Tuesday, August 22, 2006

FOSTERING NAO AND NOZUMI






Nao and Nozomi are Karate black belters. They are amongst the group of students of a renowned karate school in Gunma, Japan who are currently in Malaysia to visit the Karate schools here. The Gi Tokku Kai branch in Kuantan serves as the headquarters for the South East Asia region where my children Sofi, Aliah and Luqman are its students (although Sofi has long stopped attending its classes for obvious reasons.)

They stayed in my house for 3 days and my family and I, tried our best to make their stay a comfortable and memorable one. They managed to taste the local delicacies like Nasi Lemak, Nasi Dagang, Keropok Lekor and also the regular Thai spread which has also become part of our food culture. Needless to say, they enjoyed them albeit unable to withstand the hot and spicy ones, fanning their 'burnt' mouths with their hands!

I was excited to bring them to Cherating to meet Catherine Firdhaus Aoki, our Japanese-Hawaiian friend. It also doubled up as our 'compulsory' visit each time my girls are back here. We bought the girls some batik blouse and sarong from Cath's souvenir shop. And when they tried them on, they look splendid! Later that night we had a family barbeque and we enjoyed the balmy evening outside in the lawn.

The previous night we attended Sensei's Clarence's daughter's wedding at Vistana Hotel. Sensei Clarence leads the Gi Tokku Kai here and is a very respected Sensei. His daughter, Michele, got married to a malay and has converted to Islam and now uses the name Fatihaton Najah, I think. The wedding was an interesting melting-pot of Malay, Chinese and Westeren culture, blended together. Both the bride and groom wore traditional malay attires in resplendent dark red and marched into the hall to the sound of the wedding march. On entrance, they were greeted
by a girl executing the silat dance in a rather intriguing style, marked with head shakes and body writhes, which I thought resembled a bit like bollywood choreographed dance!

The wedding ceremony got more unique when several karate students belonging to the centre, performed their Kata. When the bride and groom were asked to conduct the 'champagne-pouring' ceremony, the lady opposite me, who happened to be the groom's aunt, stared at me with widened eyes and raised eyebrows! Quickly I reassured her that I am sure it wasn't champagne as Sensei Clarence should know better! True enough, the next minute, the emcee cleared the air by informing the guests that it was only sparkling water! It was a splendid night and the group of Japanese students had a fun time observing our Malaysian culture.

Communication with the girls is the biggest hurdle and our hands, legs and body language worked full-force to convey and extract information from them. Perhaps Mynn would have made a perfect interpreter with his 'polished' anime vocabulary! At least we have Aliah who is also a Japanese enthusiast to ease things out as she converses with them in fragmented Japanese phrases which include Japanese pop-stars and icons.

Sunday morning we sent them off at the Karate school. Nao was the sentimental one and she almost cried the river, along with Aliah who is also an emotional gal. I wish them both all the best and hope to be able to see them again in years to come, insyallah!


*Below is another video of them. The background song is sung by them- the Japanese national anthem, 'Kimigayo'. We wanted our kids to reciprocate by singing our national anthem but iFos quickly opposed as she feared the contrast of vocals! hehe*



16 comments:

Jamil said...

The Kata that they performed looked deadly enough to cause some serious bodily harm to someone not adequately trained in Physical Education.

*runs off to find old tracksuit*

Anonymous said...

sounds like a fun time for everyone.

Ikelah said...

yang meletihkan adalah perbualan bagaikan itik dengan ayam. mereka tidak pandai bertutur dalam bahasa melayu maupun bahasa inggeris. kami terpaksa menggunakan bahasa isyarat dan mengajar mereka maksud dalam bahasa melayu dan beberapa bahasa inggeris yang mereka tahu. namun demikian perhubungan kekeluargaan tetap terjalin dan kami merasakan kehilangan sesuatu apabila mereka berangkat pulang.

mynn said...

ala.. bestnya, tak hantar diorang ke rumah kitorang ke.

tengah oncall ni so tak boleh tengok your video lagi - insya allah as soon as i get back.

mynn said...

ala.. bestnya, tak hantar diorang ke rumah kitorang ke.

tengah oncall ni so tak boleh tengok your video lagi - insya allah as soon as i get back.

Mama Sarah said...

bagaikan itik dgn ayam? haha... samalah seperti amar bercakap dengan sarah.

huhu DITH saya pun bergenang2 air mata baca the departing part between the girls.

Mama Pongkey said...

Hehehehe enjoyed the movies tremendously. Tapi lagu movie pertama itu saya rasa sedikit cheesy. Kenapa ye. Saya dok pegang2 pipi ala Home Alone masa tonton movie tu. Hehehehee.

Queen Of The House said...

You Tube lambat load on my PC, tersekat-sekat pulak tu ...

But enjoyed reading about the cultural exchange. So bila pulak Aliah or Maman nak ke Jepun? Manalah tahu ada rezeki, kan?

dith said...

Yoshi- You dont do martial arts? Try silat at least!

23- Yes it was fun alhamdulilah

iKelah- kita patut buka khamus jepun hari tu!

Mynn- Teringin nak anak angkat juga ke? :p

Nisak- Serious, bergenang air mata ke??

KKL- Tolong jelas kan apa maksud pegang pipi ala Home Alone? hehe

QOTH- you just press pause button and let it load till finish then baru play again. Aliah and Maman memang teringin sangat nak berjalan tapi funds kena raise dulu, hehe

Jamil said...

DITH

I used to do taekwondo. Sadly, what I am now is just a shadow of what I was once ago.

Joints semua dah ossified -.-"

dith said...

Yoshi-Moshi:

If your joints dah ossified, then mine have fused with no range of movements! :p
But I still can climb Bekelah!

Mama Sarah said...

betul bergenang. tak tipu. baca cerita kak honda city peluk bapak dia pun bergenang air mata gak. aiyooo... dah tua2 ni makin sensitif lah.

Mama Pongkey said...

DITH
Hehehehe.. pegang pipi sebab upon hearing that background music, suddenly excruciating scenes from those old drama swastas (circa 1980s) started dancing merrily in front of me... ah cringefest...

Anonymous said...

I also still cannot view the videos properly. But still, it was fun just to read all about these cultural experiences. Never knew you have so many Japanese friends yourself ;)

Madame A said...

thumbs up!!! You have been a very good host.

ayumi said...

Salaam..

Oooh.. I wish we could play host to them too! Hehehe.. Perhaps they'll get annoyed at my eagerness to know about Japan.


Bukit Tinggi 2008

Great Wall 2009

Followers

 

ReMiNiScEnCe....as the garden of memory grows arid... | Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial License | Dandy Dandilion Designed by Simply Fabulous Blogger Templates