A day in Yokohama

I’ve been itching to blog about this for quite some time…

However, there was a paper on International Politics that I had to submit last week.
Then, there were two papers on Globalization of Culture and Asia that I had to submit last Tuesday.
One more paper to go – due to be submitted by next Tuesday, so I’ve decided to take a short break now and blog a little bit (mind you, I have taken breaks in between the three papers – finishing Sophie Kinsella’s “Shopaholic and Sister” and Iris Johansen’s “The Ugly Duckling” – resulting in me finishing my papers at the very last minute… I know, I have a bad sense of priority…blergh...)

I had a two-week break in late December until early January. Told hubby that it would be a great time to do some travelling since I was feeling rather fit and we still only had to take care of one baby… So, we considered some options – including going to Niigata, or Hiroshima, or Kyoto/Osaka using JR’s seishun 18 kippu (dirt cheap train tickets to be used during certain periods of the year). As it happened – hubby was not quite free during these two weeks though. First, he had to prepare to be the Imam for Solat Eidul Adha in the Malaysian Embassy. Then, he was invited to be a guest speaker at a Seminar Keluarga Muslim organized by AMIR a few days after that. Not to mention that the mosque was visited by people from various groups for various programs during the two weeks. And on the last Sunday before school re-opened, there was that wedding I mentioned earlier, between Mariam-san and Jehan-san.

I think it was partly because he felt guilty for not taking me anywhere and partly because he too wanted to discover some new place, hubby suggested going to Yokohama on Monday, the last day before school re-opened. I was not keen on the idea because I had to go to school the next day and we often return home late whenever we go out for such excursion. Hubby persisted, did all the homework on Yokohama (finding the fares, the interesting places to visit etc on the Net) that in the end I just didn’t have the heart to say no.

So, that Monday morning, I woke up earlier to prepare breakfast and lunch (nasi goreng), got Huzaifah ready and off we went. Unfortunately, I realized that I had left my wallet at home as we were about to enter the train station. Alhamdulillah hubby carried some cash with him too, so we decided to just go ahead without having to go back and pick up my wallet at home. Yup we travelled all the way to Yokohama without me carrying any ID or ATM cards (it’s important for gaijin to carry our IDs with us all the time because there’s no telling when we would be asked to produce our alien card by some patrolling policeman who has nothing better to do). Tawakaltu a’lallah ajelah…

Since I did not do any reading on Yokohama (like I did with Hakone), I decided to let hubby led the way. But he didn’t seem to be all that well-versed like I hoped, so in the end, I had to do lots of the “navigation” while we were there.

Anyway, we both decided that Yokohama is much prettier than Tokyo – cleaner, more organized (no messy electrical/communication wires overhead and we did not see any ‘under construction’ signs on the road during the day) and the people are a bit friendlier. We took a 45 minute ride on the Sea Bass (perhaps to differentiate it from the Tokyo Sea Bus) from Yokohoma Bay Quarter to Yamashita Koen, stopping by Minato Mirai and Aka Renga.

Huzaifah obviously enjoyed the ferry ride, running back to front numerously – which got me worried but his father said to just monitor him, and not stop him from enjoying himself, so long as he did not disturb others. Alhamdulillah we didn’t get any dirty look from other passengers and the ferry itself was not filled to the max, so Huzaifah had plenty of room to run about, sometimes with people mumbling “kawaii” as he passed them…

Yamashita Koen was another place where Huzaifah had a great time running here and there. He’s getting pretty fast now, so it wasn’t easy to keep up with him, what with the extra weight that I carried and all... I worried about him running into a cyclist, or a bigger kid, or a dog… but alhamdulillah none of that happened. I guess sometimes a mother just can’t help worrying a tad too much…

We took photos of the recently closed-to-public Hikawa Maru and Marine Tower. Once called the "Queen of the Pacific", Hikawa Maru used to be a luxury cargo-passenger ship, operating between 1930-1960, connecting Japan with Seattle and Vancouver. Due to a decrease in visitors, it was closed to public beginning 25^th December 2006. Marine Tower, the largest on-land lighthouse in the world, another famous landmark of Yokohama, was also closed on the same day, due to similar factor. The Yokohama City Office had taken over the management of Marine Tower and it is expected to be re-opened in 2009. Although there is a plan for Hikawa Maru to be re-opened too, the date is yet unknown.

