Papajojo

10 Important Things To Do to Start Living in Japan

2010-02-06T10:44:00.001+09:00

Back to couple of months ago when i came to Japan for the first time. I think the first 3 months was the hardest period to start living in Japan. I was lucky since my wife came to Japan first and my daughter and i came 1 month after so at least couple of things are already been prepared before we came. Besides, my wife also speaks Japanese so we didn't have any communication problems with Japanese people here.

Back to the topic. From my experience there are at least 10 important things to do to start living in Japan for the first time. Here in this case i assume you already have your accomodation either an apartment or a university dorm if you come to Japan for study.

Alien Registration - If you come to Japan for a long period such as study or work you need to register to the local City Hall where you stay. In Japan they call it "Alien Registration" but lately they changed to "Foreigner Registration". After you registered you will get an ID card stating your period of stay.
Insurance - This is one of the most important thing to have when you live in Japan. You'll see most of the things here are insured included mobile phones. But the critical one is the health insurance since medical cost is really expensive here. But by paying for insurance you can get significant deductions.
Embassy Registration - This probably sounds not important but to be honest you will need it someday. So i suggest you to visit and register your self and family to your country's representative in Japan either the Embassy or Consulate General.
Bank Account - Once you get an Alien Registration Card you can open a Bank Account. There are a lot of banks available in Japan both local and international brands. But some banks require you to stay at least 6 months in Japan before you can open an account.
Learn Japanese Language - Most Japanese people doesn't speak English, even here in Osaka, the third largest city in Japan. So if you plan to stay in Japan for a long period of time i recommend you to start learning Japanese Language since the first time you arrived.
Mobile Phones - I know some people probably can live without mobile phones. But here in Japan, is that normal? So i guess you need to get a mobile phone so you can communicate with other people without going to public phone.
Internet Connections - Most of apartments in Japan are already equipped with standard utilities such as electricity and gas. But for internet connection, you need to handle it your self.
Find Church - Since i'm a Christian i need to find a local church here in Japan. It's not easy to find an English Church so you probably need sometimes until you find it unless you don't have any problem to go to a Japanese Church.
Join Communities - For Indonesian people especially students there are communities available here in Japan called PPI (Perhimpunan Pelajar Indonesia). And for Osaka the name is PPI Osaka-Nara. You may find such communities for your country or join another communities.
Enjoy Your Life - During the first couple of weeks you probably will feel totaly like a stranger in town. No body knows you and you don't know anybody. You can't talk to anybody since no body speaks English and you don't even understand anything on the TV. Besides you probably also will have a problem with the foods. But most likely you will be shocked with prices here in Japan. But rather than trying to compare it to your country i suggest you to enjoy your new life in Japan unless you will get depressed.

Well, on my next posts i will share about each of these topics and hopefully it will help anybody who plans to live in Japan like me. So stay tuned and get updated!

Singing With the Christmas Choir at the Osaka International Church

2009-12-27T02:12:00.001+09:00

The Christmas 2009 is over but the memory of the Christmas will be lasting. And one of the most beautiful moment of the Christmas for this year is when we sang with the Christmas Choir at the OIC Christmas Eve Celebration. I never thought we could sing in a choir like this again after we moved from Indonesia. But God heard our pray and gave us a chance to serve Him again through a choir.

I remember what we had done last year with our church in Bogor. As the coordinator of the Music and Choir ministry in our church, i was responsible to make a permanent choir as part of the church ministry. By the grace of God, we finally managed to form a choir with a very limited resources at that time. As the name of the church we named it "Rahmani Choir" with me as the coach and my wife as the coordinator of the choir, what a family.

Time went by and we had a regular rehearsal every Sunday after the church service and one week break at the end of the month. Again by the grace of God, we managed to sing couple of songs and performed not only during the church services but also in another occasions like marriage ceremony. We sang various kind of songs from Hymn to Classics, from an easy one to the most complex songs. And the peak of our performance was on the Christmas Eve Celebration in our church just exactly one year ago where we sang the "Hallelujah" Handel as one of the songs. We also sang another songs on the farewell of my wife and that's became our final performance and also the end of the choir.

