MY JENESYS EXPERIENCE TO JAPAN!

2ND OF DECEMBER 2010

My alarm clock woke me up at 6.30 a.m. and i realised that i am meeting all my JENESYS friends today. I put on my clothes and my dad drove me to the Hotel Maluri Kuala Lumpur for the pre-departure orientation which was a program for the participant that was choosen to be in the JENESYS program. Basically what are they going to do here is prepared the students with usefull advices and much more. As i arrived there, my friends were waiting for me. We were told that we have to perform our dance there in front of our parents and other participants. Our dance crew consists of 5 boys and 5 girls from the Selangor , Kuala Lumpur and Damansara chapter. At 10.15 a.m. we entered the hall and started to dance. Received a few comments and we promised them that we are gonna practice more on it. After that we joined the orientation. The camp was so useful and informative. They gave us some booklets and stuffs which were so useful to me. At 7.00 p.m. i checked into my room and went down for dinner. After dinner We , the dance crew practiced our routine till perfection.


3RD OF DECEMBER 2010

The next day at 2.00 p.m. , all of us checked out from the hotel. Some of the students are going to the KLIA by bus , as for me my parents is sending me to the KLIA. After lunch i went home, packed my stuffs and did some last minute shopping. At 6.pm. i got out from the house and started my journey to KLIA . As soon as  arrived at KLIA ,i gathered with my group member. At 8.30 p.m. its time for us to said goodbye to our family. I boarded the MH052 at 2345 and will be arriving in Osaka, Japan  at 0715. It was a long journey to Japan but it is going to be fantastic.


4TH OF DECEMBER 2010

 As soon as we arrived, we went through the customs and some checking. After that, a japanese volunteer welcomed us and asked us to get into the bus and started the journey to Otsu. The driver than stopped at the Otsu Lake. I was told that this lake is the biggest lake in Japan. After we were done with the tour , the driver than drove us to the Prince Otsu Hotel to drop our lugage because we were going to a different hotel for an orientation.Exactly at 11.30a.m. we arrived at our destination. We went in and did some registration and at the same time , we received our parka , sweater , sweatshirt and some pocket money which was 5000 yen. Then the volunteer directed us to our own sitting place and we were given our first obento as our lunch. The orientation will not start until the Philipines and Indians arrived which was in the evening. In the meantime , i met some new friends from Indonesia , Brunei , New Zealand , Australia and Thailand. Then we were divided into a few groups and i belonged to group number 8. They took us to a tour around Otsu on foot which was so fun. It was cold but nice.At 1600 the philipines and indians arrived. Everybody was so excited because all of us were so tired waiting for them. In the orientation, they introduced us to the doctor in charge and showed us a video on how to survive this program. I find it very useful but of course i had learned it in the orientation a day before our departure. The orientation ended at 7.00p.m.. We received our room keys and checked in. After checking in we went down for dinner and ate japanese style food. At the same time , i introduced myself to my teammates and get to know them. At 10.00p.m. i went to my room and slept.


5TH OF DECEMBER 2010

My roommate woke me up at 6.30 a.m. and went down for breakfast at 7.20 a.m.. At breakfast, i sat with my teammates and talk to them. Actually i was not feeling so well. My teacher then brought me to the doctor and he gave me some medicine. at 9.00 a.m. we hop onto the bus and started the journey for Kiyomizu-Dera Temple. Honestly it was the most beautiful temple i had ever seen. I took thousands of pictures. Then we were given sometimes to do our personal shopping. I bought a few stuuffs and was so glad with the prices that they offered me. At 11.00 a.m. we were brought to a very nice restaurant in Arashiyama. I ate some Udon and it was the best udon i've evr tasted. The way they served it was so unique. The noddle was on a piece of paper and there was a candle underneath to ensure the noodles warm all the time and at the same time the paper was not burned. It amazed me a lot. After lunch, they gave us some time to shop. While walking, I saw a couple af geisha and i ran to actually take a picture with them and took a couples of it and was so satisfied. After we were done , they took us to the shinkansen station. Took a shinkansen to Hiroshima City. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted with a few of volunteers and went to a small restaurant and ate Okonomiyaki. The chef cooked the Okonomiyaki on a table in front of us and it smells so nice. But personally i did not enjoyed it as i thought i would. As soon as we were done eating , we were brought to the Royal Rhiga Hotel and will be staying there for 2 nights. I got the same roomates and both of them were from Malaysia too.


