December, 2nd 2012.
Today was orientation program of Kizuna in Jalan Limau no.22, Kebayoran Baru,
Jakarta Selatan. I woke up early in this morning and run to go out, because I had
deal to out early to avoid bad situation.
I lodged in Bina Antarbudaya office
last night because I did not have place to stay. Then on 6.00 WIB I went out
because Mr. Anam said “there’s a girl in the outside she was participant also
probably”.
(I leave my friend Oky for first
because he took long time to take a bath.)
Then I met 2 people one of them was
still student. She was Elma from Surabaya Chapter. She came with her mother. So
soon I helped them to carry her luggage. And let them to rest for a moment.
Elma said “there’s a girl from
Jogja chapter, she was looking for this address”.
I said “really? Where’s she?”
She answered “I didn’t know, she
looked for breakfast probably”.
After that a car came along. And I
met them, that’s right they were from Joga. But they lived in Indramayu. I
asked Oky (my partner from Tulungagung) “wihhh… all students were accompanied
by their family how about us Ok?”
Oky said “didn’t you understand?
From 1st test until now we were always alone. But there’s always
someone help us Alhamdulillah.”
Oh she was from pesantren (Islamic
cottage). That’s good she understood well about Islam. Then Oky and I helped
them to enter the office and showed them the place to put their luggage.
Time by time, one by one student
came in. And we talk each other and we were getting closer. We knew each other.
We talked so much, and then we filled presence.
Suddenly someone asked “what we
were waiting for???”
I asked “had the participant been
completed?”
Aha… the participant was not
completed yet.
We were waiting the last person.
Then the orientation was started.
Did you know who prepared this
orientation? Who lifted the chair into the 2nd floor??
Yeah you were right, Oky and I
helped preparing this orientation. Before the orientation is started we had
been tired. We felt so hungry because we didn’t have breakfast yet. I felt I
didn’t have power anymore.
Okey no
problem, though I was so angry I join this orientation. My stomach I felt
there’s weird thing. I heard “kruyuk-kruyuk-kruyuk”.
The
orientation was started. I got lesson from this and I saw 2 teachers for being
our guider in Japan. The main idea, what would we do in Japan. We had 10 days
only. This is too short.
Then my
senior in Bina Antarbudaya asked me and my friends to write down all of targets
that we wanted to get there. I wrote down at my books there were about12
targets I wanted to achieve. All of my friends also, they wrote many kinds of
targets. After that we had to share or told what we had written to our friends.
By doing
this, it was hoped for us. We had to remind each other, whether the targets
were achieved or not.
The next
session was we had to write down something that made us afraid, and something
that made us happy to join this program. Mostly, we wrote about weather, food
and language.
Weather,
the weather of Japan was cold right now. It was called samui. And we
lived in tropical area. Then food, of course as Muslim we had to eat halal food
only. And the last is language, most of us didn’t understand well about
Japanese language. We understood English only; we knew that most of Japanese didn’t
use English as language. The loved their language so much.
After that,
we got the way how to solve the problems one by one. Time run fast and we
enjoyed the orientation. This orientation was held until 18.00 WIB. And it’s
time to pack and prepared all things that we needed.
Before
preparing, we had such kind of ceremony in Bina Antarbudaya before departure.
We had to join because this’s so important. This session was we were given pin.
This pin is our national flag red and white. This’s sign that we were deputy of
Indonesia in this program. After that we sang “Indonesia Raya” together.
I thought
in my mind “Oh my God, how can I achieve this. I believe this was your
destiny.”
I still
didn’t believe that I would go abroad for Kizuna. I felt so blessed. It was
like dream, I was from primitive village in Kalidawir and now I was going to
abroad to Japan. And I said “all praises be to Allah”.
It was time
to pack. We prepared, we counted the weight of our goods. We were limited in 20
kilograms. Of course I passed this, because I didn’t bring suitcase or luggage.
I only brought backpack. It was so simple, I wasn’t alone. There was Jonathan,
he didn’t bring also.
Some of us
brought too much goods. And they had to leave it in Indonesia. Then there was
jacket rental. Bina Antarbudaya lent us jacket if we didn’t bring thick jacket.
Then I asked senior opinion “was it enough for winter?” (I pointed my warm
coat).
Kak Sari
answered “I didn’t think so, because there temperature was under 0 there
probably.”
(Then she
lent me thick jacket)
Okey, I
borrowed that jacket and leaved my warm coat in that office.
(The bus
had arrived) “nguuunnngggg”
“It’s time
to go guys” (someone said that)
When we
wanted to enter the bus, the sky was rainy it’s about 18.00 WIB. Ohhh….
I felt this
journey would be great. Because it was a sign that Indonesian’s sky didn’t be
sincere to be leaved by us. It seems that the sky was crying loudly, but this
was our destiny. We had to go for Kizuna.
