HAVE you heard of Madonna’s song Ray of Light? Let’s scrutinize the lyric of that song because that is exactly what I was feeling when I studied my master in electronics and communications engineering here in Nagano , Japan . I felt like an isolated man here surrounded by women in micro-mini skirts masquerading as college uniforms. It’s just like being flirted with various women everyday. That’s the culture pervading here in Japan . I mean not the overt flirtations of course but the atmosphere of being in an alien world filled with human like forms.

I may sound overdramatic and cynical but that was exactly how I felt. Imagine being confronted with a foreign alphabet everyday. Imagine hearing conversations where you cannot decipher any word out of it. But I have slowly overcome that because of my diligence in studying Japanese characters as well as the Japanese language. As I’m borrowing the words of Madonna, I would like to describe myself as a zephyr contemplating on my future here in Japan . My father has a stint with Fuji and I was forced to live here with him or rather the whole family was forced to live here with him.

And again borrowing the words of Madonna, I would again say that the calls of thunder are constantly threatening me as I began my day-to-day academic semester here. It was really a heartbreaking struggle I’m telling you as I really miss my home country and I miss the usual medium of instruction that I’m familiar with which is English. It’s good that international students like me who know nothing but English are separated in the university’s most technical subjects such as digital signal engineering and acoustics technology.

Because of these help that I have gotten, I have slowly overcome these struggles so quickly faster than the speed of the ray of light. It seems that I’m home like in the Philippines once again. Again, some of those words I have borrowed from Madonna’s track Ray of Light because I really felt that song have touched me while I was struggling with my very first academic semester here in Japan taking up electronics and communications engineering.

There are other inspirations that I can draw from. Being a Catholic raised in the Philippines , my faith in the Almighty has not diminished amidst all the Shinto believers all around me. These guys and gals that are my classmates everyday are all Shinto believers. They are animists. They are nature lovers. In that, I have great respect. And I’m impressed all the more with them because they respect my being Catholic. Movies about cultural awareness and tolerance such as Lost in Translation and Babel have constantly moved me too in overcoming the temptations to be depressed here. I’m here in Japan to study and not to gallivant or loiter around, that is what I was constantly saying in my mind during those enduring months. Now I’m about to graduate in my advanced electronics and communications engineering studies here. And I know I’m gonna prevail.