16th September

Edo-Tokyo museum

I got up at 6:15, and every morning we always had body temperature check at third floor before breakfast. Today I was better than yesterday but it was still over 37℃. In the morning, we were going to Edo-Tokyo museum.

We took 20-minute bus to get there. We gathered at the Edo-Tokyo Terrace at Third floor and took a special long high escalator to the exhibition area at sixth floor. Along the escalator, there were paintings of people and clothing in different eras on the wall. Reaching the sixth floor, it was dark and not allowed to take pictures with flash light. A magnificent scene of Edo era appeared dramatically in front of our sight. The Nihonbashi Bridge led us to the Edo zone with perfect imitation of Edo Castle and Edo city plan, which looked more lifelike through telescope provided. The ancient sedan-chair or Kago was free to get in. the Edo items and materials were shown on the tables next to the wall with description. The chinaware, ancient documents, samurai swords, statue of Tokukawa Iyaesu—the longest ruler generation, map of Edo, painting, handcraft, picture of the action of firemen in Edo, etc., were the heritage left over by the ancestors in Edo era. Parts of model ancient house were cut apart to show the construction of earthquake-proof. Fake humans inside the model house illustrated the activities of commerce, daily life, and birth of a baby. The splendid royal palace covered large area of land and was designed and constructed perfectly. The commercial ship in Edo era was said to arrive in Cambodia once. The model Kabuki actors in Geisha dress stood gloriously on the stage with red and golden decoration. High technique of ghost story performance in the little stage produced the unexpected effect of little dolls to appear and vanish. The attractive Nakamura Theater located at the center of fifth floor facing the westernization of Tokyo of the Meiji Era area. There, we could get on Rickshaw, Darma bicycle, and we could experience inside the antique house. Due to the shortage of time, there were still a number of attractive spots we didn’t visit.

The Edo-Tokyo museum transferred us into the prosperous Edo Samurai era and the start of Meiji era by its fascinating spectacle and reconstruction models. We left Edo-Tokyo museum at 11:00 and went to Coca Asian Restaurant to have Asian lunch, spicy with Japanese style.

Orientation of Japanese Tradition and Culture
At 1:00 in the afternoon, it was the lecture on Japanese society and culture by Hisami Andrade, Professor at Yokohama National University, with Hokk

aido, Akita, and Aichi group together. The topics were geography, climate, education, characteristics of Japanese culture, religion, housing, and cuisine. By powerpoint slide show of pictures and statistics, we found out Japan about its large proportions of elderly population, education system in various eras, manner of people, features of mixed religions, relation of clothing, festival, food, and nature. At the end of the lecture, I brought up a question, ‘What are the factors of elderly people increasement? What activities do elderly people do every day to long live?’ Ms. Hisami Andrade reply that food, sport, medicine, tourism and regular health check were the factors, and elderly people usually looked after their grandchildren, made tea, travelled, gathered together, continued study to get master degree, etc. In conclusion, they didn’t let themselves free. Another interest in Japanese people was their religion. If you ask the Japanese what their religion is, they must tell you that they don’t believe in any religion because they don’t strongly devote themselves in any religion or they believe in all religions. For example, birth follows Shintoism, marriage follows Christianity, while death follows Buddhism. After this lecture, we realized more about Japanese culture and society and were ready for the exciting tour in Japan.

Courtesy call on Ministry of Foreign Affair
Today, September 16th, remarkably and historically the start of Democracy from Republic of Japan, whose new prime minister was Hatoyama Yukio. At 4:30 p.m. we were going to make courtesy meeting at ministry of foreign affair with the other two groups. At 5:30 p.m. the meeting started with the speech of the minister of foreign affair and Sar Sambo, representative from Hokkaido group, respectively for 10 minutes. Then it was question and answer time. The questions from Hokkaido and Akita group were planned yesterday. Hokkaido group asked, ‘facing economic crisis, why does Japan still donate its aid to developing countries?’ Our Akita group asked by Sun Meng, ‘How can developed country like Japan utilize its abilities to support the environment protection of developing country like Cambodia?’ The Minister spent over ten minutes to answer these two questions and he said that he would have answered them in more detail if he had had enough time. The meeting ended at 6:05 and we went to have Tempura dinner!

