Update 21 Apr : pics attached
**********************************************************************************
It's getting a little better. I thought I was going to die sleeping. It was so cold I shivered and could only pray that God kept me alive throughout the night. All I wanted was my own bed, comforter, and the familiar surroundings of home.
As I lay there curled up in a foetal position in the dark cold night (the temperature outside was about 110 C that time), I wondered if this was the sort of weather that the Japanese had to live with, and how I would be able to live through the rest of my time over here. Imagine if it was this cold in spring, how much colder it would be during winter especially when it's snowing heavily.
Syakir, one of our first Malaysian friends who met us at the International Student Centre did tell us that the aircond in the room could be used as a heater as well. But he didn't tell us how to switch the heater on! I only found out about all these the next morning. Thank God I didn’t end up as a popsicle. God sustained me.
That is only one of the many experiences of God’s assurance that He will take care of me. And this is only the 2nd day.
The other guy came with me to Niigata was still double-minded over whether he should remain in Japan. Alden and I hit it off from the time we first talked on the phone. We were on the phone 2 hours sharing our worries and exchanging notes with each other. As much as I wanted to do this myself, it was still quite assuring that someone else was going through the same thing as I was.
As soon as we reached Narita, we immediately became sponges, absorbing every bit of information and trying to grasp the language as best as we could. JASSO officials met us at the airport and gave us our arrival allowance and our tickets to get to our respective universities. Since our uni was not in Tokyo as most were, we had to board a train from Narita to Tokyo and continue on by shinkansen to Niigata.
I managed to make friends with Paul from Papua New Guinea (who was pleasantly surprised to learn I used to have a penpal from Port Moresby), Farahana from Bangladesh (this young petite lady who was going to pursue her Masters and PhD in dentistry in the same uni, but on the city campus) and Shukri, a fellow Malaysian (who just got married 3 days ago, did his degree in Niigata Uni and was able to tell us horror stories of the many Malaysians who failed the Japanese intensive course).
Hai Feng (I'm just guessing this is the Romanized version of his name from his Chinese characters) met Farahana, Alden and I at the station. On the way to the bus stop, we met some Bangladeshi guys from Niigata Uni. They too were there to meet us, but due to a misunderstanding, they thought they were only meeting 1 person. Since there were 7 of us altogether, Farahana followed her fellow countrymen in their car while Alden and I took the bus with Hai Feng.
We later found out that he was a native Chinese from Harbin. I felt so un-Chinese because not only was my Chinese language half past six, his dialect also was very unfamiliar to us. So even though the 3 of us were Chinese looking, we were like “chicken and duck talk, trying to understand what the other was saying. Well, better than him being a Nihon-jin with our barely-basic Nihon-go!
We went straight to the International Student Centre to register ourselves. There, we were told that our stipend was decreased beginning from April itself. After the long and tiring journey, it was not something we wanted to hear. There goes my weekend trips and shopping for good Japanese cosmetics, heh!
Since our accommodation was arranged prior to our arrival, we had to meet the landlord (or the landlord’s daughter in this case) to get our keys. The room was bigger than expected. We've all heard about how some people have to live in “boxes” in Tokyo, so I was prepared for the worst. Thank God our apartment came equipped with a kitchen and bathroom. The total space is roughly the size of my parents’ master bedroom.
The landlady took us to her house to sign the contract. After hearing that we hadn't eaten since 4am (when we were served breakfast on the plane), they gave us some food to eat. At 3pm, after all the walking and getting used to a foreign environment, food was really Godsend. We've practically used up all our energy in the legs and brains. It was just some Japanese snacks and a cup of instant noodles but what delicious food they were!
Since our room came sparse and unfurnished, we had to go shopping. She was kind enough to drive us around while we get the necessary stuff. Thank God for the arrival allowance. I used that to buy futon, pillow, 2 comforters, cooking pan, instant noodles, bread, butter that comes out from a tube when squeezed, facial tissues, toilet tissues and a bottle of mineral water for the night.
Since she had some errands to run, she dropped us off at our apartment (ours is called Takadaisho). Alden & I walked to the 100-yen shop (Nanjamura) on our own to get more stuff. We decided to share some things because it didn't make sense to spend so much when we were only going to be here for 6 months and IUJ's rooms are furnished.
On the way back, we met Syakir and another Malaysian, Kee, who just arrived from Tokyo after finishing her diploma studies. Thank God Syakir had a car, he brought us to Toku-toku, one of his favourite udon restaurant in the area. Servings were appropriately huge, we needed more food to stave off the cold. Japanese cars are so much cheaper than if they were bought in Malaysian. No wonder some of them can save enough to buy one and send it back home.
Will write more when I can.
No comments:
Post a Comment