We were not too sure about the ease of getting halal food in Japan so besides doing a disproportionately huge amount of research on food alone, we also brought cup noodles, breakfast spread, cereal, canned soups, among other things. I don't know if I'll get to this deeper in this entry (since I'm writing this without doing any planning whatsoever), but just in case I end up not writing more about food, I should state here that it's not that difficult getting halal food in Tokyo AND a number of sushi places do not use mirin to make their sushi rice. (Hooray!)
We got there late at night. Huda did not sleep a wink in the 6-hour flight to Tokyo because she was busy with the in-flight entertainment. Deprived of TV at home, she chose not to waste a single minute of her time on the plane by watching one cartoon show after another. I wish Farah did the same. But no, she was busy ensuring that I do not get to watch anything.
TheHusband had booked seats on a bus that took us from the airport to our hotel (Shinjuku Washington Hotel) with a couple of stops in between. Apparently, if you decide to take a taxi from the airport to your hotel, it can cost up to SGD200 per person, so a Singaporean we met a couple of days later told us. (Hmm. That figure could be more. The figure the man quoted was in Yen and I did some mental calculations and it came close to SGD800. But I cannot recall if that was for 2 persons or 4. I'm sure somebody who has been to Japan will enlighten me.)
Our first drama happened just as we were about to board that bus at Haneda airport. Our long-suffering Combi stroller committed some kind of kamikaze and decided that it was better off with three wheels. One of the front wheels simply broke away from the main body of the stroller. It must have been planning this death since it heard that we were going to its motherland. But we perked up almost instantaneously cos we knew that we were in Combi-land and we can buy another Combi stroller (maybe the dark purple Miracle Turn Combi stroller that we've been hankering after but never bought because we-don't-really-need-another-
The ride to the hotel was uneventful. I have yet to feel how cold the night was as the airport and the bus was heated quite well. Too well, in fact. When I looked out of the window, I saw people stuffing their hands into their pockets, faces hidden behind masks hurriedly walking back to their homes. There was quite a bit of construction going on. Had it not been for the road signs, the roads are no different than Singapore's. However, if you look closer, you will notice that the construction workers are not foreigners. To my untrained eyes, they look and sound local (which I found amazing - that their construction industry is staffed by locals).
When we reached the hotel, I thought it was quite strange that the front desk was not on the ground floor. It was on the third floor. Later on, I learnt of a few more hotels whose front desks are not situated on the ground floor. I'm not too sure if it was just a coincidence or if all hotels in Japan are like that.
We booked a room with three beds. We have seen pictures of the hotel rooms online and we expected a teeny-eeny-weeny little room with barely any space to move around. So it was a pleasant surprise when we noticed that there is a little nook at the corner of the room - just enough space for the kids to play. We finally settled the kids into bed at close to 3 in the morning. (All 4 of us could sleep comfortably on 2 of the supersingle beds pushed together.) That meant we could forget about the itinerary we've planned for 11 March. There was no way we could get the kids (and us) out of the room by 9am.
The next day. 11 March. Hur hur hur. Little did we know what was in store for us. It was a Friday and TheHusband has to do his Friday prayers. He could skip this one as he was in a foreign land but skipping it doesn't feel right to us, especially because we have exact directions on how to get to the mosque. Initially, I was thinking of getting him to go there on his own and we'll meet him back at the hotel but he vetoed the idea. And thank goodness he did!
(I wrote that last week and saved it on a file in the computer because Multiply was behaving badly. Today, before my memory deteriorates further, I'll try to write more and post whatever I can.)
We eventually left our hotel room at about 11am. In mosques in Singapore, Friday prayers start promptly at Zuhur although it can be performed anytime between that and the next prayer time which was around 3.30pm in Tokyo. Zuhur was around 11.50am in Tokyo and so we were in a bit of a rush. Our hotel was a 10-minute brisk walk from Shinjuku station and we were aware what a busy station Shinjuku is.
To get to the mosque, what we needed to do first was to get to enter the Shinjuku station from the Odakyu Line entrance. We passed by so many entrances but we couldn't find the Odakyu Line entrance! Looking at maps and asking people left us more bewildered than ever. Eventually, an elderly woman who described Huda as kawaii (one of the few Japanese words I know) led us to the entrance and after asking more questions, we managed to get to the right train that would take us to Yoyogi-Uehara. By then, it was past noon. But Allah had plans for us.