Then we walked to Chukagai, the biggest China Town in Japan. Since it happened to be a public holiday, the place was so crowded that I asked hubby to go ahead and take photos on his own while Huzaifah and I waited at one of the four entrance gates. From what I could see, the place was lined with mostly Chinese restaurants and Chinese snack stalls – mostly selling pork-filled dumplings. So, I guess I didn’t miss much by not exploring it thoroughly.

Next, we took a train to Minato Mirai – the central attraction of the new, modern Yokohama. Minato Mirai is, among others, home of Landmark Tower (tallest building in Japan), the yacht-shaped Intercontinental hotel, the Queen's Square shopping mall and the Cosmo World amusement park.

We walked along Queen’s Square, bought some drinks and buns at a konbini there and then strolled to the neighboring Cosmo World. There is no entrance fee for Cosmo World, and although I would have loved a roller coaster ride or two, my condition did not permit me to do so. Thus we ended up taking just one ride – on Cosmo Clock 21, which stands at 115m, and reputed to be one of the tallest ferris wheels in the world. Even then, hubby insisted on waiting until nightfall before taking the ride, “baru pemandangan cantik sikit,” or so he claimed. Alhamdulillah the queue was not that long when we boarded the gondola, but 15 minutes later as we exited it, the line had grown considerably long – made up by mostly teenagers and couples in early twenties.

Huzaifah yet again had a wonderful time during the ferris wheel ride, jumping excitedly as he took in the wonderful sights – of not only Yokohama city, but the sea as well as sun setting behind Mount Fuji. I later told Mak how excited he was, showing no sign of fear of height in the gondola, and Mak’s response was maybe we should consider training him as a jet fighter pilot one day as it is difficult to find Muslims who are trained to be high-precision pilot and all. (Oh well, sometimes I think Mak watches too much Discovery/National Geographic channel…)

We bought a souvenir photo of our family taken just before we boarded the ferris wheel. As it costed 800 yen, hubby was a bit reluctant to buy it, but I insisted on it anyway because we bought no other souvenir to mark our first trip to Yokohama (we intend to have a repeat trip – maybe to Hakkeijima Sea Paradise,Minato Mieru Oka Koen, Aka Renga and Motomachi/Yamate).

Then we walked to Sakuragicho eki to take the subway to go to Azamino, to visit a newfound acquaintance’s place. More click-clicking of camera as there were some interesting places along the way. I let hubby did most of the snapping as I pushed Huzaifah's baby car towards the Queen's Mall indoor passageway to avoid the cold wind. Saw a Cold Stone Creamery outlet in Landmark Tower buidling, and thought it would be a better place to have ice cream than the store in Roppongi because it was warmer inside the building.

It took us about 30 minutes to reach Azamino on the subway, but when we arrived there Soffian, who had so kindly invited us for dinner at his house, was already waiting for us with his son. We had never met before - in fact hubby just learned about Soffian from one of his Indonesian neighbors who attended one of the programs held during winter break in the mosque – but apparently Soffian had already known hubby since he attended the Solat Eidul Adha in the embassy. He made a remark somewhere along the line that the recent khutbah was rather refreshing and relevant to the audience – and I was glad to hear that, to know that at least someone actually paid attention…

It was easy to hit it off with Farah, his bubbly wife. She looked so familiar that I thought we might have met before, but she said she got similar remarks a lot, but no, she didn’t think we have ever met before. I learned a thing or two about maternity care in Japan from her and was rather impressed with the way she communicated with her two kids. Abang, her 5-year-old first born, is fluent in Nihongo but not BM, so he spoke more to me than hubby. His knowledge on trains in Japan was so impressive, that I thought if there’s such a thing as an episode of Kid TV Champion on trains, he might be a strong contender. He collects lots and lots of train models, and even the calendar under the transparent dining table cover featured different trains in Japan.

We finally said goodbye at around 9.00 p.m., inviting Soffian’s family to visit us in Asakusa. Farah said that her parents might be visiting them later and if they go to Asakusa, maybe they can visit us in the mosque.

