Tired of the long journey (actually not that bad for me since it was only a six hour flight and time different was just an hour ahead of Malaysia), all participants were given a break until the next day at 1000.

That afternoon, I didn’t sleep – I had four hours rest from Singapore to Osaka and another, maybe, half an hour while traveling to Okinawa.

I didn’t realize there was a Malaysian in OIC before he, Amran Hamzah of EPU, knocked my door and greet me 'salam'. He said he knew about my arrival from the newsletter circulated to all JICA participants here. Amran’s course was Network Engineering. He had been here since July and would be staying here until November 22, 1997. After getting to know each other, we went for a dinner.

Then, we headed to a nearby shop for small shopping. Here, he showed me some kind of bread that could be consumed. One of them was OKIKI. Since all characters are in Japanese, he said he himself didn’t understand what was written, but some Malaysian students in several universities nearby had told him that. As for the case of instant noodles, he didn’t recommend anyone of them since edible oil being used was questionable. Other things bought were laundry detergent, plastic container, liquid dishwasher, etc. He promised me to show some other places during our stay here.

Well, Amran was very happy that at last there was a Malaysian coming here to join him, after spending time here for two months alone. However, I was kind of frustrated again when I told him I would be leaving OIC just five days before he does. At night, I made a courtesy call back home using Malaysia Direct – thank you so much to Telekom Malaysia for providing this facility to a staff during official business or training overseas. All members of my family were fine – they just missed me. I believe once a week communication would surely be OK to us.

I spent my first time in the computer facilities browsing through Internet and creating hotmail Internet mail. Somehow rather my several months earlier couldn’t be used since I forgot the password. I managed to send a couple of mails to my brother-in-law and office-mate. Thus, if 6 min/week courtesy call from Telekom Malaysia was not enough, an e-mail would convey more messages in one go – minus the verbal sound, of course.