The week that was

What a week it had been!

I had a taste of my first jishin experience in Tokyo. I’ve heard other peoples’ experiences and even read the manual for earthquake disaster prevention prepared by the Meguro ward office, but there’s nothing like experiencing it myself. The first jishin happened on last Sunday evening. I was cooking in the kitchen when all of a sudden the cupboard behind me shook. Kinda spooky as I was the only person in the kitchen, but that jishin, while it was quite atremor, lasted only a few seconds. The second one happened last Wednesday night. I was in my room, surfing the Net when the whole room started shaking. Honestly speaking, I wasn’t scared, but yes, it was very dizzying. The second one lasted a while longer, probably because the flexibility of the building means that it swayed for sometime after the quake, causing the dizziness.

My fellow Nihongo 1 classmates (yes, we’re all foreign students) exchanged details of our first jishin experiences and most agreed that Lee-san could have won the prize for the most embarrassing jishin moment. She was preparing for her evening shower and in the process of undressing when it happened. Not quite realizing that it was the jishin that shook her door loudly, thinking it was her friend who wanted to enter her room, she yelled in Mandarin “Wait a minute, I’m coming. Don’t shake the door. I’m coming!” She turned red when she realized that it was jishin, that there was no one at the door and not only her door but her whole room was shaking vigorously. But I’ve been told that scientists have been predicting a Big One to happen in the Kanto region (Tokyo region) end of this year and the management of the dorm has already prepared an “emergency pack” for each room consisting of a metallic bag and a torch light. Yes, even the locals who are so used to them worry about jishin too.

Sunday too was my first bazaar experience. There was a bazaar organized by KIND, Komaba International Friendship Club. It was more like a flea market of some sort, selling lots of cheap clothing, practical goods and some souvenirs. Japanese tend to throw out things that are only slightly worn out, and electrical items – electric blanket, fans, rice cooker, microwave oven - are often in excellent working order. The kind people of KIND even gave away a lot of free stuff at the end of the two-hours bazaar, and the sempais who are already used to these bazaars apparently had been waiting patiently just for the free announcement to be made before jumping in to grab sweaters, jackets and dining stuff. I got some good deals at the bazaar - 2 United Colors of Benetton sweaters and a Berkeley cardigan for 250 yen, a set of 4 Pyrex soup bowls for 100 yen, a set of 5 Lancel Paris tea cups for 100 yen and a nice clear glass plate (to serve nasi himpit on Raya) for only 10 yen. And at the end of the day, I even got a nice 2-candles-and-candle-holders set, 2 traditional plastic lacquered trays (often found at Japanese restaurants), a man’s shirt and another United Colors of Benetton sweater for free. Not bad, huh?

Monday was the last day for course registration. In addition to my Nihongo class, I finally decided to take up 3 courses in this autumn term and 2 courses for winter (intensive class – one course is finished in 4 or 5 days). I also found out on Monday, that since I didn’t sit for my entrance exam last month, I will remain a Research student until next September. I’ve been hoping to become a full time student by next semester, so that I could enjoy student discounts. Research students are not entitled to enjoy student discounts, or better known as gakuwari. And those who sit for the entrance exam in April would only be a full time student in September, subject to passing the exam as well as passing the interview to be held after the exam. So it looks like I’ll be spending three years doing my MA after all, a year as a research student and two years as full-time students. But the advantage I have over my JPA-sponsored colleagues is that I can transfer my credits for those courses I take as a research student when I become a full time student, where else they have to do their language course for a year and then only enter their university of choice to do their masters. And finishing my course required credits earlier means I’ll be able to spend more time at home and concentrate on my dissertation later on, insya Allah.

Tuesday, I had one of those weekly grammar test for Nihongo. I haven’t been doing too badly so far, since I’ve learned a little Nihongo back in 2003. But the class, although merely at elementary level, is rather intensive and I do worry about not doing well. After all, despite not being counted towards my degree credit accumulation, Nihongo 1 will still appear on my transcript, so I do hope I can do well in this subject. If all goes well, I even intend to enroll in Nihongo 2 class later on. While I don’t intend to be able to understand and write lots of Kanji characters, I do intend to be able to converse rather fluently in Nihongo. At least to the point of understanding the conversations in those Japanese dorama I like without having to rely too heavily on the subtitles.

