Where will we go after September?

Last night Man Utd won their QF tie with AS Roma with 3-0 aggregate. They will meet Barcelona in the semi-final tie, 2 weeks from now.Well, enough about football for a moment.(although I highly doubt it that I can stop speaking about football)

I will finished my master study here in Newcastle this September and probably will going back to Malaysia for a while around the end of September. From there, the journey to the next stage will start. But first, I need to answer the question of " where should I pursue my PhD degree".

I have been searching/researching for the best supervisor suitable for my PhD course since my current supervisor here in Newcastle said he do not want to do research in my fields of interest back in October last year. After many many months of searching,I think my search is over now.My wife and I agreed that I should go to Okayama University in Japan and my Dean back in USM also agreed. I already send the application form and fee to the university.But it is not as easy as we hope because we have so many obstacles to past through first before I can start my PhD study there.

First, I need to enrolled as a Research Student Course for 6 months. This course will not give me any degree/certificate/acknowledgement when it was completed because it is a preparation course for me before I embark for PhD course. But , after I finished the 6 months course, I am still not guarantee a place for the PhD course there,because I need to sit for the PhD course entrance examination first. So, after passing the exam,then I will be guaranteed the place there.
It is not that straight forward.To add up more obstacles, my sponsors (USM and KPT) will not sponsor my first 6months research student course fee. They will only starts to sponsor when the PhD course starts.So for the first 6months there, I need to pay my admission and tuition fee and all the living cost there by my own expenses and back in Malaysia we will not have other income as well because my fellowship allowance only starts when my PhD course starts.First, we decide that I will travel to Japan alone for the first 6months so that the cost will be lesser,and my wife and daughter will stay in Malaysia for a while.But in my heart, I feel such a strong urge not to left my family in Malaysia.
Yes, in life sometimes we must sacrifice something to gain something better. When it comes to choose whether to sacrifice money, or sacrifice time with family...in the end we choose we will sacrifice money.So we will use all our savings to support our life for that 6months period.
Our hard-earn money that we safe for the last few years for our future. Well, this is future.

It is not easy,people will ask why would you want to trouble yourself with all those things?
There are many other paths that you can choose, so why choose the difficult one?
You can do your PhD in UK, because you are already there and you can easily apply and if accepted you can straight away go there and register as a PhD student with lesser fuss compared to a japan university.After all there might be other suitable supervisor for you if you search more carefully.You can even do it in Malaysia.Or you can choose other convenient way of pursuing your PhD,that do not require you to spend all your money or be apart from your family at all.

Well, that might be true. But in life, not everything that is easy will be the right answer. I have my own reason why I want to do my PhD in Okayama University under my prospective supervisor.We will choose what is the best for ourselves with Allah S.W.T guidance.Life is easy and happy sometimes,but other times it will also be very hard.We choose and "redha" with our choices, and work hard in making our chosen path as the best path for us.*****