Tokyo Limbo
Hey howdy hey to the five people that still visits my blog, it I. Hiatus is no more.
Shameless plug, but during my leave, I decided to make a new "project", if you could call it that, which I called Incoherent and Verbose. What it is is basically me trying to write fiction, and just all-around attempting to write more seriously. It's gonna be all in English, unlike this blog, so yeah. Come check it out if you like, it would be much appreciated!
Shameless plug, but during my leave, I decided to make a new "project", if you could call it that, which I called Incoherent and Verbose. What it is is basically me trying to write fiction, and just all-around attempting to write more seriously. It's gonna be all in English, unlike this blog, so yeah. Come check it out if you like, it would be much appreciated!
Good gravy, 2020, eh? What else is there to say about this godforsaken year that isn't already a low-hanging fruit? One second, I was celebrating new years on the job, another second passed and I suddenly graduated university (though I have no cap 'n gown photos to show for it), and bing bang bop, before I knew it I'm stranded in Tokyo living in the corner of my high school friend's apartment room.
Also, we're already more than halfway through the year, which means my year 22 is coming very, very soon.
Help.
So, what have I been up to within the two, almost three, months I was away?
Well, for starters, like I said before, I am now in the big city of Tokyo. Yes, I'm no longer living in that rinky dink old people small town of Beppu. But you know, in hindsight, Beppu was not that much of a rinky dink town after all. It is to my dismay to confess that this Big City Jakarta Boi had perhaps grown fond of the rustic, Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley-esque life, to the point where the idea of growing crops and tending to my cows don't sound that bad of an idea.
Man, what I wouldn't give to be a cattle farmer deep in the mountains of Mongolia.
Oh, just in case you were wondering, yes, Beppu and Tokyo are quite far apart.
About 1,000km far, give or take.
How did I end up here?
The initial plan was for me to go back to motherland in April, but it just so happens that the pandemic was ramping up during said period of time. Flights were cancelled left and right, airports are closed, and the plan went straight into the bin.
Untungnya, visa pelajar gue baru habis tiga bulan setelah kelulusan, so I graduated March, my visa was supposed to expire June. Tapi, gue juga dapet e-mail dari sekolah gue yang bilang bahwa selepas bulan Maret, I could no longer work part-time karena, well, gue bukan lagi seorang pelajar, dan kemungkinan besar akan dianggap pekerja ilegal.
It didn't end there. To move out of my apartment, I had to inform my landlady one month in advance, so obviously, I told her I was moving out end of April. Obviously, due to the change of plans, I later told her I wasn't going to move out. She was okay with it, tapi karena dia udah terlanjur dapet calon penunggu baru untuk kamar gue, I was only given until the end of May.
Fuck.
Now I'm stuck, jobless and about to be homeless.
Mantap djiwa.
This is gonna be the end of me, gue pikir. Dua bulan ke depan, akan ada satu kolom berita kecil di satu ujung halaman koran Kompas dengan headline "Jasad WNI Ditemukan di Selokan Kota Jepang".
Dalam kurun waktu ini, gue bingung sebingung-bingungnya, because the world was on fire and there's nothing I could do about it. Meskipun begitu, entah kenapa gue merasa... I dunno, tenang?
Selama bulan Maret, gue yang sudah lulus jadi punya banyak banget waktu lowong, and I had even more free time in April karena gue tidak lagi sekolah maupun kerja, and it gave me more than enough time to explore Beppu City to my heart's content. Beppu merupakan kota yang sangat kecil, hanya sekitar 125km² luasnya. Kebanyakan penduduknya juga merupakan lansia, sisanya murid-murid universitas gue. Serame-ramenya kota ini, suasananya tetap terasa sepi dan nyaman. Karena keadaan kotanya yang jarang ada masalah, patroli polisi juga jarang ada, which means come nighttime, I'm free to explore the nooks and crannies of Hot Springs City.
And, well, that's what I did. For almost two months.
Obviously, I could just explore during the day like how everyone would go about it. It's easier, the sun's out, you can actually see things, stores are open, the odds of you becoming a victim of a crime in a secluded alleyway is lower, and so on. And well, I did explore during daytime. And yes, it was nice, especially with April weather, it's just, I dunno. I often find other people to be in the way. Wandering the city in the dead of the night feels infinitely more liberating.
