Persatuan Alumni AOTS Malaysia

C O N T E N T S

President's message

PAAM 20th Anniversary

Hippo Family Club at Melaka (18-25 August 2005)

Participant's experience

ALEPS Depa Raya Open House

Memorable Get-Together With Ichikawa-san

Japanese Popular Culture

Japanese Language for Today

Participant's experience

Some of the streets in the cities are very narrow
to discourage access of automobiles.

All of us were nervous to arrive at the Hippo Office because there we’ll meet our host family for the first time. All of them were holding a mini banner with our names on them. The banner made by my host family was written ‘Selamat Datang Nurussaadah Mokhtar’. Cool! All of them were written in Malay!

We just sat with our host families and I noticed everybody was holding a dictionary together with a lot of hand movements, struggling very hard to explain things or create a topic… everybody was smiling, some kids looked happy but some looked amazed with people of different skin and some women wearing scarves.

This was just how she wanted to be snapped!

Rio-chan looked very stressful because she was sick. Her tiny size attracted me and I made a move to make her like me but she was the ‘hard’ kind. She kept saying ‘iyak’ which means no! And she cried out for ‘okasan’. I understood she only wanted her mother to soothe her. Kids really are fascinating. When Rina-chan, Hirooki-chan and I were struggling to make ourselves understand each other, Rio-chan suddenly created a scene. Poor Rio-chan, she vomited! There we go… While other families were busy greeting and welcoming, we cleaned up Rio-chan. So guess what was our immediate plan? Go shopping for Rio’s dress!

Hirooki-chan dropped Rina-chan and me off at Hanshin Department Store. It looks not different at all from typical Malaysian stores. I took that opportunity to get to know more about Rina-chan. I wasn’t really sure how actually she felt when I told her I am a fan of Takuya Kimura and Nanako Matsushita. I was quite disappointed when she does not favor any of them. Perhaps I was hoping too much to find something common between us… Yeah; I was going too fast…

It was lunch time and so we went to dine in a restaurant. That was the first time in my life when I worried about what I was going to eat. Wild vegetable noodle soup was what they ordered for me. Vegetable sounded okay but noodle comes from flour and I was concerned for a probability of non-halal substance in it. At that moment I could see how worried Rina-chan was and I tried to explain my situation in the most pleasant manner as possible. Since Japanese are very polite, they could be very sensitive too. Of course, I must have looked like a dreadfully weird person! I mean, vegetarians do exist in this world but it is not easy for them to accept people who cannot eat even noodle or bread or chocolate in their country. I myself feel uneasy with people who refuse my offer. Kamakura family had before received HIPPO guests from America, Indonesia and Vietnam. Obviously none of them were Muslims. So I said to myself not to worry as people take some time to adapt to new situation in a totally different place.

Our next point was Osaka Castle. I had some initial information about this huge castle from the internet. It was quite a hot day while we walked up to the castle. But it turned very cool and windy as we reached the top of it.


Worm’s eye view of the Osaka Castle.	The first snap with the family; our own history created at the Osaka Castle.

For dinner, we had grilled seafood in a restaurant designed with Japanese traditional interior. Seafood was served on a small table and we sat on the wooden floor. Gosh! I ate a lot that night. And I could see how Rina-chan looked relieved seeing me eating that much! Seafood is my favourite and I had it with rice and fresh salad. Japanese really are particular about everything especially food. I bet you can never find any food either from a restaurant or a shop that is not clean and fresh. They insisted that I try raw salmon. I did but I could not take more than a bite.


Rio-chan finally settled on my lap to see her face in the digi-camera!	Like father, like daughter…

That night was so unforgettable! We walked in a cool night of Kambara neighbourhood. It is such a peaceful place. Japan cities have a very low crimes rate. I was not worried to walk alone in their narrow streets just to look at small gardens that almost all houses have in one of their corners. Though it was cool and windy, it was dry too. My nose was bleeding a bit and I knew I had to drink a lot and apply more skin moisturizers.

On the way home, we passed Kurakuenguchi Station, the nearest local train station to their house and walked along a river which is a famous spot for cherry blossom season. Hirooki-chan told me that during the week of cherry blossom, many people will come to have picnics or lie down under the trees. It was quite a pity because I actually missed the cherry blossom season which takes place for only a week in the early month of April. As a substitute to cherry blossom, I get to watch fireflies instead. There is no comparison to cherry blossom of course but those fireflies were charming enough to me.