Vacation diary (part 1)

We started our journey to Tokyo on the 29th of December. We initially wanted to take a flight there but it was fully booked so we had to look for other alternatives. My friends had suggested us to take ferry instead of driving there because the distance from Tokushima to Tokyo was about 600km and it would be tiring for my hubby to drive alone. So that's what we did, we took a ferry, cruising along the Pacific Ocean to Tokyo. It was our first cruise on Pacific ocean. An experience we would never forget...:)

The route of our cruise...

We boarded this ferry with our car

If it wasn't because of the freezing cold wind, I would have just sat on the bench and just watched the sea...it was very calming.

Sya found it too cold...brrrr...

Our room was on the 3rd floor

Let's check their facilities...

Big spacious restaurant

Game center for the bored passengers...

Vending machines: Drinks, junk food and meals are available...

Also not shown here were TV rooms, public bath, shower rooms and the toilets. *wink*

What I found most interesting was,

The beautiful sunset views...they were just awesome!!!

Isn't it just wonderful?

Sya and ayah warming up in the cold...

A few shots of the ferry

View from our window...

Sya's idea of the trip...:)

It was an overnight trip, we reached the port of Tokyo at 5am in the morning for our next destination...stay tuned!

Den cafe 田喫茶店

This is a story about my landlord and his landlady. You must be thinking, whoever writes about landlords? Well, they are special existence to me...

Our landlord and the landlady live on the ground floor of our apartment. They are in their early 80s. They had renovated the ground floor into a small cafe.

The interior of the Den's cafe

There was a tiny bedroom as their private space but the rest of the space was accessible to the clients, including the living room, bathroom and the toilet. They don't need the earnings from the cafe. They own the whole apartment building, a total of 12 compartments . They can lead a luxury life if they want to. Their children own big houses, staying just 15 steps away from the apartment. Their lunches and dinners were all prepared by the in laws and grandchildren. They can pretty much live without having to do anything.

But they chose not to.

They opened the cafe 35 years ago. The landlady single-handedly managed the cafe. The landlord who was a teacher later joined the wife after he retired. The cafe was not big. It was just a small cafe with 5 seats on the counter and on the other side, 2 tables with 8 chairs.

The simple counter with only 5 seats

The landlady's hobby is art. Her customers are mostly art lovers too. Sometimes we can see some art exhibition, with drawings and paintings hung on the wall. She volunteerly helped amateur artists by giving them a chance to exhibit the paintings in their cafe. She is always an angel...

My ice coffee...drained

Drawings by an artist with Multiple sclerosis

Recalling back, I first met them 12 years ago. At that time, I was still an undergraduate student, desperately looking for a new apartment to move in to. Since their apartment was just 5 minutes away from the university and main hospitals, I decided to take it. Then when I came back to Japan to further study in 2006, this time with my family, naturally we had opted to stay in this apartment again. One thing we have really enjoyed is the coffee. We always get free coffee whenever we visit them. Every time I went to pay the rent, the landlady would serve me hot coffee. With exception to summer season when she would serve me chilled ones. The coffee was freshly brewed and it tasted really good. They have their own original blends and people have been coming for the same taste always.

The landlady and me were quite close. She even had a few of my photos kept in the drawer. I was surprised to see that the photos of me taken 12 years ago were well kept. She was really a sweetheart.

My photos taken 12 years ago which were still in good condition

The landlord on the other hand was always quiet. Not a person with many words but he had a kind face that my son loved. Sya even called him 'Ojiichan', which means grandfather in Japanese. To my son, he has three grandparents. One live downstairs of this apartment and the other two in Malaysia. How lucky can he be?

The landlord was diagnosed to have Parkinson disease more than 10 years ago. His symptoms were mild and never escalated like what we see in severe disease like in Mohamad Ali, the famous boxer. The landlord had tremors which were only noticed by people close to him. Yeah...he was lucky that his symptoms were mild.

However last spring, he had contracted severe pneumonia which he finally succumbed to in July. He passed away without pain, peacefully with a smiling face, according to the landlady.
Then came the main question, what would happen to Den cafe. When we talked about Den cafe, it's always about the couple. It's impossible to imagine Den cafe without the image of the landlord. Furthermore, now that she's old and fragile, it would be stressful for her to handle it alone.

