Here the story begins...

Monday, 23rd of July
I was really excited when I arrived in Japan even though I was there a week ago with my family for vacation. It was awesome to be able to breathe the air again. I wasn't there for vacation this time. In fact, I was lucky to be selected as one of the exchange students to attend the Japanese Language & Culture Summer program, organised by Kobe university this year. A 3 weeks program with fees and accommodation provided and I basically had to pay for food and travel expenses only. It was a pretty good deal except for having to pay the expensive airfare.

I was quite confident to travel by myself as I became quite familiar with how the transport system works in Japan after the trip. However, I knew that communication would be the biggest barrier for me to overcome. I was glad, at least, I can read Japanese and many words are directly translated from English, for example to-ee-re (toilet), which you can simply figure it out eventually.

Beautiful landscape before arrival.







On the plane to Osaka. As usual, I slept most of the time during the flight and wasn't happy when the air steward woke me up at 4.30am for breakfast. I am seriously not a morning person and I felt like kicking him out of the plane.

I arrived in Kansai Airport at 7am and took a bus to Sannomiya station, Kobe which took about 1.5hours. Then, I checked-in at hotel, however the room wasn't cleared until 2pm and I was quite determined to do something meaningful so time wouldn't be wasted on the first day in Japan. I wanted to recharge my prepaid phone which Dad got for me in Tokyo when we first came, but no one could understand my Jap or should I say English. I tried a few shops and explained really hard and finally got it done. Then, I took the local train and went quite far to look for a saloon to cut my hair. Of course, I was satisfied with my new Jap haircut and it costs me about RM90, wasn't that bad I thought.

I went back to the hotel, registered with the university staff, Richard Harrison, and met a girl who also took part in the program, called Lisa who came all the way from Yorkshire, North England. I was really stressed as she could speak brilliant Japanese as she's currently doing a Master course in Japanese. I didn't dare to open my mouth in front of her. I was glad that at least, we can still communicate in English. She's a vegetarian and kinda shy I thought. My only friend who lives in Kobe, TzeChau came to visit me at night with a 2Litres Ume-shuu (plum wine). I was really glad to see him again.

I took this picture on the way from Green Hill Urban Hotel to Sannomiya Station in Kobe.









Same building, closer and different angle.










A small park right infront of Sannomiya station. I like that artistic, funny looking sculpture. And, quite many tourists as you can see in the picture. They looked as if they were posing for my photo shoot. HAha.




I forgot to take pictures of the hotel. The room was really small that I literally have no space to stand and my luggage took all the space. There was a window, but facing a wall. A small fridge and a tv. The bathroom was really small as well, at least fully-equipped with toiletries, unlike Crowne Hotel in KL.