A TRIP TO JAPAN (CYCLE 1)

This is a backdated looong story.
Cycle 1 ( Bak kata Cik Diva, tak nak kalah dengan ANTM tuh! hahaha!)

Amaran: Story ini juga mengandungi banyak gambar. Harap x jemu membacanya. :)

The arrival
**********

13th September 2010. MH 088 landed safely on Narita Airport. It's 7.40am local time ( Kat Malaysia 6.40am) and the temperature outside was 24th degree Celsius. (Eh dah macam ayat standard pilot bila landing pulak ha).

After 7 hours ketakutan dek heavy turbulence up there, i could finally taking a deep breath. Alhamdulillah!! Lega sungguh. Masa ni dah start syahdu-syahduan. Raya ke-4 kot!!! Oman and Dadda texted me that they had safely arrived in Alor Star berhari raya di sana. (seb baik lepas tu nampak abang2 jepun yang hensem hilang sikit rasa sedih tu ha. Ahaks!!)

The hotel that we (Me and Kimi) were to stay for the whole week in Tokyo,was Celestine Hotel and it's located ~75km from Narita Airport. There were few options of transportation to get to that hotel, and we chose to take the Airport Shuttle Bus at Y3000 per way. (Actually, nak naik train pun boleh. Sangat efficient. Tapi, kalau carry big luggage macam us, then nak tukar station, then nak jalan lagi ke hotel.. hmmmm.. naik bas lagi ok kot! terus sampai ke pintu hotel. haha.. lagipun, the condition of the bus was tip top)

The first thing i learned about Japanese that they are very PUNCTUAL! If it's stated there that the bus will reach you by 8.30am. Sah sah 8.30 dia sampai. So, janganla nak cakap macam ni, "alah, cakap je 8.30 tu, mesti 8.40 baru sampai". Selamat Tinggalah jawabnyer tau!! (Bukan semua tempat di dunia begitu yer... ehem ehem :))

Credit to mr H for lending me that book. Lawok seh!! :)

Say Hi To The City
******************

It's the greatest get to know that I've got to see this beautiful hi-tech Tokyo with my own two eyes. Tokyo is so damn clean hokeh!! Macam xde sampah sarap langsung. :) Even when the bus passed through sort of rural area before reaching the city, i didn't see any form of rubbish out of the correct place. Kagum!

Eh! ade 1 je sampah i jumpa. Ni mesti bukan Japanese yang buang (bak kata si wawa. haha!)

Here, the buildings and residential areas are developed systematically and smartly in place. Owh, in Tokyo, huge percentage of the residential area is either apartment or condominium. The city is so congested so that it couldn't accommodate for landed houses. Those who loves to have their own compound, usually they will stay little bit far from the city. They have no worries at all to have their house a bit apart since their train system is so superbly efficient. Jam pun x jam, cepat pun cepat!! (Eh, macam pantun dua kerat pulak) :)

-Tokyo-

The Celestine Hotel (An English friendly hotel. Highly recommended for tourist)
*******************

We reached the hotel after almost 1 and half hours on the road. Check-in time was supposed to be at 2pm but since that day was a special day due to franklyidon'tknow, we are allowed to check-in early without additional charges applied. Owh! I was so thankful!!

Kimi and I had some planned to visit Akihabara and Harajuku City after Dhuhr Prayer. In the mean time, bolehla achik refreshed, update fb and took a little nap before Salaat. (Just fyi, if i were abroad, i always refer to Islamic Finder for local prayer time. Untuk Kiblah, i lupa bawak kompas. Dah cuak-cuak dah. Nak tengok matahari x berapa nak reti. Mujurlah ade jam ajaib Kimi menyelamatkan keadaan :)).

My room sweet room.

Hotels' rooms in Japan are mostly not as spacious as in other countries in Asia. But don't be surprise if you found that the prices are higher than those spacious rooms you found at that other places k. However, the facilities such fridge, TV, internet, coffee corner, iron, hairdryer, toiletries are perfecto. Tapi, mineral water x tentu free lagi tawwwww. Some hotels, you need to pay for it. Oh, Japan memang mahal! :)

When i entered the washroom, i was so jakun to see how computerized toilet seat in there. There are functioning buttons like the one in the bottom left picture above. Main picit-picit je hokey. First time to use it i felt so freaked out kot kot la tertekan salah ke kan. Silap-silap boleh cakap ke toilet tu, mau terloncat achik! Hahahahaha.