Arrived in Japan on May 2009 i never thought we could sing in a choir again like we did before. The first church we went to was totally Japanese. We then managed to find a bilingual church but the main language was Japanese. And after couple of months we decided to find another church and finally we went to the Osaka International Church (OIC). I was really happy to know that there's a choir at the church although it's not a regular choir. We finally decided to join the choir for the Christmas occasion.

My first impression of the choir, not much different with what we had in our church before. There were only few people join the choir at the first rehearsal. But the good news is i was not the only men there. After couple of weeks, still not so many people came and we had only three men on the choir. The coach decided not to sing the Tenor part. After couple of weeks rehearsal we finally made it. We sang 7 songs in total, two of them in the Sunday Christmas service and the whole songs in the Christmas Eve Celebration. I would say we've done a great job but the most important thing is God had given us a chance to serve Him again.

Hunting the Momiji at Arashiyama

2009-12-12T02:11:00.001+09:00

This is my first post after couple of weeks and this time i'll write about Momiji. I remember few weeks ago when i posted a status update on my Facebook about Momiji, then one of my Indonesian friend asked me what Momiji is? Then when i posted some pictures about Momiji on my Facebook, my sister asked me what kind of tree that is, looks like Maple in FarmVille. Yeah, that's right. So i guess Momiji is not so popular like what i thought before.

I'm not going to talk about the Momiji it self anyway as you can find it easily in Wikipedia. But basically, what i understand from what people said, Momiji or Iromomiji is the condition where the color of Maple trees becomes red which is happened during the Fall in Japan. The name of these Maple trees is Acer palmatum, called Japanese Maple or Smooth Japanese Maple and this species is native to Japan, Korea and China.

I went twice to Arashiyama, one of the best place to see Momiji in Japan. The first time, i went with my family including my parents in law which came to Japan couple of weeks ago. And the second time was with my Indonesian friends. Arashiyama can be reached by train and it takes about 1 hour from Umeda, one of central train station in Osaka. You can also go there by bus or car but i don't really know the route so i recommend to use the Hankyu train.

View Larger Map

I would prefer to come to Arashiyama during the week days since during the weekend or holidays the place are so crowded. You can compare those two pictures below taken from the same street. The first one was taken during my first visit which was not on the weekend or holiday and compare with the second picture.

Basically if someone ask you what to see in Arashiyama, the answer will be the Momiji. But actually there are another places you can visit but most of them are temples. One of the nice place to see is the bamboo forest and close to that place there's one station where you can enjoy what they call Torokko Romantic Train Ride. Unfortunately when we went there the ticket was sold out for that day. But the thing that attracted my attention most were the Pedicab, not sure this is Japanese or Chinese Pedicab. While sight seeing at Arashiyama you'll see some pedicabs on the streets and looks like the passengers are really enjoy the ride.

Well anyway, Arashiyama is a nice place to go and the Momiji was beautiful although you can find the same trees around any places in Japan during the Fall. So the conclusion, Arashiyama is a recommended place for sight seeing.

Blog Migration and Couple of Updates

2009-12-10T08:47:00.001+09:00

And finally i decided to stop my "Internet Marketing blog" activities and switch the blog to become the journal of my personal living experience in Japan. I used to write about these things on another domain. But now i have migrated all the contents to this domain and from now on will use this blog.

Just couple of updates during the last few weeks about me and my family. Firstly, we have moved to the new apartment. It's a smaller apartment but personally it's much more comfortable compared to the one that we lived before. It cost us ¥47,000 per month. Secondly, now it's Winter in Japan and the weather is getting cold everyday. But according to one of our friend here, Osaka is rarely snowing and the temperature is not so extreme as well. At least it's good for us with a toddler.

There are also many stories i would like to share here in this blog during our stay in the Osaka in the last few months. It's very difficult to keep posting consistently but i'll try because i'm sure there are many people overthere need those info. That's all for now and see you later on another post.

