(Author's warning: This entry is terribly long - as long as a mid- term report, as it took just as long to write one. Please read at your own peril...)
Nak bagi Duit Raya?Lupa bawa Oyatsu Raya?Sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei.. opappi!* Malam raya – in between cajoling them to go to sleep, I made some last-minute alterations on Huzaifah’s and Humaidi’s baju melayu. Both boys were not feeling well; I took Huzaifah to the clinic two days before Raya and Humaidi a day before Raya. They were both down with cold and it really tore me to see them so uncomfortable with their running noses and all the sniffling.
Hubby had received some Eidi ('duit raya' in Urdu?) from those who frequented our mosque, and I thought it would be nice to use some of those Eidi to buy some oyatsu (snack) to be distributed by Sofea Haruka in a’la ‘duit raya’ giving way. So, malam raya was also used to pack Umai Bo, Fujiya Home Pie, ramune candy and chocolate into over thirty individual packets.
But as it happened – we forgot to take those packets with us when we left for the Embassy (by bus, train and another bus), so zannen deshita.
Sibuk nak solat raya?
Kena cari seluar raya?
Sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei…opappi!
Met up with Sofea Haruka at Nihombashi eki, about fifteen minutes later than my original promise (despite having been in Japan for two years now, I still have trouble sometimes adjusting my ‘Malaysian time’) but Sofea herself was also running late, so she didn’t have to wait too long before boarding the same train we were on, bound for Shibuya. I smiled upon noticing that Sofea was wearing a blue scarf, almost as if “pakat-pakat aje” because the Raya theme color for my family this year happens to be blue too.
Waiting for Faizly at Shibuya eki
Met up with Faizly (who has written an entertaining entry on our Raya experience on his blog) at Shibuya eki, and he brought the butang baju melayu as per hubby’s request. Sofea said that she was supposed to meet up with another Malaysian – Bazilah(?) – but she asked us to go ahead first and promised to meet up with Sofea at the embassy. We boarded the quite crowded but not yet full small Transee bus bound for Daikanyama. One Nihonjin obasan offered her seat for me (and Humaidi), and while the trip is quite short (Malaysian embassy is near the fourth stop), since both hubby and I only had some Raya cookies with a glass of milk each for breakfast that morning, I was grateful for the offer and took it gladly. Faizly who was holding Huzaifah got a seat soon after that as someone vacated the seat near him.
We reached the Embassy at around 8.05 a.m. hence it was not too crowded yet. Greeted some friends and acquaintances, said hi to a few familiar faces as well as introduced Sofea to some kakak-kakak, before we went down to the makeshift prayer hall on the basement, for takbir Raya.
I let Huzaifah roamed the ladies praying hall to his heart’s content, but soon, more and more people arrived and Huzaifah got bored with playing in the hall, thus he started venturing outside. And not long after that he started climbing the stairs going to the first floor. And came down again. And up he went. And down he came. Again and again and again.
At that very moment, Humaidi needed a diaper change, so I quickly changed his diaper and handed him over to Kak Normah who was sitting in front of me, seeking her help to feed Humaidi while I went to look for Huzaifah who was by then no longer in sight.
Huzaifah was playing on his own on the first floor, looking okay except that he was not wearing his pants, only his spats (that’s what leggings are called in Japan). Fortunately his spats are also blue in color, so at least he’s quite covered from immediately displaying his Mami Poko diaper pants, featuring Lilo and Stitch. I tried looking for his seluar Raya but could not find it anywhere. I was so frantic that I even asked Redha’s wife, who was manning the Raya buffet dishes, to alert me if someone found a blue seluar Raya in Huzaifah’s size.
