Late 1990, it was a great joy to learn that a Kuen Cheng High School girl guide whom I knew Lim, was admitted into Japan’s widely acclaimed Waseda University, and the excitement ignited my dream of pursuing my studies in Japan.

With a little help from her, my application was finally approved, and on April 5, 1991, I stepped into the Japanese language school of Tokyo International University to begin my senior student life at the age of 27.

Back then, my Malaysian classmates NK and CH among others, were aged between 19 and 22. Due to my longer social experiences, very soon I became their Big Brother!

As a matter of fact, I was still taking a Taiwanese group in Penang barely three days before my scheduled departure for Japan from KL. To be honest, I could hardly speak a word of Japanese at that time, nor had I had any interaction with the Japanese people up close previously. Anyway, when I sat quietly inside the classroom learning the language from scratch, I came to realise that Japanese was not at all a difficult language to learn, and after about ten days, I slowly learned to handle the language!

I lived at an antiquated double-story hostel in Toyama-cho about 20 minutes’ walk from the college. There were a total of ten small rooms measuring four tatamis each over two floors. The residents had to share a common kitchen and toilet. There was no bathroom inside the hostel. If we wanted to take a bath, we would have to walk 15 minutes to a traditional public bath house (sento) and pay 100 yen each visit. I experienced this kind of life for nine whole months, and really missed those three years being a tour guide in Malaysia, with nice food and luxurious accommodation.

In Tokyo, the most unbearable was the 40 degrees scorching heat during the summer when for several nights in a row I had to sleep next to the fountain inside a public park until the kind police uncle told me nicely to go back to my non-aircon hostel.

I had to work to partly finance my studies. Seven days after arriving in Japan, I managed to find a part-time dish-washing job at a nearby Chinese cuisines restaurant with the help of a Chinese student living in the same hostel, dinner included. The restaurant’s 40-year-old owner Toyoda-san used to work as a sous chef at a Hong Kong restaurant in Yokohama’s Chinatown and was very good at Cantonese dishes.

As a matter of fact, Toyoda-san not only gave me a job, his wife also taught me Japanese through singing children’s songs. He also took me to the other restaurants for sake and supper. During holidays, he and his family of four would take me along for outings and fruit-picking. They treated me as a part of their family, and Toyoda-san remained my statutory guardian in Japan.

For 24 years from 1996 to 2020, I would make annual trips to Tokyo to visit Toyoda-san and his wife and take the opportunity to savor my most favourite dumplings and Mapo tofu. Unfortunately, the restaurant was shuttered on Feb 13, 2021 because of the pandemic. I wasn’t there to offer a word of comfort in person, but managed to get my son who had settled down in Tokyo to visit him on my behalf.

While I was attending the Japanese language class in Takadanobaba neighbourhood, I normally had my lunch at Madam Eng’s Southeast Asian food stall. When Madam Eng, who is from Malaysia, first arrived in Tokyo, she had to find some way to make money to pay for her expenses, and had set up a small stall selling all-you-can-eat Malaysian and Southeast Asian dishes for only 300 yen per pax. We later became good friends. Unfortunately I lost contact with her after some years, but heard that she was doing quite well now.

In April 1992, I finally made it to the faculty of economics at Tokyo International University, but the tuition fee was a whopping RM40,000 a year!It appears to me that work-study has become a compulsory subject for many foreign students like me.

During my four years in university, I worked as a delivery boy for a Thai cooking ingredient company, a restaurant kitchen assistant, a part-time tour guide, and so on. The tough life during those few years made me realise that we really needed the help of friends while abroad and that the assistance they extended to me had been extremely precious.

Among those who helped me a lot were Mr and Mrs Toyoda, Koh-san, fellow Malaysian classmates in Japan, my Thai boss Wattana, Tham from Hong Kong, the travel agency’s lady boss Maggie, etc. They continued to offer their invaluable assistance when I came back to KL in 1996 to start my travel business.

More in the Isshōkenmei series

(Lee San is Founder and Group Executive Chairman of Apple Vacations. He has travelled to 132 countries, six continents, and enjoys sharing his travel stories and insights. He has also authored five books.)