My familiar stranger

Reading is my favorite’s pastime.

I started to read English magazines about 15 years back. It was when I stumbled upon a stacked of Reader Digest in the library of my secondary school. Before that English to me was like the outer-space-alien-language. The simple US English of the magazine had made it easier to read and understand. It was in one of the magazines that I came to know the existence of ‘familiar stranger’. And now, I have mine.

He is a guard of a construction site for a parking lot of a hospital next to the university. They started developing that area about 6 months back which means he has been working there for about the same length of time.

Every day, I cycle passing the area, and he will be standing in front of the gate of the construction site.

First, it started with just flagged-waves asking me to cycle in the safe side of the road, especially made for cyclists and pedestrians. Then, there were hello, how do you do, ohaiyo, good morning and many more words. He simply was practicing his English with me. I would smile and answer his good morning with ohaiyo (good morning in Japanese). Anyway, his antics will sometimes put a smile on my face.

Don’t ask me about anything else about him, he is still a stranger. ;)

The girls

Not many Malaysian single girls here in Tokushima. But we stick together wherenever there is an opportunity. And most of the time we either window shop or eat, our favourites activities.

One time I asked the girls to join me for some desserts in Il Rosa, a famous sit-in bakery shop. They tried the macha-ice cream while me, the cheese cake; but that was after a large bowl of kake-udon, a japanese noodles soup. No wonder my weight kept on increasing.

p/s more single girls are coming starting next semester....

The season

Spring is here before I even had time to say good bye to winter. However lovely spring may sound, anyone with sinus problem or allergy shall be very wary of this season.

Health aside, I am waiting for the spring because this season is the time where sakura blossom. For just two weeks, there will be white and pink flowers everywhere. Heaven on earth!

Year-end party

Every year, we - my labmates and I - go out for a bonenkai (forget-the-year party) at the end of the year.

However, this time (Dec. 2009), the party was rather a low-tone dinner with little drinks around, just like a family dinner. It used to be a non-stop-order-of-drinks-and-food party. One of the reason probably because　at that time our dear Professor was very busy with traveling out of the country, thus he did not have enough time to plan; choose the place plus the menu.  Besides, the decreased number of labmates by year might have somehow affected the mood.

But I don't really mind. I don't drink anyway. Hehehe!

We went to the restaurant in front of the university, an Italian restaurant. One of the undergraduate zemi students works there, part-timer. He suggested good dishes and even served us, so very professional.

Year end O-Soji

Every year end we have o-soji - cleaning of our laboratory. Japanese believe that we shall clean our house or working place in the preparation of the new coming year. The lecturers and students take part in the cleaning activities, but of course not the Professor. ;)

We started early in the morning arranging all the moveable equipements and chairs outside the laboratories. Then, after sweeping and vacumn the floor, we started stripping the old wax out of the floor, using the wax stripping buffer with the help of floor wax stripping machine. We continue with brushing the floor manually. Afterward, the floor was rinsed with a lot of water. The rinsing was easy but to mop out the water took quite sometime. Finally we let the floor dried for around two hours before it was waxed. Then we started move back the equipments and other thing into the original location.

This year we managed to finish early. And thanks to the Professor, he treated us with pizzas. But, it was a long day indeed! 

Anyway, this year was my final o-soji.

Let's eat mochi

This post is a belated story of making mochi (rice cake), a special food that is neccessary during the few first days of new year in Japan. Though you may find mochi whenever or wherever in Japan, making mochi is considered exclusive for the new year celebration or known as mochitsuki.

My friends and I joined the Scout children having fun making the mochi from scratch.

The boy and girl Scouts...

Steamed rice....

   

The steamed rice was crushed and grind in this big mortal using the wooden mallets 

Even the young Iman wanted to try using the mallet

Together, we made the red bean paste into small balls for the mochi's filling 

Voila! Mochi with red bean filling or daifuku

Some of us...

Uniqueness stand out in the crowd!

When our former PM, Dr M suggested that we shall all Look East, Malaysian can't simply digest the meaning of it. But now breathing the air of Japan, I somehow can understand his point of view.

One of them is their way of thinking, always awed me, especially in doing bussiness. Hey! What else can one do to get rich quickly rather by doing bussiness, and doing it in a right way is what Japan is all about!

One of the important factors of succesful bussiness is marketing and Japanese restaurants are very good in marketing their products.

I visited this one cafe in Kyoto, Berry Cafe, which was located under the same roof of Kyoto Station. The candle-made pastries (mostly pies) were used to decorate the window of this shop. Can't say about others but it did attract me, and probably do attract attention of anyone walking past the window. Like any other shop in Japan, once you entered the shop they greeted you, irashaimase! (Selamat datang). The waitress then took my friends and I to a table. The shop was small but the sitting was comfortable, something like Secret Recipe's dining hall. Small but exclusive.

For those who like to jump-in for a short break after a journey, this is a good place.

Orange anyone?

Orange? Fresh from farm...

Weeks before new year, T*****ga sensei brought me to her friend's orange garden. I said garden because the farm was in front of his house, just like his garden but a huge one. I was given a pair of scissors and a suitable cloth to help them harvested the oranges from the trees, and so T*****ga sensei. Both of us were shown of way to use the scissors correctly, and then help ourselves cutting the oranges off the branches. We got two buckets oranges for each of us before the owner told us that he wanted us to bring back home all the oranges that we help picking-up. He said he can't sold the oranges because our techniques of cutting the stem that coming out from the orange was not good enough, we made sharp tips of it. An excuse actually! A good one. :)

I still have some of those oranges, and thanks to the low temperature all around us here.

