This day a week ago - 2

When I tried to check in – I was asked to lessen the content of my luggage. The guy behind the counter called someone else and I was told that they could waive up until 5kg excess baggage, but no more. I didn’t know what was on his mind, but Ayah even weighed the cabin luggage (which was how I knew it weighed 18kg) and we were told that normally they only allowed cabin luggage not weighing more than 7kg. Ayah glared at me, but hey, who asked him to check the weight of the cabin luggage? I already knew beforehand that my cabin luggage was heavy, I asked him not to weigh it at the check-in counter but Ayah did it anyway. Even Mak asked him – what was on his mind when he did so despite me asking him not to?

So, I took my luggage away, tried to figure out what I could take out to lessen the weight by 5kg. Alhamdulillah, I met Ayu and Mani, two girls doing Nihongo teaching course in Shinjuku. Mak asked me to ask them if I could join them for a group check in. Ayu warmly welcomed me to do so, but explained to me that she was actually waiting for more Nihongo teaching coursemates for a group check-in. So, I joined them – Ayu, Mani, Rosman, Zaki and another guy whose name I have forgotten – for a group check in, hoping that my excess baggage could be covered by doing so. Unfortunately, despite giving all of us a provision of 25kg each (instead of the normal 20kg for Economy class passenger), there was still excess baggage of 30kg. The boys negotiated, and after some consultation the guy behind the counter agreed to allow another 15kg. Ayu ended up having to take away her heavier bag (one bag weighed only 8kg, the heavier one 15kg) to save us all from having to pay any excess baggage charges. In return of her kindness, one of the guys agreed to carry her bag. But alas, he only carried it to the waiting area before we boarded our flight. After that the bag was returned to Ayu. I felt a bit helpless because my own cabin luggage was heavy. If I did not carry anything else, I would have gladly carried Ayu’s bag – she was the only one among us whose luggage weighed less than 25kg, yet she took away her bag to save the rest of us from having to pay excess baggage charges. But none of her male friends were gentleman enough to carry her bag for her all the way to Tokyo in return of her kindness…

Anyway – there was a small drama at the airport. Regarding stuff sent from Tokyo which failed to be delivered to the rightful owner in Malaysia, and stuff from Malaysia meant to be sent to Tokyo but failed to be so. I won’t delve deeply in it since I had no part in it at all. But for me, it was a lesson to be very responsible if anybody were to ask me to deliver things to anybody in Malaysia. It was a pity really – due to miscommunications, misunderstanding and not taking responsibilities seriously.

For me personally, the hardest moment was when my baby decided to wail just before I bid my final farewell at the end of the departure gate. The immigration officer who checked my boarding pass asked me – “Tak bawak anak ye?”, to which I nodded weakly. “Padanla dia menangis macam tu. Macam tahu-tahu je Mak dia nak kene pegi jauh ye”. By then I could not control my tears anymore, so I just steadfastly walked away knowing that it would be even harder to walk away should I turned back and look at my crying son. Fortunately, his wailing subsided after a while, and hubby managed to shout at me from the waiting area, when I was already down the escalator, holding baby up and waved at me in peace.



Saying good bye to my son had never been easy. It was even more difficult the second time around.