Jenesys 2.0 Pop Culture (2013): Part 1 – Selection and Departure
3:48 PM
I should say I was so lucky got a chance to visit Japan for
a week and learning about their pop culture industry. It’s all because of Jenesys
2.0, a program by Japan Ministry of Foreign Affair (MOFA). In this post, I will
share to you my experience from excitement of selection process to a very sad
farewell. Actually I joined this program on October 2013, but I was too busy
with my master thesis.
No. I was just too lazy to write.
The Selection
Believe it or not, I saw someone posted the info on one of
my J-Pop fandom group in Facebook (Yes, when it’s called destiny, it is just
happened). It thrilled me. I mean, Japan and pop culture? Heaven!
There were three categories that we may choose: Anime,
Fashion, and Entertainment. Definitely I chose entertainment since, you know, I
am a hard fan of Arashi, hahaha. To join the selection, we need to fill the
form, attached the copy of our student ID, and a 5-minutes video of how we love
Japanese Pop Culture. The last one seems
pain in the ass but I had so much fun creating it!
When I knew it, there were just 2 days left before deadline.
So I rushed to tell my boyfriend and it was good to know that he was so
supportive. So we turned our favorite coffee shop, Veranda Café, into our work
station for that day. I worked on the storyline and my boyfriend worked on his
DSLR. When creating story line, I realized that the committee was not looking
for a hardcore otaku, but someone who could represent Indonesia in front of
other countries, had a good knowledge about Japan and its pop culture, and also
had an idea of what they were going to do after they got home with the
knowledge they got from the program. So, here are some points I brought in my
video:
- I’m a Balinese and ready to present Indonesian culture in the forum, if needed.
- I love Japan and Japanese Pop Culture, so that it encouraged me to learn Japanese language and culture.
- I was pursuing my master degree and plan to lift up one of Japanese pop culture product for my research title.
Lucky that we both, on that day, went home to Bali for
holiday. A lot of beautiful places that we could use for the shooting. Lucky
too, the café was near Bali Art Centre, so we just sneaked into an empty open-stage
and…action!
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My boyfriend was taking a test shot. Let's consider it as a sneak peak from my selection video. The video was really embarrassing for me, so I hid it after I got selected. |
The Departure
On the day I was selected, I couldn’t explain how happy I
was. It was like losing myself for a second. I went wild, hahaha. Then few days
later, someone from the Embassy called and checking for anything I need for the
departure, especially visa. Luckily, I had already owned my passport so no need
any drama to go back to Bali to create a passport. The excitement escalated
when the handbook came with the schedule. I just knew that I would not only
visit Tokyo, but also Fukuoka. Suuuuper excited!
Then the departure day was there. I went to the airport with
Jodi who happened to enroll in the same university with me, but he was in
undergraduate program. At the airport, I met other participants and although I
was kind of envy seeing their family to see them off, but hey! I was going to
go to Japan for the first time and for FREE, so no time for frown face!
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All participants from Indonesia, after a short briefing. |
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Time for coffee with the boys: Nana, Djodi, and Satria. Thanks God I had a sandwich because I couldn't survive with a piece of banana until breakfast. |
The other thing that excited me (yes, yes, a lot of things
excited me!), I was going to fly with JAL for the first time – and maybe last
time because I knew I couldn’t afford it, hahaha.
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Hap! Hap! Let's depart! |
The flight was departed at night. I was in one row with Nana
and Prisca who had given me a really fun time during the long flight. We talked
about ourselves, how we participated in the selection, and made some crazy
fantasies, for example:
Me: Have you ever imagined… That this is just a dream and
tomorrow when we wake up, we will be on our own bed and we never know each
other…
Nana & Prisca: NOOOOOO!!!!
Yeah, that was too horrible to imagine :P
When we woke up, JAL greeted us with a video of how to do
stretching after hours of sitting. Thank you, because our feet felt so numb.
Soon the cabin crew served our breakfast. I should say I liked my breakfast. Rice,
meat, bread & butter, green tea, sashimi, and one thing that had my
attention: Yakult.
Yes, I love drinking Yakult and there were two Yakult in
front of me. The bottle was bigger than the usual Yakult that is sold in
Indonesia, so I thought may...be those were Japanese Yakult. Then I turned the
bottle and read…
Sukabumi.
What the-
Ok, forget about the Yakult. We took a selfie pic on the
plane and that was the first photo I uploaded with geo-tag Japan. Wohoo!
By the way, the photo was taken before Nana poisoned us with
tomato juice that tasted like tomato sauce in canned sardines. Not JAL’s fault
at all. We just never had tomato juice tasted like that in Indonesia. Actually
Nana was just saying that the juice tasted weird, but instead of leaving it, he
offered us to taste. The juice made me and Prisca down for one day. Every time
we burped, the sick taste crawled through our throat and tickled our tongue.
Lesson learnt, Nana. Lesson learnt.
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