Awalnya, gue hanya jalan-jalan keliling, on foot, wandering aimlessly. It was pretty relaxing, you know, but it did get a little... dry, at times. Not to mention it takes quite a while to get from one point to another, my legs are spaghetti by the end of the night. Luckily for me, the apartment where I lived had a storage corner, which is basically "a corner meant for storage but also ended up being a spot where unwanted goods are left to rot by past residents". Or, in my eyes, a gold mine. It was only a matter of time until something from the landfill caught my eyes.
One night, I was putting away some gizmo gadgets that I no longer use, and I saw something among the stack of briefcases, leaning on the back of the storage wall. Like the loot goblin that I am, I rummaged through the pile of discards and took said item back to my room.
It's a skateboard.
A whole ass skateboard. In working condition, too.
Now some of you may be thinking, "Hey wait a minute, Rory doesn't skate."
And you're right.
Later that same night, I went out for my usual routine, prowling the streets, only now I had a more enthralling way to do so. Despite my years of experience playing Tony Hawk video games, I never passed even the entry-level skateboarding how-to's. Dulu gue sempet punya skateboard waktu kelas 2 SD, tapi layaknya bocah, I only played it for a week tops, sebelum gue akhirnya bosan dan pindah ke mainan lain.
Waktu sudah menunjukkan pukul 12.30 malam, jalan-jalan kota Beppu sudah sunyi. Gue pun mencari satu jalanan lurus yang aspalnya cukup halus untuk gue pakai dan tidak terlalu berisik. Jadilah gue mulai belajar sendiri how to ride a skateboard, back and forth and again on the same strip of road, in the dead of the night. Saat itu masih awal bulan April, udara malam masih dingin, tetapi gue masih aja keringetan. Yeah, I might have fallen over a handful of times, and yes, it turned out just staying on top of the board is a little more difficult than I remembered it to be. Or maybe six year old me just had supremely better balance due to my lower center of gravity.
Or maybe I just suck ass at skateboarding.
A few bruises and scratches later, I finally managed to get a hold of things, riding and pushing. It took me roughly an hour, dan setelah itu, yaudah deh, I zoomed through the city streets, making a ruckus and probably riled up a lot of peacefully sleeping senior citizens. I did this almost every other night, and it was always a thrill. Despite all that was going on, I've never felt so... weightless. I haven't felt anything like it in a long time.
Up to this point, I still have no idea what to do regarding my situation. I don't have any place to live past May, plus my visa was gonna expire in June. I remember I was in the middle of my usual late night city crawl, and I was talking to my high school friend, Bento, who lives in Tokyo. He asked me some things, I answered, and a few sentences later, dia bilang,
'Come Tokyo, save rent, live at my place man. More planes from Tokyo to Indo too'
Long story short, I booked a one-way flight from Fukuoka to Narita on May 12th. My initial plan was to simply live there for a month, and hopefully by June, flights to Indonesia are operating normally again.
Di hari penerbangan, bus Beppu-Fukuoka hanya diisi tiga orang penumpang, termasuk gue. Sesampainya di bandara, situasinya tidak jauh berbeda. Bandara yang biasanya jadi sarang manusia terasa seperti tempat yang terbengkalai. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer it being that way, I wish it's going to always be like that, but it does have a tint of eeriness to it.
Berangkat pukul tiga sore, sampai di Narita sekitar pukul lima, setelah itu gue naik bus ke Tokyo Station yang memakan waktu sekitar satu setengah jam. Dari Tokyo Station, gue naik kereta express ke stasiun Kichijoji, di kota Musashino, tempat teman gue tinggal. It was a long journey, tapi akhirnya, gue ketemu teman gue di stasiun Kichijoji, kami naik bus (karena kalo jalan ke apartemennya bakal lama, berkat koper dan tas-tas gue), dan sampailah. I was exhausted, my hands and arms were numb, and I pretty much just passed out on my first night in Tokyo.
And thus began my life in the busiest city on earth.