6TH OF DECEMBER 2010

  At 6.50a.m. i went downstairs and had some breakfast. While having my breakfast, I met some of my malaysian friends and was so happy because i miss them a lot. I did not see them for two days and it was great to finally meet them. At 8.00 a.m. we got into the bus according to our group and the driver then drove us to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima . My tour guide Mariko, told me a few stories that i've never knew. She then showed me a building that survived the explosion and the river that killed thousands of people. She then brought me to a place that was dedicated to a girl named Sadako who survived the explosion but died a few years later because of leaukimia. She folded paper cranes because she believed that it would cure her disease.  By the time she died , She has folded a 1000 plus paper cranes. So today , each year people will donate paper cranes for the ill kids in the hospital and gives them hope. I actually folded one and donated it and i was so proud of myself for doing such thing.As soon as we were done, she then brought us to the Disaster Reduction Centre. Learned a lot of things and i actually got the chance to ride the fire truck and shouted "Fire! Fire!" Then i tried the earth quake simulator. Then she took us to the museum about the explosion. They showed us a few stuffs like school kid's uniform, their lunchbox , hair , skins , watches that stopped at 0815 and many more. Personally i find it very sad. It was so sad to see the kids stuffs and some of them were never found according to their family. At 7.30p.m. we were called for dinner. Had a western style dinner. I was told to went to bed early because the next day we are going to our host family's place. Mine was in Yamaguchi and i am departing at 0930. I was so scared because i did not get any information on my host family and i was thinking how am i going to mix with them and i knew its going to be a challenge.


7TH OF DECEMBER 2010

On the 7th of December, at 7.15a.m. as usual I went downstairs for breakfast and after breakfast I was directed to my bus which was labelled as 'Yamaguchi'. Met some new faces from the other program which was the Asean Mix and ENN. Exactly at 12.00 p.m. , my tour guide then took me to the shopping centre to kill time. There i bought a cup of Frappucino from Starbuck. Miss it a lot. Went shopping with my friend, Kim from Australia , Sai from India and Zion from New Zealand. We saw an indian shop and my friend from India was so excited. We also got the chance to go to the 100 yen shop and i bought a lot of stuffs there. At 2.00p.m. we started the journey to Yamaguchi. During the bus ride , i taught the Indians , Australians , Singaporean , Thais , and Philipinos how to play the game which i played in Malaysia such as 'CiKuPang', 'Batu Seremban' and 'LatTaliTamPlom' . As soon as we entered the prefecture, i was so shock. Paddy fields was everywhere. Im worried that the toilet would be the traditional style. So the first thing that came to my mind was 'im not gonna survive '. Our host family is going to pick us up at a school which was called Kumage Minami High. Since i did not get any information on my host family, i was so nervous.When we arrived at the school , a teacher greeted us and brought us to a room which there was a heater in it because it was so cold that night. They brought us on tour arround the school and gave us our schedule.Then my teacher called me and said that my host mum was there  to pick me up. I was so happy and the smile on my face portrayed my feelings towards them. They were so friendly and nice. I have one host brother and his name was Daisuke Kubota. My host mum was Akiko Kubota and my host dad was Rikiya Kubota. I had my first dinner with them and honestly what i had there was the best meal i had so far in Japan. They showed me the rooms in the house and my host brother than taught me how to play a japanese board game. At 9.00 p.m. I went to bed. I slept of a futon and it was so comfortable. I did not use my heater because I really like the coldness there.


8TH OF DECEMBER 2010

 I was told by my host mum that they usually had their breakfast at 6.30. so i set my alarm clock at 0630 and woke up. I folded my futon and brushed my teeth and it took me roughly about 10 minutes. Then i marched downstairs to the dining area and there my host family was sitting and waiting for me and I was so shocked! I got use to the Malaysian timing and i kept saying "Im sorry! Im sorry!". Well in japan, their breakfast is a full course meal. Mine had a starter , the entree and desert. I am not use of eating rice in the morning but i ate them and soon i got used to it. On the first day , my desert was Banana Split. Yes i had ice-cream in the morning. But it was nice. After that my host mum said that i should be prepared by 8.30a.m. because she is going to send me to school. My host brother have to walk to school. He looked so cute in his yellow cap and yellow umbrella. As soon as i stepped out of the house at 7.45 a.m., I was so shocked that actually all elementary school kids walked to school and they have a group and in each group they have a leader. My host brother is a leader and he have to wear a ribbon across his body that read "LEADER". After im done with everything, my host mum then drove me to school. Im so excited since it was my first day of school and according to my schedule, on that day i am going to visit the Tabuse Nishi Elementary. I really tought that it was my host brother's school. I got to know that he went to a different school. After arriving at school, my host mum said that before leaving the car i have to say "ittekimasu" so i said it and i thanked her.I was then greeted by the teacher in charge and he led me to my homeroom. The other students in my homeroom was so shy. I has to give them a speech and introduced myself in Japanese. They were impressed and happy because they really like it when a foreigner or 'gaijin' try to speak in their language.At 10.30a.m. we were told to get into the bus and the teacher in-charged then drove us to the elementary school. The kids there were so cute. They brought us on a tour and played a few games with us. After we were done we went back to school for lunch. Then i realised that i did not get any obento or a lunchbox from my host mum, i asked the principal wether they have any cafeteria. Then he said no so what they did was they went out and bought me an Obento. After lunch, we were asked to choose a club. I chose kendo and tried it. It was nice. Then i joined the Red Crescent. Their red crescent is different from the Malaysia's. There they did bookmarks, calendars and lots of stuffs for the blind kids. They learned 'Braille' and actually made a calendar using Braille. At 6.00 p.m. my host mum arrived and picked me up. Went home and had my dinner and i bathed for a while. I sill have some time before my sleeping time so what i did was i spent my time with my host-brother playing lots of games. Exactly at 9.00 p.m. i went to bed because the next day i have to wake up early in the morning for breakfast.


