بسم الله الرØمن الرØيم
Assalamualaikum wbt.
After weeks of steering away from this blog, I decided I should write today. Someone actually told me, if you travel around the world without a story, you're empty.
What does you mean by empty?
Empty.
You travel for the sake of peer pressure, you travel for Instagram, you travel for status, you travel just to make clear to people that you can, you're empty. You never learn the culture, you never observe the people, you don't mix with locals, then you're as empty as it gets. So, okay. It got me thinking, I do not ever want to be that kind of person. I have, الØمد لله travelled to various foreign countries. Egypt being the 4th time in a 4 year timespan and everything else in between. I did perform Hajj when I was 12 back in 2002. I am grateful. So very grateful. But not to brag of the places I have been, I would like to talk Japan.
To begin with, I was not happy when I decided I'm going to Japan. Things got worse when my husband is coming back to Malaysia & I had to leave. For A MONTH. I was acting up and not happy that he bought me a gift that I treasure very much. Just to cheer me up. Thank you love.
I was still not happy when I was already in the plane, heading to Japan. However it all changes upon entering Japan airspace. I could blinking red lights, dim yellow lights and small white lights like the stars in the Tokyo city. It hit me, I am in Japan. I am finally here. Not my all time dream but I am here. Suddenly I am excited, chatty & happy. My best friend was puzzled. I can see from her face. I changed to a new person suddenly. Hehe
Upon arriving in Haneda Airport, 9 of us stayed in Toyoko-Inn. It was only 10-15 minutes by bus from the airport. The room was cosy, plus they have wi-fi! Yeay. Across the street there was a 7-Eleven. We were all hungry that we decided to go 7-E & buy something to eat. The 7-E was like a mini Tesco in my opinion. They have so many things on display to sell! The display that caught my mind is the coffee/latte section. My oh my. Being a huge coffee fan, I was so excited I forgot I was sad & grumpy 8 hours prior. -.-
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| The display that caught my eye instantly. |
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| Yes to coffee, lattes & macha lattes! |
We stayed in Kita-Sakado, Saitama Prefecture. About 1 hour from Tokyo City. Tobu Tojo Line is our main mean of transportation. It's a train line by the way. When we first ride the train, I saw a lot Japanese were either reading, or playing with their phones. None of them even gaze us. Even if they did, they didn't bother to say Hi or smile. Japanese fall a bit on the antisocial side.
However things were different at our workplace. The students at the university are extremely polite, easy going and nice. It hit me that Japanese are antisocial if they are strangers to us. But once we get to know them, they are so, so polite to us. Some of them even offered us countless times of free lunch but I had to decline due to non-halal issue. Upon learning that their food at the cafeteria are non-halal for Muslims, they actually cooked us lunch on every alternative day.
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| Yes to okonomiyaki, takoyaki & seafoods! |
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| These are dried tofu soup. Tastes so delish. |
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| Yuzu with fish soup, soba that we knead from scratch and red bean with glutinous round thing. Hehe |
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| See the soba that we knead on the most top. The white thing. The read bean soup with glutinous round things are to die for. And fresh vegetables from one of the student's farm with fish flakes, fish sauce, mushrooms and so many things. |
Yes. They cooked this for us. Every alternative day for one month. Imagine it. I love Japanese locals. Oh and the houses. They have the cutest house. Space is very important for the Japanese. Therefore, their house design maximizes every space they have and the designs are modern contemporary with a touch of originality.
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| On the left is our apartment. We stayed in a service apartment. |
We went to experience the Tokyo City during our off days.
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| Tokyo Skytree |
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| Kawagoe, Saitama. (Not Tokyo :P) |
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| Tokyo overview from Sunshine City 60th Floor, Ikebukuro. Tokyo Tower is on the other side of the view. |
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| Yes this screams me. But didn't buy anything cause everything is too expensive. |
Of course I do visit the Tokyo Tower, Odaiba, Roppongi, Hakone & Kyoto. But that post will be in a different one.
This might come as surprise to all, the hardest thing to find in Japan are garbage bins! I could not find them anywhere. Until it got us thinking that Japanese does not litter. AT ALL.
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| Look at the streets. So clean. You could roll on the street or even perform salah by the road side. |
Things not to forget during my stay in Japan, I learned so many things. Apart from their language, I learned their culture, how to greet people politely, how to respect strangers, how to survive in a world where Muslims are only 10% of the entire population. I couldn't really describe all the things I learned in one post.
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| I learned Kendo :D |
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| Yeap that's me. Before we fought with each other. Kendo style. ;) |
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| Learned cute origamis :3 |
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| Eat more Japanese food. |
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| Delish sushi! |
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| Learned their taste preference when we had to cook for them. Yes. That is my nasi lemak. Hehe |
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| Learned they are health conscious in every possible way. This is a random staircase at a mall. It has the amount of kcal you burn when you climb up each stairs. |
We even has the chance to visit Mount Fuji! Well, it wasn't purely Mount Fuji visit. We went to Yamanashi Prefecture to visit the Nurse Academy, International Policy students and Yamanashi Environmental Studies.
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| Had the chance to glimpse at the fastest roller coaster in Asia. Mount Fuji behind it. |
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| Mount Fuji! It was cloudy, couldn't see the peak :( |
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| Aaaaaaand right when we arrived there, it started snowing! Yep that is me trying to catch snow :D |
I couldn't forget Japan. I couldn't get it off my mind. So does my friends. I am planning to go there again إن شاء الله .
I learned so many things that I couldn't describe. It it precious.
p/s : Going to travel again tonight. Will be back after 12 days for more stories! <3