Tidak hanya jarak yang jauh, everything about Tokyo is way different than Beppu, walaupun masih sama-sama di Jepang. Keesokan harinya, gue baru sadar betapa ramainya kota ini, walaupun Musashino termasuk area suburban yang relatif "sepi". Even so, it was pretty overwhelming. Gue, yang sudah terbiasa berjalan trotoar tanpa harus selalu siaga menghindari berbagai macam rintangan, tidak siap menghadapi lautan manusia yang merayapi berbagai sudut kota.
Anyhow, remember my initial plan of only living in Tokyo for a month? Welp, part of a reason I don't plan things is because they never work for me. Habis bulan Mei, penerbangan ke Indonesia masih belum ada yang operasional. At least not the affordable ones. Gak cuma itu, untuk masuk kota Jakarta, gue perlu berbagai macam surat izin yang fungsinya hanya untuk nyusahin masyarakat and inflates the governor's ego. ""Preventative"" actions, my flippin' ass.
Karena situasi baru ini, I had a few things on my to-do list that I needed to check. First, extend my visa, because it seems like I'm not going home any time before it expires, and second, go to the Indonesian Embassy to ask them how the frick I can go home.
Also, after I extend my visa, get a job to self-sustain.
The first thing I did was go to the embassy, since it's the closest one from my friend's place. Kedubes terletak di Meguro, area yang sedikit lebih "kantoran" dibanding Kichijoji. I arrived at 12.30 pm, jam makan siang, jadi karyawannya lagi istirahat. Gue pun memutuskan untuk cari makan, karena gue belum makan seharian. Unsurprisingly, ada restoran Indonesia tidak jauh dari di mana kedubes berada, so I reckoned eh, why not? Udah lama gue gak makan makanan Indonesia, it's probably gonna be a little expensive (especially compared to the prices back home) tapi gue males juga harus nyari restoran lain yang gue gak tau bakal enak apa nggak. Makan mekdi juga bosen.
Restoran Indonesia tersebut bernama "Cabe", fitting, I thought to myself. Although I am aware of what it means in the current anak gaul lingo, it's short, it screams Indonesian, it works. As I walked into the establishment, seorang pelayan wanita, in her 40s, menyambut kedatangan gue, memakai bahasa Jepang. Meskipun begitu, jelas fakta bahwa dia adalah orang Indonesia, dan dia juga sepertinya langsung tau kalau gue orang Indonesia, walaupun gue memakai masker. Jadi dari bilang irasshaimase, langsung ganti bahasa Indonesia.
'Untuk berapa orang mas?', tanya si ibu, tutur dan logatnya sedikit asing di telinga gue. One thing for sure, ia tidak berasal dari pulau Jawa.
Which doesn't narrow it down, I know, but hey, listen, that's what happens if you grow up in Jakarta okay. Logat-logat yang gue tahu hanyalah yang paling mainstream atau yang paling sering ditampilkan di dalam media, seperti Jawa, Sunda, Batak, dan Papua. And her accent sounded nothing like any I know. I'd take a shot anywhere Western Indonesia, but I couldn't pinpoint where.
'Satu orang, bu,' jawab gue, sedikit canggung.
'Silahkan di sini boleh mas', sahutnya sembari mengarahkan gue ke satu meja. 'Saya ambilkan air untuk mas ya, sebentar.'
'O-oh, iya bu, makasih,' I said as I sat down at the table she pointed me to.
I glanced over the menu, and sure enough, it was a familiar sight. Nasi goreng, sate ayam, nasi campur, oooh man, gue ngiler.
Not long after that, ibu pelayan kembali dengan segelas air mineral dingin, dan bertanya, 'Mas sudah siap pesanannya?'
'Iya bu, saya mau umm ini deh, paket nasi goreng satu'
'Oke, nasi gorengnya mau yang sedang atau yang besar?'
'Y-yang sedang aja bu, gapapa'
'Yang sedang ya? Yakin mas nggak mau yang besar aja?'