Anyway, that's the room i was going to stay for 5 days. Overall, i loved it. :)



The Walk and Ride
******************

It was 1.00pm that we decided to start our city tour. Since it was sunny day, i chose to wear simple t-shirt with jeans and palm shoes. Easy Britzy sket kan. :)

The nearest train station to Celestine Hotel is JR Tamachi Station. JR is stands for Japan Railways which operates a large proportion of intercity rail service (including the Shinkansen (bullet train) high-speed rail lines) and commuter rail service in Japan. Cepat dan jitu. Ewah! (nasib baik station dia punya peta and directory ada English tau dah sekarang. Xdela meghaban bukak kamus kat situ. hihi)

From the hotel, it took around 10 minutes walk to reach there. I bet Japanese people would made it less than 10 minutes. They walk very very fast!! :)

Just next to the hotel i stayed, is NEC HQ Building. Santek! :)
Besides public transport, Many Japanese ride bicycle to work too. Chomel jek.

Cik Abe pakai spek itam tu la Encik Kimi. Hihi. Cik Adik tu pulak, sapa lagi kan, i lerrr. Haha.

Akihabara (Train Fares: Y160 from Tamachi Station)
*********

Owh! This place is called Electronic Town. Right, left, back, in front... mana-mana semua kedai electronic. Just name it whatever you would like to look at, wah lah.... segala mak nenek design ada from the smallest to the biggest. :)

Here, games & anime shops are everywhere too. You could see cute Japanese Ladies wear the anime costumes along the walking path and try to get you to buy their products. How soft their voices tau!. X penat pulak tu ulang ayat yang sama beratus-ratus kali.

Rasa-rasa berjaya x dia jual product@goda mamat-mamat tuh? hihi :)

5 days in Tokyo, 3/5 days we went here again and again tau after work. Why? Because Encik Kimi was considering to buy a camera and we took those days to check few shops for the best deal. Nasib baik on the 3rd day tu, he finally decided to get a Canon DLSR Kiss4 or 550D after he satisfied with this one shop. Kalau x, mau i bagi jelingan tajam kat dia sebab hari-hari pegi tapi x beli pon. Hahaha. (Canon murah wo kat sana. Tapi body camera warranty Jepun, lenses jer yg international. Ok lah tu kan!)

Then, what did i get for my self? Hmm..Since i did not plan to shop much for electronic thingy, i just grabbed a hard disk casing and a mouse for my notebook. (paling murah tapi i sukeeeee design dia. hihi) Owh and out of nowhere in Akihabara, i found a shop that sell t-shirt with Japanese word printed on it, so i grabbed few for my love ones and me. :)

Harajuku (Train Fares: Y190 from Tamachi Station)
*********

Oh My! Welcome to the shopping heaven in Harajuku. Girls love Harajuku so much! (credit to Lovely Fashionista Adriani for sharing her experience shopping in Tokyo). Turun-turun je from train Station, i could feel my fast and furious adrenaline (ngadenyerrr). Encik Kimi siap boleh perasan lagi keexcitedan i. Hampir semua kedai i nak masuk. 2,3 kali i told myself to beristighfar, geleng-geleng kepala Si Kimi tengok perangai i taw! Ahaks.

It's not because like i have a lot of money to shop everything there (xde allocate some untuk shopping pun , duit bawak cukup makan je. huhu), but u know, it's kind of therapy, like some booster when you see ladies clothing, shoes, boutiques .. here and there.. and you just want to get in, join the club, feel the fabrics, tried on the shoes... crazy you! erm, tapi sebab Encik Kimi ada sekali, i control sikitla. Hahahahaaha.

Kemain semangat lagi nak gi Harajuku taww!

Tadaaaaaaa.. The first boutique you gonna see in front of Harajuku Station is GAP.
Then just keep walking cause a lot lot more to see everywhere along the street, ladies!!! :)

Untuk mengelak Encik Kimi bosan ikut i, Encik Kimi kene jadi my photographer that day :p

Takeshita Street.

Owh! Owh! If i got chance to visit Tokyo again next time, i'm definitely will come here again cause this street has really so much to offer!!! Clothing, pants, cardigans, accessories, lingeries, handbags and shoes and more!! hihi. I found a shoe boutique that sell cheap and pretty boots (flat, heals, knee high, all it has!!!). I spent the longest minutes in there but ended up i bought nothing. menyesal sungguh!!

