Fireflies and Zazen : Japanese Meditation

Last Saturday was a day of peace and magical beauty.

Saturday was especially a nice day since I had quite a lousy week before...broke my glasses during a more aggressive than expected game of basketball, needing to spend a lot of money on getting new glasses, faced a roadblock in my research, punctured my bicycle tire causing me to miss an important class....like I said, not a great week.

With irritant factor raging through my reins, I badly needed some peace to cool down. So, I joined an event called zazen, which is Japanese style religious meditation.



We left the main road and the loud engines behind, and entered an old city with little traffic if none. We reached an old temple(not a shrine) which was smaller than I expected. But a nice and tranquil place as there was no crowd....plenty of greens around too.

We then were introduced to the head monk who taught us the basics of meditation..

Zazen stands for : za which means seat and zen...well, you all know what zen is. This seated meditation is actually a copy of Indian cross-legged meditation...but Japanese got a cooler name for it. The only difference is that you get a good whack with a stick in the back if you start to slouch or fall asleep..

After 5 minutes struggling to get my feet on my lap, we meditated for about 30 minutes....what surprised me was that it felt more like 5 minutes of silence rather than a torturing 30 minutes of cramped legs!!



Along with me was a bunch of Chinese guys, Koreans and a Spaniard called Pol. Pol didn't want to join this event at first as it sounded boring...well, when did meditation ever sounded fun, right? But I managed to convince him saying
"Religious meditation sure sounds boring...BUT we'll never know how boring it really is!! If you go back to Spain, and your friends asked you 'Hey Pol, do you know about that boring shit called zazen?' You can never answer them if you don't join this crap....and besides, we can laugh about it on the way back!!"

And he joined!!! Haha...it's good to have someone agreeing with my nonsense once in a while...but I gotta say I had a great time at the temple in the end.



Anyway, after the temple was a trip to see fireflies....have you guys ever seen fireflies? I know, you can see them at Kuala Selangor...but I've never seen them before in my 24 years of life.

From the temple, we walked about 20 minutes to a firefly reserve. We went into the forest in the evening, then out on a clearing devoid of artificial lighting...and as it got dark, one by one the fireflies started lighting up...and within minutes swarms of them started lighting on and off in unison. Almost....ghostly....

How can I ever live for 24 years and never experience something so hauntingly beautiful??!! Just like magical little tree fairies they float among trees, flirting with each other, and with our eyes....

Unfortunately, their beauty can't be captured on camera...well, either that or the camera I'm using isn't good enough. I guess this scene will be a special one to be remembered...beauty known only to me.

This one Saturday shall forever be remembered...

And the Ambassador arrives....

Yesterday was the day we hold a farewell event for Mr. Ambassador. It was attended by Mr. Ambs, his wife, son and daughter, staff from the Embassy, representative of MSAJ(Malaysian Students Association) and KUJ(Kelab UMNO Jepun) and bunch of students from Nagaoka University and Nagaoka College. The event was a formal event and was held in a hall with everyone wearing a blazer, cushion office chairs(not the one you're sitting on, the better quality ones), air conditioning and a big ass screen on the front wall.

I'm not...I'm never a big fan of formal events. This doesn't mean that I did not dress properly or anything along that line...just saying that there's no fun for me listening to prepared speeches. But I was desperately hoping to be entertain by something....and I was not disappointed!

Attendees(students) entered the hall as soon as the hall opened. I was hoping to meet up with the President of MSAJ, Lee Boon Hon before entering the hall, so me and Calvin hung out outside waiting for him. But he never came, so we went inside.

And that's when I got my first laugh...

All the students gathered at the back....leaving a lonely front and middle area empty. Then, a man from the embassy ordered them to fill the front seats. Hahaha...what are they? Small children afraid of the principal??

ALso, this being an event attended by Malaysians, punctuality is always the main big issue to frown upon (or to laugh at, your choice...but I tend to frown). But what the hell, I'm bored and I need some twisted entertainment...
You see, we had to sing the national anthem and 2 other patriotic song....I predicted that some will be late and they will walk in just when we're halfway through the national anthem. Well, no one came in during 'Negaraku', but quite walked in during the other 2 patriotic songs. As walking during such songs would be rude, they started gathering near the door!! Was quite obvious that uncomfortable awkwardness surrounds them...haha

But luckily, no one walked in after Mr. Ambs started his speech. But un-luckily, someone was stupid enough to bring her infant to the hall. What kind of dumb ass brings her baby to a formal speech?!! I know...I know, I may have gone too far by calling that woman dumb but then again...common sense-lah Makcik... At one point of Mr. Ambs' speech, all of his "comma" and "full stop" was punctuated by that baby's gurgle...

