Last Updated on January 7, 2019
Hai all, so this time I’ll write about my trip to Japan. Me and 3 other Bogor Agricultural University (IPB) are chosen to represent our university in the Twin College Envoy Program hosted by Chiba University. We are enrolled in the Trial Course, which include 10 day stay and visit in Chiba. So basically this is my first time traveling to Japan and you could guess that I am super excited!
The process to acquire visa and other documents are relatively easy. Plus the steps to get Japanese VISA in the embassy is very clear. So we have no problem at all with immigration process. We were also funded by JASSO and IPB Ditmawa for transport and during the stay there. All we need to prepare are our presentation, souvenirs from Indonesia and enough clothes to last early Autumn in Japan. Yeay!
Our flight to Narita was scheduled on October 5 with a transit in Hong Kong using Cathay Pacific. Now the funny thing is, on the day that we are supposed to arrive in Narita, a typhoon was due to hit the Tokyo area. We were expecting a bit of delay, so we thought it was no big deal. We didn’t predict the typhoon anyway when we bought the tickets hahaha.
When October 5th finally arrived, it was somewhat hard to leave because it was coincidentally Idul Adha holiday 🙁 So kind of missed out on eating as many ketupat and opor ayam plus sate that I want, but hey I’m going to Japan! So on Sunday, after the Idul Adha prayers, I ate breakfast and get ready to head to Damri Botani Square to catch the bus to the airport. I was accompanied by Arga (of course hihi) and my fellow Trial Course participant, Ka Cici & Ridho. Mba Tintin met us at the airport since she was bringing her family.
We took off to Hong Kong at 14.35 sharp (I’m impressed, Cathay). It was a pleasant flight since the entertainment and food was great. The chair is a bit stiff though and there were a lot of toddlers on board, but I got the window seat so it was cool. In the 4 hour trip, I managed to catch up on couple of movies that I missed. I watched Transformers 4 (yawn, so long) and half of 22 Jump Street (HILARIOUS!).
We finally reached Hong Kong at 20.35 local time and by the time we got out the plane, jeng jeng jeng, 2 Cathay staff went to talk to us. Turns out that our flight that was supposed to be on Monday in 01.00 was delayed until 10.00 because of the typhoon! Alhamdulillah, Cathay had us all set up with a free hotel room at the Regal Airport Hotel (1 person per room!), free dinner at the Shanghainese restaurant – The Dragon Inn and a 75 Hong Kong dollar breakfast in any resto/fast food counter of our choice in airport! Thank you Cathay! It was a super awesome and thoughtful layover. Too bad there is demonstration in the city area, because turns out that our flight was delayed again until 11.00. We could’ve had a city tour wkwk.
We finally got on the flight to Narita at 11.00. I managed to finish 22 Jump Street and start watching Godzilla on board while waiting to arrive hahaha. I’ll finish it on the flight back in 11 days. So our first leg of the trip is mostly spent on airplanes, hotel and plane. Hopefully more good luck and fun surprises awaits us in Japan!
Writen on board CX 524. 14.47 local time.
Excuse the pictures, not transfered yet to the laptop. More stories soon! 😀
