Second day in Sendai - some observations

More photos from Sendai - but not as many as before as there were so many photos of me with my round face! Pantang menjadi tontonan umum... Hahaha! So, I took the liberty to post some round-faced pics of Ayah's here instead ;)

We spent some time shopping in the morning until about 12:00p.m when Ayah had to attend the afternoon live procedure session as one of the commentators. Ayah came back just after 3:00p.m, and we went out to shop (again!). I noticed that they have LOADS of shops selling ladies/girls fashions and accessories, but not many for men and kids.

Bermacam gaya... but, I don't think they'd be well-received in Malaysia. It's more of a Mix 'n' Match thingies and the Japanese can be quite OTT with their accessories. And oh, they have so many different kinds of cool hats here. Unfortunately, neither of my girls are into hats. If not, it would have been easier to shop for them! And they also have amazing designs for their socks, stockings, and leggings. They're just fantastic! And Ayah and I noticed that the youngsters here are more "westernized" than the westerners (well, at least in their dressing-up sense, that is).

And it is just so difficult to communicate with them as virtually all of them do not speak English. We've given up trying to speak English with them, and Ayah finally resorted to just speaking in Bahasa Malaysia (with sign language, of course!) when we wanted to enquire on stuffs. It makes no difference really, whether we speak in English or BM. Both are very foreign languages to them. And it is just so amazing to see them to be so advanced technologically without having to rely on or know the "so-called" global language! As they say - only in Japan...

Anyway, we went back to our room just before Iftar at 5:30p.m. And we had sushi for Iftar. Maybe not that appealing to some, but, Ayah and I were okay with it as this is actually the second time we experience berpuasa in Japan. The first time was in 2002 when I was on a 3-week Research leave in Nagoya, and it just so happened that Ayah also had a conference in Kobe around that time and he extended his stay to join me in the last one week of my stint in Nagoya. And we had Sushi and Sashimi nearly every night for iftar then.

Seriously, I can't imagine if we were to spend our Raya here. No suasana langsung... I really feel for those Malaysian students who have to go through the festivities (or rather, the lack or non-existence of it!) here. At least when we were in the UK dulu, the suasana was very much alive, albeit in an ala-Pakistani way.

Yesterday, while waiting for iftar, Ayah made a 'lawak tak berapa pandai' by kononnya trying to find the channel which aired the Azan Maghrib...(Harharhar, Ayah...), and we ended up watching Sumo wrestling during iftar.

Seriously, how did them wrestlers turn out to be SOOOO huge?!

I asked Ayah, if he had any idea as to the life expectancy of the Sumo wrestlers as I didn't think it would be that long, considering how obese-looking they were. Ayah said, he didn't know. All he knew was that, the Sumo wrestlers are filthy rich here in Japan.

Hmmmmm... If it was me, I would rather be not-so-rich, but have a longer and healthier life to share with my family.

(Sorry...terlupa pulak nak ambik gambar the Sumo wrestlers on TV. Terlampau engrossed tengok they all berSumo semalam!). Hahaha!

Anyway, here are some pics of our second day in Sendai.

Note : Please do not confuse Ayah and myself with the Sumo wrestlers, okay?! But, one thing for sure, if we had their pics here, they would have made us feel so good about ourselves weight wise. Hahaha!

Hello - from the Land of the Rising Sun...

Hello from Japan!!

Hmmm...Ayah did it again. Remember, in January this year when he came to Japan, all the while thinking that his flight was for Kobe, when it was actually for Tokyo? Nasib baik lah he was travelling with his sponsors that time. If not? Aiyoooo...

Well, this time around, he told me that his meeting was to be in Tokyo - BUT, we found out at KLIA last night that it's actually to be held in Sendai, about 1 1/2 hours train ride to the north-east of Tokyo. That's about the same distance as Tokyo-Nagoya!

And again, nasib baik the sponsor's Malaysian rep, Mr. Gu*n was travelling with us last night. If not, sure terkial-kial we all.

Hopeless betul lah laki I ni... Hehehe! (But, I still love you to bits, dear :))

We touched down at Narita at 7:38a.m, and was met by Ayah's Japanese sponsors - Mr Os*wa, and took the train to Tokyo Central. From there, we took the 10:56.m train to Sendai,and reached Sendai at 12:37p.m.

Why am I giving all these exact times? Well, simply because the Japanese are SO punctual! Not a second more, not a second less! Tension gua...nyaris-nyaris missed the train pagi tadi.

We were only able to check-in into the Sendai Me*ro*oli*an Hotel at 2:00p.m, and after checking in, both Ayah and I fell asleep. We were supposed to meet up with the sponsors and another couple (from Indonesia - Dr. Mu*aw*ar and wife) at 5:00p.m at the hotel lobby, to have our iftar, so Ayah set the alarm for 4:30p.m. But, horror-horror - we only woke up at 5:05p.m!! Apparently Ayah forgot to take into account the 1 hour time difference, and 4:30p.m in Malaysia would mean that the alarm would only go off at 5:30 p.m Japan time!!!

Hopeless betul lah laki I ni...Hahaha! (But, again - I still love you to bits, dear :))

So, we were 25 minutes late just now - not a good impression to set with Ayah's Japanese sponsors, huh?

Today's berbuka in Sendai was at 5:32p.m, but, due to our tardiness, we only berbuka at 6:05p.m. No big deal - it was still more than one hour earlier than berbuka in KL, right? (And Hanna, if you're reading this, Mommy just have this to say to you - "JANGAN JELES, OKAY??!..." Hahaha!)

We went for a Teppanyaki iftar tonight. And as always, whenever we travel abroad, it's fish and seafood for the whole trip for us. And for sahur, we've equipped ourselves with a few packets of Maggi Mee :). Imsak is at 3:55a.m, by the way.

We had a mixture of Seafood and Fish Teppanyaki which was served with Garlic Fried Rice, only to find out that there were tiny bits of beef in the rice after tasting it!! We had earlier asked our Japanese sponsor if there was any meat in it, and he said "No"! Well, tak sengaja. Tak per kot? Nasib baik it was just about the amount of a tip of the spoon.

Anyway, we're going to have loads of seafood and fish for the next 3 days or so, and that would mean that Ayah would also be taking loads of Ar*oxia as preventive measures - in case those yummylicious sea creatures trigger his gout ;)

Ayah will be one of the commentators for a Live Cardio Procedure tomorrow afternoon, and he's chairing another session on Saturday afternoon. Nasib baik lah wi-fi kat hotel ni FOC! So, while he's at the sessions, Insya Allah I'll be in the room, surfing and hopping the blogosphere with my Portege.

I just love the wi-fi here - it took me only about 5 minutes to upload the pics to this posting, whereas it would have taken me nearly half an hour to do the same back home! Jepun, oh Jepun...

In the mean time, here are some pics of our first day in Tokyo/Sendai.

Errr....is it just me? But, do I LOOK round in my new tudung style, OR I AM INDEED ROUND (despite having lost 3kg this Ramadhan?!)