JENESYS Short Program Report

Day 1: 6^th December 2011. It was the day me and my friends from Indonesia arrived in Japan. We arrived at Kansai International airport and we started taking pictures in the airport even though there was a warning “Do Not Use the Camera” (I didn’t realized because it was written in Japanese hahaha). We were greeted by the Japanese volunteers then we head to Nara. We had a wonderful time there. We visited Kasuga Grand Shrine, Todaiji Temple, Kofukuji Temple. Fun facts about Nara, you can see many deer on the street run freely. They’re tame and can bow their head to show its respect. And the other fact is you can see the biggest Buddha statue in the Todaiji Temple many people come to do prayer during the day. In the evening we stayed in Prince Otsu hotel, it was a very luxurious hotel with beautiful scenery. I was put in a same room with two other Indonesian boys. We had dinner and after that we joined the arrival orientation. We met lots of new friends from other country here.     

Day 2: The 2^nd day was a tour in Kyoto. We visited the Kinkakuji temple. It also known as “the Golden Pavilion” because of the color of the temple. I met Japanese students who are having school trip, my guide said that Japanese student usually visited some national heritage during their trip that’s why Japanese people are nationalist. In the afternoon we had lunch. We had Udon (it’s Japanese noodle) then we went shopping while waiting for the bus. My group was Asean Mix 2 (AM2) we had to move to Hiroshima in the evening. We rode Shinkansen train to go there. For your info Shinkansen is the fastest train and the ticket was sooo expensive. It’s about 1 million Rupiah for one trip but it was totally worth it LOL. We arrived at about 9 pm then we had dinner in an Okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is some kind of “martabak” in Indonesia. It tasted awesoomee!!! After that we went to our hotel the Rihga Royal hotel and spent the night there.

Day 3: We woke up then had breakfast with others but today I had an unusual experience. I woke up late! When the volunteers saw me, I said “sorry I’m late” and they said “Daijobu” (that’s OK) but their giving some strange looking at me I’m so embarrassed that moment -__- okay moving on to the trip. We visited the Peace Memorial Park. Remember the Hiroshima tragedy? This memorial park is a memento for that tragedy. We can see the Genbaku domu (A-Bomb Dome), Memorial Monument for Hiroshima which has the eternal flame on it (It says the Japanese people won’t put out the eternal flame unless there’s no nuclear weapon available in the world) and the Children’s Peace Monument. The Children’s Peace Monument is a statue dedicated to the memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. The statue based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1000 paper cranes she would be cured. In the afternoon, I and my ASEAN MIX group joined an event called ASEAN MIX session. It’s an event where the students of ASEAN country gathered and share their ideas about the world. Beside that we also introduced about Indonesia to other ASEAN countries by opening a booth that shows the Indonesian culture. I visited the other countries booth and learn some things about their country too. In the evening after we had dinner we were told to pack our luggage because the next day will be the homestay program. So I prepared my luggage then went to sleep.

Day 4: This is it! Today was the day I finally met my host family. I was placed in Tochigi, a quite place with some natural beauty. I went there by Shinkansen. I got separated from my Indonesian friend but I met new friends from other countries. I was placed on the south of Tochigi with Bea from Philippines, Lay from Myanmar, View from Thailad (her true name is Thitirat Sirikajornkij), Luanna and Olivia from Australia. We arrived at Shoko Mogi san house (the host chapter president) then we met our host family there. At first I was very shy and silent. That feels so awkward so I tried talking with them. Do you know the worst part living in Japan? Only a few Japanese people who can speak English my host mother was quite good but my host dad and my host brothers couldn’t speak English so I was a bit panic back then. When I arrived at my host family house I learned some Japanese culture which is using your socks inside the house. The first thing I do was introducing to them. I learned how to introduce myself in Japanese. “Watashi wa Arifu desu, 17 sai desu, dozo yoroshiku onegai shimasu” then my host mom was very surprised and start talking in Japanese. In the end I said I was still a beginner so I couldn’t understand what she said -__- #fail. They introduced themselves too, my host mom said I should call her “okaa san” (means mother in English). I had two host brothers the eldest named Yusuke, he was 14 years old and the other one Koji, he was 8 if I’m not mistaken. Then they took me around the house and told me where are the bathroom, bedroom, dining room and so on. After that we had dinner. Again this was the very first time I experienced sitting in a heater table, and eating Japanese food using chopstick. My host dad (Otoo san) usually came home before the dinner so we started eating dinner when he arrived. Okaa san told me that she knew I am a moslem so she separated the pork for me. She didn’t know that I still can’t eat the food even the pork had been separated, but I was afraid I would create a bad first impression to them so ate it and in the midnight I threw it away (it’s a secret!) after dinner I had a little chit chat with them. I told them about my family and how is Indonesia looked like. My host family had hosted other students exchange before so the more or less know how to take care of me as a host kid. Before we went to sleep we had to take a bath it’s called “ofuro” in my family there’s some kind of rules such as the order who take the bath first. The first one is their children Koji and Yusuke, the second is me, the third is Otoo san and the last is Okaa san. When I enter the bathroom I had no idea what I should do then Okaa san explained that I should clean myself outside the bath tub the after I’m cleaned I could have a relaxing time in the hot tub. It feels good after a retiring day I could relax in a hot water before I went to sleep. After that I prayed then went to sleep. (for your information it’s very rarely you can find a mosque in Japan so I missed my Solat Jumat while I’m in Japan)

