Japan

After finishing my degree from Miami USA, I came back to Malaysia. Many of the people I met will always tell me "Best lah Miami". Well, it is a holiday destination but if you are thinkingabout the beach it is actually quite far (at least to us students at that time) about 30 miles from our campus. We only get to go to the beach after examinations. I am not going to talk about Miami, but my experience in visiting and living in Japan.
The return flight to Malaysia from Miami, Los Angeles took us to Narita airport near Tokyo. That was in May 1983. Our group had to stopover in Tokyo, and it was such an experience. First, I find the people don't speak English, they are very polite people. I remembered bila nak makan kat restaurant kat situ kena draw ikan.. nak draw benda lain takut nanti entah apa dia bagi makan. So the best bet is to eat fish. The next day bus was arranged to bring us to Airport. One more thing I remembered was that the airport was heavily guarded by army all around the perimeter of the airport. I know that it was a new airport built on rice field and the farmers were protesting to the opening of this new airport. Anyway, the fear is there when you are on foreign land. Next day reach KL , home sweet home. But, I fell in love with Japan from that short stopover. I told myself may be if I have chance I will go to Japan or stay there.

In between May and Spetember 1983, I was contemplating of either going to Japan under the Malaysian National Car Project training at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation with the order to report to Kementerian Pelajaran for appointment as Polytechnic Lecturer, the sponsor for my studies. I told myself that I want to practice first as engineer. So, I broke the contract and 'kena saman dengan KP'. In the meantime, I was also applying for Penolong Pensyarah at UTM, I was interviewed by Tan Sri Ainuddin Wahid. I got the job but I did not get KP release. Or the release came a bit too late, in fact one week after I left for Osaka, Japan. My mom called me and asked me to come back. I didn't want to since I was already in Japan starting to learn Japanese and enjoying the new language and the new country. It was early October 1983. I decided to continue with Japan and Proton, which is my first employer. Pergi Jepun kena sign contract 5 tahun ooh. I still remember, asking Kakak Rozlina who was taking care of us P2 trainees (13 of us) to go to Japan. Nak sign ke contract .. finally sign jugak. So Japan here I come.

The first 6 weeks was spent on studying Nihon Go. Mainichi Nihon Go O Benkyo shimasu. Taihen Muzukahi saisho ni, Mainichi sanju no tango o oboimashita. shiken mo maininchi ga arimasu. sore wa taihen ne. Shikashi Ganbattemasu. Issyokenme yarimasu. Sore o Nihon no kangae-kata. (Translation - Enam minggu pertama belajar Nihon Go -bahasa Jepun. Tiap hari belajar bahasa Jepun. Susah betul mula-mula. Tiap hari 30 perkataan kena hafal, ujian pun tiap hari, itu yang sakit tu, Tetapi Cekal dan Usaha. Buat dengan sungguh-sungguh. Itu lah cara fikir Jepun)

After that we were sent to Mitsubishi Mizushima, terus ke dalam kilang kereta dan memang belajar buat kereta dari A sampai (hampir) Z. Macam orang gila, belajar buat kereta dalam bahasa Jepun dalam masa satu tahun. Inilah pet project Mahathir. Me and my friend Aris in Body Assembling / welding had to learn as fast as possible all the things so that when we go back we can transfer that knowledge to our Malaysian workers through training, education and operations.

Japan is such a wonderful country, except may be for some of its problems like suicide. Well, tell me if there is a country with no problems. I just admire the people. They have values which are 'very Islamic' yet they are not Muslims. We are Muslims but we have 'non Islamic values'. I think Hassan Al Banna saw this same phenomena in foreign country he visited or studied. Lessons learnt is to learn and pick up values from different cultures. Wallahu 'alam