Watashi no Sumai Machi?

That's a bad Japanese translation may be. Machi --> City, Sumai --> home

This is a new home town for me? Yes, though might not be the last one.
It's been three weeks here and I now realize that I have started to enjoy living here.

Oubaku is a Small town at the hinterland of Kyoto. Well, not really hinterland because along the roads from Kyoto to Oubaku, a city I am living, urbanized areas exist. Oubaku has a steep topography. On the northeast of my dorm, nice and green hills are located. This good view reminds me of Bandung or Lembang. Bandung actually is comparable with Kyoto though the latter is much cleaner of course. Topographically they are the same and therefore they look similar for me.

Bandung had been a home town for me for eight years before I departed to Enschede. Bandung has many places I like to spend time for. Places for hang out, for inspiration, for sport, for study, etc are available there. Staying in Bandung for quite a long time has made me able to locate almost any place in this city. Additionally having educated at urban planning, I personally have got a lot of sense of city. I am sure that I will come back again and again to visit Bandung in the future , to gain memory, to meet friends, to sense the city.

Enschede gave me another sense that I had never felt before. Surprisingly I did not feel any home sick in Enschede nor I came back to Indonesia during my stay in Enschede. Some friends of mine felt homesick which I did not. Of course there were though times when I had through, but it was not about Enschede. So, kleurdestad! I enjoyed biking with my old bicycle, shopping to the open market, eating fish in the open market, hanging around at BS and Indonesian and other Foreign Students. 18 months in Enschede passed and gave memorable time as well as a lot of constributions. One of the most contributions is learning how to cook from ITC (International Training for Cooking), hehehe.

Here now Oubaku, Kyoto. The first two weeks I spent here were not enjoyable due to culture shocks and also language problem. They are nice but they just can't help you. Many times I asked people when I needed something in Japanese but many times I did not get what I want. A week after I arrived, I got lost because I could not locate the way to Kyoto Univ. Walking around the station and asking people just ended me up to wrong destination. What a stressful! Luckily there are friends here who helped a lot during the time. Otherwise, it would have been difficult for me because of the language problem. Once I had a problem with my temporary residence permit (syomesyo) with the officers of postal office (yubinkyoku). They took away that letter but I could not ask back because I do not know Japanese. Later I could tell them because I asked my Japanese professor to write a letter for me in Japanese and I passed the letter to the postal officer. Truly language barrier is a problem!

I decided to take Japanese course in trying to better communicate here. Finally it works! After two weeks taking the course I can now be able to read some Japanese Hiragana and Katakana which are basic letters. And during the course I have learnt some phrases to communicate in Japanese. This really helps a lot. Also friends in my laboratory here are really generous and kind. It provides me a nice way to adapt living here. Things become easier to cope when you can communicate and here they are what I am facing here.

Though a lot of things of Japanese have I not known, but nevertheless I have started loving living here. I hope to have this city for my other home town, to be watashi no Sumai Machi(my city). Some time, I hope in this near future.

DRS Lab, KU