Taken before Huzaifah began his up and down adventure and lost his pants
Just then, the takbir ended and solat raya was about to begin. So I re-joined the congregation, and let Huzaifah be on his own for a while. Before anyone started yelling what an irresponsible parent I am down my throat, let me assure you that Huzaifah was being watched by many acquaintances. One of the thing that comes with being an Ustaz’s son is being known by so many people. And I really did not want to miss this solat Raya because I have no idea when will I get a chance to do so in the future (since I will return to Malaysia next year and might not find a helper to look after my kids, thus might not be able to perform solat raya as part of a jemaah for many years to come). Anyway, I purposely sat at one end of the saf, so that I could put down Humaidi for a while when I prayed. As people stood to form the safs, Sofea joined others next to her, ending with praying right at the first saf for ladies. I was a bit worried because she had never prayed solat sunat Eid before, but alhamdulillah, she managed it well.
Right after the solat ended, I left the prayer hall once again, yet on another hunt for Huzaifah’s missing seluar Raya. After checking and rechecking every nook and cranny of the first floor, I went down to the basement, and noticed a piece of cloth which suspiciously resembled a pair of child’s baju melayu pants at the back of the male prayer hall’s door. Alhamdulillah, it was indeed Huzaifah’s missing seluar Raya. (I did not know it at that time; hubby later told me that Encik Zakri had alerted him of Huzaifah's pants whereabouts, but he thought of waiting until after solat raya ended, khutbah and all, before attending to Huzaifah. But then again, nobody tugged at his telekong saying "Eh, seluar anak tu dah melorot tadi, dah hilang!") After putting it back on Huzaifah, I asked Hanis for help - to accompany Huzaifah upstairs, maybe let him have some cookies or something. I knew the makan time hadn’t started yet – but I had a feeling that most people wouldn’t mind letting kids having some cookies ahead of time.
Makan ayam di pagi raya?
Buat semua terkena diarrhea?
Sonnano kankei nei.. sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… opappi!
The end of khutbah raya marked the beginning of a long queue for the Raya buffet on the first floor. I let Sofea joined her peers – the way a mother will let her teenager hang out with her peers – for makan-makan session, partly because I didn’t want to join the long queue. Apparently Sofea had known quite a handful of Malaysians – those she met in Otsuka Mosque as well as at Asakusa Mosque, so she was rarely in shortage of company. I am happy to note that she was approached by many too – girls about her age who were curious about her ‘reversion’.
While waiting for the queue to grow shorter, I attended to Humaidi while Huzaifah was attended to by several kouhais – Hanis, Linda and the gang. Arigatou ne adik-adik… I lost count of how many plates filled with Raya cookies/cakes, Hershey’s Kisses and grapes we finished while waiting to get our proper Raya food – nasi himpit, nasi beriani, ayam masak merah, kuah dalca, and bits of rendang daging (we were among the last to be served). However Huzaifah was keener on eating pudding and other sweets.
With Ustaz Jamali, who led the Solat Sunat Raya that morning (thank you for bringing Islamic pamphlets in Nihongo all the way from Malaysia) and Brother Ibrahim from Senegal who lives in Kita Senju
With Dato' Radzi - one of the nicest and most down-to-earth Ambassadors around
I took turn with Faizly (and the gang, including Fazu) in taking care of Huzaifah and Humaidi while I mingled around, sometimes taking opportunity to introduce Sofea to more people, not unlike the way a mother sometimes interrupted her children to introduce them to family friends and relatives at Raya open house. Sofea was especially happy to be introduced to other Japanese Muslims or Malaysians married to Japanese Muslim, such as Kak Pah and Kak Hani. I chanced upon meeting Aini-san, a Japanese who reverted to Islam 3 years ago and have been married to a Malaysian the past 1 ½ year in the ladies, and introduced Sofea to her. Then we met another Japanese Muslim, Maimunah-san, a friend of Dr. Ina, just before we left the Embassy to go to Nihon Muslim Kyokai. Sofea seemed really delighted to meet them – to find similar souls in the midst of hundreds of aliens (pun intended – that’s what foreigners in Japan are called – aliens).
Ayah, Ujai and Akif - all clad in sedondon baju melayu
Makan-makan Raya - notice the almost untouched ayam masak merah in Sofea's plate?
