Muslim X Japan X 2 weeks ムスリムX日本X２週間

Just as the title says, this post is about my thoughts and feelings, as a Muslim, on two weeks in Japan.

Two clarifications first:
- Although it was an intense program and I tried to 'take in' as much I could, two weeks are just too short. So, while I speak my observations, I understand that I might be off somewhere. You too, please understand this.
- By saying "as a Muslim" here, I mean a Muslim who puts Islam in front of him/her and not on the side; a Muslim who constantly tries to learn about and abide by Islam's teachings to the best of his/her effort.

With this out of the way, be warned that this is a very, very long post and prepare for a detailed, frank and unapologetic report (with pictures!).

On the way to Japan
After all the urgency and stress of preparation for travel, I finally stepped into the plane and took my seat. For me this was the beginning, and I found myself thinking, just like I did on the bus seat on my way to Madina and Makkah 3 years ago, what will this trip hold for me? Will I be better off after it or worse? or will I just return without gaining anything? So, during the flight, I kept hoping and asking God just a small request: That I return a better, even if a little better, person than when I left. That I come back with more understanding and useful knowledge; just like I asked Him on my way to Madina.

I will first get the basics out of the way and then talk about the more important stuff.

Hygiene
The west always trumpets hygiene as something very important, and yet for some reason, in the two times I went to the US, I did not find any toilet with a flusher. Don't they use water?! I don't know, but I had a very difficult time because as someone who prays frequently during the day, I need water for me and all my clothes to stay clean at all times.

In Japan on the other hand, using toilets was, I'll venture to say, delightful. Unlike America, they use water and the toilets they design are super convenient. As a product design enthusiast, I think that the large variety of 'toilet solutions' is worthy of a seperate post, but unfortunately, I did not take pictures and without pictures it will need too many words to describe. In short, the toilets had all sorts of things to ensure that you and the toilet are clean before and after you use it. whether it is sterilizing wipes, flushable paper seats (wonderful idea that works perfectly) and so on. Japanese toilets are also designed to save precious water. In the high tech electronic toilets, there are sensors around almost every water outlet to ensure that no water is wasted or spilled on the floor. In some of the lesser tech toilets, when you flush the urinal, the refill water flows externally from a faucet on a small basen above the flush water container, meaning that in addition to using it for filling the water container, it can also be used for washing. Again, delightful.

Very clean and very environmentally friendly. Two things that are very important to a Muslim.

Food
The story with food isn't as nice. As you all probably know, a Muslim's diet should not include any alcohol or products from pigs, be it pork, lard or gelatin. We also can only eat Halal meat. Halal meat means two inseperable things: First, the livestock should be slaughtered from its neck, not electricuted, suffocated or drowned to death, etc. Second, it has to be slaughtered either by a Muslim, Christian or Jew. All livestock meats that don't meet these two conditions are not halal.

At first, I thought that things would be easy because I like Japanese food and they use a lot of veggies and fish. But it wasn't that simple, because a lot and I mean A LOT, of products include pork products and alcohol. It appeared to me that they put pork and/or alcohol in almost everything. A lot of bentou shops put nihonshu in sushi and onigiri rice. Once, in a combini, I thought to myself "hmmm, I didn't try chips in Japan" so I took a fish/shrimp flavoured chips from the shelf and turned the pack around to find 豚を含む (includes pork) in the back, I put it back and rushed outside the combini without buying anything. "Even in SHRIMP chips!!" I thought to myself as I returned.

During homestay, when we were in Kappazushi, a beef sushi passed away on the conveyor belt and, as a joke, I lowered my head on my hands and said whiningly "美味しそうだったのに" ("but it looked so yummy :(") and this cracked up homestay mom. Hehe. Homestay dad's reaction was to hold the next beef sushi and give it to me and I refused, of-course.

That is not to say I didn't enjoy the food. I loved many dishes, including Kitsune Udon and I recommend it to everybody. I also tried a rice with salmon eggs and other stuff at "ザ・ドン" and recommend it. Many tasty stuff, but I had to be careful and trust my Japanese friends at the same time. It was very awkward for me sometimes when I asked them about what a dish infront of me is, they think I'm checking for pork and alcohol and they say "大丈夫、大丈夫" (It's alright), when I'm only asking to know what the dish's name is or ask about a new ingredient I never saw before.

Introducing the 'What the HELL is this' look(tm).

