My CICC Experience
By Alfred Francisco

I remember it was in December 2000 when my boss approached me and offered me the chance to go to Japan. She told me that the Center for the International Cooperation for Computerization or CICC was offering a scholarship on four I.T. courses. We chose the Intranet Application Systems Development Course since there's a need to enhance our existing Intranet. So without thinking, I signed up the application form.

Barely two months after, we received a call from Philippine Computer Society informing us that I got qualified for the scholarship. After that I received a series of documents from CICC, and also undergone physical exam which I of course passed. I applied for Japan Visa and was easily granted since my documents were all complete and all came from CICC. So, now I was very much excited and couldn't wait until May 15, the date of my departure to the Land of the Rising Sun.

We took a JAL plane on our way to Narita airport. From there, we just took a limousine bus and the trains to get to the Yokohama Kenshu Center.

The Yokohama Kenshu Center

At the YKC, we have our own rooms with own comfort rooms, bed, tv set, cabinet, piped-in radio, air-condition, and study table. Living here is very convenient. We have a cafeteria where we use the "R-card" to pay for our food. Before the end of each month, we have to check for the balance since any balance will be forfeited.

YKC has a basketball court, gym, ping-pong tables, tennis court, and a laundry room. Washing of clothes is not a problem since all washing machines are fully automatic. Just put your dirty clothes, soap, set it, and come back for it after 35 minutes. Well, the hard part is ironing of the clothes since you really have to do it the same way in the Philippines.

A doctor visits the center every Wednesday to attend to any sick resident.

Before undergoing the two-month training, we attended the two-week long Japan orientation course. Here, we attended different topics where Japanese speakers and an Indian speaker gave talks on topics like: "Economic Development of Japan", "Japanese Industrial Society and Culture", "Japanese Salarymen", "Information Technology Today", "Ergonomics Application in Industry", and "Japan in a Foreginer's Point of View". The topics discussed were very interesting since I got to know more about Japan, its history, people, and culture. But the most exciting part of the two-week long orientation course was the tour.

After the Yokohama tour, we also went on a three-day tour to Kobe and Kyoto. We went there by riding JR line's bullet trains. We saw century old temples, samurai gears, Buddhist monks, etc. We also went to the different companies like NEC, JVC, and Toyota. We also went to the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge, the longest hanging bridge in the world.