It was the night of September 28th, 2009. I arrived at the Tokachi-Obihiro airport still clueless of what this city looks like. I was expecting of a very urbanized city with beautiful lights and skyscrapers. I was expecting that Obihiro is a city similar to Tokyo. After getting my luggages, I was picked up by my tutor-labmate. As we travel, I was so surprised of what I was seeing. Trees, lots and lots of trees… and total darkness.

We finally arrived at the university and a strong smell welcomed us. It was the smell telling me that this place ain’t Tokyo. It was the strong smell of nitrogen and ammonia coming from the cattle farm. Yes, Obihiro is a city but it is an agricultural city. I was wrong.

Loneliness suddenly sinked in to me. This was the first time that I will live alone and far from my family. I went to the phone booth at the entrance of the university to make a call home… disappointedly, the phone was out of service. So I just returned to my room and forced myself to sleep.

Well, that’s just my first night in Japan and the rest is history.

Happy 6th, Japan!!!