In Jordan, on S-sensei's birthday, I ate a really tasty sweet sembe called 'yuki no yado'. It was so tasty in fact that I was planning to bring loads of it back with me from Japan. So before I went to Japan I checked it on the Internet and I found that it had gelatin. When I arrived to Japan I called Sanko Seika (the company that makes it) many times to check what kind of gelatin it had in it and finally got the answer "豚の肌" (from pig's skin)..

Halal meat is particularly an issue. With the exception of Tokyo, finding halal meat anywhere in Japan is very difficult. There are companies offering halal meat with shipping services but because of limited demand and freshness issues, I guess.. They are expensive. Fortunately for me, the JF cafeteria offered halal meals every day. Unfortunately for me, since anybody can buy the halal meals, they finished fast. Really. I rarely ate halal meat in the cafeteria, but no worries. When I returned to Jordan I compensated for those two weeks.

And now here's something very amusing to me:

美味しそうぅ～・・・　ジャナイ！！
Looks so very not yummy!!

A few years back, I heard that Mcdonalds in the UK was preparing halal foods, and the initiative was unofficially referred to as "McHalal". If so, then this must be "McHaram"!!

Prayer and worship
Again, since I was constantly travelling for two weeks, prayer was not much of an issue for me. When travelling, a Muslim can shorten and group the five prayers into three. I had a compass and a praying carpet at all times. The Kansai center also had two rooms fully dedicated for praying (for males and for females).

You know, I read on the Internet that some workplaces in Japan give Muslims hard time because they pray and fast during work hours, but this might be the usual press reporting extreme cases. I heard from friends there that they don't have any problem and that they are given complete religious freedom and that Japanese people helped them and escorted them.

I for one had a great experience with the Kansai center, especially since Ramadan started while I was there. They had special preparations for Ramadan with the cafeteria changing closing hours to give Muslims time to eat after sunset and they prepared take away 'suhur' meals everyday. They also held a brief meeting with Muslims to explain the special changes for Ramadan. Basically, they did everything they could to help us, short from spoon feeding us.

I fondly remember sitting in the center's cafeteria, waiting for the sun to set over the ocean beyond Rinkuu town's shoreline to start iftar after we returned from the hiroshima/kyoto trip.

Kobe Mosque, the oldest (but not first) masjid in Japan.
Picture taken for me by my friend from Osaka

As for living anywhere outside Tokyo, I'd imagine it would be difficult. The Muslim community in Japan is small and dispersed, so outside Tokyo, there are few mosques and it would be difficult to go to group prayers like Jumua (Friday prayers). For example, the closest mosque I knew of in Osaka was in Ibaraki, which was around 1 hour away from where I was staying (Rinkuu town).

Life and the environment
Everywhere around you, you will see respect for life and nature. The city planning is great and almost everywhere the streets are clean. I say 'almost' because I happened upon a heavily littered street in Rinkuu town and heard from other program participants about some poor and dirty districts they saw in Osaka. Anyways, let's forget about this, shall we?

In many places provisions are made for the handicapped, especially the blind. In the pedestrian walkways and train platforms, sections of the ground are specially paved for the blind. And there is a recorded announcer and brail on buttons in elevators and some cars even speak when they are about to turn left or right.

I guess this guy's job is to convince you to buckle up your seatbelt.
(psst, am I the only one who finds this highly amusing?)

I remembered a silly thing: I always used to make fun of the elevator in the center which keeps saying "~階です" "ドアが閉まります" "ドアが開きます".. I would continue "人が入ります" "人が出かけます" and extend to other stuff "人が寝ます" "車が動きます".. I said this to my Japanese friend in Osaka and he said "this is not a joke by the way, some cars do speak when they move". And then I gave him the blank stupid look (Those who know me know what I'm talking about).

Vending machine for the disabled (Nanba station, Osaka)

There is also an elaborate recycling system in place (that can be confusing sometimes). Really, there is nothing overlooked when it comes to the environment.

On top of the natural beauty given to Japan, being a wealthy country, it not only looks after the environment, but also decorates it and makes it more beautiful. Check out Saqf-dono's blog for more about visual Japan.

美しさはマンホールまで.. （上野公園、東京）
Beauty to the last manhole (Ueno park, Tokyo)

When I see all these right things being done, and I see almost none of them being done in my country, I keep asking "why?" Why don't we also do so? Why don't we do so when we have divine orders telling us to respect life and the environment?..

