Asian Science Camp, Japan.

The aero plane was taking rounds in the air above the city of Tokyo since the runway of Narita Airport was busy. I could see the magnificent city from the window seat of the plane. It was just as I had heard; amazing, splendid, beautiful and well planned.  After a while, the aero plane lowered its altitude and finally prepared to land in Tokyo. It was the first time ever in my life that I had stepped on the Japanese soil; rather it was for the first time ever that I had been abroad. I came out of the Airbus A-380 and breathed deep into my alveoli. I could feel that I was there in Japan, but I could not believe that life will bring me here at a time I expected the least, and that too, to represent my country. I knew that Allah Almighty had always been very merciful to me and I could feel my heart was grateful for that.

As soon as I came out of the Passenger Lounge of the gigantic Narita, an elder Japanese lady was holding a placard with my name “Hamza Afzal Khattak-Pakistan”. I went to her and said “Konichiva” which means “greetings” in Japanese. She welcomed me in the most warming and hospitable way one could expect from the people of Japan. She bought me a bus ticket to Tsukuba, the educational city of Japan and the place where ASC was going to be held. She saw me off and the bus strolled towards Tsukuba, away from Tokyo. On my way, the bus passed through country sides and towns of Japan but the roads were always very clean and the traffic was disciplined. I kept wondering what was it that made these people work so hard. It took almost 1 and a half hour to reach Tsukuba. Finally, when I reached Tsukuba,  a Japanese lady received me and took me to my hotel which was nearby. We were accompanied by our team leader Dr. M. Aslam Baig of NCP. I was allotted a luxurious room on the 7^th floor. I was glad the hotel was five stars. As soon as I entered my room and put the room card in the unlock, all the lights suddenly came to life and lit the room.

I left my bags in the room and went to have dinner as my stomach was growling with hunger. As soon as I reached the dining hall, I was awestruck to see almost 200 people had arrived from all across Asia. There were Japanese, Chinese, Koreans, Thais, Kazakhs, Georgians, Malaysians, Indonesians, Indians and all other races of Asia one could expect at a camp which was organized by the Nobel Laureates themselves. Afterwards, we made introductions with many people and it felt very good to meet other delegates who were so warm hearted. We were five Pakistanis and made good friends with many people very soon. After dinner, we all went back to our hotel rooms. Salaar Pirzada, Saim Shujaat and I decided to cook some instant noodles since the Japanese food did not appeal to our taste buds. Soon, a delicious chat patta noodles bowl was ready and we enjoyed that until our tummies begged us to stop this tyranny. I had a separate room while Salaar and Saim were in another room, together.

The next day had a tight schedule since there were lectures from Nobel Laureates in the morning, a camp in the afternoon and then a Group Discussion Session in the evening. We had small breaks though, and there were times of lunch and dinner where we could relax a bit and talk to other delegates in a light mood. We always enjoyed talking to each other about our countries, our cultures and our people. All the sessions would get off at about 9 PM at night so we were free to roam about Tsukuba a bit until 11 PM and then return to the hotel. Tsukuba was a clean and calm town but actually, a very big educational city which accommodated all the famous research centers of Japan.  