9TH OF DECEMBER 2010

On the 6th day im in japan , i woke up at 6.20a.m. and went down exactly at 6.30 a.m.. So proud of myself for being so punctual. My host mum then drove me to my school and i went to my homeroom by myself. Everywhere i go in that school , everybody greeted me. Even my teacher from Australia said that i am very popular in that school. After hearing that, i was so flattered. Well my Singaporean friends said that im very friendly and that is why im popular. At 10.00 a.m. i was told to go to the calligraphy room. They said that i have to do some calligraphy.The teacher that taught calligraphy said that mine was good. They were so impressed. In that room there was a reporter. He then interviewed me in japanese and my english teacher translated it to me. He then took a picture of me and my Indian friends doing calligraphy and said that it will be published in a local newspaper the next day. I was so excited. He also told me to watch the local news at 1830 that night. After calligraphy , it was art class. In this class i have too carve a rabbit since next year is going to be a rabbit year. The teacher was so good. He can do it in less than 5 minutes. It was kinda hard but i did it. The secret was to put water on it and it will be much more easier. On the back of the rabbit , i carved 'daisuke' in hiragana because i wanted to give it to him so he will remember me forever. When it was lunchtime , as usual i did not have any Obento , my friend from Australia ,Laura's host mum then made me an obento. It was so nice of her. Laura then compared her's and mine and of course mine was more awesome because i had tempura and she had vegetables.At the evening again we have to choose our club and i joined the fencing club. It was so fun because some of my classmates were there too so i had a lot of friends. They taught me how to play it and the objective was to touch your opponent's body with the sword. It was kinda hard but i enjoyed it so much. At 6.00p.m. my host mum picked me up and i showed her my rabbit. she was so happy and she cant stop saying "kirei" which means beautiful in japanese. Then i told her about the news. She got so excited. She drove the car so fast because she was so scared of missing it. But then we missed it. Because we dont know which channel it was. My host mum then called the teacher and my teacher recorded it and she is going to give it to her. We then had our dinner together. After that my host brother took out a video game that can be played by 4 players. All of us played it from hockey competition to an IQ test. It was so fun that we lost the track of time. So i went into my room and that night was so cold. My host dad said it was -1'c . So he switched on the heater and gave me a heater pad. It was so comfortable.


10TH OF DECEMBER 2010

The next day, I woke up at the same time and had my breakfast. It was raining that morning and was so cold. I checked the temperature and it was 3'c. So i put on my parka and wore triple layer of clothes to school. Its my last day of school. So i was kinda sad because i had so much fun. As soon as i arrived i ran to my homeroom and all my classmates were standing up and shouted 'ohayo gozaimasu aiman'. I was so shocked then my teacher gave a speech and we took a group photo. On that day my first class was Physical Education. It was one of the best class. My PE teacher was the coolest teacher i have ever met in my whole life. I played basketball , volleyball and tabletennis. Im quite surprise that i was kinda good in volleyball. After P.E we visited the Yanai Nishi Junior High. The students there prepared us a show. They sang a few songs and it was so good. They can sing very well. Their music teacher composed a song and she asked the student to sing it while she played the piano. After that they taught us how to play a traditional music instrument by the song named 'sakura' . Honestly it was kinda easy because they dont have any music notes for that particular instrument. They used numbers. After the show, we then were directed to another hall and this time we have to teach the japanese students how to speak in english. Each one of us were given a group and we played some games in english. At 3.30p.m.  we went back to school and i have to clean my homeroom. After cleaning i joined the tennis club and played tennis. I was kinda good in this sport too. After tennis i joined baseball and fencing. At 6.00p.m. my host mum picked me up and she asked what i did today so i told her everything and she said that tomorrow im going to school for club activities and i got so excited because i miss that school.  When i went home , my host brother then invited me to play a game with him. After playing it, my host father called us for dinner. We had yakitori that night. It is similar to satay and its very simple yet delicious. During the dinner my father asked me alot of stuffs about Malaysia , from the politics until the education and i told him everything. Then my host mum showed me a book and its about Malaysia. She borrowed it from the library. Then my host brother saw a picture of the Petronas Twin Tower and he got so excited. Since the book was in japanese , so he read it and kept on telling my host dad about it. At 9.00 p.m. i went in to my room and slept.


