zags

My first time celebrating lebaran in Japan and outside my country! This morning we did 'ied prayer at Utsunomiya University's student meeting room. The room isn't big but we managed to gather inside. There were Indonesians, Japanese, Pakistani, Jordanians,... they are students, expatriates, and trainees, and some of them brought their children I've met some of the Indonesians on my first evening after I arrived in Japan 4 days ago and we met again today. It's pretty funny to hear people from different countries speak to each other in Japanese! hahaha...

After the prayer, we congratulated each other, forgave and asked forgiveness of each other. Then the guys set up some tables and we had the food and drinks ready and... eat! There are food from many cultures Then we got ready to go but not before having some chat and pictures taken.

We moved to Tuti and Arin's home and got ready for barbecue party. Konomi-san was also there. I learned that she's a member of an association of "Indonesia-lover" who cared most about Indonesians in Japan especially the students. The men prepared the barbecue, and the ladies prepared other food. The children played cheerfully and noisily. We left the house at bout 2:30 pm. When we live far away from home, our friends become our family, where we spend the happy day full of love and forgiveness together.

Today we went to Nikko. We went through the "iroha" road, the road up to the mountain with 48 curves named after Japanese alphabet. "i-ro-ha" is Japanese "ABC". The view is very beautiful!! The leaves were colourful - we were so lucky we came at the right time! We were so fascinated by the beautiful scene.

When we finally reached the "civilisation", we first went to see Kegon Falls. We saw a deer on the rocks near the falls.

From there we went to enjoy the view of Lake Chuzenji. We walked along the beach - the water was very clear. The view was beautiful because the autumn leaves were colourful.

Then we went to see Ryuzu Falls. After that we went back down and visit Toshogu Shrine and got to see the tomb of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu (after climbing so many steps which made us not cold anymore!).

We were supposed to see some monkeys after that but it was late in the afternoon, so we went back down to Utsunomiya.

Today was supposed to be the last day of fasting. Somehow I managed to fast while I'm here feeling cold and thirsty sometimes But tomorrow we will celebrate our (hopefully) victory in controlling ourselves. There will be feast

In the morning Hide showed us around Tobiyama park which is near his home where we are staying. It used to be the location of a small fortress and hiding place of some samurai. It is located on the hill, with a wide view down to Kinugawa (Kinu River) and Utsunomiya city, with Mt. Nantai in the background.

In the afternoon we went to Inogashira park. I was there 3 years ago. The park has a lake, a fishing pond, a rose garden, etc. scattered in the woods. The air was cool and fresh. We wanted to hire bicycles but the rental place was closed. So we just walked around in the park, enjoying the view of colourful autumn leaves and the air.

In the evening, Rani and Hide took us to an okonomiyaki restaurant called "Doutonburi". It was cold and windy outside - I was glad when we entered the restaurant. I had eaten okonomiyaki before. Hide had cooked for us when he was in Jakarta years ago. But this was the first time for Didi. He enjoyed it very much I was full. おなかいっぱい！

Sahur di pesawat, kira2 di atas Filipina (kata pak stewardnya), subuh di pesawat. Abis makan tidur bentar. Gak bisa tidur bener2. Pas matahari terbit, liat jendela...oh so beautiful!!! Sunrise on the clouds!!!

Sampe Narita jam 9 pagi. Naik bis Maronie jam 11.10, sampe Yanagita jam 2 pm, dijemput Rani & Hide.

Cape bangets... Sampe rumah ktemu Okasan, trus mandi, &lsg tidurrr.... zzzz... (kira2 jam 4pm). Jam 5 udah dibangunin Didi, buka puasa! Di bawah udah rame, temen2 RH yg mo bukpua n tarawih bareng udh pada dateng.

Temen2 baru nih: Tuti & anak2nya Salma dan Safa, Ika & suaminya Arief, Didi (cewe lho) dan suaminya Kentaro dan anaknya Haru, Elia & suaminya Nono & anak2nya kembar Iqbal dan Haikal, mbak Ratna & anak2 kembarnya Hiroki & Teruki dan adiknya cewek Kana. Dan ada kenshuusei namanya Berlin.

Didi suaminya juga org Jepang, Kentaro. Anak mereka umur 1 thn 8 bln, lucuuuu deh, namanya Haru. Lutu bangets... So cute...

Bukapuasa sambil ngobrol2... Trus magriban trus makan malem. Okasan masak "nasi uduk jepang" - itu istilah gw aja sih... Ada yg bawa soto, ikan, dll...

Okasan jadi babysitter, nemenin anak2 kecil main, hihihi... Pas kita tarawihan, anak2 kecil main kembang api di luar, tapi Haru chan masih kecil jadi sama ibu-bapaknya ngga boleh ikut. Dia keliaran pas kita pada tarawih, jadi ibu-bapaknya ksian deh solatnya sambil jagain anaknya (kadang sambil gendong).

Abis itu kita berdoa bersama untuk bayi yang lagi dikandung Rani n Elia. Trus kita turun lagi & makan lagi... Rameee banget deh anak2.

Sebelum bubar, kita foto2 dulu.... Ini foto semuanya (kecuali gw yg motret, hehehe)...

I'm leaving for Japan tonight - I'm so excited! Thank God the problem with administrations has been solved yesterday, just one day before my departure! I was so nervous as I've paid for the tickets and leaving very soon. But now I'm so excited I can't really sleep that well. This is 5:12 AM and I'm not asleep, which is very rare. :P

I don't know if I will get the chance to write my blog along the way on my travel there, but I'll try.

BTW, still don't know where to get a step-up adaptor for my battery charger etc.