Just as we were exiting the train station, we heard Malay words being spoken and well, what do you know! There was an elderly Malay couple with 2 sons, one of whom is a student in a Japanese university. They were heading for the same mosque and so, we chatted along the way and found out that they live not too far from my grandmother's village in Malacca! We also found out that we needn't have rushed as the Friday prayers are delayed slightly so that Muslims can go to the mosque during their lunch hour.
We waited for more than an hour before the prayers began. The sermon was delivered in 4 languages - Turkish, Arabic, English and Japanese. According to TheHusband the congregation numbered more than a 100 of people of various ethnicities, inclusive of local Japanese.
After the prayers ended, our newfound Malaysian friends took us to an Indian restaurant 2 train stations away. It was a buffet of rice, naan, chicken and mutton curries. Halal restaurants generally do not serve beef as there's no halal beef in Japan, owing to the absence of imports of beef into Japan. It was a late lunch and we had our fill. We even thought that we wouldn't need dinner after such a heavy lunch.
As our lunch was coming to an end, Huda moved to her father. She pushed her chair back and walked to the other side of the table. It was just a few steps but I could feel the wooden floor shaking slightly. I was about to chide her for walking like an elephant when I noticed that the shaking had not stopped.
I looked through the glass walls and saw a group of teenage girls looking panicky and running in and out of a shop before holding on to each other and a road sign. "Earthquake," I whispered to TheHusband. The Japanese couple beside us stood up, grabbed their jackets, made payment for their meals and ran out of the 2-storey building we were in. Being the ignorant tourists that we were, we stayed put and I even managed to record a 1 min 14 second footage of the tremors.
"Astaghfirullah. Astaghfirullah," the restaurant owner shouted repeatedly. Somebody (it was either the restaurant owner or a member of our party) led the rest of us in reciting of prayers and that was what we were doing til the tremors stopped.
At that point in time, I thought tremors like that were a common occurrence to these Tokyo folks and that it wouldn't even make it to the papers. Just in case it did, I sent a quick text to my father to inform him that we experienced our first earthquake and that we were safe. Now that we are older and have kids ourselves, we know that the last thing we want to do is make our parents worry about us. (But, now that we are older and have kids ourselves, we know that it is humanly impossible for parents not to worry about us.)
The next few lines will be shamelessly copied from my facebook status update:
- The restaurant was rattling badly, much like an old KTM train making a sharp turn at too high a speed. One of the locals said that they couldn't remember the last time they had an earthquake that strong. We're so grateful to Allah for keepingg us safe. The day did not start the way we had initially planned but that's only because Allah has much better plans which involve keeping us safe in His keep.
- And the person of the day is Huda. Train services were suspended because of the earthquake so we took a series of buses before we ended up in Shibuya. In Shibuya, there was a loooooooooooong line of people waiting for the bus. Our hotel is in Shinjuku. So we decided to walk (together with our Malaysian friends and a gajimillion other locals). A 3-hour walk it turned out to be and Huda did not complain at all despite the biting wind that blew hard into our faces. She did not even ask to be carried. We are so immensely proud of her.
- Thank you my dear family and friends for your concern. We are touched by your concern. I'm sorry because I cannot reply to all the SMS-es that were sent because mobile connections are still a bit iffy now.
- Oooh. Just had another aftershock. We had quite a few on our trek back to Shinjuku. But this time, we're in a tall building so, umm, we'll continue praying for our safety. Amin.
- Thank you very very much, everyone. We appreciate all the concern and do'a. :)
- We are in Shinjuku and people are quite calm and orderly. This is Japan, after all. Even in Shibuya where we saw a super-long line of people waiting for buses, they were queuing in the most civilised way. At all bus stops that we passed by, the queues were long but people were calm.Many, many people are staying the night at lobbies of various buildings (including our hotel's) because they can't get home. At the 24-hour convenience stores around our hotel, basic foood supplies like instant noodles, bread, drinks have been snapped up. There are long lines for public phones everywhere because mobile connections are unavailable. So, if you haven't heard from your colleague, let's hope that he's safe. Having said that however, I think quite a few people must have been hurt by shattered glass and other debris if they were outdoors when the quake happened. During our long walk back to our hotel, we saw a lot of cordoned off areas where they are cleaning up glass and concrete bits.
