Yuki!

This was the view that greeted my morning last Saturday, when snow hit Tokyo for the first time during this particularly harsh winter. Upon seeing the snowfall, I was immediately reminded of how jakun I was the first time I experienced snow in Leeds in 1996. I called Malaysia just to tell Mak that it was snowing. I could sensed Mak's smile on the other end of the phone at the display of such jakunness. But such was the magic of the first snow experience - it was capable to turn an adult into a kid anytime...


I am not sure what is so magical about this stuff that has caused so many death, so many accidents, flight delays, even shinkansen delay in Japan - but I must admit that I am one of those who will try to catch a flake of snow using my mouth when I thought nobody was looking.


This was how serene my hostel looked when its front was covered with featherlike cottony soft sprays of snow.

The lines of Gingko trees in front of the hostel, when covered in snow - looked very much the picture of a winter wonderland.

Not quite used to the Japanese way, I went out that morning without carrying any umbrella. I soon saw most Nihonjin carrying umbrella to cover themselves in the snow. Back in UK, I used to just put on my hood. But this time around, my winter jacket has no hood. And Tokyo snow was very wet - almost akin to raindrops. Since I had to go to Gyotoku, in Chiba, to do some house-hunting, I ended up buying an umbrella at the 100 yen shop there. This photo was taken in the otherwise very bare park in Gyotoku.


That 'cottage' in the background is actually the park's public restroom. But it does look good in the photo, doesn't it?

Perhaps due to all day long snowfall on Saturday, clearing the sky of most clouds, Sunday morning was bright and cheerful. Tokyo downtown had seen its highest snow - 10cm - since 1998. If I'm not mistaken, Mito in Ibaraki prefecture got its heaviest January snow since 1909 - 17cm, while Yokohama (10cm) and Chiba (9 cm) got their heaviest since 2001.


Since the snow was still almost fresh that sunday morning, I made up my mind to play in the snow and take some snow photos.

Photos like this.


I joined some Nihonjin kids playing snowball in the park - not for long because the kids preferred making a Nihonjin oniisan (big brother) as their target than the alien oneesan (older sister) . I also leaned how to make a good snowman - a skill I hope I can use one day with Huzaifah in presence. I joined my Resident Assistant - a PhD student and her friend when she declared that they were going out to make a yukidaruma.


45 minutes later, more people joined us, as we had built a very big yukidaruma. The head had to be lifted by 4 male adults due to its heaviness. Only then we started working on making it all white, and adding little 'accessories' - the eyes, smile, hair, hand - one guy even labeled its name, Shiguko in katakana using grass.


One for the album - the creators with Shiguko, a 'real' yukidaruma, or so proclaimed the Resident Assistant who has been making yukidaruma since she was a small child somewhere in the northern part of Japan.



An upgraded Shiguko - with mikan (mandarin oranges) as her eyes.

Photo taken on Monday morning - remnants of winter wonderland scene.

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.

This day a week ago

This day a week ago, I was in Malaysia. Celebrating Eid with my husband and my son for the first time.

We wore similar coloured outfits in light blue. Hubby and I wore our wedding outfits actually. While both of us had gained some weight over the past year, alhamdulillah, we were still able to wear our wedding outfit. It’s quite a feat for someone who just gave birth about 4 months back too. Anyway – yes, I’m pleased to share that I could wear my old clothes. I haven’t lose all the additional weight gained during pregnancy, but since the old clothes fit well, I guess I must have shed some…

It was a hectic day. Hubby wanted to spend the night before Eid in Rasah, but Mak had asked me to prepare Mee Bandung on Eid morning, so we ended up going back to Rasah after Eid prayer. Meera, my half-sister spent the Eid with Mak and Ayah, since she didn’t go back to Jitra to spend Eid with her Tok. I didn’t take her along to Rasah because I knew she would rather be with my parents since she would be meeting my uncles, aunts and cousins – people she’s already familiar with. To my cousins, Meera is almost like a distant cousin, not merely my half-sister. She gets along well with pretty much everybody. That’s my sis!

Anyway – despite it being Eid ul Adha and not Eid ul Fitri – it was a busy Eid. So many people to visit! And I was scheduled to fly back to Tokyo on that very night. Alhamdulillah, I already had my suitcases packed and everything ready at the back of my car before I went back to Rasah. So after Asar, hubby drove us straight to Putrajaya to visit Tok and join the family gathering there.

Mak insisted on us going to KLIA right after Maghrib – so by 8.00 we were ready to leave in two cars. Abang, my brother, and Syahril, my newly-wedded cousin, met us at the airport to see me off.

Understandably – what with the Milo, kopi Hang Tuah, ikan bilis and what nots – my suitcases were very heavy. The main luggage weighed about 30 kg, while the cabin luggage about 18kg.

Have to go now. To be continued.

Back again

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.

Three weeks flew just like that when one was having fun. But what I had was not all fun. It was unexpected – the level of hostility I had to face, coming from people I’m powerless to wage war with. But let’s not delve in that. Let’s just say that right now I’m trying my best to overcome this problem I have at hand, and I welcome all the doa you could muster for me.