Night of Tempura
The bus we took made several quick turn and quick stop on the way to restaurant, which was the root of problem tonight. Bellin and Roth felt very dizzy and became more severe when we reached the restaurant and sat down. Our female teammates applied balm and massage for them, but it didn’t seem to work. Borng Roth became weaker and weaker and nearly fainted, while Bellin was a bit better but started to sob by her weakness. Our coordinators and restaurant staff helped us a lot. Sun Meng carried Borng Roth in his arms to another room to take a rest. Viriya and Socheat accompanied with Bellin and we together walked from the restaurant back to the hotel for about 15 minutes. That was the night of our tempura dinner. We had just begun to eat, and we didn’t have good mood to continue anymore when seeing our teammates in trouble. However, we witnessed the unity of our group and there was still good news tonight.

Funny phone calls
Around 9:00 I received a phone call in my room. A Japanese girl spoke English to me, and I thought her might confuse the room number. After talking for a while, she laughed and I began to feel familiar with her voice. Then I realized that I had been cheated by Bellin! So embarrassed was I but I felt glad to hear her ridiculous voice, proving that she had totally recovered from her dizziness. Later, Den, Yuth and Virak came to my room and said that they had been cheated as well. Hey! Hey! What an interesting idea to fake a foreigner and make a phone call! First I faked a Japanese man to cheat Pheak. It didn’t last for long, because we burst out laughing all in the room. Then Yuth faked a French guy to cheat Roth. He had good French intonation and high skill in lying so that he could cheat on the phone with Roth for half an hour without revealing the truth. After that I faked a Japanese man again to cheat Hongchu. This time was longer but still failed at the end. Finally, I faked a Cantonese guy to cheat Bellin but she knew it from the start. However, I still continued speaking Cantonese like a crazy man. We had never laughed so happily since we had left our home.

15th September

Reaching Tokyo Narita Airport
I slept for two hours. Now it was 4:30 a.m. on my watch, but when I looked through the window, the sky was so bright with white cloud and sunshine. It was 6:30 Tokyo time, and there were two hours to go. Flight attendants delivered breakfast, which was greasy and oily. Imagine how we could have breakfast by sitting for nearly five hours without washing face, brushing teeth, or going to toilet. However, I tried to eat as much as I can. I almost couldn’t withstand that feeling and nearly threw up. Thanks goodness, I saw the territory of Japan as well as Narita airport for the first time! At 8:30, we landed on Narita airport and completed entry procedures for two hours. Our journey in Japan began…

First sight in Tokyo
We headed to Asakusa view hotel on a big bus with our coordinator as well as Japanese-Khmer translator, Ms. Duong Danich and another coordinator, Ms. Sato. Today the sky was cloudy with very light rain. The scenery of highways in Tokyo primarily came to our sight. Driving on the left, huge trucks, small vans, green plants on the sideways, high buildings, railroads, on bicycle, no motorbike, Tokyo Disneyland, etc., were the first attrations we witnessed along the highway to Asukusa view hotel. Borng Danich did a little self-introduction and informed us what we were going to do at the hotel especially the orientation at 2:30.


Reaching the hotel, we were given the room card and a Chinese food box for each participants. The bag we would take to Akita and a JICE T-shirt were kept in the room. Sun Meng and I was roommate again, and we would stay together till the end of program. The first thing I did was going to bathroom. Then I sat on the sofa and had lunch comfortably, but I could feel myself still in high temperature and absolutely worn out. Without any rest, Sun Meng and I went to other rooms to call our friends to be at the orientation quickly.

Orientation at Asakusa View Hotel

The start of the orientation was the introduction of Mr. Nagoyama, one of the staff of JICE, Ms Yamada, responsible for JENESYS program, and 6 coordinators, two of whom were Ms. Yamazaki and Ms. Duong Danich, who coordinated our Akita group. It was the lecture on Japanese society and culture by Professor Ms. Hisami. After that it was the general orientation of the program in Japan and we received a small handbook with detailed timetable and places description inside. Ms. Eang Lina, one of the coordinators, explained the activities of home-stay and workshop.