Alright. I think i better stop here. I'm afraid it's gonna be too long to share the whole journey stories in one entry. So, there'll be Cycle 2 next. I'll tell bout my work there and my visit to Otsuki and Fujiyama. I promise i will update it soon kay.

Thank you for reading.

xoxo,
-mommaholicSuri-

SYAWAL WHITE AND PINK

Salam Syawal, semua!!!

Aaaaa... it's been more than 2 weeks i haven't write anything here. Past days, i was so occupied with works and of course having a son who's now super duper active, tengah lasak gilerrr.. hehehe.. i dun have much time for this blog. But currently, i'm in Tokyo, alone at night.. better write something kan? :)

This year, our Syawal preparation could be considered last minute jugak. Until the last weekend of Ramadhan, we still bought nothing for ourselves. Me and hubby were totally not aggressive looking for Baju Raya. Encik Oman tu lagi la kan, kecik lagi, kalau bagi dia pakai pampers je pun dia suka. Haha.

Tapi, sapala taknak tengok anak tersayang ada baju and kasut raya baru ye dak? Dahla budak-budak nyer apparels cute x hengat!

The first thing we bought for him was a pair of shoe. We were haunting it at almost all kid's boutiques in One Utama like GAP Kids, Mothercare, Pumpkin Patch, Oshkosh, GUESS Kids.. and found few in ZARA Kids that OMG, x tahan ok nak beli!! Malangnya, satu pun Oman x berkenan. Until we went to this boutique that i never know they do have shoes for Kids too, it's CONVERSE - ALL STAR!. When i saw that shoe i terus tarik my hubby and he loves it too. Yang bestnya, when we showed it to Oman, dia terus nak pakai that shoe. Well, that Little Man is now memilih hokey! he loves to choose either clothes or shoes to be worn on his own tau! Checked and Paid! Phew :)

As for Baju Raya, i told my hubby to just tried our luck in SACC Mall Shah Alam. So we went there and Alhamdulillah, within a day, baju tiga-tiga anak beranak settle! Oman got his 2 pairs of Baju Melayu and sampin at Omar Ali (recommended sangat nak beli baju Melayu budak kat sini cause kain dia bagus and kemas jahitannya at RM60 each), while me and hubby fell again for Qamilla design. Dah 3 tahun Syawal berturut-turut ok we sangkut ngan Qamilla nih.. saspek sungguh! :P

It's HIS turn so we celebrated our 1st Syawal at Bentong, Pahang, Kampung my hubby's abah. Unlike previous years, Syawal this year, we're missing Irma in the picture. She went back to his hubby's hometown in Kelantan. Until all of the family members are completed, then barulah we'll take official Raya family photo. Insya Allah.

On the second Syawal, we went back to my hometown in Sitiawan, Perak. Walaupun balik hari, it's totally worth it cause my parents in law and Amri pun ikut balik sana sekali. How sweet when both families celebrating lebaran together tambahan dengan adanya Encik Little Man tu. My mom of course was the happiest one and she prepared superbly delicious menus for that day. Daging masak lemakla, sambal udangla, laksa pun ada. Kak Lang dengan adikku pun semangat di dapur. Rajin hangpa no. X lupa mak uda yang buat laksa mee untuk anak sedara kesayangan dia ni. yummy!! Nak tau, chomel tau bila tengok my dua-dua abah and mama pot pet pot pet citer macam-macam sambil makan. :)

Third Syawal, me and hubby went back to our home in Shah Alam. Hubby helped me to pack for Tokyo. Mode masa ni, sentimental. Sedih wo nak tinggal hubby and son tau.. Raya lak tu!! Oman was with his nanny stayed in Sungai Long. If this Little Man followed us, alamat x mengemaslah i. He would packed out whatever things i had packed in.

Sebut pasa Oman, owh i miss him so much!! I remember, i did pep talking to him everynight for few days before my departure that i'd be leaving him, i told him i'm working in Tokyo for a while, and he must stay good and behave well with dadda, nanny, gpapa and everyone during my absence. Know what he replied to me??? "TANOK!!!!"... .. xsure i nak nangis ke nak gelak taw :)

Upssss... why white and pink?? Enjoy some photos from my low profile camera k. Sebab gambar from canggih punya camera xde pun lagi. :)

Encik Oman di pagi raya

Encik Oman with Dadda bersiap-siap

Encik Oman with momma. On the way to Bentong, Pahang.