11TH OF DECEMBER 2010

 I woke up at 8.00 a.m. since it was Saturday. I went downstairs and my host mum was there. My host brother and host dad went out for basketball club until 6.00 a.m. . At 9.45 a.m. my host mum drove me to school and i joined the tennis club. At 10.30 a.m. , a guy came to me and his name was Mr. Naito. He is a friend of Miyamoto sensei. He then brought me and my friend Zion from New Zealand for sightseeing around Yamaguchi Prefecture. I went to Kintai bridge and that bridge was one of the oldest bridge. There he then bought me a green tea ice cream which was so famous in japan and it was 'oishii'. After the bridge , He drove us to a restaurant on a mountain. It was very unique and beautiful. I ate in a kotatsu under a mapple tree.Kotatsu is a table with a heater in it and it was so comfortable inside. After lunch we went to a graveyard. It was the emperor's graveyard and it was so big. There was a mini museum there and Mr Naito told me evrything about the Emperror. At 3.00p.m. he brought me to a place where they generated electricity using natural gas. It was so big. He showed us a very big ship that carried the gas and came to japan evry 6 months. there was a science game there too and it was so fun. Then at 5.00p.m. my host mum picked me up and she said tomorrow im staying with her and at noon the whole family will visit the Yamaguchi City. At night we had Takoyaki for dinner. They read the newspaper and in there i said that takoyaki is my favourite food. They bought the machine and cooked it with me. It was delicious and the octopus was so fresh. I was so happy and i have never ate that much tako in my whole life since in Malaysia Takoyaki was so expensive. That night i put myself in the bathtub and rest in there. As usual i have to go to sleep at 2100 and that night was not that cold so i decided to not to use the heater.


12TH OF DECEMBER 2010

The next day, I woke up at 8.00  a.m. and had my breakfast with my host mum. My host brother was having his basketball practice and my host dad is coaching the team. They will be back at 12.00 p.m.. My host mum brought me to the supermarket and i bought some chocolates for me and my host brother. After that we went to a bookstore and was so shocked when i actually saw a section that was not suitable for children. My host mum then saw me and she took me to the other place. After some shopping at the bookstore, she brought me to a place called The White Walls. Basically its an area where all the buildings are white in colour. It was unique. There was a soy sauce factory there too. I watched how they made it and they have like a really big barrell where they store the soy sauce in it. It was a traditional way so the quality is high. My host mum bought a few bottles than off we go back to our home. As soon as we arrived home, my host dad and host brother was there too. They just got back and in few minutes we are going to the Yamaguchi City. He then drove his Toyota Alphard along the highway and the journey took us about 2 hours. At the highway we stopped by a shop to eat our lunch. The moment i stepped into the restaurant , all eyes were on me and people started to whisper. I find it very funny and my host dad asked me to ignore it. After lunch we continue our journey.After arriving in the city, he took me to a very beautiful temple. It was one of the UNESCO heritage. They have this 5 storeys pagoda and it was red in colour. After the temple he brought me to the Foot Onsen. The onsen is believe to be found by a fox. The water is warm and it is opened to the public. After all the activity in the city we then went back to Yanai and ate at a very nice sushi restaurant. The sushi is so different from the Malaysia's. Their's was so warm and i enjoyed it very much.  Since that was my last dinner with them they bought me a lot of sushi.We went home and i took my bath a played the game with my whole family for the last time. We then watched 'Men In Black 2' together. I gave my host mum 'serunding' and she love it so much. Then i gave my host brother durian candies and eventhough  he does not like it, he tried his best too not to hurt my feelings. They then gave me a few stuffs like a calendar , notebook , keychains and chocolates. That night all of us slept at 10.00p.m. In my room i wrote them a thank you letter and put it on the table. Then  after i was done with packing my stuffs, i slept at 11.00p.m.