Unluckiess in the first evening
At 3:30, it was group orientation. What a pity of me that I was not allowed to participate in this evening activities because of high body temperature. I missed the chance of visiting Asakusa Sensoji and Nakamise street and was told to take a rest at the hotel. Therefore, I went back to my room, took a fever tablet, and slept for two hours. Another participant, Yuth, had the same problem like me, so he didn’t go either. At 7:00 p.m. Sun Meng brought a box of two skewers of grilled chicken and a box of tasteful rice from Nakamise restaurant. He told me that they had visited 100-yen shop and bought a lot of food and drinks. So unlucky was I!

14th September

Learning at CJCC
We had buffet breakfast at Sunway, which was not much different from last evening. At 9:00 we took bus with Hokkaido and Aichi group to CJCC so as to have a 60 minutes class of Japanese greeting phrases and expressions.

Our teacher’s name was Nimorl. He taught clearly and asked each one to repeat. Then, he ordered pairs of participants to come to the front to make a short Japanese greeting conversation. So funny was the pronunciation from some participants that we couldn’t help with laughing. However, we learnt a lot of useful expressions that we would always have used in Japan.

At 10:30, we went to another large hall with the other two groups. Each of us received a set of Khmer tradition and culture document. The instructor, Ms. Phanta, illustrated Khmer Salutation and performed it on the stage. Then, we learnt our national anthem and how to introduce Cambodia to Japanese people by map and pictures. At the end o f class, we learnt to dance Roam Vong, Roam Kbach, and Lam Live in a circle for about 10 minutes.

Send-off Party
We returned to Sunway at 12:00, and the send-off party would start in 10 minutes. We had no much time to take a break, so we just took pictures of ourselves at the party room. After the speech of Mr. Kazuo Chiyo, Mr. Koem Oeum, and Mr. Ros Keng, we raised the coke glasses, cheered u, had group commemorative pictures taken, and had buffet lunch. This time buffet was better than the last two, but unfortunately we had to stand and eat without any chairs. I finished my lunch at 2:00 and went back to my room for luggage arrangement.

Heading to airport
I didn’t have any rest at all and rushed to the orientation at 3:00. We were required to fill in health check form, personal information form, and statistic before departure, and have body temperature checked. Surprisingly my temperature was 37.7℃. If it had been 38℃, I wouldn’t have been able to depart. The orientation ended at 4:10 and we went back to our room with a KFC box. We were ready for the last preparation and room examination. Then we checked out and returned the room key at 5:00, and we left the luggage at reception desk waiting for bus to the airport at 6:00.

At 6:45 p.m. we arrived at the airport. Some participants’ family came to see them off. I was jealous of them because my family were difficult to come. They waved their hands goodbye to their families, and we went to have passport, finger print, bags, and body check, and then we waited for departure. At 20:25, our plane, TG699, took off to Bangkok airport.
On the plane to Bangkok
The first experience on plane made me a little bit nervous and anxious. I sat at the aisle seat of middle row next to Sun Meng. Therefore, regrettably I didn’t sit at window seat and couldn’t see the night view of Phnom Penh city while taking off. The plane started to move slowly and I felt just as sitting in a big bus. The plane paused at departure route, and it started to increase its speed and inclination. Meanwhile, I felt an invisible force pushing my head backward so that I couldn’t lean forward. So noisy were the plane’s wings engines that my ears seemed to be block. When the plane flew steadily, I didn’t feel it moving forward. When it flew across clouds and strongly shaked or when it made a big turn, it was a bit scaring and my heart beat faster. Personally, I describe these feelings as taking a lift up and down. After the plane flew steadily for around 15 minutes, flight attendants pulled a cart of food and drinks to deliver it to passengers. The food wasn’t delicious at all, or it could be said to be hard to swallow. However, I tried to finish it because we still had an extremely long way to Tokyo.