After one week of landlord's passing, I visited the landlady. She looked very thin and tired. I asked her how she was doing. She said, 'I am good...'.Which to me, was not true. She was trying to make me feel better. She did not want to show her sadness to me. She kept telling me that he didn't suffer much and that he must have left this world without regrets. She didn't discuss about her feelings. I suppose she's going through the first stage of grieving, which is, denial. I let her talked and lent her a listening ear. It must have been tough for her, after more than 50 years together.

In the middle of our conversation, she suddenly stood up, went to her drawer and looked for something. She then passed it to me. It was a picture.

Landlady: 'Do you have this picture?'
Me: 'No...I don't. Oh, it's really nostalgic...'
(it was a picture of me and the landlord, taken in the cafe 12 years ago)
Landlady: 'That's yours now.'
Me: 'Oh no...I can't have this. This is your memory of him.'
Landlady: 'I don't need that to remind me of him dear. He would want you to have that picture. I am sure...' She had tears in her eyes.
Me: 'Oh...thank you...' I had tears in my eyes too.

Then my son, Sya who saw us crying said, 'Mommy, why crying? Ojiichan is in heaven. We should not be sad...'. That innocent remark triggered more tears in us. She and I then hugged each other for a while.

Picture of late landlord and me taken 12 years ago

She then said, 'It's fated that he had to leave first. But I am not that young either. It won't be long til it's time for me to follow his footsteps. But I am determined to continue this cafe. It's the only reason for me to stay alive now. The memories of him live forever, in this cafe.' I really felt for her. The sorrow was raw. The words really showed how much she must have missed him. No words could describe her big loss. It must have been a massive shock for her. I sincerely hope she would be strong enough and recover from this misery.

Den cafe will be around for quite a while, it seems. I will be the regular customer from now on, to ensure she would be capable of continuing not only her passion, but also the memory of her late husband.

Landlady and Sya when he's shy

Landlady in her favorite rocking chair

View from the apartment, facing the hospital where the landlord passed away

"Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live" by Norman Cousins

~The end~

Flowers in my mind

Flower is still a girl's best friend. I sincerely believe...

When I was in Kobe last month, my friends and I accidentally came across a small museum. There was a temporary exhibition of preserved flowers titled 'Flower shower'. It was an unplanned visit but we spent a few hours admiring those beautiful flowers which looked so real. Imagine being surrounded by all these beautiful flowers. You would think you were fairies in those fairy tales.

I love the green color roses

Don't the petals look real? The texture was exactly like real flowers too!

Methods of making preserved flowers

Flashes of unforgettable memories kept appearing in my head while I was looking and admiring the beautiful flowers. It left me smiling away. Looking at other people, I realized I was not the only one who had a smile hanging on the face. Everyone else did too. Some bouquets really resembled flowers I received from my hubby when we were 'bercinta'. At that time, he was in Japan and I was in Malacca. He had ordered flowers online from Malaysian florist shops. Then had them sent to my door on special occasions, together with my favorite chocolates or teddy bears. At odd times when we quarreled, words of apology were written in a simple card, together with beautiful flowers too.

Then it was my wedding, we were so busy with preparation that I had forgotten to water my bouquet of bridal flowers which was handed to me one day prior to the wedding day. It was supposed to look fabulous with white lily and roses.

My bridal flowers was designed and meant to look like this...

On the wedding day, the white lilies were half dead and browned! It looked terrible! I almost cried. However, I managed to compose myself and told myself what's done was done...I had to see what I could do with the flowers. I quickly came up with my own version of wedding flowers. Hahaha...it was really havoc!

My not so successful handmade bridal bouquet

And of course, talking about the wedding, I wouldn't forget that kimono which I changed into during the reception. It was a super quick changing session done by my Japanese friend, who was really an expert in wearing kimonos.

With Japanese friends, lecturers and professors

Ahh...looking back at these photos, I have to admit I didn't like the outcome of the make-up done by my make-up artist who was supposed to be a famous one, who had done make-up for Era Fazira before. I preferred the make-up artist named abang Halim which had done the make-up on my 'nikah' and Terengganu's reception.

Nikah photo

Those were the days.

Now, on and off, my husband would still send me beautiful flowers. He still gives me flowers on my birthdays, mother's days and our anniversaries. Though no more luxury flowers like what he used to give ( as I would nag on the expensive price...my fault!), a simple bouquet of red roses means a thousand words...it would still steal my heart. And as I said, a flower is still a girl's best friend.