Soffian sent us to take the Den-en-toshi line train from Tama Plaza, and we changed to Ginza line at Omotesando with little difficulty (because Den-en-toshi/Hanzomon line and Ginza line shared the same platform at Omotesando eki). We reached home around 11.00 p.m., exhausted yet glad that finally we got to travel someplace other than Tokyo during my school break…

(A small) Theft in Tokyo

I could not believe my eyes.

I just left my bike for less than 5 minutes and the two plastic bags I left in the front basket were gone.

Vanished.

Well, I just did some grocery shopping, left the bags in my bike’s basket and went to the store next to the supermarket to get a few more stuff. It did not took me longer than 5 minutes to grab a carton of milk, some yogurt and a tray of egg and paid for them because the shop was not busy.

So, imagine my surprise when I saw the empty basket.

Hubby was holding Huzaifah as he witnessed me arranging the two bags in my basket. I told him I wouldn’t be long as I rushed to get some stuff from the store next door, but he chose to follow me into the shop. I don’t blame him – we never thought somebody would take our stuff just like that. This is Japan after all, where the people are supposed to be decent, trustworthy, honourable… I mean, they were just two bags of groceries, not like we were back from shopping in Takashimaya, Matsuzakaya or Mitsukoshi…

I’ve done multiple-place-grocery shopping before – in Tokyo and in Gyotoku - leaving plastic bags in my bike’s basket for a short while as I entered other shops to get some stuff, but they had never disappeared just like that. And this is different from the lost-wallet-episode I had last year because last time I had dropped the wallet somewhere and it might or might not be found by anyone. But this – this was blatant theft! In broad daylight too.

Hubby tried to look around for the bags, but nobody appeared to be carrying our stuff. It wasn’t that much – carrots, cabbage, shiitake mushroom, shimeji mushroom, cooking oil and some ice cream. The total cost was a little over 1000 yen – not much, I know, but still… When hubby suggested me to go inside and buy more to replace what had been stolen, I was still so upset with the incident that I just refused to do so. We ended doing our alternative shopping elsewhere, buying different items (except for ice cream – I had a craving for it) because it just hurt to buy similar stuff at higher price when I knew I had a bargain at the first supermarket. When we reached home, I confessed to hubby that if I were in a more rational state, I would’ve gone and just buy stuff to replace what was lost at the supermarket – but when I was there, the frustration was still too raw…

When we told him what happened, Ridzuan, who used to live in Japan for quite some time, admitted that “memang ramai orang buat kerja tu… orang tua-tua pun buat…” Yup, as it happened, that particular supermarket was filled with mostly senior citizens when we were there as it was still midday (the yuppies were not back from work yet to do their shopping. That’s why there are plenty of 24 hours supermarket/food store in Tokyo – to accommodate yuppies and their grave hours)

Well, so there, a lesson for us never to be too laid-back or too trusting (or careless) again – even when dealing with the so-called honest Japanese…

We hope it's going to be a girl...

People have been telling me over and over again that no two pregnancies are the same, and I can’t agree more. In my case – the first and second pregnancies are a lot different, so much so that I hope the gender will be different too this time…

Alhamdulillah, the vomiting stopped after the 4^th month – a big change from last time because with Huzaifah, I was vomiting almost throughout the whole 9 months, including the morning I delivered him. I don’t get tired that easily too now, which is good, because I do need my energy to keep up with Huzaifah.

However, now I am experiencing other previously-not-experienced pregnancy related pains - leg cramps (which could really hurt, especially in the middle of a winter night on a futon) and constipation. Tried stretching before bed and taking more calcium (drinking more milk, eating more yogurt) to overcome the cramp thingy – but doesn’t seem to work all that well. I drink plenty of water regularly, and eat prunes to overcome the constipation problem - again, with not much difference. Currently I am consuming lots of green tea, just to see if it will make any difference…

I also sometimes feel guilty – to Huzaifah because he’s getting an adik even before his second birthday, and to the adik, because I am not taking the same care with this pregnancy like I did with the first. With Huzaifah, I used to read more Quran (now I just listen to Quran recital on the PC occasionally), drank plenty of soya milk and bird’s nest (not much soya and no bird's nest this time around, in fact I even drink kopi kampung sometimes - not good, not good), took my prenatal vitamin religiously (stopped taking folic acid after 4th month this time) and communicated daily with him (now I only ask adik to stop moving around so much when I am trying to get some sleep). And apart from some bodysuits on sale in Gap, I haven’t bought anything new for the adik. I am counting on Mak to bring Huzaifah’s old stuff from home when she comes here in March, but Mak also have asked me to buy some new stuff. Baby stuff are not cheap – even more so in Japan where nothing is cheap.