Enjoying Breakfast at Mister Donut

2009-09-28T22:16:00.001+09:00

Lately we have a new special routine. Me, my wife and daughter spends every Saturday morning having breakfast at one of our favorite restaurant, Mister Donut. And last Saturday willl be our last breakfast at the Mister Donut Minoh since we'll move to the new appartment this weekend. But hopefully we'll find another Mister Donuts on our new place later.

A bit about Mister Donut, it's founded by Harry Winouker the brother-in-law of Bill Rosenberg, the founder of Dunkin Donuts. They broke off their partnership in 1955. In 1983, Duskin Co. Ltd. of Japan took an unprecedented step by acquiring the sales and trademark rights for Asia from Mister Donut of America. Read the full story here!

For us, i'm not sure when it's started but for sure we really love this restaurant. To be honest, i don't really like the donuts at the first time. It doesn't taste like most of donuts in Indonesia such as J.Co, Dunkin Donuts or Krispy Kreme. I guess it uses less sugar so it doesn't really sweet. But then i start to get used to the taste after couple of weeks.

For beverages, of course they serve coffee, perfect couple for donuts. But don't imagine you can get various kind of coffee like Starbucks. It's only black coffee with or without creamer. Besides they also serve tea and water. But if you don't want the donuts you can still enjoy your breakfast with another foods such as noodles, hotdogs and cakes.

The donuts price ranged from ¥100 to ¥150 per piece i guess. And usually they offer special discount on the weekend so you can get all donuts for ¥100. They also have special sets with special price if you order donuts with coffee or tea, or another foods with coffee or tea. And in these sets you can refill the coffee if you want.

Well, again if you are looking for a nice place just to have some coffee, breakfast or snacks alone or with your family, i really recommend Mister Donut. The price is reasonable, good foods and you can enjoy the cozy place. Especially the Mister Donut Minoh which is the nearest to our appartment, the restaurant has a very nice layouts. We're gonna miss it!

Finding Apartment in Japan

2009-09-25T01:02:00.001+09:00

I came to Japan around two months after my wife. She stayed at the campus dormitory when the first time she arrived here. But since the room in there is not enough for three of us then we decided to find an apartment outside the dormitory. After couple of weeks then she finally found it. It's an apartment with 2 living rooms, 1 dining room and 1 kitchen. In Japan they call it 2 LDK where LDK stands for Living Dining Kitchen. It cost ¥65,000 per month just for the rent.

Basically apartment in Japan can be categorized into three type, 1LDK which monthly rent around ¥40,000 - ¥80,000, 2LDK costs around ¥60,000 - ¥100,000 and 3LDK costs around above ¥100,000. Most of apartments are non-furnished so you have to prepare it your self. However some of them are also fully-furnished but of course more expensive. But considering the price of household furnishings which are so expensive here this might be a good option. Another thing that's affected to the rent price is the type of the building and the location. Apartment with a fully concrete building is more expensive and the nearer the location to the station the more expensive they are.

As far as i know, apartmens in Japan already equipped with standard utilities such as Gas (for bathroom/shower and kitchen), Water (for bathroom/shower, closet, washing machine, wastafel and kitchen), Electricity with 2 sockets (2 outlet each) in one room, phone line with handset and TV out. However if you don't want to use the phone you don't need to activate it, so just leave the phone handset there. For the TV this has been an issue with many people. If you have a TV and the NKH people knows it, they will come to you and ask you to pay for the monthly fee. But most people will try to do anything so they don't need to pay for that. For the internet and AC, you have to provide it your self since it's not standard utilities here.

Now how to find the apartment. Usually all apartments are offered through property agencies. There are many of them from an individual agencies to corporate ones. Large apartments usually managed by well known corporate agencies. There are few of them i know here in Osaka like Mini-mini, Urjapan, etc. Smaller apartments usually handled by individual agencies or even directly by the owner. One thing that you need to consider when finding apartments in Japan is the "Key Money". That's the amount of money that you have to pay on the first time you deal with the agencies which can be varies from 1 month rent or more. Besides you also have to pay for the agencies which is ranged from half of 1 month to 1 month rent fee. So the total of money you have to prepare for the first time can be quite expensive. That's why many people try to find another way to avoid those fee especially the key money. They usually prefer to deal with the owner directly or asking for reference from Japanese friends who knows the agencies or the owners.