The organizers of the camp had us all participants divided into groups of five, with all the five members of any group to be from different countries. My group had members from Singapore, South Korea, India and Taiwan each. Five Nobel Laureates which included Makoto Kobayashi, Leo Esaki, Ada Younath, Ei-ichi Negishi and Yuan T. Lee, delivered lectures to us which were really great to listen to. We had discussions with the Nobel Laureates and discussed the problems faced by the humans of the world and how to deal with them.  At the end of the camp, the Nobel Laureates asked us to make a poster based on the ideas we had learnt from their lectures as well as put some of our own creative restlessness into it and then present in the best possible way.  Everyone worked hard to make the poster. It took us almost three days to give it our final touch and then took it to the main hall and thumb-pinned it for presentation. The competition was tough since every poster was really amazing and nobody knew which six lucky teams would get the prize. Cadet College Hasan Abdal had taught me confidence, courage and the art of public speaking which came in handy that day. My team decided to let me do the presentation since the poster making and creative buzz in it was my idea and I would make others understand that better. There was a large number of students and explaining my ideas to them all time and again made my throat go soar so I asked my team mates to take turns and that I would only take it once a Nobel Laureate or any instructor came to the scene. Things went really good and many people admired us but I hoped they actually vote for us as well. Not very far away, I could see my friend Saim busy with his own poster. Same was the case with Salaar Pirzada and the other two delegate girls. There were two categories of winners which were to be announced later that evening during that closing ceremony of the camp.  One category included the three winners chosen by the teachers, instructors and Nobel Laureates and the other category included the top three best teams of the event voted by the participants themselves, called “The Best Players”. After the presentation came to an end, we all went to the

Conference Hall and took our seats. I just hoped that some Pakistani makes it and get the prize. I wanted to see my country on the stage of honour and I desired to hear the Laureates announce our names. The first category of Best Players was announced and my heart jumped with joy the moment they announced our team 8-D as one of the three winner teams. We went to the stage, being applauded by the audience and then received our awards which interestingly, also included the traditional Japanese fan. Afterwards, Makoto Kobayashi honoured us and set to announce the other category. In the second category, Saim’s team was also announced as one of the three winners. He was really happy to hear his team name and I could see that joy on his face. We were all glad that two of the five Pakistanis made it and got the honours. For the two of us, we were even happier for the reason when Saim and I returned from the Honour Stage, we hugged each other and I whispered the words into his ear,” Abdalian Once, Abdalian Forever!!”

We had a trip to Tokyo on the 29^th of August. Buses were ready to take us in after our breakfast.. Tokyo was a city which cannot be described in words. As we were on our way to the Science Museum, the road ran along a river which flowed gently into the ocean.  There were wind turbines on the other side of the river beside the ocean shore and a seaport a little farther. On our way, a Japanese guide commentator kept telling us about everything which came on our way and also asked us to pray for Tokyo to win the bid of hosting the 2020 Olympics, which Tokyo actually won from Istanbul two days after we came back to Pakistan. We reached the science museum soon and got off the bus. There were some very amazing things like the submarine interior, the surgery corner, the online weather globe, the city, the Solar System and many more attractions. After visiting the science museum, the ASC buses took us to “Oedo Oenson Monogatari”, actually a place which accommodates some of traditional Japanese bazaars, Japanese traditional restaurants, foot bath and few other attractions.

 At night there was a farewell party as well as a cultural function. Pakistani delegates sang “Dil Dil Pakistan” which everyone else really enjoyed and kept saying Dil Dil even after we came down from the stage. At the end of the function, everyone went very sentimental and some even started crying. I knew it deep inside that I would have an exciting next day in Tokyo but just to go along with the flow of the river, I too, expressed deep grief at the end of such a wonderful camp. I didn’t sleep that night and waited for the sun to rise not just because of my excitement of the incoming day, but I wanted to see the sun rise in the Land of the Rising Sun; maybe to become the first person in the world to see the sun rise for that day. I changed my clothes and got my stuff packed and ready. Everyone went for breakfast. The buses were already there to take everyone to the airport. We also went along and saw everyone off at the airport.

We were finally there at Tokyo, Narita Airport and the next best thing we needed to do after seeing everyone off was to go and find a good economical hotel in Tokyo. We searched for hotels on the internet at the airport and finally decided to take a Narita Express Train to “Ueno” town of Tokyo. When we arrived at the hotel, with heavy bags carried all along, the hotel staff told us that we should have made a reservation two hours prior. Hotel rooms are not booked directly in Tokyo. They felt great difficulty in speaking English so we would consult Saim’s “English to Japanese Translator” book every now and then. They made a reservation for us at another hotel and told us to make it there in. When we arrived at the new hotel, we were surprised to see that it was actually a traditional Japanese style hotel. Saim and Salaar were so tired that they were fast asleep in a few moments.