A rhetorical 'why' that is, because I know the reasons very well.

The people
This is bumpy territory, because of all the subjects I talk about here, this is the only one that can read what I'm saying about it!

When I first went into the plane in Amman, everything was normal, but when I was checking in on the JAL plane in Bangkok, I was like "damn, this is the real thing!". Everybody around me was Japanese. This is the first time I was surrounded by this much Japanese people and being alone I felt like an absolute stranger!

So, about the people in Japan. I noticed many things, somethings I liked and others I didn't. The first most important lesson I learned was that my conception of Japanese people was ways off. In my head, I split them to traditional Japanese and Japanese who acquired western traits (I used words like 普通の日本人 and 本物の日本人) but when I went there and met lots of Japanese people, I realized that it's very erroneous to hold the concept of ordinary Japanese in my mind; everyone is different than the other and I really can't simplify and have expectations, especially if I want to avoid mistakes and impoliteness.

You don't need to go to Japan to know that Japanese people are polite and hardworking. Other things I noticed only there from meeting everyday people, is that they are highly educated and highly organized. Where else would you meet a person at random in the station and he'd tell you the capital city names of your group's countries? When I was in the US, I'd say Jordan and they'd go "Michael Jordan has a country?! The guy's damn rich!!".

Once I was in a combini and a bunch of rugged dusty girls (wearing what looked to me like pajamas) riding rugged dusty motorcycles entered into the store. If you saw them you'd think they're unrefined, vulgar, uneducated, etc.. I personally was intimidated because I didn't see anything like this ever before. Anyways, one of them asked me where I was from and I was sure she wouldn't know Jordan, so, fingers crossed that she might not even know that, I said "中東" (Middle East) to which she replied "イランとか" (Like Iran and such) and I point my finger at her in surprise and let out "そうそうそう!" (Right on!). If I said Jordan she would have probably known it.

And about their organization, one example is homestay dad: on farewell day he gave me a paper with a table detailing every place we went to and at what times we went there and what I ate. Maybe JF requested this, but that's still freaky if you ask me.

One thing important to me as a foreigner, is how much the Japanese would be understanding of our differences. I had a general idea that they are respectful of such things and they respect a person's believes and convictions.

Sure enough, I didn't have trouble explaining to my friends there things like I can't drink or sit down with people drinking and they respected that (but those are mostly people who already spent a considerable amount of time in Jordan). Other people, like the JF cafeteria staff and teachers were very graceful about it (but again JF's job is cultural exchange). Homestay mom's reaction was unique. Everytime she saw me checking the ingredients and politely refusing some stuff she offered, she would be impressed and say stuff like 偉い (you're great).

I actually had a very bad experience with one Japanese person who didn't respect our different customs and cultures but I don't want to mention this here. I will just say that I understand that this person is the exception, and not the rule, but that it left a very bad taste in my mouth and was perhaps the only low point of my entire trip.

One thing in particular that I didn't like, especially when I was walking in the streets, was that I didn't feel warmth in the people around me and I didn't feel liveliness. I don't know why I felt this. Could it be because I was in a completely different country and I couldn't properly read the faces? Maybe a Japanese person would feel the same way in his first weeks in the streets of Amman? I don't really know and I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but what I know is that many times while I was walking in Osaka, I felt a strong urge to leave the open and just return to my room in the center. I also really missed the angry drivers who would shout at me "احلق لحتك ياشيخ" "shave your beard, sheikh!" if I made a mistake or something they didn't like while driving. Now those guys were lively!

I felt that everybody was composed and minding his/her own business and that relationships were difficult in Japan. In the last session of the program, the teacher said stuff that made me think that my feelings were spot on..

Lifestyles
Many of us in Jordan have quite unhealthy lifestyles. We eat a lot. We eat unhealthy food. We don't do regular exercises. Many of us have a Pepsi belly (the Arabic equivalent of a 'beer belly'?). Most of us don't read books outside of school textbooks and so on. Most of us spend all our free time unproductively. If you're from Jordan, chances are that atleast two of these sentences describe you.

This actually doesn't only apply to Japan. If you go to any western country you will also see people doing it 'right'. People eat healthy food, read non-school books, exercise and so on.

Once me and my Arab fellows wanted to buy fruits (why? refer to the food section and you'll understand), and we asked the hiroshima program guide, an elderly lady easily above 60 or even 70, if there's a supermarket around, she said 'follow me'. I never though that 'follow me' would be so difficult to do. she started walking so fast, and I was barely following her while breathing loudly. I looked at my Egyptian fellow in amusement (and disgrace).