Now that I have to take care of Huzaifah, with his never ending unexpected stunts (the oven is sealed because he kept climbing the oven to get to pans and pots on the stove, the chairs are located not at the dining table because he kept climbing the table using the chair as a ladder of some sort, a lot of dinner wares had been transferred to the mosque’s kitchen since he kept rummaging through the lower cabinets and took out glass wares to play with them), I feel like I am a bit emotionally distant from this pregnancy. Hubby too, seems to take less interest in this pregnancy – probably because he too is drained with taking care of Huzaifah.

Not that I love this yet unborn adik any less. It’s just – different. But I hope it’s going to be a girl. And if the old wives’ tales are to be believed – there are plenty of signs that it’s going to be a girl…

The signs?

I am carrying high – it’s still unnoticed to some although I will be entering my seventh month next week.

Hubby is not gaining weight along with me.

I am craving sweets – not just ice cream and cheesecake, but also chocolate, and I am normally not a chocolate person (more an ‘asam’ person actually)

I crave for fruits too – persimmons, strawberries, pears

I don’t get headaches

My nose doesn’t change its shape

My chest development is pretty dramatic

My belly resembles a watermelon more than a basketball

Plus, Huzaifah loves playing in the kitchen and with kitchen wares. He is happiest when he’s allowed to play with ladles although he has a trunk full of toys suitable for his age. Sabah confessed that his mom told him that he used to love playing in the kitchen and with kitchen utensils when he was a toddler – and he got a baby sister…

Not to mention just a few days ago, I craved to read chick lit. Maybe I was influenced by Kit, maybe it was the “50% off chick lit” signboard that was put outside my favorite used bookstore, or maybe it was just my raging hormones – I bought not one, but three Shopaholic books in one go (for less than 1000 yen). I have heard about the Shopaholic series 2 or 3 years ago from Afaf, a colleague at work, but never tried buying, borrowing or reading it until now. And being more of a Sheldon/Koontz/Grisham/Archer/Dan Brown reader – yes, chick lit is not my usual cup of tea… So, what else but girly hormones that would drive me to buy chick lit, huh?

Oh, by the by, another reason why hubby and I hope for a girl is that so we can put all those dresses, girly bodysuits, tops, pants, shoes, socks and what-nots bought in 2005 (when we thought our first born was going to be a girl) to good use…

Happy Maal Hijrah, Congratulations and Condolence

Why when you know you should be concentrating on writing at least one of the four term papers that are due, you just have this voice at the back of your mind nagging you to update your blog. It’s not like you update your blog regularly after all, but the voice just wouldn’t stop – so there…

Happy Maal Hijrah 1428. Hope this year is going to be a good one. I don’t have any new year resolutions – I think the last time I made up some was when I was in high school. I guess I’m one of those who make up new resolutions when we feel like we could commit to it, regardless of the beginning period.

Hubby led the recital of doa akhir/awal tahun in Rusdi’s place in Ichikawa Ono yesterday with a small potluck feast after Isyak. (I didn’t bring anything, and was quite embarrassed to note that even 9-month pregnant Kak Mai, Pokcik’s wife who is due to deliver anytime now, contributed some pudding.) I especially enjoyed the pulut prepared by Nor, Syah’s wife with the spicy sambal, the apam (with anonymous contributor) and the mee goreng prepared by Siti, the hostess. We seldom get to go to Hijriah new year party in Malaysia because most people read the doa akhir/awal tahun privately at home or at the mosque – so I kinda enjoyed the opportunity to attend one such party here, even though I was the only female guest (it was an all-male small kenduri actually, but hubby took Huzaifah and I along just so that I could recite the doa together with him)