'Ahah i-iya bu, gapapa, yang sedang aja'
'Kalau begitu saya kasih yang besar aja gak apa-apa, harganya tetap sama kok,' kata si ibu. Ya ampun, alangkah baiknya ibu pelayan ini. Gue malah jadi ngerasa sedikit ga enak. 'Terus, mas mau ditambah telur nasi gorengnya? Biasanya pelanggan di sini suka minta tambah telur dadar,' lanjut si ibu.
'Uuummm ng-nggak usah deh bu ahaha, makasih, gapapa kok,' timpal gue.
'Oke, kalo gitu, spesial buat mas, saya minta chef untuk tambah telur dadar, tapi harga sama, ya mas?', tuturnya, in a very comforting, motherly tone.
'Hahaha aduh, iya boleh deh, makasih banyak bu'
'Sama-sama, ditunggu sebentar ya mas pesanannya', she said, as she walked back to the kitchen.
Ya Gusti, bless her heart, this lady is an angel.
The food didn't take too long, and it was pretty good, too. Who knew a small Indonesian restaurant in Meguro would be this much of a positive experience for an Indonesian, eh?
Selesai makan, gue ke kasir, bayar, dan kembali menuju ke kedubes. It wasn't a particularly busy day lucky for me, so I only waited a short while until I got to consult and ask my questions. Well, I'll cut it short, they didn't really help. They gave me no information that I didn't already know. So I headed back home, full stomach but empty handed.
Next up, renewing my visa. This one I was really, and I mean, really dreading. Why? Have you ever been to the immigration bureau? In any country. Even though this is Japan, immigration is immigration. It's always packed with people, regardless of location and time. You know, I thought with all this end-of-the-world business going on, maybe, juust maybe, foreigners are less inclined to take care of immigration business. Doesn't make sense, I know, but hopeful thinking.
Boy, was I wrong.
The first time I went there, I went after lunchtime, around 1pm, because I woke up late. There are people overflowing the building. The sight of it made me want to jump in front of a shinkansen.
But I got there, so might as well go in and took a queue number. 537. I looked at the sign on the counter. 442. I want to cry.
Fortunately for me, there were plenty of things to distract myself from the slow passage of time. I had my phone, and Ayu Utami's Saman, always handy, those. Betyer yet, there was a human baby.
I sat behind a Thai couple, and they had brought their toddler along. Like babies usually do, they stare at people. This baby was staring at me. Naturally, I made faces, played peek-a-boo, because I was bored. And also I felt like it was an obligation whenever a baby starts staring at me. And the baby laughed. And made funny faces back at me. Dia meringis-meringis mengikuti ekspresi gue. There was even a moment where the baby tripped and cried and the mom was trying to make the baby look at me so that the crying would stop. I have never felt such pure, wholesome joy in my life before. Also, I may have picked up a bit of a baby fever that day.
The wait lasted about four hours, but my number finally popped up on the digital sign above one of the counters. I went there, asked what I should do, and the man behind the counter gave me some papers to fill, some requirements, what to bring and all that, and that's it. Karena ada beberapa dokumen yang gue belom punya, jadi ya gue pulang.
The second time around, I got there early in the morning, and still, even at opening time, that place was jam packed with humans. I got there 9.30am, submitted my documents at like 1pm, and thank heavens everything went smoothly, so they accepted my documents pretty much straight away. I waited a little longer while they processed everything, and not thirty minutes later, my name was called, and both my visa and my resident card were renewed. Lega sudah rasanya jiwa ini.
That all happened in the month of June, and now it's July. I'm still in the process of trying to find a part-time, so basically I've just been molding away in my friend's apartment. And when I'm not, I just meander the city of Musashino, exploring, or at times just enjoying my time reading at Inokashira Park. Not in the middle of the night, however. Tokyo, unlike Beppu, has night patrols all the time. I tried doing my usual thing one night, with my friend's pennyboard (because I left "my" skateboard back where I found it), and there were loads of police cars just driving around the city. My past interactions with the popo were not exactly the best, so I was really not looking forward to being questioned by them, thus that was the only time I went out in the dead of the night.
For once, I actually miss that solemn little coastal town I used to call home.