Did you know that the average age in Japan is increasing year by year? Did you know that the average length of an American is also increasing year by year? We here are the only ones becoming shorter in length and lifespan as time passes.

So, I ask again even though I know the answers: Why?

One thing I strongly noticed in Japan is how the infrastructure affects lifestyles. Homestay dad asked me "do you have trains in Jordan?", I said "No". "Why?", "because the infrastructure doesn't allow it". Again "do you ride bicycles in Jordan?", "Very little". "Why?", "the streets are all bumpy and there are no spaces made for bicycles like in the West and Japan".

The train stations
I feel I have to talk seperately about train stations. In the stations, I saw all kinds of people and felt many emotions. I saw the whole spectrum of civilization, from the bottom to the top. I saw the rugged homeless people with no family or house to return to, I saw drunkards staggering left and right and moaning loudly, I saw women wearing so unbelievably little on themselves and school girls with their skirts rolled upwards to shorten them (the shorter the skirt, the cooler) and then I saw very decently and elegantly dressed people, I met very knowledgeable and cultured people, and very helpful and friendly people and I saw a woman reading a book as she walked and went over a staircase without taking her eyes of her book. All in the train stations. What an amazing panorama of human lives, subhan Allah.

I love and hate trains. I love them during daytime because there is a lot to see and because my hands and eyes are free to hold a book and read it. I hate them in the night because they are so quiet, lonely and gloomy. I hate the train's repetitive mind-numbing sound, I hate the boring and sad looks on people's faces. I hate the loneliness.

The final session
The last session of the program was "Training conclusion" (研修のまとめ). We sat with one of the many JF teachers and talked about the new words and things we learned, the things we liked and the things we didn't. Towards the end of the session he said something that sunk in. I'll paraphrase in Japanese (keywords emphasized) and then translate. 「日本にはいいことも良くないこともあります。国へ帰った後、家族や友達に良くないことも教えてください。例えば、たくさんの人が寂しく感じて、そして、心が病気になります。その人の中、自分を殺す人 がよくいます」. "There are both good and bad things. When you return home, please also tell your friends about the bad things. For example, many people feel loneliness and their hearts become deseased and then they kill themselves" As he said that he motioned with his hand to show someone jumping from a building.

When I heard this I really felt sad. I felt how harsh life can be even if we have everything we materially need. For more than twenty years now, more than 30,000 people kill themselves in Japan every year.. this is somewhere between 500k and 600k who took their own lives in 20 years. Everytime I remember this and I remember what this teacher said, I also remember the Japanese word "mottainai" (It's a waste). It's a popular expression used to express displeasure if something is wasted, such as water, food, time, etc.. And I ask, doesn't anybody think about those people's lifes as "mottainai"? Aren't all their emotions, memories and energies 'mottainai'? Or are they 'muda' (another popular word in industry, which means 'waste') and should be eliminated?..

Whenever I think about this, I can't help but think that all the recorded voice and special pavements I mentioned above, all the precautions made to protect life and make it more convenient, are superficial.

Why isn't anybody concerned about life? or about the young people and even children who take their lifes? And if people are concerned, why are the suicides not going down?

This time its a real 'why' because I don't know all the answers.

The most important lesson
So going back to the first paragraph, do I feel that I was better off after going to Japan for two weeks?

I definitely saw and learned a lot of things. There's no going wrong about that. Through seeing and learning about an absolutely different culture, we can learn a great deal about ourselves and what it means to be a human. We can also come to appreciate more and more the similarities and differences between us and the haves and have-nots of both sides.

I remember that many Japanese volunteers in Jordan were trying to tell us to appreciate the things that we have here, but we didn't really listen much. When I went to Japan, I experienced firsthand what they meant. I saw the things they have that we don't and the things we have that they don't.

The biggest impact this trip had on me was when I saw the many things done right around me (the same things that are done wrong in my country) and I thought "What the hell was I doing all this time?! Thinking that I was doing okay and improving.." "We all were idling all this time".

The truth is there are different conditions and legitimate reasons for each country's status. But this should not deter me from learning and working on the double. We have to work harder than everybody, we have to sacrifice our time and our energy if we are to achieve our hopes and go forward. We should force ourselves outside the comfort zone. Japan wouldn't have achieved all this if it was in its comfort zone all this time. Millions in Japan were hungry and suffering during and after the war, and the end result is Japan now. But I was never hungry, so I have to sacrifice time spent having fun and energy spent doing the things I enjoy. And finally I should not shy away from any improvement, no matter how small.