"It is great that we can have stability in a country with many races like Malay 'Eeahh' Chinese 'Eeahh' and Indian 'Eeahh' "

Hahahaha...

Baby continued to speak baby language for a full 5 minutes before everyone's stare made that Makcik uncomfortable and leaves the hall....finally.

Overall, the speech was pretty much very boring....speech contained stuff that every government official would say. The same shit like unity, peace and stability in a multiracial region...except Perak maybe. Although, there's one thing he said that really impressed me. Something about mastering languages...

"Kita dijangka....we are expected to deal with foreigners so....kita mesti belajarlah bahasa..."

Wait a minute, is he trying to tell us to master languages so that we can speak different languages in one sentence?? Well, OKAY... I was having trouble speaking a full sentence in bahasa anyway, but as a master of languages I can always mix in a few languages...hehe..

20 boring minutes later, the MC announced that this is the end of speech and that next is lunch....

Here again, I was hoping to see if anyone was brave enough to stand up and exit the hall before Mr. Ambs himself....

God bless Malaysia. We are a country full of brave souls....

I turned back and saw a few stood up as if it was normal, took a step forward but stopped when they saw a few still seated, signalling them to wait for Mr. Ambs to exit first. Awkwardness once again shrouded the hall.....hahahahahaha.

After that, lunch was pretty much incident free.

Oh, I have to say, lunch was de-li-cious!!
We had nasi minyak, ayam masak merah, daging kurma, and an assortment of kuih.

After lunch was photo session. We decided to take pictures outside, where it's nice, bright and windy. And that's where Mr. Ambs daughter of about 16 years old caught Boon hon's and my attention(Calvin noticed much earlier)...


Mr. Ambs daughter is the one on far left...

You see, a harmless innocent breeze blew by....and suddenly long, slender, beautiful bronze legs was revealed! Apparently, Mr. Ambs daughter came wearing a Baju Kurung, one with a slit that can even compete with a china dress!! With a slit that goes all the way up to the thighs....PLUS the wind blowing, it is very difficult to blame us guys for noticing. After all, she didn't put the slit there hoping that guys not notice when the wind blows, right??


*WARNING* : added exaggeration detected in photo.
I don't have a picture showing the slit, but it was something like this....how can a normal, functioning guy not turn his head and gander??!!!!!

Now, correct me if I'm wrong but, I thought there was the thing about aurat and stuff??
Naughty naughty...

ANYWAY, the event was a success and we didn't encounter any big hiccups. Mr. Ambs was very satisfied with this event as he got to deliver his compulsory but boring speech, and he got to mingle among students during lunch.

Goodbye Mr. Ambs...thanks for everything during your time in Japan.

All the best in Malaysia...


PS: Picture of China Girl was taken from http://www.reallycuteasians.com/

Gotong Royong : The Malaysian spirit

Good old Mr. Ambassador, TYT Dato Mohd. Radzi. This is his last week in Japan. He has served for....okay, I don't know how long has he served but I do know he is going back to Malaysia this Saturday. Sorry Mr. Ambs...

A farewell event was planned for him on yesterday, in conjunction with Agong's birthday,
here in my University in Nagaoka. About 150 people are expected to attend this event so, as for the preparation, we(us Nagaoka Students committee) organized a gotong royong.

I was put under nasi minyak department. Gosh...I have never cooked 25 kilos of rice before in my life!! Originally a 10 member strong group, only 4 turned up...but what the hell, we managed anyway. By the time I got back home, it was almost 1 a.m and I was dead tired.
But somehow, strangely, I felt a sense of accomplishment!
I felt happy for being able to lighten someone else's load.
I felt belonged as I connected with others...
My spirit felt SO alive!!

So, this is what you call a gotong royong. While i used to participate back when I was a kid, I have somehow forgotten about the joy of gotong royong as I grew older...as I grew more materialistic...and as I grew more selfish. Somehow, at one point I started asking for reward, refusing to help, and only doing things that involves recognition.

Having spoken that, I gotta admit that I wasn't at all helpful last year...