But yeah, it's kinda funny too, isn't it? I feel like it's become a trend for me now, to stay a little longer after "completing a stage". Pas lulus SMA, gue tidak langsung kuliah, melainkan intern dulu delapan bulan. Sekarang, lulus kuliah, eh, gak bisa pulang dan cari kerja. Bedanya, back then, it was my conscious decision, this time, it's completely out of my hands. Well, maybe not "completely", but there was just no way I could've seen anything like this coming, right?
Somehow, someway, I've always managed to find myself in a state of limbo, or put myself in purgatorial place, if you wanna go even more hardcore with the dramatics. I just hope, well and truly, that something good is waiting for me beyond this point of time.
Not even good, I'll be happy with it just being worthwhile.
Hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?
Well, for starters, like I said before, I am now in the big city of Tokyo. Yes, I'm no longer living in that rinky dink old people small town of Beppu. But you know, in hindsight, Beppu was not that much of a rinky dink town after all. It is to my dismay to confess that this Big City Jakarta Boi had perhaps grown fond of the rustic, Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley-esque life, to the point where the idea of growing crops and tending to my cows don't sound that bad of an idea.
Man, what I wouldn't give to be a cattle farmer deep in the mountains of Mongolia.
Oh, just in case you were wondering, yes, Beppu and Tokyo are quite far apart.
About 1,000km far, give or take.
How did I end up here?
The initial plan was for me to go back to motherland in April, but it just so happens that the pandemic was ramping up during said period of time. Flights were cancelled left and right, airports are closed, and the plan went straight into the bin.
Untungnya, visa pelajar gue baru habis tiga bulan setelah kelulusan, so I graduated March, my visa was supposed to expire June. Tapi, gue juga dapet e-mail dari sekolah gue yang bilang bahwa selepas bulan Maret, I could no longer work part-time karena, well, gue bukan lagi seorang pelajar, dan kemungkinan besar akan dianggap pekerja ilegal.
It didn't end there. To move out of my apartment, I had to inform my landlady one month in advance, so obviously, I told her I was moving out end of April. Obviously, due to the change of plans, I later told her I wasn't going to move out. She was okay with it, tapi karena dia udah terlanjur dapet calon penunggu baru untuk kamar gue, I was only given until the end of May.
Fuck.
Now I'm stuck, jobless and about to be homeless.
Mantap djiwa.
This is gonna be the end of me, gue pikir. Dua bulan ke depan, akan ada satu kolom berita kecil di satu ujung halaman koran Kompas dengan headline "Jasad WNI Ditemukan di Selokan Kota Jepang".
Dalam kurun waktu ini, gue bingung sebingung-bingungnya, because the world was on fire and there's nothing I could do about it. Meskipun begitu, entah kenapa gue merasa... I dunno, tenang?
Selama bulan Maret, gue yang sudah lulus jadi punya banyak banget waktu lowong, and I had even more free time in April karena gue tidak lagi sekolah maupun kerja, and it gave me more than enough time to explore Beppu City to my heart's content. Beppu merupakan kota yang sangat kecil, hanya sekitar 125km² luasnya. Kebanyakan penduduknya juga merupakan lansia, sisanya murid-murid universitas gue. Serame-ramenya kota ini, suasananya tetap terasa sepi dan nyaman. Karena keadaan kotanya yang jarang ada masalah, patroli polisi juga jarang ada, which means come nighttime, I'm free to explore the nooks and crannies of Hot Springs City.
And, well, that's what I did. For almost two months.
Obviously, I could just explore during the day like how everyone would go about it. It's easier, the sun's out, you can actually see things, stores are open, the odds of you becoming a victim of a crime in a secluded alleyway is lower, and so on. And well, I did explore during daytime. And yes, it was nice, especially with April weather, it's just, I dunno. I often find other people to be in the way. Wandering the city in the dead of the night feels infinitely more liberating.
Awalnya, gue hanya jalan-jalan keliling, on foot, wandering aimlessly. It was pretty relaxing, you know, but it did get a little... dry, at times. Not to mention it takes quite a while to get from one point to another, my legs are spaghetti by the end of the night. Luckily for me, the apartment where I lived had a storage corner, which is basically "a corner meant for storage but also ended up being a spot where unwanted goods are left to rot by past residents". Or, in my eyes, a gold mine. It was only a matter of time until something from the landfill caught my eyes.