Oh, by the way, I would like to offer my belated congratulations to newlywed Roza & Meor - and thanks Ahkak for sharing the wedding photos at your blog. I am sure, what with Meor being a photographer himself, they must have loads of gorgeous wedding photos, but even normal photos were enough to prove how radiant Roza looked on her big day. I am happy for her – I will always be indebted to her for being the one who helped telling someone (rather nicely) to stop bugging me a few years back. Roza, Ahkak and Ira were also the one who acted as my make-up artists on my wedding, and I could never thank them enough for being there for me…

I take this opportunity to also congratulate Jehan and Mariam-san – (the fifth actually, but) the first couple to be wedded by hubby this year in Asakusa. The bride shed a few tears when she uttered the shahadah. They didn’t bring any witnesses along, but alhamdulillah the mosque at that particular time was used by a group of Indonesians for some religious meet, so 4 kind guys had agreed to act as the witnesses – 2 for Mariam-san’s shahadah ceremony, and another 2 for the wedding.

On a more sober note, my condolences go out to Shireen – the same one I’ve mentioned in two recent entries - who had just lost her dear dad 2 days before Eidul Adha. I didn’t know about it until a few days ago when she replied my e-mail, thanking me for sending her (long due) photos taken in Tokyo. I remember thinking what a nice daughter she is as I accompanied her buying souvenirs for her parents – a lovely ‘beg surau’ for her mother and a cool jacket from UniQlo for her father. I am not sure whether or not her dad had a chance to wear the jacket, because Shireen even missed Roza’s wedding because of her father’s critical condition (due to cancer). Poor girl is still trying to cope with the loss, missing her daddy so much… My prayers are with her and her family – and Al-fatihah for her dad…

This one is for you Kakaq

Dear Kakaq,

You asked for some photos, so, here they are...


This was taken during Eidul Adha in the TYT Dato' Duta's residence as he was introduced to hubby by your 'Abang Jas'.


This shot of Sabah - who helped a lot with taking care of Huzaifah last Eidul Adha - was taken in Encik Jasri's residence, with Encik Jasri at the back, offering hubby (the photographer) more mee kari...

Oh, this was the Raya family shot that came out okay last Eidul Adha, taken in the Malaysian Embassy


A six-month pregnant mommy feeding a 1-year-and-4-months old toddler home-made nasi goreng in Yamashita Park, Yokohama

Another recent shot (taken on 8th January 2007) of that six-month pregnant mommy with her eldest son in Yamashita Park.

Youkoso Nihon e

Shireen was on an official trip to Tokyo last November – took 2 days leave, stayed at a friend’s place and came to see me a day before she went back home. She’d been in Asakusa before, so I didn’t get to be much of a tourist guide. I brought her to our house though, insisted on it in fact, because I’d cooked some ayam masak merah with acar just for her. After more than a week of eating Japanese food, Shireen seemed to really appreciate Malaysian food. And she got to meet Huzaifah in person too.

Fee Cheng visited Tokyo last month – not on any working trip, but strictly for holiday. She used up her Enrich points to get free MAS ticket to Tokyo and stayed with her ex-room-mate in UM, a Japanese-Chinese who’s now married to a Japanese and has decided to make Japan her home. Fee Cheng’s friend arranged quite a schedule for her while she’s in Tokyo, so she had to arrange to meet me a few days before we actually met.

It was good meeting the girls and having girl talk just like the old days. We used to work in the same ministry back in KL, but since then Shireen has been promoted and got a transfer to another ministry while Fee Cheng is currently on study leave. She decided that she needed a break from the working atmosphere and now is pursuing her (second) Masters degree in UM.

Sharing some interest in Japan, both Fee Cheng and I applied for Mambusho scholarship when we were in the same office. We used to have breakfast and lunch together all the time, including treating ourselves to Japanese cuisine once in a while. Sometimes, we even watched Japanese drama together (using PC/laptop) during long lunch break on Fridays. It’s been long since we last met though – “masa last kita jumpa, you belum kahwin pun, sekarang dah nak masuk anak dua dah,” was how Fee Cheng described it.