Day 5: Today I had a trip around Tochigi I visited temple and the Kegon falls. It was freezing there so we need to wear our jackets. This is the first time I saw snow with my very own eyes. It was quite similar with ice in the refrigerator hahaha :P. In the afternoon we had lunch in an inn near Kegon falls. We introduced ourselves where we came from and what do we think about Tochigi. I said Tochigi was a nice place to live. It’s similar with my house n Bogor. Not too crowded, cool climate, and have beautiful sceneries. After that we visited the rice cracker factory and made our own rice cracker there. Tochigi was famous with the rice crackers. There are spicy, salty, sweet and other flavor you can choose. You can have some free samples there and you can have free drinks. It was great and I bought some for my family in Indonesia. When I arrived home, I gave souvenirs from Indonesia to my host family. I gave batik shirts for them and they said they loved it. They gave me some souvenirs too, for example chopsticks, calendar and wooden beyblade (traditional Japanese toy).      

Day 6: I got up early to do Shubuh prayer and I thought my family hadn’t woken up yet but it was surprising that they had woken up and served the breakfast. They said they didn’t know at what time I usually wake up so they got up early to prepare the food (Okaa san you were too nice :’) ) after having breakfast because today was Sunday Otoo san asked to join him to go to the Kyudo club (archery). Otoo san’s hobby is archery and since I was curious so I went there with him. I tried the archery costume and took picture while wearing it. It was cool!!!  My schedule today was to attend the welcoming party held by the chapter. I had to wear my traditional clothes and I had to do presentation about Indonesia. I gave free souvenirs to the children and they’re all like “wooo Sugoi!!” (“Cool” in English). After the welcoming party we had shopping time with our host family. I visited the Fukudaya Shopping Mall and bought a purse for my mom. I didn’t buy much because it was too expensive there. Next stop was the anime store. I bought some key chains for my friends here and my host mom bought me a comic book here. The comic was written in Japan and Okaa san said use it for learning Japanese hohoho arigatou gozaimasu Okaa san ^^. In the early evening I went to a Sushi restaurant with Okaa san and my brother. She bought me all kinds of Sushi she said “try every sushi you want don’t be shy” I ate all kind of sushi and my favorite was the tempura because it was crunchy, tasty and the shrimp was huge! In the evening we went to the karaoke. Then we were singing at the karaoke until late. And then we went home, had dinner and then had “ofuro” before going to bed.      