Well, welcome to Japan, one of the most expensive country. After you find the right apartment and prepare the money, the next thing you need to do is to prepare documents required including the reference letter, alien registration letter, etc depends on the agencies. After everything is done, then you may contact utilities firms to activate the utitilities by the time you enter the apartment.

Now, we've been staying for more than 4 months in our apartment. But we think that it's quite expensive so we plan to move to a smaller apartment this October. It's a 1LDK apartment with a monthly rent fee ¥47,000. But it's already fully-furnished. That's all from me now and see you on the next post!

Kids Store in Osaka: Toysrus Yamada

2009-09-23T08:52:00.001+09:00

If you come to Japan with your family including your kids and want to stay for a long period of time, you may consider to bring some toys for your kids to play with. In my case, my two year old daughter can't speak Japanese so she would have problems to socialize with friends of her age for the first time. So what i can do is to let her enjoy her time with some toys at home.

The problem is everything is expensive here so you may think twice to buy anything which is not urgent especially if you have a limited budget. That's why you need to find a Kids Store for a reasonable price. One of them here in Osaka and close to where i live is the Toysrus Yamada. It's located on the 4th floor of the DEW Yamada, next to Yamada Hankyu Station. I would say it's big enough for a Kids Store, one of the biggest i have seen here in Osaka. Toysrus provides various kind of Kid Stuffs including Diapers, Milk, Snacks, Games, and of course the main part is the toys.

One think that i like from Toysrus is the kind of toys they offer that you can choose ranged from a very simple one like a small doll up to the electronics semi computer. And again, it's not so expensive so you can still afford the price. Besides they also provide a special area to put some demo units. So if you don't want to buy anything you can still let your kids to play with the demo units. You may see some photos below to get a better feel of how the store looks like.

Back to my daugther. Actually we just want to see this store at the time we went there so we took our daughter and she really enjoyed here time there. But then finally we bought her some toys but not really the expensive ones, just a doll and kids cooking toys. Now she has more toys to play with at home and she really likes it. And finally i really recommend Toysrus.

A Little Words from Osaka

2009-09-21T23:48:00.001+09:00

It's been a long time since my last post and now so many stories are waiting to be posted. During the last two months we've been doing great things and finally i can work on this blog again. There are some reasons behind why i haven't post any stories again and one of them was because of my activities to manage my other blogs. And hey, i changed the theme of this blog so it looks more cool, isn't it?

But today i start to take care of this blog again and will try to post more regularly. In the next couple of days you'll see more stories about what we've done during the past two months. It includes the Osaka Summer Festival, Hanabi, and also about my new guitar. I will also upload more pictures to my Flickr.

Anyway, it's Autumn now in Osaka and the weather is getting colder day by day. However we stil can see the Sun in the daylight so it's not really cold yet, just a little bit windy. But some people are wearing warm clothes already.

Exploring Umeda: Late Story about HEP FIVE and Yodobashi

2009-07-19T00:59:00.001+09:00

Finally i can post this story after waiting for one week. I went to Umeda on Saturday last week together with my wife and daughter. We didn't spend long time there but we managed to visit some famous places and enjoyed the trip. Anyway, i think even one full day is not enough to explore the whole Umeda and places around it. So if you have a chance to come to Osaka, you better allocate more time if you want to explore it.

Well, basically Umeda is one of Osaka's two main city centers. Umeda is the Kita ("North") district of Osaka located around the large station complex that comprises Osaka and Umeda Stations while the other one is the Minami ("South") district around Namba station. There are couple of famous places to visit at Umeda such as the Umeda Sky Building (a spectacular 173 meter tall skyscraper with Floating Garden Observatory on its roof), number of major deparment stores, HEP (Hankyu Entertainment Park), Yodobashi Camera Umeda, and Kitashinchi (place for restaurants, bars and night clubs).