Gambar ramai-ramai meriah-meriah - dengan ucapan, "Cik Kieli jangan lupa hantar no keitai ye"
I didn’t quite realize it until much later, but some people started having diarrhea that very afternoon which was highly likely caused by some mazui ayam masak merah. When we had ours, it tasted okay, but some confessed that theirs were downright ‘basi’. Sofea happened to be one of the earliest to suffer diarrhea, since she started going to the ladies even before we left the Embassy. Fendi and Lia in Tsukuba shared a hilarious story about how members of their small rombongan had to split at various eki along the Yamanote line on their way from Shibuya to Akihabara before everyone finally re-assembled at Akihabara. Kak Hani reported in her Raya entry that the toilet queue at the Embassy staff’s residence (where Open House was held right after the makan-makan at the Embassy ended) resembled a public toilet queue during a concert; a comparison I could truly relate to. By pure chance I once went to Tokyo Dome a few hours before a concert started and the queue at the public toilet was terribly long that I wished I didn’t need to use it so urgently… kalau budak kecik dah terburai dah…
With Husna and her two ASEAN friends - the girl in pink from Myanmar, the other in satin-lacy blue outfit (which looks good enough to pass for an engagement/wedding outfit in Malaysia) is from Thailand
With Aini-san, who has been a Muslim for three years and married to a Malaysian now. Unlike Sofea who for now only wears hijab occasionally, Aini-san wears hers constantly
Anyway, while Sofea later confessed that she got diarrhea on the first day of Eid which continued until the second day, she also insisted that she had no regret of joining us because she truly enjoyed celebrating Eid with us. Honestly Kak Aini, we understand that the incident was neither planned nor anticipated, but well, sometimes things like this just happen… We thank you and everyone else who formed part of the makan-makan committee for cooking all those delicious food (notwithstanding the unpleasant ayam masak merah). There would be one huge gap in our Raya celebration if not for the Raya buffet at the Embassy, so again, arigatou gozaimashita. (Personally I didn’t cook any Raya food until the fourth Syawal, when I cooked rendang ayam to go with some left over nasi himpit we ‘tapau’ed from Fendi and Lia’s place.)
Beraya di Malaysia, dijamu ketupat nasi
Beraya di Jepun dijamu sushi?
Sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… opappi!
Like many others, we got three invitations for Open House from Encik Zakri (on Level 5 of the Malaysian Embassy staff residence apartment), Encik Jasri (Level 4) and Redha (Level 3). However, instead of heading straight to Kami Meguro; Faizly, Sofea and my family joined a few other friends going to Nihon Muslim Kyokai aka JMA (Japan Muslim Association) in a Honda Civic driven by Syahril and a Volvo driven by ‘Ustaz’ Fahmi. Syahril was with his pregnant wife Zetty and 2-year old daughter Nuha while Fahmi was accompanied by Yasser, whose wife, Ijan, had to do a happyou (presentation) that day, so no prize for guessing who got a lift on the nice Volvo. Not that I am not grateful – a ride on any car is almost a luxury here in Tokyo and Sofea was certainly pleased when Zetty told her that we would be going to Yoyogi by car.
It was Sofea’s and my family’s first trip to JMA, and if I were asked to find the place on my own, I might not be able to do so. It is not far from Yoyogi eki, but it is situated in a mansion (apartment as known in Japan) block, instead of an office block as I expected, and there was no real hint of its location as one enters the ground floor. We were led by Syahril and Zetty who had been there on several occasions previously.
We were greeted by a roomful of smiling guests, mostly Japanese (okay, two roomful since the guests were segregated by gender). There was no mistaking the increased cheerfulness in Sofea’s face and disposition upon meeting so many Japanese muslims. There was a handful of non Muslims present too, some postgraduate students who were trying to investigate a small part of Muslims in Japan lifestyle regarding medical care. We were each asked to complete a questionnaire, but since it was written in Nihonggo, I refrained from taking part. I thought of completing it there and then with Sofea’s assistance (as translator) but seeing she was busy chatting and making friends, I chose to simply refrain from answering the questionnaire.
