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.