We left the apartment around 10 am. From Kita Senri Station we went to Umeda directly by Hankyu train. It took about 1 hour, i don't remember exactly. But one thing that i remember is when we arrived at the Umeda station it's about lunch time. The first place we visited was the Hankyu Entertainment Park (HEP). It's a large shopping and entertainment complex consisting of the HEP FIVE and HEP Navio buildings, east of the Hankyu department store. This place is known by the red giant Ferris wheel standing on the top of the building. However currently it's temporary closed due to maintenance. Since it's lunch time we stop by a restaurant named "Be OFF", an all-you-can-eat restaurant serves various kind of foods from Asian to Western cuisines including salad, pasta, fried noodle and rice, soups, cake, ice cream, etc. It costs ￥1,258 on weekdays and ￥1,363 on weekend per person. Personally i would say the food is not really good in taste but it's worth the price for an all-you-can-eat restaurant.

From here we continued exploring the department stores. It was a big summer sale so there were so many people looking for things offered by the stores with discounted price from 10% to 70%. It was so crowded and i couldn't stand to stay there for long time. However my wife managed to buy a bag and necklace. We spent about 1 hour there and then left the HEP to another place.

The next place we visited was the Yodobashi Camera Umeda. It's a gigantic branch of the Tokyo based electronics retailer stocks almost every current item by the major camera manufactures. But besides camera you can also find almost anything electronic such as audio/video, mobile phones and accessories, AC, Video Games, Music, Kids Toys, etc. And on the top floor you can find restaurants and fashion department store. Once again, it's so big and i was so confused where to start and finally we just spent 1 hour looking at the audio/video stores and then we left without buying anything. Next time i probably better visit the place alone and spend from morning to evening.

Then we moved back to the station and then home. That's all about my trip last week. We didn't go to the Umeda Sky Building since we had been so tired and also it costs ￥700 per person to access the place. We have to safe the money for another trip. This weekend we're going to have a barbecue gathering with Indonesian student community in Osaka. Story is coming soon, so stay tuned!

Things to Prepare When Traveling Overseas - Complementary

2009-07-08T23:40:00.001+09:00

On my previous post i've talked about mandatory things to prepare when traveling overseas. So how do you like it? But remember, when you traveling overseas especially for a long period of time like me you need to prepare more things to accompany you more than just the mandatory things. Most likely in similar case like me people tends to be bored after few weeks or months.

So basically those complementary things are something that you can play with when you don't know what to do after doing the daily routines. Or sometimes it's something that you need before you can find the new one. Usually these are things that related to your hobbies. For me i like gadgets, internet and musics, great combination huh? So before i left my country i prepared the following things.

Laptops - I know Japan is a technology country where you can find broadband internet connection easily and relatively cheap compared to my country. In my apartment, currently i have a 24MBps internet connection for about ¥2,400 per month (i'll talk about this later). So before i left i bought a Compaq Presario CQ40 for me while few weeks before that i bought a Toshiba Laptop for my wife.

Digital Camera - When you traveling somewhere off course you don't want to loose any precious moments, me neither. So i bought a Canon Ixus 970 IS (10.0 Megapixels, 5X Optical Zoom, 4X Digital Zoom, SD/MMC Card Slot, 2.5" LCD Display.)

Mobile Phone - I brought my old phone Palm Treo 750v with me. I thought it supposed to work with the network in Japan since my father in law brought a Nokia phone and he can use it during he stayed in Japan. But unfortunately my Palm Treo didn't work. I don't know where the problem was but i suspect it's because of the SIM Card. My father in law has Telkomsel SIM Card in his phone while i had an Indosat card. So for your information, if you come from Indonesia and you have a 3G phone with Telkomsel SIM Card you can use it in Japan. For other countries you may check with your local operators.

Guitar - Well, this is not for everyone i'm sure. It depends on your hobby and for i like music and i play guitar. I had accoustic and electric guitars but due to the baggage limitation i had to left the electric one. Even for the accoustic guitar i almost left it if only my brother in law didn't force me to bring it. So thanks to Andy, my brother in law.