- Correction: It wasn't a 3-hour journey. It was 4 hours. We started walking around 4.30pm (Japanese time) and we got back at around 8.30pm. What a trooper my little Huda is!
So we the clueless tourists whipped out our maps and thought of walking. As we were discussing our options (in Malay) and considering the distance between this station and Shinjuku a Japanese man piped up, "Jauuuuuuuuuuh." (Way tooooooooooo far)
A Malay-speaking Japanese?! Oh yes, he was. The kind man (who learnt his Malay through books) told us to take a bus instead, walking us to the bus stop and ensuring that we got on the right bus.
2 buses later (and may I add that it was the first time we took a public bus in a foreign country), we found ourselves in somewhere near Shibuya where there was a super duper very very loooong line of people. And so, we decided to walk.
It was only during our long trek back that we became aware of the scale of the devastation. We passed by shops with television screens and people were crowding around the screens. When we managed to catch a glimpse of the images, it was completely horrifying. That explained the flurry of text messages I received from those who knew we were in Japan.
It was a long long walk back. At some points, the wind was very strong and biting. Thankfully, we were prepared for all weather and had brought along the kids' gloves*, scarves and beanies when we left our room earlier. And I want to say it again - that Huda made us so very, very proud with her resilience! (Farah will always say, after we talk about Huda: "Abeh, Farah?" (How about Farah?) Farah, you were so helpful by sleeping for most of the journey.)
(* Note to all parents - If you have more than one kid, forget the gloves, just get them to wear mittens. They are much easier to put on!)
Back in the hotel room, we turned on the TV and watched the footage of the tsunami. That was when Huda's earlier bravery crumbled somewhat. The images she saw spooked her and so we decided to only switch on the TV when the children are asleep. Unfortunately, in the coming days, wherever we went, the only thing we saw was more of the same frightening images. Poor Huda took a couple of days to overcome her fear.
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The days that followed were a mix of apprehension and a muted travellers'-excitement. Despite all the bad news that was coming from Japan to the media all over the world, we were still out and about trying to do whatever that we can do given the intermittent train service, early closure of stores and the generally gloomy atmosphere. Of course, there was the fear of being exposed to radiation. I told a friend that should that happen, I will not have a third child and my children will most probably not have any children. And then, there are fears of strange illnesses developing as a result of the exposure to radiation, among many other worries.
There were two other occasions when we felt close enough to danger. One night in the hotel room, the kids have fallen asleep while TheHusband and I were sorting our freshly-laundered clothes. The room started swaying. We had been feeling gentle tremors all the while so another tremor no longer frightened us. But, this time, the room swayed a lot more and the creaking went on longer than usual. The moment I sensed that this was no ordinary tremor, I was ready to push the sleeping kids into the "safe zone" which is a space between two beds. I got TheHusband to pass some bottles of water to me; should the building collapse and should we survive the collapse, at least, we can have sips of water while patiently waiting for rescue (assuming the bottles of water also survive the collapse). All these we did in seconds. I was all ready to push the kids off the bed and into the safe zone but the swaying got gentler and while the creaking took some time to stop, it eventually did.
Immediately, we turned on the television and computer and found out that an earthquake with a magnitude of 6 just occurred not too far from Tokyo. This time round, I decided not to send a message to my parents as they were worried enough. But, it made me realise how death can happen anytime.
The next occasion was our ride back. I was feeling somewhat relieved to be on the way back home. The pilots were making the usual announcements and I wasn't particularly attentive. Suddenly, TheHusband turned to me and said, "We are in an A380." Oh man. Of all planes? I made a little prayer for us to be safe and went through the safety procedures with Huda. We went through the safety information card and I pointed to her the exits, told her what to do if the breathing device (what's that called?) were to be released, how to brace, that she needed to crawl to the nearest exit if there's smoke in the cabin etc. The flight back was stomach-churning. It was a bumpy ride with lots of turbulence and the pilots had to tell the flight crew to buckle-up a few times. (It wasn't such a bad thing, then, not getting to visit Disneyland. We got a roller-coaster ride on the way back home.) But, Alhamdulillah, we got back safely.