Pit-stop before reach Bentong. Masa untuk momma pakaikan sampin dadda. :)

Oman

Dadda

momma

Us

Oman, Nanny, Gpapa and Uncle Adik too.

Oman. 2nd Syawal .. before departed to Sitiawan..

Kat Sitiawan x snap photo langsung pun tawww... All of us busy chatting and eating. Hik Hik..

So, that's little bit story of my First Few Days of Syawal this year. What about yours? Can't wait to read them! :)



To all,
Salam Syawal penuh makna, Maaf Zahir from me;

mommaholicSuri.Tokyo.September2010.

and
Specially dedicated to both of them;

Bi/momma miss both of you too much!!!! Muaxxx!!

OMAN AND NATURE

On the first weekend of Ramadhan month this year, three of us went back to my parents' crib in Sitiawan. Berpuasa dan berbuka bersama-sama abah, mama and adik-adikku. Happy!!

The day before, which was Friday, we had our Iftar with Armi's family. Nenek prepared nasi lemak for us. Tell you sambal ikan bilis nenek memang total!! :)

We made the moved from Sungai Long on Saturday not early morning. :P

My anak bujang was getting ready to meet his Tukbah, Opah, mamaLang, mamaChu, & AbahChik

and then playing with the mini football while waiting for his parents to get ready

Little man was so sleepy right after Dadda started the engine of the car. He was cranky with his eyes half-closed. Owh he's really a big boy now that he refused to sleep on my lap anymore. Kalau tidur, Oman x suka sempit-sempit. Dahla badan dia panjangkan, lasak pulak tu, suka pusing sana pusing sini, so, sleeping on me is not really comfortable to him. Sigh... should i get him a baby seat? I saw many kids look very comfortable sleeping in baby seat especially when traveling at long distance.

Nice! He managed to get his soundly sleep after i placed his comforter and pillow at Nabira's 2nd row seat. Maka bermaharajalelalah Oman tido di situ :P
(but of course, we prayed a lot for his safety during his sleep. Everytime Dadda pressed the break, i'd hold his leg. Takut jugakkan kalau teremergency break. Nauzubillah)

Kui Kui Kui.. siap ade air liur basi lagi, you. Oman jangan marah momma ok. Kenangan nih! hihi.

The next hour, Oman woke up from his sleep and sat silently at the back. It took seconds for him to realize that he was actually sitting alone there. Apelagi, terus melompat nak duduk depan with momma.

Gambar besar itu adalah muka suci Oman selepas bangun dari tidur. Sumpah muka stone. :p

Along the way, Oman kept singing and counting 1,2 3 with us. Owh he's now very very talkative. Alhamdulillah, Oman easily captured new vocab we thought him especially from songs. Ulang banyak kali, and ask him to fill in the blank (last sukukata in every row), Insya Allah, he could remember the sukukata walaupun pelat. Cute!

Tara!!!! Oman pokok kelapak's now back!! :)


You could enjoy to watch this too. "When Oman Count".

We reached our destination at 3.00pm like that. As expected, Tukbah and Opah dah panjang leher waited for their beloved mushuk mushuk grandson. Oman was excited too. Mulut munggil dia tu x abih-abih panggil "Tukbaaak".

To spend quality times with my precious family, i was totally looking for it. Kalau dah sebulan x jumpa them, mulala Armi perli; "Homesick la tu". :P because my level of sensitivity akan naik satu anak tangga lagi. Hehe.

Even two days were actually not enough, but i really appreciate every single second being with them. Of course paling best dapat makan masakan mama. We had special Iftar dish such as ayam masak lemak cili api, sambal udang petai, deep fried Senangin and kuih cuk keria (kueh gelang) on Saturday, and on Sunday, mama prepared cempedak goreng, Sup ikan tanda, sambal sotong (Mama Lang Oman yang masak.. hebat kamu lang:)) and masak tempoyak cuk ubi. Not to be left, my hubby's favorite, Ikan masin bulu ayam. (Ntah betul ntah tidak nama ni).