Hubby was sporting enough to bring Huzaifah to Kaminarimon just so Fee Cheng got to meet him in person and took some photos together. And then he left Fee Cheng and I for some girlfriends time, taking Huzaifah with him back home.

I got to be more of a tourist guide for Fee Cheng since she didn’t get to roam as much as she wanted the first time she came to Asakusa. Assisted her in buying some rice crackers (senbei) and Japanese candy, and then treated her for a tempura snack in Tenya.

Tenya, being a chain restaurant is a far cry from the likes of Kiku Zakura or Spring Hatsuhana where we used to dine in KL. Fee Cheng did not complain, but I apologized anyway for not taking her to a nicer restaurant. Anyway, the tempura in Tenya was as delicious as always, and what mattered more was that we finally got to eat tempura together in Tokyo, and that’s something we used to dream about a couple of years ago. Of course, the restaurant in our dream was a finer one – with dimmer lights, cosier chairs, top-quality ceramic dishes, and better ambience. But Tenya was all I could afford – and thankfully, Fee Cheng didn’t mind one bit (partly I think, because she got to enjoy the finer restaurant anyway whenever she dined out with her yuppie friend, who seldom eats at home).

Fee Cheng said at first she was unsure whether or not to let me know that she would be coming – and I immediately told her that if I were to learn later that she had been visiting Tokyo without my knowledge, I would be very upset and she would never hear the end of it, ever. Fee Cheng said she thought so too, that was why she made it a point to meet up with me while she’s in Tokyo. Heheheh…

Today, I just learned that yet another friend will be coming for a short course in Tokyo. Amy and I were quite close back during our DPA days and I couldn’t wait to meet up with her (if possible). From our exchange over Yahoo Messenger, she seemed rather anxious although excited about this coming trip. It will be her first encounter with winter – and she’s far from keen to experience freezing temperature. But then again, there’s always a first time for everything, kan?

Solat, jangan tak solat

It is interesting to note that both Shireen and Fee Cheng - the former visited me in November while the latter in late December - queried me about it; where do I pray when I go out?

Solat time changes frequently here – in accordance with the season changes, that sometimes it is just not possible to perform all five required solat at home. Asar currently begins at around 2.30 p.m., but will begin from around 3.30 p.m. in late May. Maghrib’s beginning time ranges from 4.30 p.m. in winter to 7.00 p.m. in summer.

I must confess that while I am not the most disciplined of all to perform my solat immediately with the arrival of its time (I have my share of subuh gajah or subuh dinaosaur more than I care to admit), I do try my best not to miss performing them on their prescribed time no matter where I go. And since Tokyo is not like Kuala Lumpur where most malls and public areas have surau facilities, one must be rather creative in finding a suitable place, preferably a rather quiet and peaceful place.

It’s not like I am ashamed of performing my solat in public – I don’t care if anybody stare while I stand, bow, sit flat or prostrate, it is just that somehow it is easier to concentrate on communicating with Allah in a quieter place.

So, where do I perform my solat when I go out? In GSAPS, Muslim students normally pray at the end corner of the 8^th floor which has little chances of being disrupted by casual onlookers. When we go out, hubby and I normally bring a qiblah compass along. And we have prayed at various places – from performing ‘solat hormat waktu’ in trains, to praying properly in public parks, near staircases in various train stations and shopping malls, at the back of Muslim-owned shops, in Muslim-owned restaurant’s kitchen, in storeroom, near parking areas, in nursing rooms… I never use telekung when I pray outside – I pray with whatever clothing I had on, sometimes adding a ‘hand stocking’ when my sleeves are a bit short, so it’s compulsory to wear what is acceptable for prayers when I go out (suitable tudung, socks with no holes, long blouse/sweater, loose skirt/pants, etc) My similar experience of finding suitable place for solat in UK helps too – because some basic stuff remains (it’s usually quieter at the top floor, the end corner, and the back staircase)

I usually make use of the larger toilets normally reserved for handicapped and mommies with baby to perform ablution because it’s easier to do so in these toilets. Besides, since it’s spacious enough to bring Huzaifah’s baby car inside the toilet, it saves us from having to take turn looking afer him when both hubby and I need to perform ablution.