Each new arrival were quickly served a plate of rice cooked a’la Arabian style with some sort of curry, Japanese style pumpkin and vegetable salad. Sofea’s eyes practically lighted up when we were offered other food on the main table as she was eyeing a tray of various kinds of sushi. She asked for an ikura sushi, and I followed suit. Ikura (salmon roe) is among my all-time favorite sushi, along with ama ebi (sweet prawn) anago (sea eel) and sake (salmon). But having just eaten all those Malaysian food, somehow eating sushi did not sit well with me that day. Since everyone else had had their share, Sofea and Maimunah-san (who arrived later than us since she took public transport) enjoyed the left over sushi to their hearts’ content, leaving me questioning myself why couldn’t I enjoy sushi the way I normally do on this Eid?
Maimunah-san is in yellow baju kurung sitting next to Zetty who was holding her daughter Nuha. 1 Syrian, 1 Indonesian, 2 Malaysians and the rest are all Nihonjin
Anyway, I enjoyed chatting with several obachan (aunts) there, who also volunteered to look after Humaidi while I ate. I normally meet up younger Muslim reverts, and seldom get a chance to meet Muslim reverts in their golden age. It was interesting asking the obachan their experience of performing Hajj, of going to other Muslim countries to learn more about Islam. One obachan in particular was wearing baju kurung and Malaysian tudung bawal, bought when she went to Malaysia in May. Dr Ida’s friend, Maimunah-san was also wearing baju kurung and Malaysian style tudung. I half teasingly asked Sofea if she would like to wear baju kurung next Eid, to which she half seriously answered, yes, if it is possible to get one for her. (Hmm, maybe I should try to get her a pair just like I did for Chloe, my friend from Mainland China, back when I was in Leeds)
Yasser, hubby, Syahril, Fahmi and one ojichan in JMA kitchen area
The JMA organizes classes on Islam and Arabic in Nihonggo. One JMA sensei was present then, a Nihonjin named Abu Hakeem, is fluent in Arabic, so hubby had no problem communicating with him. Abu Hakeem is trying to encourage more Nihonjin who has reverted or plans to revert to Islam to register with JMA, so that JMA could function better. He believes that since JMA’s committee members comprise mostly ethnic Japanese members, they would be able to better relate and understand situations faced by most new Japanese Muslim reverts. Besides, a revert needs to search for more knowledge than a born Muslim but there seems little induction courses offered for new Muslims in Japan. So JMA tries to fill this gap by introducing systematic and consistent induction program for new reverts.
Faizly, Yatagaya-san, Abu Hakeem sensei and hubby
Berhati-hati di jalan raya?
Berhati-hati masa beraya?
Sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… opappi!
We left JMA after solat Asar, and headed over to Malaysian Embassy staff residence in Kami Meguro. Fahmi whose Volvo is equipped with GPS navigator was asked to lead the way, but we noticed that he missed a turn in Naka Meguro, so Syahril took charge instead, asking Fahmi to follow his lead instead. We arrived at Kak Aini and Encik Zakri’s place at around 4.45 p.m., long after most of their guests had left. Since I had to take care of both Huzaifah and Humaidi at the JMA while everyone else prayed Asar, I had to pray Asar at Kak Aini’s place.
Then, I had the pleasure of introducing Sofea to my favorite dish – laksa. To my delight, Sofea took an instant liking to laksa, repeatedly saying “oishii, oishii” like she could not get enough of it.
I had only been to Kak Aini’s place once before and that at night, so I honestly thought that her balcony were all surrounded by railings. Hence I thought it would be okay to let Huzaifah loose on the balcony, after being quite restricted at the JMA. What I did not anticipate was a gap of railings due to a small staircase, which I only realized was there when Din, Tini’s JICA friend alerted me that Huzaifah was tiptoeing on the edge of balcony, on the outer side of the railings. When I saw the area where Din picked Huzaifah up, my legs went all wobbly, thinking “Ya Allah, kalaulah terjatuh, all the way from the fifth floor…”, yet refused to finish that thought, grateful instead that nothing bad happened. Things could change from good to bad in a second and I am thankful that Allah protected us from any unbecoming incident that blessed Eid.