I participated in the Japanese drum group and I devoted myself entirely for practice. I was constantly using "drum practice" as an excuse to not help in any cook outs.

While it is important to pursue materialism, we must never forget that it is always the connection with people that keeps us going...

keeps our spirit strong....

Connecting dots...

Every hurdle you face in life represents a dot.
They make no sense why you need to
suffer and struggle and sweat...but,
years from now, as you connect the dots,
you'll realize that each dot has a meaning
and they form a beautiful and elegant line...
You cannot connect the dots by looking forward,
you can only do them looking backwards.
So, do your very best and endure, as you will
Surely come to appreciate your effort some day.


You must realize that this is my first, weak attempt at poetry. I have a long way to go before I can write words that 'sing'...

Anyway, this poem is about connecting dots. I heard the general idea from a presenter in Nagaoka, who in turn has heard from Steve Jobs. Now, this have got to be the most meaningful and practical thing I've ever heard in my 20 years of literacy life.

Listening to this reminds me of my high school days where I asked my maths teacher, "Why do all this? What's the point?". She gave me a very lame and nerd-ish reply "To score an A in SPM". I don't mean to be rude to teachers, but what a dumb answer that was....

However, I finally discovered the true purpose of learning mathematics. It's not until 8 years later when it finally made sense as why I need to flirt with numbers....

To build. To design. To create.

Now that I'm in charge of designing a method to reduce a particular set of data, I realize that I need all my knowledge in mathematics, physics and material science knowledge in order to come up with a method that can yield an accurate result.

Ehem...what I'm trying to say here, is that, had I not work hard 8 years ago, I wouldn't be able to do what I do now. This is the same as things we suffer by everyday. They are difficult and we are often tempted to give in to procrastination and neglect....but difficult and trying as they may be, it will no doubt be one of the important dots in our life.

So, all the best to all of us, and may we all smile when we look back on our line of dots...

What it takes to live together...

One of the most famous phrase written in the bible is "Love thy neighbour".

Knowing that, you can say that only god knows how hard is it to love your neighbour....which means that its pretty damn hard.

We all have our fair share of living with ugly neighbours. While many of us have been a bit shy in talking about it, Borat more or less sums it up :

Borat : Do Jesus like me?
Church Pastor : Absolutely, Jesus loves you
Borat : Do Jesus like my sons?
Church Pastor : Jesus loves your sons
Borat : Do Jesus love my retard brother Bilo?
Church Pastor : Jesus loves your brother Bilo
Borat : Do Jesus love my neighbour Nushuktan Tulyiagby?
Church Pastor : Yes, Jesus loves everyone.
Borat : Nobody like my neighbour, Nushuktan Tulyiagby...

All these time watching movies and dramas, I've never quite understood why couples find it so difficult to decide whether or not to live with each other...just like that scene in Yes Man, where Jim Carrey hesitated when he was asked if he wants to live with that girl.

Before furthering my studies to Uni, when I was speaking to one of my seniors about Uni life, he said that it was very, very difficult to live with other people. Quarrels and disagreement happen on daily basis, and that I had better think very carefully if I want to share apartment with someone else. Said that I was going to live with a friend of mine, and I'm sure that things will turn out ok....but he instead said,
"He may be your good friend, but even that, you'll start to quarrel after a few months. Yeah he's still your good friend, but it will not be easy living with him".

Early last year, I was blessed with the opportunity of living with an old friend of mine. I lived across him back in our UTM days where we studied Japanese before going to Japan, and he looks bearable to live with. And so, March last year, I moved in with him...

Things was okay in the beginning. Garbage and dishes are taken care of, kitchen is cleaned on weekly basis, we cycled to school together...

One year have passed.....

This morning, we headed out to school at the same time....something that have not happen for about 10 months. I was thinking, "Wow, it's been a really long time since we cycle to school together!!". BUT....

as I turned to lock the door, I saw he was already on his bicycle!!

By the time I got both my feet on the pedals, he was already far ahead. Now, that is pretty darn strange considering that we share an apartment.

Wow....how did we end up like this...

This have got me thinking, it's not easy living with another person...and I suddenly had new found respect for my mother as she had to live with me AND my brother for 17 years...

It's amazing that my mother have not gone "completely insane". I use the term "completely insane" because.....well, those who have met my mother will know that my mother isn't exactly "normal".

Sigh...guess I'll just have to be patient for another 3 months. After that, I'm moving out....

This time, I think I'll live alone....