There are certain people I know who prefer to qadha’ their solat later at home rather than performing it anywhere else when it’s not convenient for them to do so. I normally would remind the person – unsolicited, but I did it anyway out of my responsibility as a fellow Muslim – how important it is to tame our ego in order to serve Allah. If we only pray when we like to pray, where we prefer to pray, then we are still serving our ego since our convenience and comfort should not be the consideration in our solat. It is compulsory for us to pray – at prescribed times in a prescribed manner - and the only consideration is our total submission to Allah.

Sometimes, non-Muslim friends and colleagues ask – why 5 times a day? To simply say ‘because Allah asks us to’, usually wouldn’t satisfy them, so sometimes it is easier to tell them that in the morning we wake up to thank Allah for waking us up and giving us another day to live and the rest of the day to continue saying thanks and being mindful of His presence. After all, Allah has only order 5 prayers - a few minutes out of 24 hours that we have been given daily. So, really, it is not asking for much considering He has given us life, our health, families, our rezeki and countless other bounties, ye tak?

Eidul Adha 1427H

About a month before Eidul Adha, hubby checked with the president of ICOJ if he can be released for one day on Eidul Adha since he had been invited to lead the solat sunat raya in the Malaysian Embassy. The president told us that it would be rather tough to find a substitute imam since many Pakistanis are going for hajj or spend their year-end holidays in Pakistan. The president himself would be spending his Eid in Pakistan with his family, and so hubby has to liaise with Brother Jamil.

As it turned out, one Syeikh Al-Hafiz happens to be on a short visit during Eid season, so Brother Jamil arranged for him to be the imam in Asakusa for Eidul Adha. But his visit was only confirmed on Thursday, 3 days before Eid itself. Nevertheless, hubby was so glad that he doesn’t have to perform solat sunat raya in according to Hanafi, and that he could deliver the sermon in Bahasa Melayu.

The sermon text faxed to us by the embassy was almost 20 pages long. “It’s too long, please make it shorter,” advised Encik Jasri, the current student Counsellor. It wasn’t just too long, it was also too wordy yet the content was rather uninspiring. “Find some points which the audience could relate to – and the audience would be mostly students and officers,” I commented after reading the sermon.

He worked hard on summarizing and improving the text – constantly reworded, revised and made changes here and there. He finally cut it down to just 9 pages – with some new inputs, thanks to Mak. Mak was in the Ministry of Education for over 20 years plus she is now an active member of the mosque’s organizing committee back home – just the right person to consult on a short notice.

Mak’s main points were – 1) we must be willing to sacrifice for R&D although the payback is not immediate, in order to become the leader and not merely adopting and adapting because by doing so we will forever be a follower and 2) in spite of being the leader in any field, what we must focus more is on increasing our iman, because it takes more than just being master of technologies to make us great leaders. Too many Malaysians are infected by ‘sindrom selesa’ – feeling so content and comfortable with what we already have that we do not pursue to do more. That’s why some of us, if not all, need to ‘sacrifice’ more time and effort to come up with research results that can enable Malaysia to become leaders. The payback would not be immediate – it takes a lot of time and effort to come out with such result, and it may take decades for returns in monetary terms, but it is something that someone must be willing to sacrifice for…

Unfortunately, I am not sure how many of the jemaah paid close attention to the sermon – the only time the praying hall was really quiet was when hubby read the final doa during the second sermon. Still at least we tried to make the sermon relevant to the audience – I’ve heard of many complaints about sermons which drive people to sleep easily, that’s why we tried to ensure that hubby’s is one that the audience (or at least those who pay attention among the audience) can relate to.

The good thing about hubby being invited to become the imam for Eid prayer meant that we were fetched by the Embassy’s car. We have both met the chauffeur, Hasegawa-san when we ‘tumpang’ the Embassy car last Eidul Fitri since the imam back then happens to be hubby’s friend in Al-Azhar. The drive from Asakusa to Shibuya took only about 20-25 minutes, so by 8.15 we had reached the Embassy – otherwise a one-hour journey, if we were to take the train and bus on our own. Hasegawa-san too was a pleasant driver (despite having to work on his day off – not to mention that New Year is a really important event for most Japanese), attending to our requests and answering our questions courteously.