The man in the picture was the owner of this farm. His house can be seen in the background, the center one. On the right was his store where he kept the oranges. By the way, the owner was a single father whose wife died of cancer about 10 years ago, around 7 months after being diagnosed. He brought-up two adolescent kids single-handedly, doing all the household works while managing the farm.

Me - wearing the special clothing (but not the tudung), with gloves and posing - with T*****ga sensei.

Religous Japan II

The second temple/shrine was not as crowded as the first one. I just fall in love with the pond located near the entrance. It had many big fishes, koi (if not mistaken), swam lazily and eating some food threw in by the visitors.

 

This is where T*****ga sensei prayed for the second time that day. She had many wishes this year to be fulfilled. Not unlike my dear mother, she too is hoping that her daughter will get married soon. I guess, all mother is simply praying for the best for their children.

While waiting, I just wandered around and spent a nice 30 minutes taking pictures of the temple, especially the pond.

Religious Japan I

Following conversation took place some time on the second of January this year.

Kring! Kring!

Moshi-moshi!

Moshi-moshi! This is T*****ga speaking.

Hait! T*****ga sensei.....

Azurina-san, do you want to go to Jinja? Praying for the new year?

Huh! Errrr.................

C'mon, let's see how religious Japanese are....Hahahaha!

Hahahaha!

Thirty minutes later off we went to the first of the two famous temples near Naruto. The road to the temple was jammed, packed with cars. The usually 30 minutes drive needed another half an hour and yet that was a good thing. It was because if we went there on the night of the new year and during the first day, it would takes more than one hour to reach the temple.

So, she always go on the second day.

Azurina-san, you don't need to pray now because you pray everyday but Japanese only pray one time for the whole year. So now you can tell your Malaysian friends how religious we are. *smile*


Hahaha! Alright, I'll watch from here. Don't be too long.

The place in front of the first temple was like pasar malam with many gerai selling many things. We bought the fish waffles and the salegirl happily practising her English conversing with me. Not bad!

A luncheon

I had invited few friends for a lunch last month at home, trying Malaysian dishes. Glad that they came and enjoyed the food. One of them brought me a bouquet of flowers, an orchid (er...not so sure)....but anyhow the flowers were very lovely. Another brought a dessert, the look and the taste just compliment each other!

p/s The makcik in the photo of three that did not look at the camera was busy watching her favourite TV program, a Korean drama....hikhikhik!

Taste buds are dancing happily

Beside good book, I love good food. Here in Japan, I think their sushi is the best because of the freshness. Nevertheless, I think most people from South East Asia like hot (hot as chili) food. And so do I.

I had been thinking about nasi lemak with sambal ikan bilis for few days and at last, I made a nasi lemak tumis. Coming home from laboratory during the last two nights, I needed to push myself hard enough to go to the kitchen and started the cooking process. The freezing temperature made cooking harder.　

The tumis was the special thing about this nasi lemak because usually I just put-up all the ingredient in the pot and cook using the rice cooker. Anyway, the frying of spice is nothing difficult. Unlike doing the Western blotting. Sigh!

Adding the zest of cooking rice here is the rice cooker, because Japan’s rice cooker is like an amazing thing created for rice cooking. It made all the type of rice that I cook, turn out just nice. No, it was nothing like the one that I have back there in Malaysia. Much more easier, but because the instructions were all in kanji, I can't read and use it to the max. What a waste!

And as much as I love eating Japan rice, I missed the long grain type of rice. So, I bought basmathi rice and there I have a nasi lemak basmathi tumis with sambal sotong and ikan bilis goreng. Ah! Heaven on the taste buds!

Welcoming a new soul

I received a SMS from my brother late last night.

Kak, Yan dah b'ranak. Baby girl. 2.7 kg. Sis, Yan had given birth. Baby girl. 2.7kg.

We, the Ahmad family now have a new family member. She was born at 9.50pm (Malaysian time) and weight 2.7kg. Still waiting for the name though....hehehe!

Welcome and may your life be bless, the third niece!.....(^_^).....

Keep on dreaming!

There are few things that keep me sensible; one of it is the fact that I am a dreamer, to the highest level possible. Do take it literally because I mean it as a dream that one do when they sleep.

I sometime have a dream, which look exactly like the Malay drama. I said so because the dream comes with the real living actors.

I had many before but the latest one was with Ida Nerina as a main protagonist. The dream was about a widow with two children in a village, who live with her parents and brothers. They were not rich.

Then, the not so young, probably late 20’s, and educated man like her but she was also pursued by another man who was in his early 40’s. I was not so sure about the main idea behind the story. After all, the whole dream things were just like few shoots of the whole story; she with her two children, age 5 and 10 in a room of a kampong’s house doing some talking; she talked to the young man; she rejected the older man; she with her brothers and parents in their house.

I can’t remember most of the dialogue but I can made-up the story. The dreams usually were at the most dramatic plots of the story.

The dreams that come somehow diverted the pressure of my life away from me, momentarily, because it (the dream) usually happens during that time.

The oldest dreamt was the one that had both Sofea Jane and Jalaluddin Hassan.

The scorpio in me

The past two weeks had been the very interesting weeks, an emotional roller-coster rides for me. I never thought that I could get very upset and set a stage for my own performances. But then again, I did just that.

I felt very emotional one day and very disturbed with a few persons, as if I was an easy target and easily manipulated. It's either I misled people or people misjudged me; one thing led to another and at the end, my final act, an outbursted where I dropped a few diamond tears in front of my prof in his office.

Kalau orang Jepun tak suka orang asing, jangan suruh orang asing datang sini.

But he had nothing to do with the it. Since I have nobody to let out my frustration, so I poured it on him. Pity him. :)

The last stroke that hit my button had everything to do with mice, anyway! Pity me! Sigh!