Jangan x tau, Armi sangat suka this ikan masin and sambal belacan tau. Punyala dulu masa zaman mula-mula couple, i thought he like the very city boy who eat only western food, mengong betul i.. haha. To my surprise, he passed the test that my mom set to him on the first time he visited my family back in Aidilfitri 8 years ago. My mama saje jer letak ulam pegaga as one of the dish on that day. Saje nak tengok he would touch it or not. Armi ate them like "sungguh enak dimakan begitu saja".. hahahaha.. then after that my mom terus fall in love with him. Boley x? saspek sungguh! :)

Ok Ok.. back to Oman. Encik kecik tu punyala seronok cause ramai yang layan kan. Kejap kang mamalang layan, kejap kang abah chik, pastu mama chu.. Opah and Tukbah mmg toksah cakapla.. hihi. there were 4 things we noticed Oman really obsessed at;

i. Bicycle (dia belai-belai beskal ni tau)
ii. Mini air pancut Opah (Uish ikut hati dia, dia nak mandi dalam tu)
iii. Vom VOm tuk Bah (berani tengok je, naik takut. Haha)
iii. Aabat. (Pantang tengok sapa-sapa Aabat, dia pun nak join sekali. Hambek!)

Sekali sekala balik kampung halaman, i absolutely love to intro Oman to kampung nature, which is very hard to do it in the city. What he seen on TV is not going to be the same with what he sees with his own eyes. Kan?

So, on the Sunday morning, i brought Oman to visit his TukBah who was gardening at the back of the house. See that tree in front of my abah?.. taux tu pokok ape? pokok APPLE you!! i was like asking my dad 3 times sebab x caya. Boleh ke hidup epal kat panas terik.. so my abah explained that the chances are there and what he was working on was to build a sort of shelter to reduce sun exposure. Kalaulah menjadi, wah bangga anakmu, bah. Insya Allah :)

OK, where was Dadda? hihi.. Dadda had to excuse all the activities because he was concentrating on editing photos that we took during MMU convo weeks before. Go dadda go!

Since my siblings and i were kids, it has been a routine that everytime we goes back to our hometown, we must also visit our uncle's house which is located only 500m away. Our families are so attached together. Tok Ude and Opah de Oman ni mempunyai anak-anak lelaki gagah yang sangat hebat dalam arena penternakan binatang. Ternak kat belakang rumah pulak tu.

Seronok kalau intro kat Oman nih.

MUka Oman tengah kagum and patiently waiting to meet..

....this little kambing. Oman called her, "jot" (goat).

Tell you, Jot is a very active baby goat tau! Dia siap performed stunt lagi depan Oman. Encik Oman tu pulak berani-berani takut. When Jot got closer to him, he immediately ran away. So funny!

Oh by the way, Jot is not alone there. Since she was just born few weeks before, he's being separated with her mother in that little barn from other goats which living in another barn that bigger in size. Bukan apa, nanti Jot kene buli ke ngoratke dengan abang-abang dewasa ke kan, so, kene bagi dia akil baligh dulu. Lagipun her mother still breastfeed her. :)

Here where the other goats are living. There are 6 of them if i calculated correctly.

Other than Jot and her family members, there are birds and chicken too. Oman was so excited that he could see the 'bik' and 'titen' very very close. There's one time he ambushed anak-anak ayam yang tengah kusyuk makan dedak. Eeee seriau ok.. sebab ibu ayam ni kan macam garang sikit, very protective to her kids.. buatnya di kejarnyer and patuk Oman. Adoi.. mentang-mentangla kamu x puase ye Oman, semput momma taww.

This visit was one of our happiest moment di kampung. This time we're sweating so much and sun burnt a little :P

Xperla kene gigit nyamuk sikit kan Oman.. (dalam hati: siap kau nyamuk!!! kau gigit anak aku yer!! Nanti aku sembur sedara mara kau kat KL dengan Ridsect tau. Biase dia!!)

We're moving back to KL after Iftar on Sunday. Puas hati sungguh dapat balik berbuka my family tawwwww... :)

Captured on Sunday morning kat umah Tukbah. See! See!.. lasak sungguh! :)

Nila Mamalang, Opah and Tukbah Oman. Si comel sorang lagi tu is Syu's son. Photo was taken during our balik kampung time in last February.

TWINKLE-TWINKLE LITTLE STAR (versi Oman)

Only The Little Man named Oman knows the language and meaning :P

The lyrics are very simple.

"Ta di Ta di Ta di da"
"Ta di Ta di Ta di da"
Ulang sampai habes (hahahahahha)

Oman's turned 18th month yesterday. Happy 18th month old darling!!!!! Dadda and Momma love you so much! :)

Favorite Oman. Kalau x reti letak, jawab nyer campak je. Senang citer :P


xoxo,
-mommaholicSuri-