Wednesday was the first day I fasted this year. My post childbirth bleeding did not stop yet on that day, but it had already went further than the 40 days allotment for nifas, so I was able to pray and fast. Since I have class at fifth period on Wednesdays which ends at 5.50 p.m., it meant I have to have my iftar (a quick gulp of Aquarius isotonic drink at 5.02 p.m.) in the class and rushed to pray Maghrib at the lockers area before I went back (Isyak is at 6.29 p.m.) I joined Piseth, a Cambodian friend who arrived on the same day I arrived, stays at the same dorm and attends the same school as me, with his group of Cambodian friends on the way back to the eki. Since it was my first day of fasting, I was feeling terribly hungry and they agreed to accompany me to have dinner at Tenya. Since technically I was still in my 44-days-confinement period, I passed up on the delicious tendon (rice with tempura pieces of prawn, squid, fish and vegetables) and ended up having yasai tendon (rice with 6 pieces vegetables tempura) as my first real iftar this year.

Thursday was the day Datin Seri Endon Mahmood , 64, the wife of Pak Lah, Malaysian Prime Minister, passed away in Putrajaya, ending her long battle with breast cancer. It was a sad day and I’m glad to be told that not only RTM but even TV3 paid their tribute by canceling all entertainment shows on their station and broadcasted Quranic recitals all day long. She passed away in the holy month of Ramadhan and on a Thursday, which is believed by many to be a good day, so that might be a good sign of some sort. She has left her own legacy – the comeback of nyonya kebaya and the relived batik industry. While it was never made official, it’s believed that the government officials have to wear batik on the 1st and 15th of every month because she asked Pak Lah to introduce that policy in order to sustain the Malaysian batik industry. May Allah bless her soul and may Allah give Pak Lah the strength to cope with his loss. Al-fatihah

Friday was a busy day. I had no class since it was a day off for Waseda – commemorating its 123rd birthday. In the morning, I went to Naka Meguro to pick up my Alien Registration card at the ward office. So now I don’t have to carry my passport everywhere with me anymore. Then I went to Shin-Okubo to get some halal meat and Thai rice as well as bought a new prepaid calling card. The meat is part of my preparation for Raya as I intend to make some rending. We’ll see how it goes. At about 3.00 p.m., I went out again. This time to Gyotoku in Chiba to have iftar at my friend Daud’s and Sarina’s place. Sarina cooked nasi minyak and ayam masak merah that day, and she even served some cekodok pisang and pudding jagung for iftar. (Eat your heart out Mek Ja, heheheh). I was more than thrilled of course – my first proper iftar meal of the year, complete with delicious Tunisian dates as starter.

After Maghrib, Daud drove us out to some places in Gyotoku. First stop was Seiyu depato, to get some underpants for their 2-1/2 year old daughter Balqis. Sarina took me to the top floor where a 100 yen shop was located – and my, that was one of the best 100 yen shops I’d ever went to. Bought some stuff there and since Seiyu was having a sale, I stopped by at the shoes department. The Admiral pair of sneakers I’m using currently is a bit big – maybe because I bought it when I was pregnant and my feet was a half size bigger than usual. I managed to get myself a new pair of comfortable shoes for less than a 1000 yen, and that’s quite a feat!

We then went to Tanpopo, a shop selling used clothes to hunt for a winter jacket. There were many affordable jackets on sale – but the really good ones were either too expensive (nearly 10,000 yen) or too small for me. I finally settled for a dark blue jacket with three large black buttons in a classic cut that costs less than 500yen. I have to clean it up a bit – but since I don’t intend to bring it back home to Malaysia, I would say that it can serve its purpose well, insya Allah.

We stopped by at Joshin, an electrical goods outlet before we returned to their house. Daud then joined some of his neighbours downstairs, leaving Sarina and I to chat freely since Balqis was already asleep. It feels good having a fellow Malay and Muslim to chat to sometimes. I seldom bump into other Malaysians at school and while I sometimes use Bahasa to converse with Savitri, my Indonesian classmate in Nihongo 1, she’s not a fellow Muslim. Which means, I can’t talk about Ramadhan or Eid or other Islamic-related matters the way I long to. So, yes, it feels good to be able to chat with Sarina or any other fellow Malaysian Muslim female. And since Sarina is about 6 months pregnant with her second child, and I’ve just got a child a little over a month ago, we even have more to talk about. Err, and did I say that we had our chat over a teapot of teh tarik – my first teh tarik treat post childbirth and since my arrival in Japan.

I left Gyotoku at about 10.40 and it was nearly midnight when I arrived home. Got a phonecall from Faizly, one of the three Malaysian kohais staying in the same dorm, informing me about the time to go to Tokodai’s Cultural Fest the following morning. All three kohais – Faizly, Fahmi and Hafiz are engineering students at Tokyo Institute of Technology, better known as Tokodai. Faizly told me about the coming cultural fest, invited me to join them and I’ve said yes.

Saturday was an interesting day and thus deserves a whole blog entry.