The Day I Finally Go to Japan

Bismillah, assalamualaikum.

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Wah! Tak sangka dah masuk 2021 dah kan? Rasa macam sekejap sangat masa berlalu. So many things happened in 2020, the pandemic, me finally flying to Japan, etc. Wait, what? I'm finally in Japan?! Oh yes, I finally am. I came here back in October 2020 and that's like LAST YEAR, so I think before it's too late, better to write about it today(tonight-it's already nighttime now here in Japan).

So, as most of you know(I'm assuming there IS someone out there who read this shabby blog of mine), I started my preparatory course in Social Sciences at Pusat Bahasa Teikyo(PBT) from May 2018 and finally graduated on 21st January 2020. My friends and I, those who are under the same scholarship to Japan was supposedly to fly on March 2020, but the pandemic struck, so our flight was postponed until further notice. So we waited, waited, waited and waited, finally they told us that insyaAllah all 150+ of us will go to Japan on 22nd of October. Actually, they gave us 3 possible dates of the flight and I was really hoping that it'll be on the 22nd because I was not ready and I was busy taking driving examination for my driving license during the week before. Alhamdulillah when they said that the flight on the 22nd is confirmed and I also passed my driving license, so I have a license now, weehoo!

I started packing the things on 20th but you guys know how I am. Aku paling tak suka packing, so aku packing memang malas2 tapi itu la padahnya memang tidur lambat la. Dengan esoknya tu masih ada 2 online classes, cop pengesahan untuk pcr test tak dapat lagi, packing tak habis lagi, memang kelam kabut jugak la. But alhamdulillah, everything went well. Cumanya paling kesian kat baba la sebab baba yang drive. Bayangkan la nak kena ada kat airport paling lambat pukul 3 pagi sebab flight pukul 7+ pagi, tapi pukul 9 malam 21hb kami masih kat rumah Relau.

Lepas Isyak, around 9+, bertolak ke KK hantar adik-adik kat rumah Chaq. Then, around 10+ almost 11 baru bertolak ke KLIA. Otw nak keluar dari KK tu nampak mcd yang baru bukak kat KK, lepastu baba tanya la nak beli apa2 tak, but me worrying about the time and ingat mcd KLIA bukak kata tak kisah pun, so kereta berlalu begitu sahaja melepasi mcd. Walaupun dah 3 bulan berlalu, aku masih rasa penyesalan tu sebab memang teringin sangat nak makan ayam mcd sebelum fly because the food except the soft cream sold here in mcd Japan can't be eaten by muslims. *sob sob*

Sepanjang perjalanan ke KLIA, walaupun umi suruh tidur sebab takut mengantuk dan penat nanti, tapi aku tak tidur. Pejam mata tapi tak tidur. Tak boleh tidur. Bukan sebab excited, tapi sebab aku nervous and anxious about going to Japan actually. Anxious pasal macam2. 'Boleh ka aku survive kat Nihon(Japan in Japanese) tu nanti', language barrier, my mental health, 'bila pulak la boleh balik Malaysia lepas ni', 'macam mana kalau homesick nanti sebab ni paling lama aku kat rumah selepas masuk SMKA' and more. Sampai KLIA dalam pukul 2 pagi. Then, semua dah kena berkumpul untuk settle the documents. Agak chaotic jugak la dengan 150+ students + parents, memang tak nampak dah social distancing waktu tu.

This is me sitting on the floor while baba is signing the documents on my luggage.

Lepastu, mula beratur untuk check-in luggage dalam pukul 3+ pagi but the line was too long sebab 150+ students semua check-in at the same time, dalam pukul 5+ almost 6 pagi tu pun tak settled lagi. Padahal flight pukul 7+ pagi. Luckily, PBT and my turn untuk check-in luggage tu awal2, so dalam pukul 5 tu memang dah settled semua. Pukul 5:30 macam tu dah kena turun ke pintu pelepasan. Alhamdulillah Allah bagi kesempatan untuk aku salam peluk cium umi baba sebab ada ja kawan2 yang tak sempat buat semua tu.