13TH OF DECEMBER 2010

I have to go to Tokyo so im leaving Yanai , Yamaguchi. I had my very last breakfast with my whole family. When it was time for my host father to leave for work , he then said goodbye to me and i thanked him. He said he was so happy to host me a Malaysian and he will definitely visit Malaysia next year. Then it was my host bother's turn to leave for his school. He tried his best to speak in english and he said  that he likes me. It was a very sad moment. My host mum then took my bag and put it in the car. I said goodbye to the neighbours and went to school. As i arrived  there it was my turn to say goodbye to my host mum. I thanked her a lot because she had been a great host mum and i enjoyed every second staying with them. She cried and she hugged me after that she got into the car and left the school compound. At the school, we have to go to the staffroom. There, all of us said thank you and we gave them presents. I gave the principal a very big flag of Malaysia. After staffroom i ran to my homeroom and said goodbye for the lastime. Left them a piece of note on the board and wrote my email there. They gave me a big card and each one of them signed it. They also gave me a picture that we took on Friday in the class. Some of them cried and they started giving me their emails. It was a sad morning. We got into the bus and some of the students went outside to say goodbye. We took a few photos and we left the school compounds. We headed for Hiroshima to take the bullet train to Tokyo. After the two hours journey on bus , we arrived at the bullet train station and took a train to Tokyo. It took us 4 hours then we arrived in Tokyo. We headed for the bus and he drove us to the Le Daiba Tokyo Hotel.It was a long and tiring journey. As soon as i checked in to the hotel , i straight away went to sleep.


14TH OF DECEMBER 2010

 I woke up at 0600 and went down for breakfasts in my 'Baju Melayu' The participants from Australia and New Zealand started taking pictures with me. We were going to perform our dance on stage that day. We went to the hall at 9.00 in the morning  and did some practiced on our own.We had to skipped a tour because we have to prepare for this. The festival started at 1.00 p.m. and the Malaysian team was the 6th team to perform .Then we were told that a person from the Malaysia embaassy came to watch us dance which make us more nervous. As soon as we were on stage, I was so nervous. The song started and i danced to it with my fellow friends. Honestly i think we did quite good and received a lot of cheers and claps from the other countries We then were interviewed and my teacher explained to them about our costumes and all. We were so happy that it was done. It was our turn to watched the other countries performing. After the festival its the closing orientation. They asked us about our experience and what do we felt about it. We all then sang the JENESYS song together for the last time. After we were done, we went to a different hotel the Le Marroad Narita Hotel. We passed by the Tokyo Disneyland and the Tokyo Tower. It was so beautiful at night. After arriving at the hotel, i checked in and packed my stuffs because the next day , Malaysia is the first country to leave. I went into the Australians rooms and said goodbye to them. They gave me a few stuffs and we took a few pictures together. The curfew was at 9.00p.m.


15TH OF DECEMBER 2010

It was our last day in Japan. I woke up and felt so sad. Took my shower and went down for breakfast with my lugage. All of us started saying goodbye to each other and at 8.00a.m. we left for the airport. Our flight was at 1030 and after we were done with all the checkings and customs , we did some last minute shopping. We boarded the flight and took off at 1045. I was so sad with the fact that im leaving Japan but was so happy that i can go back to Malaysia and meet my family.  Arrived at Malaysia at 1730 and it was so hot. After almost two weeks of not sweating, i sweat a lot in KLIA. We got into the bus and headed for the Maluri Hotel. On our way there our bus broke down in the middle of no where. We waited 1 hour for the 2nd bus and that time it was 9.00p.m. and we were suppose to start our Post-Return Orientation. We arrived to the hotel and went to the cafeteria. There were rendang and sambal belacan. I was so happy and i ate a lot. We went into the hall and they said that they will continue the orientation the next day. I was so tired and happy. That night i went into Suyin and Suraya's room with the others and shared our story till it was so late. I heard a lot of intresting stories from the other participants and i realised that i am so going to miss all of them a lot.


16TH OF DECEMBER 2010

The next day i went down for breakfatst at 0700 and the orientation started at 0830. After orientation we received a t-shirt and had our lunch for the last time. It was the time for us to say goodbye to each other and i find it very sad. Some of them were crying and hugging each other . At 2.00 p.m. my dad arrived and i left and right now i am officially a RETURNEE. It was a blast. it was one of the best experience i've ever had in my whole life. I would like to thank AFS Malaysia, AFS Japan, and the Government of Japan for this oppurtinity and i hope the relationship across continents will last for ever. Thank You So Much.