Japan 2013

On the 16th of November 2013, my class went on a 6 day trip to Japan. The trip was the initiative of our university, UTM under the Global Outreach Programme (GOP) where students are required to find their own funding and to plan their own activities. There were 14 students in the group along with a Lecturer.

Personally, this is the second time I've been to Japan. The first time I went to the 'Land of the Rising Sun' was when I was in form 1 under a Japanese Cultural Exchange Programme about ten years back.

Back to GOP which was first proposed by a number of people in my course since the first year of our studies in UTM. Several countries to visit were proposed back then namely Korea, China, Australia even Indonesia.

After several challenges were faced which forced the GOP to be postponed for a number of times such as the suspension of the RM1000 fund per student by UTM in 2011/2012 session and the ban from going to certain countries which are categorized as "unproductive" for the automotive undergrads by the faculty's administrators such as China, we've then decided to plan a trip to Japan one year ahead from it's proposed date. The team was lead by Arisy and there were four persons taking charge of specific portfolios.

Fast forward one year, the team is ready to depart for Japan on that glorious afternoon. (I don't want to bore you guys with the long story of how we got our funds and stuff..). The team was ready and excited to embark on the journey to Japan as they were smiling from ear to ear.

The journey took us 7 hours from Kuala Lumpur International Airport to Haneda International Airport. We were welcomed by the chilly air and mild fog as soon as we step down from the Airbus. The beeping sound of pushback tractor in the silent cool night sky made me reflect that I am here in Japan,thousands miles away from my homeland and that realization was quite peculiar for a brief moment.

At the immigration exit gate, the familiar sights of Japanese bowing to each other reminds me of how formal the Japanese people are and it made me reminiscent of the memories I had in 2004. The continuous flat voice of the cashiers and storekeeper at the Airport's 7-Eleven made me grin a little bit as it was a little bit awkward for a person who is accustomed by the soulless electronic welcome chimes at my local 7-Eleven outlets. 

The foodstuff were relatively expensive to Malaysia & most of the products there are advertised using cute 'anime' characters since anime culture is very influential on almost all the age groups in Japan. We stayed the night at the airport sleeping on benches and marked our 'territory' by placing our backpack and luggages nearby. 

I realized that the use of automatic bidets are more common in public places in 2013 than in 2004 where I was made to understand that they are usually placed in private homes. The experience of using automatic bidets is not fun at all as I felt like I was being harassed by a robot and  the water temperature was either too hot or too cold as I cannot read the Kanji writing on the buttons. The complicated buttons on the toilet made feel like I was flying a space ship or something. But you know what, you got to keep the downstairs clean all the time every time (Camne nak solat kalau kotor..).

The journey to our hotel started the next day , where we took the JR Line and used the newly bought PASMO card (A rechargeable public transport smart card)  where one of our trips would cost 300 to 500 yen. The trains were absolutely spotless, I once saw the train operator would go to each of the cars to check & pick up all the "microscopic" sized rubbish laying around (The rubbish was really really small). It then came to my mind and wonder how awesome and spotless my country would be if everyone back home would have this kind of mindset.

We stayed at New Koyo Hotel and Hotel Palace Japan near Minamisenju Station. The hotel staffs were very friendly and helped us a lot with the directions and what not. They had all the necessities such as lounge, hot water, laundry service etc. everything, really. The hotels should rather be called hostel in my opinion because the toilets are shared.

 

One of the most memorable places that we visited would be Ueno Park in my opinion just because of the tranquil atmosphere and the glimpse of the locals spending their free time made Ueno Park one of the best attraction in Tokyo. The people praying at the local shrine, streets artists showing their skills, street vendors selling all sorts of items surrounded by the sounds of chirping birds and local's soft mumbles made the place so serene and calming.

To be continued..

Gunung Arong

This is my experience going to Gunung Arong in Mersing, Johor.

The trip was actually planned a month ahead of it's date by one of our class member Sayuti Azlan. After feeling so bored and cold (17.7 degrees celcius!) in Kelantan during the semester break in January 2014, he decided to post this on facebook.

(Translation : Assalamualaikum everyone... Don't you guys want to go somewhere next semester... There's no harm of doing so in the early semester... Maybe we could frolic in the water and sleep at the beach... Quite interesting isn't it... Any other ideas...)

We've then decided to go to Gunung Arong since two of our classmates went to the mini mountain sometime last year including Mr. Sayuti himself.

Thus, the planning begun. We've created a name list for record and ideas on activities were posted on facebook and whatsapp.

After one whole week of planning and dealing with the University's HEMA department (somehow..), the 'rewang' or 'gotong-royong' to prepare the BBQ begins.

The first thing we did the next day is pack all the tents, foodstuff and our backpacks. The journey took us about 2.5 hours from Skudai by car.

Gunung Arong is located near Teluk Gorek where legend says that the camp site can be seen from the top of the mountain (pergh! Translation: Wow!).

At first sight, the beach was breathtaking with towering Casuarina trees and powdery sand. Soon after we met the site owner, the tents were set up near the water (about 10 feet from the sea) which made us worry that the tents would be flown away by the strong wind.

The wind was so strong and unforgiving that it made us shed tears (literally!) due to the scattered silicon dioxide grains that made contact to our cornea (amboi.. amende aku mengarut ni. Tranlslation: WTH?).

Feeling excited and curious, we changed into our male bikinis and just like a pack of heat-stroked baboons we waddled to the waters. The water was rather murky and the base, muddy since it is located at a strip of mangrove shoreline. Nonetheless, we're at the beach baby!

Some of us rented the kayaks provided by the resort, while others were throwing sands at each others' faces. The fun goes on through the rainy evening until our stomachs were crying for food.

Mr. Soon initiate the barbecue frenzy, after he religiously fanned the marinated chicken pieces batch by batch. There were mainly barbecued chicken and sausages, but they were more than enough to make us grow a full grown food baby as each person was allocated 5 pieces of chicken and 14 sausages (woot woot?).

We barely slept through the night, accompanied by soothing karaoke songs provided by our neighbouring campers and woke up at 300 hours for our hike.

The mountain hike started with a short warm up after being briefed by Mr. Latif who is the leader of the expedition.

With the help of our trusty flash lights, we walked through the villages and successfully avoid all the warm & grassy cow dung along the trail. The night was so silent and windy with only the sounds of our footsteps and crickets accompanying us, together with the gloomy shine from the moon and stars.

The "mountain" was not really a mountain as it only took us about 45 minutes to get to the top, it stands at a height of roughly 800 feet. There was a gazebo where some of us slept in as there was about one hour left before Subuh.

We hike down the trails after we witnessed the jaw dropping view of the sunrise along the horizon. Some of us were such in a hurry (I don't know why..) to get to the beach that it may have caused one of our friend Mr. Hadhrie to twist his ankle. We saw humongous trees which may have been older than the Ancient Egyptians (kot laa..) as they were about three fully grown man hugs in circumference.

Some of us went for a swim at the beach while others walked briskly to the camp site (I just realized that we may have adapted some of the Japanese 'no time to relax' attitude). The tents were then packed and the gazebo where we had our barbecue was cleared from any rubbish (good job guys..).

From this trip, I realized that I can do something that I would have never think of which is climbing a mountain (although small) and it proved that nothing is impossible if you really put your effort and focus on it. I also realized that there are some seriously beautiful places near Segamat that are still untouched and you should never consume half-cooked barbecue chicken prior to a mountain climb (bad..).

The end.