Stroller - This one is not for me but my daughter. In Japan if you don't have car you have to walk everywhere you go before using any public transportation. So if you have a todler i suggest you to have a stroller. My daughter is 2 years old and 16kg. You can imagine if i have to carry her on my hands everywhere we go.

Sepatu Kets (I don't know it in english) - Since you have to walk a lot i suggest you to bring additional shoes for walk, not the kind of formal shoes. I also brought additional shoes for my wife.

Toys for your kids - This is something that i missed. I didn't bring any toys for my daughter and as the result i have to buy the new ones which are so expensive here.

Internet Banking - Last but not least, this is something that you probably will need. When i left my country i still have few things that i need to pay like credit card which i still use until now, insurance, etc. So to make me easier to pay them, i prepared an Internet Banking account from one of local bank in my country BCA.

That's all i have today. I still have many things to share, so come back again later for another story and tips. Have a nice day!

Saizeriya: Japanese Chain of Italian Family-Style Restaurants

2009-07-06T23:28:00.001+09:00

People said Japan is one of the most expensive living cost country. But it doesn't mean we can't enjoy our life though we don't have much money cause there's always a way to find that kind of places. As a family who lives from scholarship we have to be wise to spend the money so we went to a restaurant called Saizeriya, a Japanese chain of Italian family-style restaurant with a reasonable price. In my place it's located at Minoh area close to Carrefour Minoh.

Saizeriya serves various kinds of cuisines like pizza, spaghetti, salad, steak, soup, desserts and many more. All of them are western Italian food. If you come with family they also serve special kids menu. Besides you can also enjoy your food with a glass of wine of various brands or beers also with a reasonable price.

I went with my wife and daughter on the weekend. I had Spaghetti with tomato sausage and bacon (¥399), Hamburg Steak with bacon (¥599) and a glass of wine of Vino da Tavola Rosso brand (¥198). My wife had Spaghetti (¥499) and Pizza with Salami and bacon (¥399), while we ordered a set of Kids menu for my daughter (¥399). So you can imagine with that kinds of foods we spent only ¥2493 and we really enjoy our time at the dinner.

Anyway, i'm not a fan of western foods so i don't know what to say about the taste of the foods. But my wife said it was great so i just agree with her. If you want to spend your dinner or lunch at a restaurant in Japan, Saizeriya is strongly recommended especially if you have limited budget. That's all from me today and have a nice day!

Things to Prepare When Travelling Overseas - Mandatory

2009-07-04T12:21:00.002+09:00

Do you have plan travelling overseas in the next few weeks or months? If so you probably want to read about my experience during the time i prepared for my self few weeks ago. In my case i was preparing for travelling for a long period or i would say moving to another place. But this could be also happened when you travelling for a short time period or just going to another place in the same country.

Well in my case i took my daughter with me so it need more efforts and times to prepare. But basically below are the things i prepared and carried with me.

Flight Ticket - Make sure you get the flight ticket with a confirmed time schedule few days before the departure date. If possible you probably can write down on your notes the flight number, departure time and the contact person of the airlines in your location. If your flight with a non direct flight and will have to transit somewhere, make sure both of the ticket are there. Besides you also need to be aware of the baggage limit to prevent excess baggage that will cost you. Each airlines could have different policy. If you are a frequent flyer make sure you bring your card with you. Some airlines also provide a city check-in service you may use to save your time.

VISA Documents - If you need entry VISA you better make sure that you get it few days before. Some people also advise not to issue flight ticket before you get the VISA. But it depends on the situation. On my case my VISA approved just 4 days after i submit the application. But some country could need more times and even months. Besides the entry VISA you the country you are going to might ask you for another documents like me. Since i plan to stay for a long period the Japan Immigration requires me to have another document called Certificate of Eligibility (CoE). This document was prepared by Japan Immigration so my wife was taken care of it and sent it to me when it's ready.