Aku masih ingat apa yang umi kata kat aku masa aku peluk umi haritu. And I actually almost cried writing this. Ayat umi lebih kurang macam ni; "Terima kasih, angah. Angah anak yang baik. Terima kasih banyak tolong umi, mudahkan kerja umi sepanjang angah kat rumah." Sebenarnya, masa peluk umi dengan baba tu aku memang sedih tapi air mata tak terkeluar pulak. Tapi masa dengar umi kata macam tu mengalir jugak la air mata aku. What umi doesn't know is that aku sebenarnya rasa bersalah sebab sejak aku start online classes, aku dah jarang tolong umi. Oshii(regrettable) sangat. Aku salam peluk umi baba, and they also kissed my forehead. I still remember how warm was that kisses on my forehead. Tak tau bila lagi boleh merasa lepas ni. I'm like 4880km far away from them. Aku sebenarnya risau sangat2 nak berjauhan daripada umi baba, so masa peluk umi baba tu aku pesan dan mintak umi baba jaga kesihatan and to baba yang dah merah mata waktu tu because it was 5+ in the morning at that time, and he still hadn't sleep becaus he's busy driving, I said "baba kalau mengantuk, tolong jangan drive. Rehat la kat mana2 dulu, then baru drive balik." I was really worried and I still am. Nevertheless, I trust them, my sibs and my relatives all in Allah's hands.

F42 without me and Wafa in it because toilet was far more important to us than pictures(tapi lepastu menyesal :/)

Then, around 7+ am, we board the flight and flew to Japan. It took us about 7+ hours. Arrived at Narita Airport dalam pukul 2 nak dekat pukul 3 petang. Sampai Narita, buat saliva test untuk confirmation free from covid. Yang lamanya tu sebab nak tunggu result. Malaysian students saja dah ramai, dengan orang lain yang baru sampai lagi. Aku and a few other students saja tunggu sampai nak dekat pukul 10 malam. Bayangkanla almost 5 hours kat airport, dengan penatnya dengan lapaqnya. Nasib baik la sampai AOTS(my quarantine centre), pihak AOTS dah sediakan packed food. Dan selepas itu bermula lah hari2 2 minggu kuarantin di AOTS. 

I made a thread on my twitter for the meals we ate at the quarantine centre. You can click it here if you haven't see them yet. The hospitality in AOTS is 5 star! The room was nice(nicer than my room here in the kaikan(international house), the food was nice, everything was nice that I missed AOTS so much during my first week in Nara.

These girls are one of the reasons I survived 15 days of quarantine.

My eating partner, Nurin from Fukui Daigaku(MJHEP)

Some sceneries of Adachi-ku that I managed to capture while I was still at the quarantine centre:

 

That tall building in the middle is actually Tokyo Sky Tree.

Finally, after 15 days of quarantine, we're allowed to go to our universities respectively. Orang seronok habis kuarantin, tapi aku sedih. Sedih nak tinggal kawan2 dan takut nak menghadap realiti. Anyhow, aku reda dan ikut flow saja. So, those yang mana universiti dia jauh dari Tokyo kena naik shinkansen dan ada jugak yang naik flight sebab tak ada train ke prefecture depa. Macam aku dan geng Kansai(one of the region in Japan which includes Nara, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Shiga, Wakayama, Mie, etc) semua naik shinkansen tapi bergantung jugak kat station mana yang shinkansen tu berhenti, ada yang tak naik shinkansen yang sama. 

Shinkansen or bullet train untuk first timer macam aku ni ok la. Laju la considering dari Tokyo ke Nara naik kereta makan 6 jam lebih tapi naik shinkansen jadi 2 jam lebih ja. Tapi harga pun boleh tahan jugak la. Personal opinion aku, aku tak berapa suka sangat naik shinkansen sebab tak dapat nak enjoy the sceneries. Tak tau la tapi setakat ni aku paling suka naik bas kalau travel(ni kita cerita dalam entri lain k).

Sampai ja kat Kyoto Station, aku dan Wafa disambut our senpai, kak Sakinah. Then, dari Kyoto, terus gerak ke Nara naik futsuu densha(regular train) sampai la ke Kintetsu Nara Eki which takes only 5-6 mins by walking to the kaikan. 

Me, Wafa and kak Sakinah.

Dan selepas itu, bermula lah hari2 seorang Hanan di Nara. Back to the reality. Online classes, taimen classes(f2f classes), assignments, group work, presentations and more. It's very stressing. I can't deny it. But alhamdulillah, Allah gives me the strength to fight all those feelings, and insyaAllah I will keep on fighting and do my best, so that I can finish my study journey here in Nara Women's University and graduate on time on March 2024. Amiin. 

Alang2 dah 1/1/2021 ni, nak tulis jugak la azam 2021. Nak dapat seiseki yuushuu(kinda like 4flat in Malaysia's IPT) every sem, nak amalkan gaya hidup sihat(walaupun dinner malam ni maggi), nak istiqamah dalam beribadah, nak cakap nihongo dengan lebih yakin, nak lebih rajin untuk tulis entri, dan nak mula cuba untuk buat journal.

So I think that's all for the first entry on 2021. InsyaAllah, I'll come back with more because there are actually so many to write.

Till then :)