At 9:10 p.m. we arrived at Bangkok airport. From here on, we had to be very careful with AH1N1 and always had mask on. We went to luggage check control, so we had to take off jackets, belt, watch, camera, mobile phone, went across checking machine, and retrieved our belongings, which were very inconvenient and we had to follow every time we had a flight. After that, we took a long walk to D6 Gate and waited there sleepily and boringly for departure.
On the plane to Narita
At 11:30, we got on NH916 flight to Tokyo Narita Airport. Right now, we were totally worn out, but I couldn’t fall asleep, maybe because of the sound of plane engine, or because it was difficult to breathe with a mask on. There was a small screen at the back of front seat, which we could watch movie, listen to music, play game, and receive flight information. Therefore, I played with it until 2:30 a.m. and slept.

13th September

Arrival at Sunway Hotel
I left home at 12:45 in the afternoon with my elder brother who gave me a ride with my luggage to Sunway Hotel. When I arrived at Sunway, the outside was so quiet, but when I came in and saw the JENESYS label and two other participants, Muy Kea, Raden, it made me a bit comfortable. The supervisor at check-in desk asked me my name, my addresse, and food allergic problem. I was given room 321 card and my roommate was Sun Meng.

First Orientation
The orientation started at 2:00, but most participants from universities arrived late. There were 3 groups arranged to visit different places, Hokkaido, Aichi, and Akita, where was the destination of my group. Primarily, we were told to be punctual every time, especially in Japan. Then, we watched a video clip about the activities of students from various countries during JENESYS program, which deepened our understanding of its purpose. After that, there was introduction of JENESYS, JICE, and timetable of daily activities. We took a small break at 3:40 and ate some snack prepared by the hotel.

We started again at 3:50. They introduced the living of Japanese people and the ways of departure. Then there was the experience presentation from the former participants and the speech of the delegations chiefs. Finally, it was time for questions and answers about the doubts of all participants.

First night at Sunway
In the evening, we had buffet dinner included Japanese food. Every dish was ‘likely delicious’, but the taste was difficult to try. We took a lot of food to our plate, so most of the food was left uneaten. Everyone was not satisfied with the food at all, which was the first night of dinner we had together.
After dinner, we gathered together in one room to practice our traditional dance we had learned two weeks ago. There were still a lot of problems with Yuth because it was hard for him to catch up with the moves. Therefore, his partner, Roth, also called Srey Chas, taught him for nearly one hour. Unexpectedly, she was too exhausted and slept unconsciously due to her heart weakness. We were shocked and we tried to wake her up and applied balm to her forehead and nose. Luckily, she was fine and able to keep on going for the rest of the program. I was touched when seeing everyone was so united when facing this problem.

Before 13th September

First meeting
On 13th July, two months before the program, 14 participants were called to go to the Youth Department so as to fill in the JENESYS application form and passport requesting form. It was the first time we had seen and known each other. However, we didn’t talk to each other much because we were busy with our forms. It took US$100 for the passport.

Second meeting
On 12th August, one month before the program, we were called to Youth Department again to receive participants’ handbook for JENESYS Program 2009. There was an orientation to JENESYS and some advice from Mr. Ros Keng, the chief of delegations to Akita. Additionally, we introduced ourselves and phone number to the rest of all. Therefore, we could know each other more clearly and find out more about the program in order to make good preparation.

Khmer Traditional Dance
On 30th August, two weeks before the program, we were asked to gather at Youth Department to learn Khmer traditional dance, Rom Vong, Saravann, Lam Learv, and Rom Kbach. Although it was the first time for us to perform Khmer traditional dance, some of us could catch up quickly with the moves, while some tried to figure them out. It was fun and meaningful task which we would bring it up to JENESYS stage also to the world. The learning lasted for whole day, and we came back home waiting for the arrival of 13th September 1:00 p.m. at Sunway Hotel.

Start

A Priceless Chance
‘Is it true that I can have a chance to visit Japan?’ This is the first question I asked to myself when I was informed by my high school’s director, Mr. Koy Seda, who told me to go to youth department to find out more about this program. I was more excited when I knew there was an interview which is the gateway to Japan on 3rd July. That was the most crucial day since I was born because I realized that my life would be largely changed if I was selected. Therefore, during about 10 minutes of the interview, I tried to express my strong desire to visit Japan in English to the interviewer. One week of anxiety later, the interviewer made a phone call to my dad that I had been selected. This information made me want to fly over the moon! After two months of preparation, on 13th September, this day has eventually came…