One night, I was putting away some gizmo gadgets that I no longer use, and I saw something among the stack of briefcases, leaning on the back of the storage wall. Like the loot goblin that I am, I rummaged through the pile of discards and took said item back to my room.
It's a skateboard.
A whole ass skateboard. In working condition, too.
Now some of you may be thinking, "Hey wait a minute, Rory doesn't skate."
And you're right.
Later that same night, I went out for my usual routine, prowling the streets, only now I had a more enthralling way to do so. Despite my years of experience playing Tony Hawk video games, I never passed even the entry-level skateboarding how-to's. Dulu gue sempet punya skateboard waktu kelas 2 SD, tapi layaknya bocah, I only played it for a week tops, sebelum gue akhirnya bosan dan pindah ke mainan lain.
Waktu sudah menunjukkan pukul 12.30 malam, jalan-jalan kota Beppu sudah sunyi. Gue pun mencari satu jalanan lurus yang aspalnya cukup halus untuk gue pakai dan tidak terlalu berisik. Jadilah gue mulai belajar sendiri how to ride a skateboard, back and forth and again on the same strip of road, in the dead of the night. Saat itu masih awal bulan April, udara malam masih dingin, tetapi gue masih aja keringetan. Yeah, I might have fallen over a handful of times, and yes, it turned out just staying on top of the board is a little more difficult than I remembered it to be. Or maybe six year old me just had supremely better balance due to my lower center of gravity.
Or maybe I just suck ass at skateboarding.
A few bruises and scratches later, I finally managed to get a hold of things, riding and pushing. It took me roughly an hour, dan setelah itu, yaudah deh, I zoomed through the city streets, making a ruckus and probably riled up a lot of peacefully sleeping senior citizens. I did this almost every other night, and it was always a thrill. Despite all that was going on, I've never felt so... weightless. I haven't felt anything like it in a long time.
Up to this point, I still have no idea what to do regarding my situation. I don't have any place to live past May, plus my visa was gonna expire in June. I remember I was in the middle of my usual late night city crawl, and I was talking to my high school friend, Bento, who lives in Tokyo. He asked me some things, I answered, and a few sentences later, dia bilang,
'Come Tokyo, save rent, live at my place man. More planes from Tokyo to Indo too'
Long story short, I booked a one-way flight from Fukuoka to Narita on May 12th. My initial plan was to simply live there for a month, and hopefully by June, flights to Indonesia are operating normally again.
Di hari penerbangan, bus Beppu-Fukuoka hanya diisi tiga orang penumpang, termasuk gue. Sesampainya di bandara, situasinya tidak jauh berbeda. Bandara yang biasanya jadi sarang manusia terasa seperti tempat yang terbengkalai. Don't get me wrong, I much prefer it being that way, I wish it's going to always be like that, but it does have a tint of eeriness to it.
Berangkat pukul tiga sore, sampai di Narita sekitar pukul lima, setelah itu gue naik bus ke Tokyo Station yang memakan waktu sekitar satu setengah jam. Dari Tokyo Station, gue naik kereta express ke stasiun Kichijoji, di kota Musashino, tempat teman gue tinggal. It was a long journey, tapi akhirnya, gue ketemu teman gue di stasiun Kichijoji, kami naik bus (karena kalo jalan ke apartemennya bakal lama, berkat koper dan tas-tas gue), dan sampailah. I was exhausted, my hands and arms were numb, and I pretty much just passed out on my first night in Tokyo.
And thus began my life in the busiest city on earth.
Tidak hanya jarak yang jauh, everything about Tokyo is way different than Beppu, walaupun masih sama-sama di Jepang. Keesokan harinya, gue baru sadar betapa ramainya kota ini, walaupun Musashino termasuk area suburban yang relatif "sepi". Even so, it was pretty overwhelming. Gue, yang sudah terbiasa berjalan trotoar tanpa harus selalu siaga menghindari berbagai macam rintangan, tidak siap menghadapi lautan manusia yang merayapi berbagai sudut kota.