The next day, we all woke up from our slumber, fresh and excited about exploring Tokyo. We got ready, took our Subway Train Passes with our back packs and headed towards the tourist information center. They gave us maps, famous tourist spot pamphlets, tourist guide books and everything else one would need for roaming about in a great city like Tokyo. We went to Tokyo Sky Tree, Ueno Park, Ueno Zoo, Akhihabara Anime Park where all the famous Japanese anime outlets were, Metropolitan building, Asakusa and many other such interesting places but mentioning all their names will take you away from the story. In the evening, we came back to our hotel and decided to move to a Youth International Hostel which was not very far. YIH actually proved a very interesting place with tourists from different countries staying there and talking in a friendly environment about each other’s countries in the Main Common Room. The next day also went with us exploring all the exciting places mentioned in the tourist guide books. Salaar would always make us eat a fish burger everytime we came across McDonalds and believe me, there were almost a thousand McDonalds in Tokyo and at least one in every street. We made sure not to miss a single famous place there and Salaar made sure not to miss a single McDonalds in Tokyo.

 On the last evening, we all decided to try going to the last place on our list “The Tokyo Disneyland”, one of the only three in the world, the other two being in California and Paris each. We did not expect it to be something big, rather very similar to all other ordinary places. We took the Maihama train to Disneyland at night since there was a certain 50% discount that night and the Disney Character Parade as well. When arrived at the resort, the scene was truly dramatic. There was an ocean of people and all flowing towards the main gate. There was a special Disney Railway for visitors. I took as many pictures as I could and made sure not to miss even a single moment. When we entered, there was a World Bazaar which had all character

chocolate shops, cartoon figures, candies and all the other interesting stuff a kid can dream of. After the bazaar, there was that place I had only seen in cartoons and maybe even in dreams, but here that was, standing tall in front of us with an ocean of people gathered to have a look at that magnificent building “The Disney Cinderella Castle”. We went all around the park and enjoyed as much as we could. We returned to our Youth Hostel at about 11 PM at night after watching the Disney Parade. It was indeed a day I will remember for a long time of my life. We all enjoyed a lot that day and explaining all that is very difficult indeed.

When I came to open my facebook account after the visit to Disneyland, I came to know that the Ambassador of Pakistan in Tokyo wanted to meet the three of us. We had our return flight to Pakistan the next day at 5 PM so meeting the ambassador seemed difficult for us. But he actually sent a car the next morning to pick us from our Youth Hostel and dropped us at the embassy, something, which I admired a lot. We had a lunch with the ambassador and I found him a very jolly and a nice person. He had an inspirational personality and I was really impressed by him. “Pakistan has chosen the right man for Tokyo after all”, I said to myself during the meal after I interacted with him a little. We discussed our experience of the camp and our impression of Tokyo. The best thing I liked at the embassy was the Pakistani food, to be more precise, Pakistani rice, with the already familiar Pakistani flavours. It tasted great sin

ce we got to eat that after so many days, and that too, in Tokyo. After lunch, he sent us to the airport and I kept admiring the hospitality of that man deep in my heart. “Pakistan actually needs ambassadors like him in every country”, I would tell myself after every moment or two. That was when we left Japan for Pakistan with a stop-over at Bangkok.

        I got to see many things in Japan, most important of which is their good manners and love for their own traditions. The Japanese have made great progress in science and technology and this was evident from everything I saw in Japan. Every part of the country spoke for itself and for us, there was no need to ask why; we knew it already. They were the most hardworking people among all the people of the world! Professor Leo Esaki, one of the Nobel laureates told us that he was a young man studying in the University of Tokyo during World War II. The Americans were bombing the capital while their Physics teacher went on, completely ignoring the bombing. He turned around and said to them, “Don't allow anything to become an obstacle in your quest for knowledge, no matter what it is.”