"Sakura Program in
Science, Japan"
A
priceless journey was begun in the waiting room of Abd. Saleh Airport, Malang.
On September 6, 2015, there were 5 students of Muhammadiyah Malang University who became five of the passengers in the Garuda Airline. They were ready to
head to Soekarno Hatta International Airport of Jakarta, Indonesia. One of them
was me.
That
sunny Sunday morning was becoming a witness of our first journey to study
overseas. All feelings were already mixed in our heart. Why? Because we became
the representative students to join the Sakura Exchange Program in Science,
Japan. Happiness and responsibility were brought on our shoulders . This
was the greatest gift and trusty we got in the campus-life ever. Finally, out
of hundreds participants, we got the chance! It was not because we were
awesome, wonderful, or even smart, but was because of Allah’s blessings and
parents’ prayers upon us. Alhamdulillaah’alaa kullihaal..
Before
we arrived in Kanazawa, we must transit in several airports namely SoeHat
International Airport in Jakarta, Changi Airport of Singapore, Haneda Airport
in Tokyo, and Komatsu airport in Kanazawa (Narita airport when coming back to Indonesia). During the trip, many new things
were found by us and those things sometimes invited laughters and jokes.
Sometimes we unconciously uttered “are we dreaming of?” hahahahh such a day
dream was coming true. It needed two hours to touch down in Changi Airport of
Singapore from Soehat International Airport of Jakarta then 6 hours from
Singapore to Tokyo and the last but not least, it needed 1 hour to reach
Kanazawa City from Tokyo. It was a little bit long trip, but was never tiring
and boring because we were highly excited!
The
Sakura Science Program was conducted on 6-17 September, 2015 in the Kanazawa
Insitute of Technology and Kanazawa
Technical College. It was the continuance of Learning Express on March 2015
that was joined by 25 students of UMM.
The five elected students (including me) ever joined it during two weeks in the
University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) previously with our buddies from
Singapore Polytechnic, Kanazawa Institute of Technology and Kanazawa Technical
College. That was why we participated on this program.
Finally!
After passing through many processes and transits, we arrived in the Kitayama Ryokan. Ryokan is the Japanese name of a traditional guest house in Japan.
We went there to drop off our luggages because we would stay there for about
10 days. My first impression was WOW!!!
Amazing Kanazawa!! My eyes were pampered by the clean and beautiful
environment. I was and am in love with Kanazawa :D I think everyody feels the same as I feel :D. After dropping off all our
luggages, we went to KIT to enjoy the welcome lunch provided by the campus
host. There were many Japanese special food that were placed on the tables. Oh
my goodness, those caused mouth watering hahahhh. I loved the sushi so much!
After
enjoying the special Japanese food, we did ice-breaking activity with KIT, KTC,
and SP students. We were playing segways in the campus’ yard. I thought that
was my Indonesian friends ' and my virgin experience riding the segways, but
apparently some of Singaporeans and Japanesses also experienced them for the
first time! :D. At the first trial, I felt scared, but I didn't feel scared after
trying them twice heheh. We were also welcomed by the KTC’s and KIT’s
Presidents, were invited to enjoy the campus tour, were brought to Yatsukaho
Research Campus, to Yumekobo Tour (Engineering workshop), and even learned
Japanese language. Many new and unique things were seen, experienced and learnt
by us during the visits.
For
certain ten days in our Ryokan, we
always took breakfast together in the dining room. We ate special Japanese food
daily by using chopstick. Rice, vegetables, fruits, soup, and fish had their
own bowl. We enjoyed healthy food and beverages every single day because no much
sugar, salt, and oil hehehh. Everything was balance, not too little and not too
much. We respected the dining ettiqute and the taste of the others even though,
sometimes we tasted something different heheh. That was the learning process of
respecting others, too. Is not it? ;)
The
main activity in this program was prototyping. In this process, every student
must come out with one new idea to solve the problems that we found in the
previous learning express through design thinking methodology. We presented our
ideas, decided the most appropriate idea, discussed with our buddies related to
the problems and solutions again, then built the needed-prototype. After
finishing all the steps, we presented the prototypes in front of the KIT’s and
KTC’s presidents, lecturers and teachers, and
the students of KIT and KTC. The final presentation ran succesfully! We did
it! Yeayyy!!! :D
This
journey was unforgettable because we had n have a very nice and strong friendship. It
could be called as a small reunion of LeX
Malang because most of the participants were ever gathered in one team when they
and I were in Malang. We visited many tourist attractions over there such as
Kenrokuen Park, Kanazawa’s Temple, Kanazawa Hand Craft Production, 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art,
National Science Museum, the well-known malls, Asakusa’s Temple, Shibuya
Station, Kanazawa’s Station, stayed 2 days in the Royal Park Hotel of Haneda International Airport, and many
others (I forget some of them because too many places we visited heheh).
The
lessons of this program are:
1. Respecting
the other’s cultures.
2. Tasting
the new taste.
3. Respecting
the difference between one to another.
4. Understanding
the barrier that exist among us such as languages and characters.
5. Exchanging
cultures.
6. Taking
the good and throwing the bad things we see.
7. Helping
others.
8. Working
in team.
9. Improving
public speaking skill.
10. Experiencing
new traditional costume.
11. Visiting
new places while respecting and keeping the existed-rules.
The
things that must be learned from Japanese:
1. They
keep the environment clean.
2. They
classify rubbish into different garbage-can (organic and non-organic rubbish
are put in the different garbage-can).
3. They
respect punctuality.
4. They
love and keep their Japanese language, so every visitor must learn Japanese
language, at least (Japanese language will never be extinct if they implement
an education system such that. Because all people start learning a foreign
language at School when they are in the Senior High school).
5. They
are responsible in every little thing they do in the environment (it could be
seen
when we finished playing fireworks in
the KTC’s yard. All the rubbish and even little dirty things that were pasted on the
floor were cleaned cleanly by them) it was awesome. I rarely found it in
Indonesia, but this is a lesson for me to invite us to implement a clean life-style in my beloved
country (in this case, rubbish). A big change can be started by ourselves by
doing a small thing, right ;)
6. They
keep the river clean (river is not a special place for rubbish, but is for water).
7. The
Kanazawa Institute of Technology is always sharpen its students’ ability in
developing technology.
8. They
respect others’ religion for example when we wanted to eat in the campus’
restaurants, they informed us honestly whether the food contained a piece of
pork or not (halal and haram). The second example was they
provided a place to worship Allah (pray). Those things indicate that they
respect difference and other’s belief, right? J
Arigato
gozaimasu for everything! Difference never be a great wall as a separation
among us. We live under the same blue sky and we will always be friend forever! Aitakatta
tomodaki! :*
