Why Japan

I grew up surrounded by Japanese pop culture, my dad even worked in Japan and always told me stories about Japan, so I began to grow to love the country and its culture. Japan is also a very safe country. It’s better to be careful but here, I can leave my bag at my campus’ cafeteria for an hour and when I come back, it will still be there, untouched. Here, I can walk alone as a woman at night and I wouldn’t have to worry at all.

Japanese people are very heartwarming and kind too, my Japanese friends help me a lot with settling here, helping me translate things and tell me about the trends among the Japanese teenagers, and they always tell me how strong I am for living so far away from my family.

Last but not least, Japan is such a beautiful country. I’m not talking about the public attractions, high buildings in Tokyo, Shibuya crosswalk, no. I’m talking about everything in general; nature. Japan is very clean and you can enjoy nature very well. As a student, it makes me happy that I don’t have to travel far away or use a lot of money to entertain myself—living here is such a happiness already.

Finding a University in Japan

I have always wanted to study in Japan but honestly speaking, it was difficult to research some information about universities in Japan. I tried looking up all the universities that offer English basis programs from websites, but their homepages are mostly in Japanese, or outdated. But I’m glad that my current university, Ritsumeikan APU’s website is very easy to understand and updated. I gained information about universities from my Japanese private course teacher. My sensei has a lot of connections with people who work in Japan, or regarding Japan, so I’m grateful that she helped me by recommending universities and connecting me with people that could help me with my admission.

What I Look for in a University

The first criteria I have for the university I want is simple—I want to know how much the university cares about their students. As an international student, even before coming here, I’m aware that it might be difficult for me to adapt to a new life in a new country, and I will have a lot of questions. My university is very caring towards their students. We have free consultation for our mental health or non-physical problems, a health clinic, and a career advisor as well.

The other one that is very important is how the university’s system, vision, way of teaching, and program aligns with my personal goals and how it would support me to develop myself as a person and my dream too. I feel like my current university’s system suits me very well, and has been very helpful in helping me learn and acquire more knowledge.

The last one is the environment. How accessible it would be to travel here and there, the nature, and also the people too. I did research about that by observing people who are currently studying in the university I’m applying to, and it helped me to get a sight of how it will be when I go there.

Getting Ready for Your Life in Japan

As soon as you arrive in Japan, it is very important to make sure that you have everything you need little by little. Signing up for a cell phone plan is important because in Japan, they will require you to write your phone number a lot for contact information, and if you are still using your local phone number from your home country, it might be inconvenient for them to contact you. It is also a nightmare too when your roaming runs out and you don’t have an internet connection—in a whole new country! Make sure to be connected all the time!

Opening a bank account is also important too, since speaking from my experience, international debit or credit cards can't be used in some stores, therefore I always have to have my cash ready. If you want to order something from e-commerce too, it would be easier to have a debit or credit card from a Japanese bank; sometimes my international card doesn’t work and it’s a bit troublesome.

In Japan, it has its own national health insurance and as far as I know, everyone is required to sign up for that. Each university is different but for mine, they helped me with that, so I just have to pay every month for around 2,000 yen. Health check up and hospital fee is quite expensive here, but with the insurance, you will only have to pay 30% of the total fee, which is very relieving for us international students.

In conclusion, making sure that you have all the necessary items ready with you will make you live your Japan life at ease so, good luck!

Living in Japan as a Muslim

Coming from a country where Muslim people are the majority there, it is very hard to adapt with food related stuff here. In Indonesia, the foods that Muslims are allowed to eat has its own label so we can just look at the label to know. But here, I have to find out about it myself. I had a hard time at first. I can’t eat pork, so I often seek chicken as an option of the food I eat, since I’m not very fond of vegetables so I avoid vegan labeled foods. But turns out, even a chicken nugget here could contain pork, and I was very shocked. The minced beef that I often buy in the supermarket, turns out was mixed with pork too. Even plain bread contains a bit of alcohol sometimes. Soy sauce that back then at home I used to cook, in here they often contain mirin. But, I slowly began to stop seeing this as a “struggle”. Instead, I think of this as a challenge, an adventure for me. When I’m translating the ingredients, I no longer stress only on whether it contains pork or alcohol or not, but I use it to learn Japanese too.

My advice is, be motivated and gain as much information as possible before you’re buying food! When you want to go shopping for groceries, make a list on what to buy and search in Google which brand that sells that food, but halal (okay to eat for muslims). For example you want to buy miso paste, then search “halal miso paste Japan” in advance and write down the brand, so when you’re at the supermarket, you won’t have to look at your phone, write on Google and translate the ingredients. If you even have more time, make a list of which brands are halal and which are not, to keep a note to yourself when you want to shop in the future. Also, it would be convenient to memorize the kanji or the Japanese translation of the ingredients that you are prohibited to eat, so you can understand quickly when you see the food. When you go to the restaurant, don’t hesitate to ask the staff about the ingredients. Remember, it’s not a bad thing to have a boundary of what you can eat or not. And lastly, bring your own cutleries. I think it would be hard to find a 100% halal restaurant in Japan where the cutleries are also safe from the things that we are prohibited to consume, it would be very safe to bring your own. It would be more hygienic and sustainable too! P.S. Cooking at home is the best and safest option! It helps too to have a Muslim friend whom you can share these things with, it makes you feel like you’re not alone. Connect a lot with Muslim people in Japan so you can get information about halal foods and restaurants as well. In the city I live in, there are some halal restaurants and I often go there.