Anyhow, remember my initial plan of only living in Tokyo for a month? Welp, part of a reason I don't plan things is because they never work for me. Habis bulan Mei, penerbangan ke Indonesia masih belum ada yang operasional. At least not the affordable ones. Gak cuma itu, untuk masuk kota Jakarta, gue perlu berbagai macam surat izin yang fungsinya hanya untuk nyusahin masyarakat and inflates the governor's ego. ""Preventative"" actions, my flippin' ass.
Karena situasi baru ini, I had a few things on my to-do list that I needed to check. First, extend my visa, because it seems like I'm not going home any time before it expires, and second, go to the Indonesian Embassy to ask them how the frick I can go home.
Also, after I extend my visa, get a job to self-sustain.
The first thing I did was go to the embassy, since it's the closest one from my friend's place. Kedubes terletak di Meguro, area yang sedikit lebih "kantoran" dibanding Kichijoji. I arrived at 12.30 pm, jam makan siang, jadi karyawannya lagi istirahat. Gue pun memutuskan untuk cari makan, karena gue belum makan seharian. Unsurprisingly, ada restoran Indonesia tidak jauh dari di mana kedubes berada, so I reckoned eh, why not? Udah lama gue gak makan makanan Indonesia, it's probably gonna be a little expensive (especially compared to the prices back home) tapi gue males juga harus nyari restoran lain yang gue gak tau bakal enak apa nggak. Makan mekdi juga bosen.
Restoran Indonesia tersebut bernama "Cabe", fitting, I thought to myself. Although I am aware of what it means in the current anak gaul lingo, it's short, it screams Indonesian, it works. As I walked into the establishment, seorang pelayan wanita, in her 40s, menyambut kedatangan gue, memakai bahasa Jepang. Meskipun begitu, jelas fakta bahwa dia adalah orang Indonesia, dan dia juga sepertinya langsung tau kalau gue orang Indonesia, walaupun gue memakai masker. Jadi dari bilang irasshaimase, langsung ganti bahasa Indonesia.
'Untuk berapa orang mas?', tanya si ibu, tutur dan logatnya sedikit asing di telinga gue. One thing for sure, ia tidak berasal dari pulau Jawa.
Which doesn't narrow it down, I know, but hey, listen, that's what happens if you grow up in Jakarta okay. Logat-logat yang gue tahu hanyalah yang paling mainstream atau yang paling sering ditampilkan di dalam media, seperti Jawa, Sunda, Batak, dan Papua. And her accent sounded nothing like any I know. I'd take a shot anywhere Western Indonesia, but I couldn't pinpoint where.
'Satu orang, bu,' jawab gue, sedikit canggung.
'Silahkan di sini boleh mas', sahutnya sembari mengarahkan gue ke satu meja. 'Saya ambilkan air untuk mas ya, sebentar.'
'O-oh, iya bu, makasih,' I said as I sat down at the table she pointed me to.
I glanced over the menu, and sure enough, it was a familiar sight. Nasi goreng, sate ayam, nasi campur, oooh man, gue ngiler.
Not long after that, ibu pelayan kembali dengan segelas air mineral dingin, dan bertanya, 'Mas sudah siap pesanannya?'
'Iya bu, saya mau umm ini deh, paket nasi goreng satu'
'Oke, nasi gorengnya mau yang sedang atau yang besar?'
'Y-yang sedang aja bu, gapapa'
'Yang sedang ya? Yakin mas nggak mau yang besar aja?'
'Ahah i-iya bu, gapapa, yang sedang aja'
'Kalau begitu saya kasih yang besar aja gak apa-apa, harganya tetap sama kok,' kata si ibu. Ya ampun, alangkah baiknya ibu pelayan ini. Gue malah jadi ngerasa sedikit ga enak. 'Terus, mas mau ditambah telur nasi gorengnya? Biasanya pelanggan di sini suka minta tambah telur dadar,' lanjut si ibu.
'Uuummm ng-nggak usah deh bu ahaha, makasih, gapapa kok,' timpal gue.
'Oke, kalo gitu, spesial buat mas, saya minta chef untuk tambah telur dadar, tapi harga sama, ya mas?', tuturnya, in a very comforting, motherly tone.