It’s even more difficult for me to leave my baby for the second time. But I’m thankful that while we were together, we bonded strongly. Alhamdulillah, we were both given a chance to bond again by breastfeeding. I know – it had been three months – I thought there were no more breastmilk to spare. But as it happened, right after Huzaifah suckled on them, I started having breastmilk again. Not as much as it used to be – but enough for me to comfort him when he started meragam for no reason. And enough for me to feel that closeness exclusively experienced by nursing mothers and the babies in their arms.

Huzaifah did not gained as much weight in his fourth month as he did previously. Partly due to his lower intake of formula milk once he started breastfeeding again, partly due to him being more active right now. He doesn’t like being put in one’s lap in a sleeping position (unless for breastfeeding session), he would lift his head and shoulder, indicating he wants to change the position. He prefers being fed using the bottle in an almost sitting position in an adult’s lap. He could roll himself over from his back to his front, but he still has some trouble controlling his arms movement, so he hasn’t been able to properly meniarap just yet.

And I can almost swear that he has started teething, although I’m very much aware of the fact that the first tooth normally only surface after 5 - 7 months. He drools a lot, and he puts everything he’s able to grab in his mouth. He even opened his mouth wide everytime we try to get him to kiss our cheeks, so we always end up getting drools on our cheeks.

Ayah wants us to develop his potentials in languages early so we are using different languages in communicating with him. I speak to him in Bahasa, English and Nihongo. Hubby speaks to him in Arabic. Both Mak and Ayah speaks to him in Bahasa and English. Some people pointed out to me that we should probably use just one language so as not to confuse him. But I’ve read somewhere that research links higher intelligence to how many words a child hears in the first year of life, so verbal stimulation is especially important right now. He may not be able to repeat these words yet, but he's storing all the information in his rapidly developing memory.

So I try to set a sound foundation by exposing Huzaifah to a variety of words. I would tell him about the colors of cars passing us by in Nihongo when we were on the road, and his father would repeat the same thing in Arabic. I would describe to him what colors the flowers are, how tall the trees are, how long the leaves are and how small or big a tree is when we are in a garden. I would point to and identify objects in Nihongo or English as we play in the bedroom, in the living room or anywhere. Some might say that we are pushing him too early. But hey, if I don’t try sowing anything, I won’t be able to harvest anything, right?

Yes, it was the best of times – being able to just be with my son.

And I managed to do lots of those listed on my to-do list. I even met up with a long lost childhood friend when we attended my cousin’s wedding in Kedah. I used to stop by his house on my way back home from school. I spent so much time at his place that my Tok would go to his place if I still had not returned home in late evenings. Ajim now is married with a 2-year old boy. It was our first meeting after about 20 years – but we could still recognize each other easily. Hey, even his mother asked me if I still recognized her, and I did. I did not recognized his much older sister (though I recognized his elder sister, who I also used to play with). Still, it was good seeing them again even if the meeting was by mere chance.

I met up with some friends. Dropped by my old office to collect some mail as well as to greet my friends there quickly. Stopped by Jue’s office to say hi to her, but I have yet to meet her baby in person. Jue is also contemplating furthering her studies in Japan – so there’s hope for me yet. Initially I wanted to join an all-girls slumber party, but changed my mind since Huzaifah has some trouble adjusting to new place and I don’t want to miss even one night being away from him. But I managed to meet up with the girls. Zurr, Sal, Roza, Nurul, Nazrah – thanks for cooking such delicious dishes, sorry for all the trouble and sorry for not being able to be there earlier.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank you too Nisah, for your warm welcome, kindness and hospitality. Thanks for recording our first meeting in your English blog. We’ll meet again, insya Allah. Thanks for your support – and please thank both your husband and your father for their encouraging words on my behalf too.

I often missed Ira and Afaf – two persons I know who enjoy Japanese dorama – everytime I get to watch some interesting Japanese dorama here. So, when Ira came to visit me and baby, I advised her to get a copy of Hana Yori Dango and Nobuta Wo Produce dorama set in CD. Both were a big hit last season – although I was not a big fan of the Taiwan-produced Meteor Garden, I really enjoyed Hana Yori Dango - the Japanese version of Meteor Garden. I was told that the Taiwan-produced Meteor Garden was based on Hana Yori Dango manga (comic), but the Japanese dorama resembles the manga better than the Taiwan-produced drama. As for Nobuta wo Produce, I was attracted to it because Faizly had introduced to me the theme song – Seishun Amigo by Shuji & Akira – and the song, I must admit, is very very infectious. The drama itself is kinda interesting although the storyline is quite old (2 boys trying to change a wayward girl into a popular one)

Oh by the by – I would advise friends in Kuala Lumpur to go and give the Beard Papa’s cream puffs a try. There’s one stall in Midvalley, LG which used to be Dairy King ice cream stall. The cream puffs found there are similar to the famous Beard Papa cream puffs available in Japan. So, what’s the big deal about cream puffs, huh? These ones contain no preservatives and made with good quality ingredients. It’s crunchy on the outside, ice cold in the inside, and nothing beats the fresh whipped custard cream taste. And for those who yearn to listen to some nihongo – the girls who waited on me ordered the cream puffs in nihongo. The cashier thanked me in nihongo too. Ahh… ii kimochi datta!

By the way - Jem, if you are reading this - I have brought back cendol and Ayam brand santan especially for you. But I saw that your blog is having some kind of problem and thus could not notify you there. Please contact me via e-mail to advise me on how to pass them over to you, okay?

Enough for now. Will write more later, insya Allah.