Congratulations, you reached the end of this post. I feel happy for you.

Intermission 2 休止 その２

Okay, I still can't find enough time and the right mood to finish the next post about the trip. So in the interest of keeping you.. *ahem* interested, I will post something I wrote in Japanese last February.

You can say that this is my very first Japanese piece, or half-piece, because it is not complete. Basically, during this year's speech contest preparation, we were given a homework to write a speech based on the "If" theme of last year's contest. I only completed half of the homework and here it is (after many corrections):

もし空っぽの部屋で起きたら・・・

私たち人間は生活に必要なものを得るために苦労するものです。
そして順調になっていくと、すぐに快楽を追い求めるようになっています。
仕事が終わって、友達に会って遊んだり興味深い本を読んだり映画を見たりしています。
私たちはいつも現在の活動が終わったあと、次の活動を始めるようにしています。
眠くなるまでこうして、そして、眠ります。
次の日に早く起きて仕事場へ行って働きます。そして・・　繰り返します。

それは日常生活ということです。
あまり、じっくり考える時間がないように見えます。

ところが、もしすべての当たり前だと思っていることが消えたら、もし行きたいところへ行けなくて会いたい人に会えなかったら、どうなりますか。
もし次の日に、ドアも窓もないまったく空っぽの部屋で起きたら、どうしますか。

少し、目を閉じて想像して見ましょう・・

知らない場所で目がさめて、すぐに迷います。ここはいったいどこかと自分に聞きます。
時間を調べるように窓や時計を探して見回しますが、壁や床しか見えません。
ドアさえありません。
誰かが近くにいるかどうか調べるために声を出しますが、返事がまったくありません。動きがぜんぜん聞こえません。

いったい何が起こっているのか
僕はなぜここにいるのか
また、みんながどこにいるのか。
様子を考えば考えるほど、答えが分からない質問がどんどん増えてくるのです。
どんな気持ちになりますか。迷い？恐怖？　それとも、どんなに面白い事情か分かって微笑みますか。
僕は頭が可笑しくなる間際ですか。

そして、どうしますか。周りに本やテレビなど時間をすごしやすくするものがないので、一瞬はまるで永遠のように見えます。どうするか考えて最後に分かりした。考えるしか何もできません。
心しか、遊び場がないと言うことになりました。

つづく・・

That's it. When I submitted it, I got encouraging feedback from the senseis. So, I felt "hmm, I should complete it". But then I thought "If I complete it, I might break it" (assuming it is not broken already). "Better to have a good half than to have a broken whole" I thought. I still would like to complete it though, but this kind of writing can't be planned for; it depends on the whim (気まぐれ). Maybe someday I will sit down and write the other half.

So? What do you think? I would like to hear your honest opinions, so I was thinking of disabling comments and inviting you to send your comments by e-mail. But last time I did that nobody sent any comments, so I will never underestimate your laziness again.

Intermission 休止

Work, work, study, 仕事, 勉強, 仕事, 仕事, 勉強, work, study, study..

Lately, I have neither the time nor the capacity to write more about the trip :'(

旅行レポートを書く暇がないなぁ～！

ちょっと、責任のない時を覚えよう...



そして、アラビア語版


もう一つの気に入りの昔のアニメ（ED）

「最初までしか、物語がおわらない... ...想像の庭、その実りは美しさ　キラキラ輝いてる...」

(溜め息）昔のアニメの歌、最近のに比べて...　すごい良かった。

日本語版はちょっとちがう...


それじゃ、また次のポストで

Long time no post: The lost letter 久しぶりにポスト！失われた手紙

I'm returning with a light-hearted post. Next post will be a longer, more serious report. I'm not sure though, if after all this time (6 months since I returned) my blog lost it's significance or not. Annnyways...

Two posts ago, when I received my delayed books, I said that I have completely returned from Japan. Truth is, this was a lie. I should have said 99% returned. There was something else chipping or nibbling at my conscience all this time.

In the last program day, when I and Mao-chan exchanged gifts, she gave me a cute little envelope and I promised her that I will read open it and read her letter in the airplane on my way back. Not sure if a 7-year old girl would understand the courtesy I meant with with promise, but atleast her grandparents did.