Day 7: This day was Monday which means my first day in Utsunomiya Minami High School (UNAN) yeah! \(^_^)/ I woke up then had breakfast after that I got ready to school (remember Japanese people only take a bath in the evening) my brothers went to school before me. Yusuke rode his bicycle and Koji walk on foot with his friends. Then at 8 am Otoo san went to work. He didn’t use his car very often so he took the public transportation. At 8.10 I went to school and arrived at 8.30. The school starts at 8.30 am. There’ll be Short Home Room (SHR) everyday from 8.30-8.45. I was shocked that every Monday they have a quick test. Could you imagine the first day I went to school I had to do a test?? I looked at my Japanese friends answer so my answer sheet wasn’t blank haha (cheated!). I made some new friends but I can’t communicate well with them so when I see them I just smile and said “Hi!” In UNAN they had moving class system for some lesson. The next lesson was music, we had to move to the music classroom. They were learning to play violin when I was there. The teacher played the piano and the students played the violins. After that I had English class. For your information in UNAN we had 10 minutes break before the next lesson start. During the break I took some pictures with the girls and the boys. During the English lesson I could understand fully what the teacher was teaching and sometimes the teacher asked to help him during the lesson. The next lesson was social studies. The teacher gave me a work sheet about Borneo Island (Kalimantan) and started explaining about it. But honestly I didn’t have any idea what the teacher was saying (no offense). After that, we had lunch break at 12.45-13.30 many students brought their own lunch and they ate together in the classroom. The last lesson was P.E (Physical Education) I played soccer with other students in an outdoor field. Since it was winter, it was so cold but it seemed the Japanese students had got used to the climate. After that, school finished and before the students leaves the school clean the school for about 10 minutes. Each student has different job, some students empty the garbage can, and others refill the heater, cleaned the window, swept the floor and mopped the floor. After cleaning the school the students gathered in the class for short briefing by the homeroom teacher (SHR) then we got home.

Day 8: The second day in my school. I came to school at 8.20 then attended class like the day before. During SHR I got my yesterday test score. And guess what I got 13 -__- okay forget about the score. The first lesson was math. They were learning about probability. I had studied this chapter in Indonesia but since the questions were in Japanese I couldn’t do it so well. Next lesson was English. The teacher asked me to do presentation about Indonesia so talked everything about Indonesia, but in the end nobody understood what I said -__- After that we had Japanese classic lesson. It was much harder than the modernize Japanese. Even the Japanese students have problem with this lesson. For Japanese students, Japanese Classic is a boring lesson so most of them fell asleep during lesson. Next lesson was the English Conversation class. The teacher was a native speaker from America, his name was Max. The teacher asked to do presentation again so I put on my traditional clothes and started explaining about Indonesia. I met one student who was really interested with Indonesia so I took picture him wearing the “blangkon”. After that I had lunch break. During the lunch break, I played my rubix cube just for fun. Every student was looking at me and seemed surprised I could do the rubix in 30 seconds. I concluded Japanese students have a big curiosity. After the lunch break I had Martial Arts class. I played Kendo in the school gym. One of the students lent me his Kendo costume. It was a little bit complicated but it was cool. I tried using the wooden bamboo sword and it feels weird at first. I couldn’t move freely in that costume. The last lesson was English again and after that we cleaned the school and we could go home. Today the English club invited and my JENESYS friends to a Nabe party. After school we gathered in the cooking class and had Nabe party. It was like a welcoming party by cooking food together. We had fun until 7 pm and then we went home.  

Day 9: This is my last day in UNAN L I started the day with Japanese lesson. The teacher gave me an easy exercise how to write Japanese character. The next lesson was Home economics, it was a cooking lesson. So technically the students were divided into groups then they had to make food which was instructed by the teacher. Since I couldn’t cook my friends did all the cooking while me washed the dishes LOL (fair enough :P). We made “Guratan” a cheesy pasta Japanese style. It was delish! I had the recipe so maybe I’ll try making one someday. After the class we ate what we cooked so it was like a break for me. After that we had Japanese classic lesson. I completely lost in this lesson so I took pictures freely while the teacher was giving the lesson. After that we had P.E lesson again. I didn’t join because I had a stomachache. Maybe I ate too much during cooking lesson -__- Next was the lunch break I just stayed in the class and watching my friends. Some of them playing with their phones but their hiding because no phone allowed in school (school rule), and there was a girl who was brushing her teeth in the class. Maybe it was not a strange thing for them but I found it quite strange. The last lesson was math and since the teacher was my homeroom, we spent the time taking pictures because I would no longer in UNAN by tomorrow. After taking pictures and giving farewell speech we cleaned the school and went home. Since this was the last day in UNAN the teacher let me and my JENESYS friends see the clubs activity while waiting the principal who was still in meeting. I visited the Kendo club, Judo, Kyudo, volley, basketball, calligraphy, and music clubs. I made calligraphy of my name there. Before leaving the school I met the principal and gave “angklung” to UNAN and he gave me lots of souvenirs in return. After saying goodbye we went back to our home and had dinner. After dinner I talked a lot about my experience at school to Okaa san and Otoo san. Then they gave me a farewell gift and thanked me for everything. I also thanked them and I cried :’). We spent more time together because this was my last day in my host family house. Otoo san asked me to join him observing the moon. There was an eclipse that night so I spent time together until midnight then went to sleep.