The Embassy is the place one can count on meeting acquaintances and making new friends – and this time was no exception. Two encounters that stood out from the rest was meeting another blogger who heard about me from an outstanding blogger in Okinawa and a silent reader of this blog who happens to be a friend of two other friends of mine. Kak Hani and Ida, it was nice meeting you ;-).

I didn’t cook any rendang this time, hoping to have some at the Embassy – zannen deshita. No rendang to be found at the Embassy either – instead we were treated to rice with kari dalca, fried chicken and jelatah timun-nenas. The attendees were more then the staff anticipated, so they had to cook a lot of extra while people were lining up. Some complaint of being served such a small portion – but then again, the volunteers who helped serving had not much choice when they had a serious shortage in food, especially rice. They initially cooked 12 large pots (kawah) of rice, but halfway through, they had to cook additional 4 pots (kawah). Kesian the volunteers – mostly undergraduate students or teachers undergoing Nihongo training.

Hubby and I managed to avoid lining up because right after the solat, Encik Jasri invited us to one of the officer’s room and asked one of the volunteers to prepare two plates of nasi for us. Encik Jasri himself did not eat with us, instead he continued monitoring the ongoing activities in the main hall. Poor Encik Jasri – it’s not easy being a student Counsellor, especially when a feast had to be held on the day all the Japanese staff in the Embassy were on their year-end/new year holidays.

We took the opportunity to take a sneak peek of the Ambassador’s residence. The current Ambassador, Dato’ Radzi is a friendly Penangite with an equally friendly Datin as his wife. So friendly they are that for the first time, students are allowed to enter their residence during Raya. In fact, last Eidul Fitri, Dato’ Radzi himself gave a tour of his residence to the students. This time around, hubby had quite a long chat with Dato’ while I had a short chat with Datin, who seemed to be impressed on learning that there is a Malaysian who becomes an Imam in Tokyo. “You must arrange for us to go for a visit there,” she asked one of the staff nearby. “The next time someone visits from Malaysia, I can show them the mosque led by a Malaysian – that would be something different from the same old, same old…” I welcomed her to visit us anytime, but also warned her that Asakusa mosque is not quite ‘proper’ like the Tokyo Camii or most mosques in Malaysia.

Encik Jasri did not held any open house session this raya. His wife, Kak Linda is seven-month pregnant, so that is perfectly understandable. They still organized a makan-makan session for the volunteers who helped serving and cooking though – so they invited hubby and I over as well. Kak Linda prepared mee kari – spaghetti kari actually, but she added turmeric while boiling the spaghetti so it resembled the mee kuning. We exchanged some mommies talk in the kitchen. She is just as friendly as Encik Jasri, so I found it easy chatting with her. Besides, preggie mommies usually could find a lot to share – and this time, I ended up promising to fax some zikir for preggie mommy since she is worried about her placenta praevia condition. (uri di bawah) and since every little effort counts, so she would like to start reciting the zikir too.

We left Encik Jasri’s residence at around 4.00 p.m. Instead of heading back to Asakusa, we asked Hasegawa-san to send us to the nearest Tozai line station, which happened to be Iidabashi. We thanked him profusely for working on the day he was supposed to be on leave and we sent our best to his wife and family in Yokohama. Such is the professionalism of the Japanese, Hasegawa-san kept smiling and being courteous to the very end – no ‘tarik muka’ episode like could be expected from a typical Malaysian driver who has to work on his day off.

Ridzuan joined us on our ‘beraya’ excursion to our friend Syahril’s place in Myoden. It turned out to be a ‘jejak kasih’ episode for them since Ridzuan and Syahril used to live in the same house about 8 years ago. We spent over 4 hours at Syahril’s place – what with Ridzuan obviously enjoyed sharing his thoughts with the juniors who visited while hubby had a discussion on the world affairs (Saddam’s hanging) with the more adult guests (government officers on study leave).

We finally reached home at around 11.00 p.m. Exhausted – but all in all it was a nice Raya although there was no rendang and we were not clad in matching color costumes (hubby and Huzaifah in purple baju Melayu, me in turquoise maternity dress with grey cardigan).

Anyway, if it is not too late – Eid Mubarak and Happy New Year.