Interview by Myself: Traveling

Hi, let’s continue the interview. To where did you travel since living in Japan?

I traveled to wherever my friends suggested to go. Because I treasured the people with whom I traveled most rather than the destination. So, wherever it was, I would always be okay. But if you wanted to know where exactly I traveled, then I would say, we went to Hakodate, Aomori, Hirosaki, Ecorin Village, Furano, Biei, Asahiyama Park, Moerenuma Koen, Maruyama Koen, Odori Park, Noboribetsu, Yoichi, Hidaka, Tokyo, Yomiuriland, Odaiba, Kawagoe, Shinjuku, Saitama, Tsukiji and some other places I forgot right now.

Which place was your favorite?

Hirosaki, it was so beautiful during Spring. The difference with spring in Hakodate was you were not only able to see the cherry blossoms but in Hirosaki, you could also see the wonderful old castles, then both things combined beautifully. Oh my! I missed Japan again. By the way, Hirosaki is not on Hokkaido island, so you should take shinkansen or ship to reach Hirosaki. You also should prepare the itinerary, as I am pretty sure you will spend quite a lot of money.

What else is recommended to be visited around Sapporo?

As I have mentioned before, Hokkaido University is beautiful every autumn season. It was like a whole new different world, colorful and beautiful. The Ginko street near Pharmacy Department was recommended to be visited. Most of the tourists might have already known about this, so it’s always crowded during autumn. Anyway, I had another beautiful hidden place, it was around the Keteki dormitory. The building was covered with the red leaves, beautiful, you should see.

How big is your university?

Hmm, I am not that kind of person who can memorize the detail of the size and so on, you can just google it. But I would say, it covers around 14 blocks with many trees, so if you see from above, most of the green part of Sapporo is for sure the Hokkaido University. As it is spacious, so we needed to use bus or bicycle. For a slow walker like me, if I walk from the southest to the northest, I could spend 1 hour.

You mentioned before that we must plan the itinerary before traveling, if it’s okay, I would like to know how much did you usually spend?

It depends to where did we go, the most expensive were traveling around Tokyo I spent around 70 thousands yen, 3 days and 2 nights trip to Aomori I spent around 30 thousands yen, for some one day trip might be around 10 thousands yen, even I also experienced traveling without any expenses. For this case, I joined some volunteering activities, so while participating with the program I also could enjoy the city.

Who was organizing the volunteering activity, what kind of activity was it? And how many people joined the program?

Various, it’s hard for me to remember the detail of the name since mostly the name in Japanese Kanji, but as I remember something like Hokkaido International Exchange Program Division, and something like non-government organization. The activities were like teaching English to Japanese kids, doing exchange program so mostly the participants were international students from different countries, so we were like the representative of our countries, then we learned together about Japanese culture, visited historical places, and so on. So, not only volunteering, exchanging culture, I also did get so many friends.

So, what do you think about Japanese people? How did they behave?

If you asked me to answer in 3 words, then I would reply, clean, well-organized, and warm. How couldn’t you say they are clean when you couldn’t see any litter even though not so many trush bin were available. Might be, they put every litter in their own bag and throw it away when they find the trash bin. What a good habit! Everything was well-organized, all the building and home was exactly positioned in a block to another block, so no building stands out of the line. Every block forms a square with the same size so for sure the road was also well-managed, no traffic found. I also thought they were warm as every staff/officer would give their best service to you, with a warm face even though I didn’t know whether they expressed it sincerely or not. I didn’t care, the important one, they didn’t harm or hurt you. One more thing, as they behaved well and showed a very good integrity, not so many criminals caught. No pickpocket as I experienced.

So, do you like Japan?

Absolutely, I like Japan.

Do you have plan to come back? When will you visit Japan again?

Yes, I plan to. After I get the job and having stable financial, I will plan to visit Japan as a tourist. I wish to see my professors, Japanese friends, and Indonesian friends who were still in Japan.

Okay, thanks for all your answers. I am so happy to hear all of them. Hope God grants your wish!

Thanks a lot! By the way, I like to record every time I have the trip, you can check all the videos in my Youtube channel. Find it here, please subscribe and give like! Below is the example:

Hints:

Question word as subject:

Who was organizing

How many people joined

Question word as adverbial

When will you

Question word: more detail

Which part

How did they

How big

What else

How much

Question word as the object of preposition

To where did you travel