Language) the meaning was “good morning”.

Actually she was the official of JICE (Japan International Cooperation Center). She brought a board, and it’s written “Kizuna Bond Project”. The official was about 30 years old. She was wearing short skirt it’s about a knee. And she was wearing black long shock. Everybody knew that she was really Japanese. Because, her face was so oriental.

She looked like so amazed by arriving us. Then directly, she gave instruction to take our belongings. Then we went there. Based on our passion, we took picture over the airport. We took picture about situation and condition there. Suddenly, the official of airport shouted “Sashin-Sashin, your camera” (he crossed his both hand). It’s sign that we’re not allowed to take picture in the airport.

Then we went to the other place to fill presence. The guider said “you still had time about 20 minutes to have a rest”.

We went around directly seeing situation there. And also we took picture. One of us bought beverage and the cost was fantastic. It’s about ¥120-¥150. Wow… if we converted into rupiah it might be Rp12.000-15.000.

I tried to walk away to find other place. My eyes staged in an internet shop. But it’s not like other internet shop. The cost is ¥100/10 minutes or Rp10.000/10 minutes. I thought “there’s free hot spot here, who wants to use this internet?”

Then Kevin. He was my friend from Jakarta chapter. He was 180 cm, he had oriental face. He bought international adaptor there do you know how much is this? It’s ¥2500 or about Rp250.000,00. Wow… in Indonesia it’s about Rp30.000 only. But this’s so expensive here.

He said “this was just for experience.”

I only smiled.

Then 20 minutes had left. It’s to back, remember Japanese used time as well as they could. They would never be late.

(We decided to come back)

After gathering, we entered the bus that would bring us. It’s about 9:20 Japan. We would go to Chiba. Chiba was near Narita-AP I thought. On the way, I was so surprised with Japan. No traffic jump, no trash everywhere I thought that this’s perfect place.

It’s time to have lunch. We had lunch in a place that I didn’t know the exactly about this place. We met other participant, they were from India. I felt so hungry but the food was still foreign for me. I felt queasy there. I had to adapt with the food.

This’s it!!! I didn’t know about the name. Actually the taste was so delicious but, when I ate something I felt bad. Hah, probably I was too katrok.

There were a little rice, sea food like fish etc. there were also shrimp nugget, and unidentified fruit. Do you know the taste?

The taste wanted to explode in my mouth. Wow….

I wanted to throw out all of these from my stomach. But the situation was changed when I saw many children there. I thought that they were  students of kindergarten. They looked so cute.

I heard they were talking about us. They were so curious about us especially about our eyes. Our guider from Indonesia said “they liked our eyes”.

The children said in Japan but I didn’t know what it means. But if it was translated into English “look at their eyes, they had large eyes. They looked so weird, where are they from??? ”.

That’s about their question about us. They looked so funny with us. Let’s see the picture: this’s it!!!. They were so cute, weren’t it? The unique one from them is they were so crowded. But, it’s different what in your mind is. They staged in their place during eating. They didn’t move on. It’s so different in Indonesia; children in Indonesia couldn’t be quite. Indonesian children would run and run.

One of us said “if I could I’d like to bring one of them back”

Then it’s time to say goodbye with them. In this session they were singing a song. I felt that song was dedicated for us: D

It’s hard to do. We had to leave them we had to continue our journey. Then we went to crisis management center. It was a center place of ward off and education about disaster.

There I got many experiences and new information. That’s about what should I do if there’s fire, earthquake, how earthquake and tsunami happen, etc.

First I got information about how to use tube of put out fire. And I got new word of Japan. The word was kajida in English was fire. How to operate the tube? Check this out:

1.      Pull up the handle

2.      Take the pipe of water and focus on the target

3.      Push it

It was like reality, they use digital tools to make its the fire like fact. There’s place that contained fire and we had to put out the fire.

This’s the simulator:

It looked like reality. It’s like in the kitchen and someone forgot to turn off the stove. As a result buuummmm…

Kajida……!!!

The next, we learnt about what we should do if earthquake happen. There’s simulator there we did feel earthquake by this simulator. We could set the power of earthquake. I got 7.3 SR.

That picture described what should we do. The simulator, we had to sit down on the chair first. And in front of us, there’s a table. Suddenly the earthquake happened. Things that we had to do were:

1.      we had to hide under the table to protect our body

2.      the main that we had to protect was our head

3.      don’t run away when there’s earthquake

4.      when the power of earthquake had been down we had to run away as soon as we could

Then, we tried the next simulator. It’s about fume or smoke of fire. It’s like a game but there’re so many information there. Then what should you do if there’s fume of smoke of fire? Check this out:

1.      You were forbidden to stand up until 120 cm. You had to kneel and walk

2.      don’t be panic

3.      keep your nose and your mouth

We try the simulator and then we went out to continue our journey. Walk around Chiba, and once again I was amazed seeing this:

Wow, look at this picture. The city was so clean. And it’s so cold to be here. Bbbrrr….

We walked through this way and we found our bus. We entered it and we went to Nikko hotel.

We didn’t have to check in there. We got our room key directly. I got 462 room with my friend Erda from Solo.

Don’t ask me to describe the hotel! I have no enough vocabulary to describe it.

Then after putting all of my belongings, I went to dinner room. I’ll have dinner together there.

Because I was so hungry, I took spaghetti and other foods without thinking anymore. Of course the spaghetti was poured by sauce, and I took the sauce. I ate the spaghetti, the taste was so delicious. Suddenly Susanto-sensei said “there’s pork on that sauce don’t you see the pig picture?”

I didn’t believe it yet, I tried to see and “Masyaallah, that’s right there’s pork over there”. Arrrggghgh….

“Oh God please forgive me, I didn’t know about it” (I regretted).

Because as a Muslim we were not allowed to eat pork and drink alcohol.

I took another food immediately, and also fresh milk to wash pork. And I ate that food. Then I took some pictures as documentation.

We had discussion for a while, it’s about tomorrow. Because tomorrow morning after having breakfast, we’ll be separated based on our own affected area.

After finishing, I came back to my room to prepare. I took a bath first, washed my body and I felt fresher.

Don’t forget to shalat! This’s very important. The funny thing, I mixed all 5 times of shalat in a time. Because, I had no chance to pray there. (masyaallah)

Then I prepared all my belongings, because one of my bags would be delivered to Kuji city, Iwate prefecture first. Then I went sleep.



Regards,
Ikbar Sallim Al Asyari