Admirer

As I was cycling home for lunch, I saw that man.
That man...was someone I met 3 years ago. A man whom I never talked to after one embarrassing incident. And I bet he too, would never want to see me in any possible way.

It started 3 years ago, on a Christmas eve.
My university had organized a Christmas party for the foreign students. As a routine, before the party, they had selected a few foreigners to give talks about their home countries. Needless to say, I was one of the few who had to present. On that day, I remember a few of my Indonesian friends came along with other foreigners from China, Indonesia, Bangladesh and Egypt. During the questioning session, I was asked a few general questions about Malaysia by two Japanese and one man who looked like Arabian to me. The questions were easy. Nothing that I couldn't answer. Anyway, after my presentation, I didn't stay for the Christmas party and left to continue my experiment.


A few weeks after that, while watching TV, my husband asked me something.

Hubby: 'Sayang, remember that day when you gave the presentation? There is one Egyptian guy at my working place who had been bugging me for a Malaysian girl's telephone number. He claimed that he met that girl during that presentation day.'

Me: 'Huh? Really...I didn't realize any other Malaysian that day. But I could be wrong because I was busy with my presentation. However I am quite sure there were a few Indonesians. Could he mistaken an Indonesian for a Malaysian? Why did he want to have that girl's number in the first place?' I asked curiously.

Hubby: 'What else? He is 'angau' la. Claiming that he is in love with that girl. Aiyaa...little bit kesian at him. He has been telling me about this girl for the past few weeks.'

Me: 'Ohh...ok. Let's see, there are only a handful Malaysian girls in the campus and I know all of them. And only one is single. Could it be that he's in love with Miss A?'

Hubby: 'I don't know. But he mentioned that the Malaysian girl gave a talk about Malaysia that day. Who else from Malaysia gave a talk?'

Me: 'Abang...there was only ME! I was the only Malaysian giving talk. Hahaha...Could it be that your friend liked me?' Looking at my hubby, hoping that he's not mad at the situation.

Hubby: 'Hmmm...? hahaha...' My husband laughed away.

Me:'So what are you going to do now? Are you going to tell him that the person he was looking for was your wife?'

Hubby: 'No la...I will just tell him I don't know. Kesian la. How can I tell him straight on the face like that. I just hope that he would cool down with time.'


Well, his guess was wrong.

A few weeks after, during a gathering with Malaysian friends. The ladies gathered and chit chat.

Kak M: 'Hey, I heard you have got an admirer. hahaha'
Me: ' Huh? I have? Who?'
Kak M: 'A young Egyptian man...'
Me' Really...how did you know?'
Kak M: 'You should ask S about it...'
S: Yeah, betul. That man ah...I don't know what he was thinking. His name is M.A. We attend Japanese language class every week together. That day he asked us about a Malaysian girl. Describing the look and everything which we were sure it was you. So I told him off and said that you are married with a son. He ah...aiyaa, he didn't want to believe. We then showed your photo and confirmed him of the reality. Haha...we also told him that your hubby worked at the same part time place as he does. He sounded shock...Kesian but what to do. If I didn't tell him it would escalate. Ish...falling in love with someone's wife is no good.'
Me: Hmm...Never thought a woman married with kids can still have admirer. Hopefully he would find a younger and better woman.' I laughed. But inside my heart, I felt very sorry that we didn't stop him before he made a fool of himself. I felt bad that he had to learn about the truth the hard way.


My hubby told me that M.A had not been working since he knew about the truth. My guess was that he probably was too ashamed to face my husband. My husband on the other hand was quite cool about this. He didn't think it was entirely his fault but he wished that man would do more homework before asking around. Anyway, after a few weeks he reappeared to work and apologized to my hubby. My hubby reassured him that it's alright and encouraged him to find a new love elsewhere. The case was finally closed.

One fine evening, before we slept, I recalled the incident and asked my hubby.


Me: Ayang, about that young man. Why were you so cool all the way . You tak sayang I ke?'
Hubby: Sayang...mana tak sayang. But I see it this way, you are mine. Already mine. Does anything else matter? And besides, he is on the losing end to start with. Why need to waste my energy to stir a fight....hahaha'
Me: ' huh...sombong ya. Nanti I lari dengan orang lain, nangis karang.'
Hubby: 'Hey...do think why I accompanied you here ah? Because I worry one day someone would kidnap you ok. Many dangerous men out there...I am always watching out for you...'
Me: 'hihihi...yalah sayang'

~The End~