'Hahaha aduh, iya boleh deh, makasih banyak bu'
'Sama-sama, ditunggu sebentar ya mas pesanannya', she said, as she walked back to the kitchen.
Ya Gusti, bless her heart, this lady is an angel.
The food didn't take too long, and it was pretty good, too. Who knew a small Indonesian restaurant in Meguro would be this much of a positive experience for an Indonesian, eh?
Selesai makan, gue ke kasir, bayar, dan kembali menuju ke kedubes. It wasn't a particularly busy day lucky for me, so I only waited a short while until I got to consult and ask my questions. Well, I'll cut it short, they didn't really help. They gave me no information that I didn't already know. So I headed back home, full stomach but empty handed.
Next up, renewing my visa. This one I was really, and I mean, really dreading. Why? Have you ever been to the immigration bureau? In any country. Even though this is Japan, immigration is immigration. It's always packed with people, regardless of location and time. You know, I thought with all this end-of-the-world business going on, maybe, juust maybe, foreigners are less inclined to take care of immigration business. Doesn't make sense, I know, but hopeful thinking.
Boy, was I wrong.
The first time I went there, I went after lunchtime, around 1pm, because I woke up late. There are people overflowing the building. The sight of it made me want to jump in front of a shinkansen.
But I got there, so might as well go in and took a queue number. 537. I looked at the sign on the counter. 442. I want to cry.
Fortunately for me, there were plenty of things to distract myself from the slow passage of time. I had my phone, and Ayu Utami's Saman, always handy, those. Betyer yet, there was a human baby.
I sat behind a Thai couple, and they had brought their toddler along. Like babies usually do, they stare at people. This baby was staring at me. Naturally, I made faces, played peek-a-boo, because I was bored. And also I felt like it was an obligation whenever a baby starts staring at me. And the baby laughed. And made funny faces back at me. Dia meringis-meringis mengikuti ekspresi gue. There was even a moment where the baby tripped and cried and the mom was trying to make the baby look at me so that the crying would stop. I have never felt such pure, wholesome joy in my life before. Also, I may have picked up a bit of a baby fever that day.
The wait lasted about four hours, but my number finally popped up on the digital sign above one of the counters. I went there, asked what I should do, and the man behind the counter gave me some papers to fill, some requirements, what to bring and all that, and that's it. Karena ada beberapa dokumen yang gue belom punya, jadi ya gue pulang.
The second time around, I got there early in the morning, and still, even at opening time, that place was jam packed with humans. I got there 9.30am, submitted my documents at like 1pm, and thank heavens everything went smoothly, so they accepted my documents pretty much straight away. I waited a little longer while they processed everything, and not thirty minutes later, my name was called, and both my visa and my resident card were renewed. Lega sudah rasanya jiwa ini.
That all happened in the month of June, and now it's July. I'm still in the process of trying to find a part-time, so basically I've just been molding away in my friend's apartment. And when I'm not, I just meander the city of Musashino, exploring, or at times just enjoying my time reading at Inokashira Park. Not in the middle of the night, however. Tokyo, unlike Beppu, has night patrols all the time. I tried doing my usual thing one night, with my friend's pennyboard (because I left "my" skateboard back where I found it), and there were loads of police cars just driving around the city. My past interactions with the popo were not exactly the best, so I was really not looking forward to being questioned by them, thus that was the only time I went out in the dead of the night.
For once, I actually miss that solemn little coastal town I used to call home.
But yeah, it's kinda funny too, isn't it? I feel like it's become a trend for me now, to stay a little longer after "completing a stage". Pas lulus SMA, gue tidak langsung kuliah, melainkan intern dulu delapan bulan. Sekarang, lulus kuliah, eh, gak bisa pulang dan cari kerja. Bedanya, back then, it was my conscious decision, this time, it's completely out of my hands. Well, maybe not "completely", but there was just no way I could've seen anything like this coming, right?
Somehow, someway, I've always managed to find myself in a state of limbo, or put myself in purgatorial place, if you wanna go even more hardcore with the dramatics. I just hope, well and truly, that something good is waiting for me beyond this point of time.
Not even good, I'll be happy with it just being worthwhile.
Hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?
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