I took extra care to note the where about of my ever active son there after. Despite being busy with entertaining more important guests (Dato’ Ambassador and Mrs arrived just as I was chatting with some friends), somehow Kak Aini noted that I was not eating much apart from the laksa. The truth is I totally lost my appetite after Huzaifah’s-tiptoeing-on- fenceless-balcony-edge incident. Just before we left Kak Aini’s house, she asked Tuti her helper to pack some nasi minyak and rendang for me to take home, since I was not eating much, having to watch over my son.
I thanked Tuti – for all her hardwork on that day as well as for taking care of Huzaifah the last time we visited Kak Aini. Tuti said that she likes Huzaifah because he “tak kacau orang” and he doesn’t cry easily. A lot of kids would cry in protest if someone tries to hinder them from doing something, but in Huzaifah’s case, whenever Tuti tried to stop him from doing something (playing with electrical appliances, for an instance), he would just turn his attention to something else. “Saya suka anak kakak,” Tuti said matter-of-factly, which both surprised and pleased me, since I am quite used to people complaining about how “lasak” my son is.
Beraya untuk penuhi undangan?
Beraya untuk eratkan hubungan?
Sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… sonnano kankei nei… opappi!
Next we went down to Encik Jasri’s house, just to fulfill his invitation rather than for Kak Linda’s famous mee kuah. We were all full anyway; Sofea in fact commented that she believed she had lost her waistline due to all the feasting that day. Not too full that we could not accommodate a glass of sirap ros each though.
Among the last of Encik Jasri's Eid guests. Huzaifah in baju melayu and spats, seluar raya dah basah...
We left Encik Jasri’s house by 6.30 p.m. and decided to give Redha’s invitation a pass. Syahril and Zetty agreed to take Sofea with them and sent her to a Tozai line eki on their way back to Myoden. I chatted with Sofea while waiting for Syahril and Fahmi to get their respective car, asking what she thought of her first Eid celebration. It had been a long day with a lot of ‘first time’s for Sofea.
“This is one of the best memories I ever had in my life!” she exclaimed.
To complete her list of ‘first time’s, I decided on impulse to give her 1000 yen just before we departed; explaining as I did that it is a Malaysian custom for adults to give ‘duit raya’ to kids, and while Sofea is no longer a child, she is a new Muslim, so it is okay for her to receive duit raya too.
“Are you serious?,” she was a bit hesitant in receiving the 1000 yen note. “I am not that new, I have been a Muslim for eight months now,” she continued.
“Take it – I am serious. And you are still a new Muslim to me” I insisted, and strongly backed by Faizly and Zetty who encouraged Sofea to accept her first duit raya ever.
So we finally bid farewell, as she joined Syahril and Zetty while I finally got a lift on Fahmi’s cozy and luxurious Volvo. After sending Faizly to Shibuya eki, Fahmi and Yasser sent us back to Asakusa. Hubby was so tired that he napped in the car almost throughout our journey home. I dozed on and off in the car, since Humaidi was not really asleep yet.
Right after we arrived home, I changed the kids’ diapers, changed them into their pyjamas and put them to sleep, myself going to sleep in the process. But the night was still young – as we received our very own first Eid guests later that night.
Syah and his family brought along Zakiah and family to visit us. Not for makan-makan, but purely for beraya in its old day spirit – when open house is not limited to certain specified day and hours, but one’s friends and relatives are free to knock on the door anytime convenient to them and the tuan rumah is in. I kind of miss that spirit of ‘open house’ now so it was really nice to have our very first Eid guests that night although we only served them some chai and Raya cookies (plus Raya oyatsu for the kids – remember the packets I forgot to bring with us to the Embassy?)
All in all – this too had been one of the best Raya memories I ever had, opappi or otherwise.
Note: * Refers to a phrase popularized by Kojima Yoshio, a top Japanese entertainer (in 2007 anyway, and he earns about 820 times more than what he earned last year) who used to be a student of Waseda University.
No comments:
Post a Comment