Journey to Tokyo: Symposium and Insights into Southeast Asian Education
- Zaki Syamsul
- Apr 13
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 15
Now it's time to share one of the most unforgettable moments of the symposium. Speaking together with Nabil at this event was an amazing experience for me. However, before discussing that exciting moment, let’s talk about the first day of the symposium, which began with a presentation by Mr. Nomura on the objectives of the event. As far as I remember, this symposium was a collaboration between SEAMEO and the University of Tsukuba to share perspectives on the future of education, as well as a step to strengthen Japan-Southeast Asia collaboration. We were also informed that we, the SEA-Teacher participants, would present the results of our discussions regarding educational issues in our respective countries.
The event was held at the University of Tsukuba located in Tokyo, so we went there with the Tsukuba Express (TX) train again to get there. The first day was filled with various sharing sessions. Although I can’t recall all the details, some of the topics that left a strong impression included Social Emotional Learning, where teachers in the classroom need to be able to manage emotions, develop care and concern, and establish positive relationships. In addition, discussions covered Basic Learning, the role of technology in education, and much more. After the event concluded, we returned to our accommodations to prepare everything we needed for the next day’s presentations.
There’s a funny yet stressful story behind the preparation of our presentation slides. We worked on them late into the night. In the middle of the process, hunger kicked in, so I decided to buy some ready-to-eat chicken at FamilyMart. Unfortunately, since the chicken seasoning contained alcohol, I ended up giving it to Precious, my friend from the Philippines. In return, she kindly gave me instant noodles and a cake. Back to the symposium preparations: since we had been too busy joking around even though our heads were already spinning from putting together the material, we ended up rushing to finish it and didn’t realize there were a few errors in the slides. That night, my feelings were truly mixed; I felt annoyed at myself for joking around too much, and the slides weren’t finally finished until around 1:30 a.m. Once everything was settled, we finally returned to our rooms to rest.
The next day, we were up at the crack of dawn, getting ready in our neat shirts and suits. To be honest, since the presentation slides had only been finished the night before, I felt unprepared and pretty nervous. But, oh well, I decided to just go with the flow, let it be, and resolve to give it my absolute best today. Finally, the symposium began. The presentation session was opened by our friends from the Philippines, Francine and Precious, and then it was our turn. We presented the results of our discussion to the audience, and we also shared the live stream link with our friends and lecturers at UPI.
SEA-Teacher Batch 5 at Symposium in University of Tsukuba, Tokyo, Japan.
After the presentation, we had the opportunity to have a warm conversation with the SEAMEO delegates from Indonesia. It felt great because they really appreciated our presentation. Enjoying lunch with them, accompanied by a delicious cup of matcha tea, made me feel much more at ease since the symposium was finally over. Around 2:30 PM, we were allowed to head back to start packing, since tomorrow we’d be heading to Tsukusaka—or Tsukuba Senior High School at Sakado—remember that, right? But before heading back, we took the time to explore Tokyo. We visited Akihabara and enjoyed looking at all the various items there, ranging from suitcases, action figures, and food to electronics like cell phones, laptops, and iPads. After we’d had our adventure, we went back and immediately organized our luggage so that everything would be ready and we could just head out the next morning. That evening, I wrapped things up with my usual routine of sorting the trash at the Guest House to ensure it went in the correct bins.
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