Day 10: All my bags were packed, I was ready to go. My host brothers hug me before they left for school. We promised to keep in contact and I will learn Japanese so we can talk the next time we meet. Then Otoo san and Okaa san bid farewell too. Because Otoo san had to go to work, only okaa san accompanied me in the last day. Before leaving Tochigi I had some shopping time with Okaa san. I went to a “Daisho” to buy souvenirs. Daisho is a market which sell lots of things in low price (about 100 yen). At 10 am we gathered at Chapter president’s house and got on the bus which took us to Tokyo. Before leaving Tochigi I thanked my host family and took pictures with Okaa san. I showed her our culture “cium tangan” to show our respect to elderly in Indonesia. We were moving on to Tokyo, we shared our experience with everybody in the bus and obviously everyone has different story. In the evening we arrived at Tokyo then we stayed in Keikyu Ex Inn. I came back with my old group AM 2 and I shared about my experience with everybody during dinner. We were told to make a postcard for our host family, so I made it with the help of Japanese volunteers. After that we were given information about tomorrow schedule then we went back to our room and slept.

Day 11: Today we went around Tokyo all day long, we visited Asakusa but unfortunately I couldn’t go in there because there was no time. Asakusa is famous with its Kaminarimon (Thunder gate). It is the outer of two large entrances that lead to the temple Sensooji. There is a huge 220 pound red lantern which hangs from Kaminarimon. We went to Edo-Tokyo museum, a history museum established in 1993. It showed the previous life in Tokyo before becoming the busist city in Japan. We could see many replica and scale models of the town and buildings of the Edo, Meiji, and Showa periods. Next stop was Odaiba. It is one the famous mall in Japan. There are also a lot of tourist spots such as a Ferris wheel, and exhibition halls. I bought lots of souvenir there because this would be the last time I could go shopping. The last place I visited was the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. This is the best museum I’d say because there’s a lot of interesting things here. We could see the ASIMO robot here. And we could try the living in Japan in 2050 game. It was very interesting because we could imagine how Japan will be look like in 2050. This museum consists of 5 floors with different section. I wished I could travel all floors but the time wasn’t enough. We could buy some unique souvenir here for example a clock which use water as its energy. After we observed it, it uses the electrolysis concept. So cool! ^^ After a long tiring trip, we went back to hotel and spent the night there.

Day 12: Today we moved to another hotel. We would hold the JENESYS festival (JENFEST) today. So we wore our traditional clothes. In the afternoon at Ana Crowne Plaza Narita hotel we started the JENFEST. It was started with greetings from the AFS International Director, AFS Japan Director and the Project Officer of JENESYS short program. After that there was a slideshow showing the earthquake tragedy that happened in Japan and how every country had helped Japan. And the main event was, we recorded the Closer to You song with Alexandra an actress from Laos. Before we recorded the song we had a country mix session where we exchanged our identity card with others. I met Inardi Rizki during this session and we took a picture together. When the recording was ready, we started recording and it went well. Everybody sang the song happily J After recording the song, we had dinner. For the last attraction, the Japanese volunteers performed the Soran Bushi dance. It was fantastic!!! :D then the JENFEST was over and we had the Pre-return Orientation. We said goodbye to our friends from other country because tomorrow we wouldn’t see them anymore. And we took pictures with our guide there. After taking pictures we went back to our room packed our things and went to sleep.

Day 13-14: 18^th December 2011, my last day in Japan. I woke up and had breakfast with my friends from Indonesia. We brought our luggage and had it weighed. It mustn’t exceed 15 kg so we had to leave our things in Japan if our luggage weighs more than 15 kg. I was having a hard time trying to make my luggage as light as possible. At 7 am we went to Narita airport and we took off at around 10 am.  I met my Indonesian friends again and we shared our experience during the flight. We landed at 7 pm at Soekarno Hatta airport and we were picked up by Indonesian volunteers there. We went to Wisma Handayani and had our Re-Orientation the following day. We got our certificate and returned to our home in the afternoon. I really enjoyed my time in Japan, I wish I could go back and this time with my family. I hope you enjoyed my story in Japan. Sayonara!!! :)