Fiscal Documents - In my country we have to pay for Fiscal fee and starting from 2009 the Fiscal fee have been changed from 1 million to 2.5 million per person. So you can imagine if you traveling with your big family. But fortunately you don't need to pay for this as long as you have Personal Tax ID or we called it NPWP which will cover your wife and children too. So for this you need to bring your NPWP Card and the copy of your List of Family Members or Kartu Keluarga document.

Passport - Well, this is a must have document you have to prepare and i don't think i'll going to talk about it much. Just make sure that your passport including your kids and other people that go with you are still valid and will not expired during your stay in the destination country.

Money - It doesn't matter how much money you'll bring with you but make sure that you have prepared them in local currency at least to cover your life during the first days of your stay. The rest of them you may have it in US Dollars or other known currencies. If you are not sure that your currency is not accepted on the destination country you better not to bring it.

Accommodations - If you traveling to a country like Japan you might don't have to worry about accommodations or hotels which i'm sure you can find easily. But it's recommended to make a reservation before. In my case, my wife has prepared an apartment for us to stay.

Credit Card - You probably will not use it when you arrived but it's strongly recommended to have a credit card with you when traveling overseas. In certain situation you will need credit card not just for payment but to validate your identity. But please make sure that your credit card is acceptable in the destination country since not all credit cards are accepted on all countries.

Monbukagakusho Scholarship and the Spiritual Voice

2009-07-03T11:32:00.001+09:00

So what do you think i'm doing in Japan? I left my career, families, communities and so many things that supposed to make me choose to stay. But something happened and somehow suddenly changed my mind. It all started when my wife decided to apply for Monbukagakusho Scholarship from Japan Government. And thanks God my wife passed all the selection process and now here we are.

Back to few years ago when my wife, that time was my girlfriend, for the first time came with the idea to apply for the scholarship. I don't remember exactly when, but one thing that i remember for sure is that it always ended with a conflict between us anytime we talk about it.

The time passed and then we got married. For a moment we forgot about it and didn't talk about it at all until someday my wife came to me and said that she had decided not to go for the scholarship and planned to continue her study in my country. But then guess what? It suddenly open up my mind and make me think, am i that egoistic? There's should be no reason for me not to allow my wife to pursue her passion. I kept thinking about it until one day in the morning i woke up and sitting on the bed like a dazed man. I felt that i just heard a voice said to me to let my wife go with the scholarship, strange!

Well, i'm sure that's not just my feeling because it's so real. So i woke up, meet my wife and said to her to apply for the schoolarship. Mmh, that's the short story. The complete story could be very long then.

From Jakarta to Osaka via Denpasar

2009-07-02T09:09:00.001+09:00

I came to Japan on May 22nd with my little daughter which was less than 2 years old. Can you imagine that? A man with a little girl flying in an airplane. Luckily i was not that bad. My parents in law accompanied me to take care of this little girl so at least i was not alone. My parents in law then stayed in Japan for about one month.

We departed from Jakarta International airport to Denpasar around 8.30 pm with Garuda Indonesia Airline. This is not the only nor the cheaper flight if you want to travel from Jakarta to Osaka. But that was the flight chosen by my father in law who took care of our flight ticket so i couldn't complain. The flight took about 2 hours. We arrived at Denpasar at the midnight and then had to wait for transit about 2 hours before departed to Kansai International Airport in Osaka. We arrived at Kansai International Airport in Osaka at 09.00 am in the morning Osaka time. What a hard time for me and especially for my little daughter.

That was a short story about my travelling experience. More story will be posted soon.

Living in Japan

2009-06-30T11:12:00.001+09:00

Finally i managed to start this blog to share my story about living in Japan. So i have been living in Japan for about one month now. As i heard from many people, living in Japan is not that hard as long as you know the Japanese language and off course you have enough money to support your life.

This is my first post so i'm not going to talk long. But actually there are lots of things i want to share and they are all waiting on the queue. I'll try to post regularly so you'll never missed anything about my story and tips. And last but not least, hopefully you'll find useful things fromm this blog. Have a nice day!