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.