Am I Able?

Konnichiwa, Valentinus Ezra to moushimasu. Ezra to yonde kudasai. Nihon ni Indonesia no ryuugakusei desu. Tokubetsu ni Madhiun kara kimashita. Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu! (Hello, my name is Valentinus Ezra and you can call me Ezra. I am an exchange student in Japan from Indonesia, especially from Madiun. Nice to meet you!)

I still remember well that those words are the first words that I used for my Introduction on my welcome party in Japan.  I have experienced so many things during my first 6 month stay in Japan for example experiencing Japan’s cherry blossoms, wearing Kimono (Japan’s traditional clothes), making Green Matcha (Japanese green tea), and many more. I live in Niigata city, Niigata Prefecture, and my host school is Niigata Senior High school which is the top high school in Niigata Prefecture.

"Am I able?" that was my first question when I first knew that I am going to have an exchange year in Japan. I did not know Japanese till one month before my departure to Japan. I did not know how to live in a different country and completely different environment and culture, but I was looking forward to it. I felt so grateful because I live in a very nice host family with a wise father, a caring mother, and 3 funny kids. I feel surprised yet happy because I have never felt so lonely during my stays here, because I have many friends to talk with, such as my friends in my club, classmates, and my host brother and sisters. In my family, we often talk and share about our own cultures, like what is the different between the Japanese and Indonesian things, the difference between the Japanese and Indonesian culture, and many more. Even though I am still trying hard to be able to speak Japanese fluently, I am trying to be like my host brother and sister’s real brother, because I love them and they love me.

I am a student in Japan, so have to act like Japanese students too, like coming to school right on time, joining the school's club every day,  reading many books, cleaning the classroom after school, eating lunch together with my friends, and many more. Japanese school is not really different with Indonesian school, but there are some differences in Japanese school which is everything is well arranged  here such as we have to be at school exactly at 8.25 am, then we must read some books for 15 minutes, and do 6 classes a day until 3.45 pm. After school finished, the students must clean all the rooms and classes in the school for 20 minutes and then I have school’s club that is Kendo (Japanese fencing) until 6.00pm. That’s my daily activities during my stays in Japan and until now I am getting used to do such that things every day during my stays here.

My school in Japan is the best school in Niigata prefecture which means the students are well-educated, but I found some obstacles on finding close friends or friends to have chat with, because they spend so much time to study and to take care of themselves. So, I spent much of my time doing Kendo in my club, because I could meet friends to have a talk with.

I joined Boy scouts Club in my city with my brother and sister, so that I could find more friends and I met a lot of good people and I got to have some social and camp activities as a guest and participant. One of my nice experience here was that I received an ukulele from the leader of the Boy scouts as a present participating in this organization. I am so happy because the ukulele I got now become my important thing to help me fading my “homesick” during my year program.

Now, I am in the middle of my exchange year in Japan now I realized that nothing is impossible. I thought that Japanese life would be so hard and strict as I thought, but now I learned so much good things from Japanese people. For example becoming on time in every appointment, keeping my body healthy by eating healthy foods and doing exercise every day, always keeping on my promises, being polite to elderly people, and doing my best for any single thing I do and never give up on struggles.

However, the most important thing that I have learned during my stays in Japan is that because I met so many people with different way of thinking, point of view,etc i can compare which one is good or which one is rather bad... so now, I could find myself, who I am, what do I want to achieve, how do I achieve my dream, and what do I have to make my life become meaningful to others; all of those answers are already in my mind and I think I have got the ability to survive 5 more months here to deepen my understandings about Japanese culture and become representative of Indonesian ambassador.