This weekend, my friend from Indonesia came to Japan to do a photo-shoot. It’s like killing two birds with one stone as he hasn’t been to Japan before. FYI, my friend is a photographer who often took Pre-wedding photo shoot projects. This time, he brought along another photographer and one make-up artist to help him on this project. They were really nice and friendly.
Honestly, it’s been a while since the last time I hung out with Indonesian people who reside in Indonesia. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I’m racist whatsoever, but Indonesians who live in Japan, they emit a different aura. Somehow they are more reticent and holding back in oppose to typical Indonesians who are more lively, spontaneous, hipsterish – you name it. I know it sounds silly, but maybe I just missed being surrounded by this kind of people.
Since they had no clue about going into places in Japan, I voluntarily offered myself to show them around. Long story short, I took them to the most renowned place in Japan for youngsters- the famous Shibuya crossing. This place would be the stage for the pre-wedding photo-shoot he’s going to hold as I wrote this. I know it sounds crazy, but apparently, it becomes famous among photographers to hold a photo session in this spot due to the thrills and challenges it offers.
Today, I’m planning to take them to do some sightseeing around Yoyogi Park, Meiji Jingu Shrine, and Omotesando. You can easily do this without worrying about taking the train because it’s close to each other. That afternoon, we filled our empty stomach with really cheap yet super tasty sushi in Shibuya. If you are on a budget and don’t know what to eat in Shibuya, I recommend you to try Uobei sushi restaurant in Shibuya. One plate of sushi only costs as much as 100 yen, and they have a lot of selections, ranging from sushi, ramen, tempura, desert, and whatnot. Their Ebi Tempura Roll and Egg Custard have always been my favorite.
Once we’re full, we headed straight to Yoyogi Park. On our way to Yoyogi Park, we dropped by Donkihote, a famous Japanese ‘random’ store, because my friend wanted to buy some green tea powder as a present for her mom. This shop is literally random as it sells random stuff. You can find almost anything here, from souvenirs to perverted items.
Once we arrived at Yoyogi Park, we’re amazed at how the leaves have changed their colors. I didn’t realize that time flew so fast. It seemed like I just came here the other day and everything looked green. Now, it was all reddish and yellowish. Fall has always been my favorite season of the year. Without any hesitations, we took out our cell phone and took some pictures there. Little did we know that we actually had spent almost one hour stopping at Yoyogi Park only for the sake of taking some narcissistic pictures.
Then we stopped at Meiji Jingu Shrine. It’s a bit cloudy that day, but we’re lucky enough to see a marriage ceremony that was held there. My friend also took a picture with some local cute kids dressed in a kind of traditional clothes.
After a while, we started to get tired. We took a little break by sitting on the border of a flower bed around Omotesando. Then, a cameraman and a reporter for a local TV station, TBS, approached me. They were holding a sign board saying “Can you speak Japanese? Do you mind for an interview?” and I nonchalantly agreed to it.
They started to interview me. I was a bit flustered for a few seconds until I finally got my grip. They asked if I could speak Japanese and I told them that my Japanese was not perfect. Then, they started to bombard me with random questions in Japanese. They asked about my opinion regarding overtime work in Japan. They also asked me about my point of view about US president-elect Donald Trump. Not to mention they also asked me about my opinion regarding the prohibition of someone who has tattoos to enter onsen.
Truth be told, it took me several minutes of stammering to answer some specific questions. It’s not that I didn’t know how to say it in Japanese, I didn’t even know how to answer it in my own mother tongue.
I thought it was all a mess until I received a phone call from them the next day. To my surprise, they wanted to feature me as one of the guest speakers on their TV program. I was freezing for several second in disbelief, as I didn’t know how to respond to that question. To be honest, I felt excited, yet at the same time, I was afraid that I didn’t have enough Japanese ability to engage in their questions. Furthermore, some questions might be tricky and I didn’t want to talk bad about my workplace as I have the best job now and it’s far from the typical Japanese company kind of working style. Well, I hope everything will go well.
Anofebriano 