Before going to Japan for study, Yap from Sin Chew Daily gave me a lot of encouragement and support. He said: Go ahead, Japan will be an exciting stop in your life journey! Meanwhile, KL’s Japanese language tour guide Norman also reassured me: Don’t worry, my old friend in Tokyo Tham-san will take good care of you!

As if that’s not enough, my bus ticket from Narita Airport to Shinjuku station was courtesy of Tham-san. The Japanese national originally from Hong Kong was already at the station waiting for me, and took me for dinner afterwards.

In the meantime, Lim made the necessary arrangements for me to check into the student hostel, while NK offered me tremendous help at school.

So, right from my very first day in Japan, I was lucky to have so many wonderful people offering me invaluable assistance.

And soon, the eight-month language course came to a close. After passing the language aptitude test, I had to start preparing for the admission tests of some of my favourite universities, and that was really tough.

In April 1992, I successfully made it to the faculty of economics at private Tokyo International University, and subsequently moved to the university town in Kawagoe city in Saitama prefecture. In addition to my studies, I also had to worry about the at least 50,000 yen (RM2,000) monthly living expenses on top of the million yen annual tuition fee.

Fortunately, foreign students were allowed to work up to 20 hours a week to earn hourly wages between 750 and 1,000 yen. As a matter of fact, earning monthly expenses in Japan is not that difficult but the reality is, you need to work hard at work and still take care of university attendance. What worried us more was the exorbitant tuition fees. Among Malaysian students, we regularly raised funds to help pay one another’s tuition fees.

For overage senior students like me, there were actually some unwritten rules in Japan: students above the age of 25 could not sit for the admission tests of public universities and it was difficult for them to apply for scholarships, too. Luckily, different prefectural governments in Japan would provide 30% annual tuition fee rebates for oversea students, and I was offered the rebate facility for two years.

In fact, Japan is an excellent destination for foreign students. Different prefectural governments have been particularly friendly to oversea students, offering all sorts of perks, including hourly work, medical and healthcare facilities.

I would like to encourage young people to take up part-time jobs while studying in Japan in order to experience life in Japan for a period of five to seven years. Moreover, the Japanese government has through its Embassy in Malaysia offered all-free scholarships to ten Malaysian students each year to study at national universities in Japan.

Talking about my work-study life in Japan, I was offered an hourly job at the trading company cum restaurant of Tham-san’s Thai employer. The salary was quite good, but I still had to earn my tuition fees! So, through the recommendation of the Taiwan travel agency managers I knew back in Malaysia, I visited several GA agencies in Tokyo specialising in Taiwan inbound tours, and was lucky to have been assigned small tour groups during my first year summer vacation, ferrying tourists for the short 3D2N Tokyo-Mt Fuji-Hakone or similar routes.

The most wonderful thing was that there were always holidays throughout the year. In just two months, I managed to build up my industrial reputation as well as income base. Later, I also played host to tour groups from other places such as Hong Kong, the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia. That was how “Lee San from Malaysia” came to be known in Japan’s inbound industry.

Notably, there was this time I hosted the incentive group of Menard beauty products from Malaysia, and everyone was so content with the trip that soon afterwards I received a letter of appreciation from Menard’s GM Danny Chen, who said I was the one and only best tour guide he had come across.

There was also this unforgettable Hong Kong group whereby one of the members sent me a book by Chua Lam, to whom he said I had a lot in resemblance, after he returned to Hong Kong.

Wherever we are heading to in life, our success will very much depend on whether we are willing to take the first step. Those who encouraged me to go to Japan had themselves experienced the equally tough journey. We will only earn applause by supporting one another. With that in mind, I have decided to hold fast to the same belief in future, by encouraging more young people to go to Japan for study.

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.)