Today, Three Years Ago

Today, three years ago, I made my first step into a whole new world. With a big black suitcase and a blue backpack, I gathered all the courage to welcome a new life ahead of me. A new life in a city called Kyoto, a city which up until today I proclaim as the most beautiful city in the world.

I still remember clearly the time I board the plane to Osaka, with final destination Kyoto. I still remember the first taste of air in Japan, humid and hot. Swarming through long highway, I set my eyes the first time in Kyoto station. Only that I forgot the picture until the view of Japan Post Office near Ritsumeikan came into life. Then, they drop us off at Ritsumeikan peace museum, the place where I would spent my first week in Kyoto. A place where I met for the first time my long-lost sister, Kisi and a good friend I wish to visit one day, Anne.

The first meeting was followed by many more. Bryan, Gyuri, Peri, Ilya, Andika, Irene, Osaze, Gillian, bu Henni, are among them who I met in my first week there. A seed of friendship was planted between us, in a hope to remain strong in the years ahead.


I remember clearly how the office took us for a tour around the school. To introduce us with International Relations department and a place called kenkyushitsu or we used to call as research room. Kenkyushitsu is a place that I call my second home for the rest of the two years. It was a place where I study, chat, open internet, work, sleep, eat, drink, read, and anything. It was my second home. A second home that holds a special memory in my heart. Cause in that place, I fall in love for the first time to a love that knows no boundary and time.

And who am I to forget how crazy we were those first week. The craziness from dealing with new houses and all administrative things. I barely skipped even a visit to the housing agency those week. Look for one house after another. To find one that suits more to our money rather than our search for luxurious comfort. I barely skipped the visit to the local office too, to get my alien card and health insurance. And the phone! the only thing that I want that week. So I can make a phone call back home. Me and Kisi decided to have similiar white softbank phone, the one that witness the ups and down in our life in Kyoto for the next two years.

With a blink of an eye, two years later, the amazing journey was ended. In a glorious ceremony called graduation. Nothing but a smile cover our face that day. No tears were supposed to be shed tough I myself was a crybaby that day. Knowing that at this point of my life, I could be bidding farewell to the love that I never knew could be so strong.

Here I am, three years later, remembering just how beautiful the friendship that I have back in Kyoto. The friendship that keeps me alive to date in a hope of meeting each other again.

My dear friend, I love you
Today, I whisper to the world for a million time that one day the world would be kind to us and give us time to be together again. Until that day, shiawase ne..