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When you go on a holiday, you will have many memories that you bring home with you. For me, most of the time, the cherished memories are the fun moments I had with my travelling companions, the food ore the interesting places we visited.
For the first time ever, the most cherished memory of this trip is of the people. I am awed and humbled by the grace they exude under the most tenacious of circumstances. When we were walking back, we were completely unaware of the traffic, focusing our energies on getting back to our hotel. After some 2 hours and still nowhere near Shinjuku, we thought of taking a taxi, whatever the cost. But when we turned our attention to the road, we realised that it was a barely moving bumper-to-bumper traffic. Yet, we did not hear a single honking (and that's how we were not aware of the traffic).
When train services were resumed, it was intermittent. There was a long wait for trains at the platforms. Here and elsewhere all over the world, people would have jostled through the crowd to be right in front of the train doors. Possibly pushing one or a few people off the platform in the process. (I hope I'm just exaggerating)
In Japan, nothing like that happened.
Neat lines formed across the entire platform where the train doors would be. We (coming from the unruly and uncivilised part of the world), were amazed by what we saw. The passengers did not even show signs of restlessness and frustration at having to wait.How amazing is that? (I would have been jabbing my stubby fingers on my phone screen, castigating SMRT about their inefficiency on a public forum or straight to SMRT themselves but SMRT has stopped answering my phonecalls so, ummm...)
Had we not experienced the earthquake, we would still be in awe of the Japanese although it wouldn't be to such a degree. We are amazed (this word will be so overused by the end of the post) by how clean their streets are although we don't see any cleaners working. The country's cleanliness is due to its own people and not because they have a team of hardworking cleaners working round the clock.
And the people who work in the service industry... In this part of the world we live in, we are so used to people in the service industry who gives you a feeling that they are entitled to something a lot better than measuring your feet for your shoe size. This gets translated into a poor work attitude and their general unwillingness to do anything that is beyond their core duty. But the Japanese... I'm blown away by their service industry. Even the waitress who serves you iced water makes you feel like they are truly honoured to serve you. In fact, so much that they seem too subservient. And when they are like that, how can the customer ever be mean to them?
The level of consideration that the Japanese display is mind-blowing. They don't even pick up phone calls when they are in the train because they do not want to disturb other passengers.
So full of impact this trip has been, that our biggest takeaway is to behave more like a Japanese and be a better person in the process.
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We are touched by the love and concern shown to us by everyone who's near and dear who prayed constantly for our safety. We can never repay the kindness shown to us by everyone (family, friends & strangers both here and in Japan) so we hope to pay it forward as we strive to be better people.
I'm going to post this entry now. It's not a complete picture of our time in Japan. I foresee 2 other Japan-related entries. One will be a blog post of random anecdotes from our short time in Japan (I can't bring myself to write about happy, frivolous stuff after talking about a tragedy that cost so many lives) and one will be pictures (forgive the quality because I am a point-and-shoot person) in the photo section accompanied by lengthy explanations. But I don't know when these will come because I am ambitious in the planning stage only. I also have not proofread this entry so if you happen to read this immediately after I post this, it might be quite different from the finished product (let's hope I'll do some editing so that there will be a finished product.)
17 April: Err, 2 weeks after posting this, I obviously have not done much editing. I just want to add that I have recently realised that people are curious about our experience in Japan but I tend to gloss it over when asked about it. I am not so comfortable talking at length about our experience because most of the time, when I meet up with friends, time is so limited and I don't want to waste it talking about this. But, more than that, I find that what I have experienced is absolutely nothing compared to what the Japanese are going through now and it is not right to talk at length of my fears then when the Japanese are being battered daily by strong aftershocks and an unfolding nuclear disaster with frightening long-term consequences. (I hope I don't sound like I'm being too cocky or anything. Gasp! That's never my intention! However, had I experienced something like this, I will most probably, be deserving of 2 hours of your time telling you stories of my exciting travel.)
