Hendro

My first impression when first time i met Mrs. Michiko Iyoda and her husband, in Meeting Room B1F 117, is what a strong couple. In that age, they still eager to follow this program, and came to University of Electro Communication eventhough their home were quite far from Chofu. I became more excited to join this program.

My journey started with riding the Keio Line from Chofu Eki to Inagi Eki. Right from the start, Mrs. Michiko Iyoda and her husband showed their hospitality. On the train, we discussed about the japan railway and how good Japanese public transportation compared with public mass transportation in Indonesia. How capitol of Jakarta became the most inefficient city in usage of energy consumption and time because of traffict jam. And it was caused by the lack usage of mass public transportation, and culture of thinking that by using private car (expensive one), they will gain his/her prestige.

Arrived in Inagi Eki, we were continued our journey using bus. And then, 10 minutes by walked from bus station into Mrs. Michiko Iyoda's home. From the start, i feel very warm feeling in every conversation that happened. It seem that they are a good parents. And i always try to communicate with them using mix language, i tried using nihonggo as much as possible, eventhough maybe my language structure and word choosen was wrong, then when it happened, i tried to fix it by using english.

Mrs. Michiko Iyoda told a story about her life, her previous job as Tourist Guide and about her familiy. Her son and her adventurous life, went to singapore, went to malaysia, had became foster parents of many ryugakusei. She and her husband showed me many photos of foreign student and how they can became part of their life. It was marvelous for me hear the story of their life.

They have many book to read, and some of them with dual language or more. They also have arabic-nihonggo book . . Quite omoshiroi experience. And i had so many knowlegde by listening their story and read some of their book. They also ask about why I can’t eat butaniku. And how the muslims slaughter their cow or sheep in correct way. And i told them, that muslim slaughtered their cow or sheep for eat by reference from our prophet Muhammad SAW.

We shared so many stories, i showed my family photos and traditional Indonesian food. Show my favorite traditional food such as “sate”,”soto” and “nasi kuning”. I also showed Indonesia Maps, told where is my hometown, where is Jakarta, where is Bali, and where is Manado.

When it is time for me to do praying, Mrs. Michiko Iyoda lend one of the room for me do praying. It was something good, and i learn a lot from this family to respect their guest. In dinner time, they serve so many kind of ryoori. All of them were new kind of foods for me. And luckly me, Mrs. Michiko Iyoda made the ryoori using fish, ebi and all halal things. And all of them were oishi (delicious).

After having dinner, they teach me the traditional japanese culture of green tea drink ceremony. What kind of tools and how the correct sequence. Mrs. Michiko Iyoda also made delicious cookies for me. Before i came home, they showed me how to learn kanji in easy way, and how Kanji characters was made from. Interesting fact that some of kanji character was actually derived from image of ordinary life things.

This is my first experience to know the life of japanese people. Such an honour for me to have opportunity and be the part of japanese culture within this program. Thank you for Ryugakusei-k for this opportunity. And i hope in the future, there will be another cross culture program that i can join in. Hopely.

Created: November 9, 2013 / Last modified:February 26, 2014