My friends
and I entered the bus, so did kak Noviawati. We would go to Soekarno-Hatta
International airport. “That would be my first experience in plane” (I
thought). On the way, I got Indonesian Bento. Kak Noviawati said “this’s
Japanese food you had to adapt with this food. And Japanese used chopsticks.”
“That would
be difficult I thought. Because, we never used chopsticks in Indonesia. We only
used spoon and our hand.
Without
thinking too much, I ate this bento. When I was eating, the taste was so
delicious Japanese called Oishi. The taste is like boom that wanna
explode in my mouth. It was my 1st time trying Japanese food.
After
finishing, I asked kak Novi “it needed long time ya kak?”
Kak Novi
answered “yes, it would need about 1-2 hours. It depended on situation. In
Jakarta, there’s always traffic jump.”
Then I
preferred to sleep for a while. Though actually I couldn’t sleep. Because, I
didn’t get sit down place. My sit down place was given to kak Novi.
After that,
we arrived in Soekarno-Hatta airport. There were so many people there. They
were my friends’ parent. They wanted to see their child go. They wanted to say
goodbye to their own child.
Oky asked
me “Ik, how about us? Where’s our family?”
I answered
“they’re our family. We’re not alone again, though our own parent was at home,
now we could feel we had family here.”
For the
last moment, we took picture each other. There’re so many pictures we took. And
I almost forget, I didn’t change my money into yen yet. So soon, I looked for
money changer. I wanted to change my all money there’re Rp1.000.000,00. But
this’s not enough to get ¥10.000. At the time ¥1=Rp126. I needed Rp260.000,00
more.
Then I
borrowed my friend’s money, it’s about Rp200.000,00 from Arifa. Then I changed
it. The conclusion, Rp1.260.000,00=¥10.000. My God, this’s crazy I thought.
Suddenly
Susanto-sensei said “hurry up guys, we had no time anymore.”
It’s sign
that we had to go. We had to check our goods by passing the x-ray. We were not
allowed to bring bottle of water. All kinds of metal should be put and it would
be checked. When I saw Susanto-sensei, he had to take off his shoes and belt.
Because it contained metal.
Then we
entered the waiting room. After checking all including ticket of plane and
boarding pass. The nominal of boarding pass was Rp150.000,00.
Our ticket
of plane was for PP or (went and back). Our visa was for 15 days there.
Then during
waiting time, I went to rest room and then prayed Maghreb and Isya.
Time run
very fast. Suddenly, there’s sign that we had to enter the plane. Yeah…. I
obeyed that rule and I entered the plane. Before entering the plane, I called
my parent first.
“Bah,
nyuwun tambahe pangestu kulo sak puniko bade bidal” (in Javanese language
exactly kromo inggil). The meaning was I asked my parent to bless my journey in
Japan.
My parent
said “yes, I blessed you to go”. It made my spirit be stronger. I had commitment;
one day if I would be back to Indonesia I would bring many knowledge and
experiences. I would use time by time as well as I could.
Then I
entered plane. I looked for my seat. I found it, and my seat was on the middle.
There were several lines in the plane. A line was divided into 4 groups, I got
edge group beside the window. My seat was on the middle. Beside me, there were
2 students. They’re my friends from Indonesia. On my right side was Mawlidina
or Moody. That's her nickname. On my left side was Icha, she was from Makasar.
Here, I
could see outside. When I was in the sky I imagined that I had dream. When I
was a child I had a dream to fly in the sky (that’s crazy dream I thought).
But, now
the dream came true. I could fly, though
it was by plane, hehe
In the
plane, I said in my heart “Indonesia, my country. Now I was here for you. I
would bring your name in Japan, I’ll never forget you. I loved you Indonesia
and see you 2 weeks later.”
Then my friends
and I leaved Indonesia slowly. I always saw the outside, just only said goodbye
to my beloved country.
The outside I saw blue sky that I always saw in Indonesia. I flied this
was the outside situation when I was in the plane.
This plane
was JAL (Japan Airlines). Exactly JL 726 and I got the seat 54B. That’s amazing
experience and unforgotten experience. I’d like to say thanks God for all of
your graces that has been given to me.
The
departure needed about 6 hours to get in Japan. We would arrive in Narita
Airport Tokyo, Japan. During in the plane I didn’t want to sleep because it was
rare experience on me to be in the plane so I would not miss everything.
Suddenly
Moody woke me up from my imagination. “Ikbar, see the female
attendant on long distance transport. She was so beautiful.”
I said “so, what did
you want to do now?”
Moody answered “I’d
like to bring him home after this.”
I said “crazy you
were!!!”
Then the female
attendant on long distance transport came along and offered food and snack.
This was mixing food between Japanese food and Indonesian food. And the taste
was so delicious.
And I asked “what for
this is?”
She answered “it’s time
to breakfast.”
I said “haaa???”
This was 5:00 am Japan
or about 3:00 am in Indonesia. And I thought in Japan, people had breakfast in
5:00 am probably.
No problem, just eat
and enjoy the food. It’s so fun.
Regards,
Ikbar Sallim Al Asyari