The next day after the last program day was departure day (say this 3 times fast!). I was very hectic and nervous because of the luggage limitations and having to send stuff by mail. On this day I also gave the program supervisor a gift, a book in Japanese I found in Holiday Inn Amman about Jordan's history and arts. I received a generic letter of appreciation from the JP Kansai Center library prepared for any book donors, but it was enough to make me feel nice in the inside. I went to the library again to sign the book, and I was told by the librarian that before this book they only had a small poster of Jordan. What do you know? My give and take approach to Japan and Japanese yielded results.

Anyways, so, back to the letter, as I said I was hectic and nervous and so on, when I was packing my stuff, I missed the envelope! I started looking for it everywhere in the room. I turned it upside down; didn't leave any nook or corner unchecked. But I didn't find Mao's letter. I got more nervous.

Then I took a deep breath, calm down Samer... Whenever this happens I tell myself not to put doubts in my mind. If, for example, I park the car somewhere and I come back to that place and don't find the car, this does not mean that I parked it somewhere else; This means that the car was stolen! This is what I tell myself. Don't doubt yourself. I faintly remember putting the envelope inside one of the books, so I start searching all the books, all the time worrying that I will not find it and fulfill my promise to Mao.

After searching all the books and papers, I didn't find anything. So it's not in the room and not inside the books. Where is it?.. Could it be in the book I gave the library?.. This is the only possibility, but something about the timing tells me it's not there and I didn't see it when I went to write the dedication on the cover's backside.

I turn the room and the books one more time then I gave up on searching, but didn't lose hope in finding it someday. I felt guilty because I couldn't do as I promised her; I didn't read it in the plane.

After returning, everytime I remember losing the letter I feel bad, but I didn't lose hope. When I received the books after 2 months from returning, I looked inside the books again, nothing. But there was a small gleam of hope inside me that I'll find it. I didn't feel any finality about losing it.

So, around the end of December just before new year's, I started eyeing a book on the shelf with suspicion. It was the other book I got from Jordan to show to people, a book about Islamic geometric art. The book started looking suspicious and I started feeling that maybe I didn't search it. This feeling kept growing inside me, until I fetched it and opened it, and 'lo! Mao's letter in all its colourful cuteness was there!

Happiness　喜び

Sweet relief! I was right from the beginning; I did put it inside a book. See? "No need to doubt yourself, the car was stolen!" I told myself. Now I can say for sure that I fully returned from Japan (and repeat the happy dance).

Full of curiousity, I opened the letter and here's what I found:

Mao expresses her true feelings towards me

This reminds me: In the first homestay day, while we were preparing for lunch, Mao started drawing something and her mother came to her and asked her, what are you drawing? She answered "hen na hito" (a weirdo). Then after a short while, she came up to me and gave me that same drawing finished and with Samer written under it in Katakana. So then I was the 'hen na hito'. Nice to know that!

ookini, Mao-chan!

Mao, upclose and personal 　まおちゃんクローズアップ

Now I'll tell myself: sassato uskot.

Yoroshiku habeebis. see you next post.

私の弁論大会の三番目のスピーチ

どうして流れに反しても頑張りたいか

私は、子供のころから　いろいろな所へ行って、その経験から　たくさんのことを学びました。その中で一つ強く印象に残ったのは　環境がどんなに人の振る舞いに影響を及ぼすか　ということです。

家でも　学校でも　会社でも、私たちは　努力しなくても　気づかないうちに　周りの人の考え方や　行動を　学んでいきます。

例えば、積極的な雰囲気の家では　ほとんどがプラス思考の人になります。
もし、周りの人みんなが頑張っているところにいたら　自分も頑張り、みんなが怠けているところにいたら　だんだん怠け者になるでしょう。

環境からいいマナーが　自然に得られるのは幸運なことですが、残念ながらそこから　悪い癖も得やすいものです。

もし　自分達が　いやなことをしている　と気づいたら、どうしましょうか。
他の人と同じように　そのままにしておきましょうか、
それとも　やめる努力をしましょうか。

流れに沿っていく方が易しいので、流れに反するのは難しすぎる、無理だ、と考えて　あきらめるのも当然です。そして、その気持ちは　よくわかります。でも、私はそれに挑戦したい　と思っています。

もし　人が何かを正しいことだと気づいても　それをしない、
何かを悪いことだと気づいても　それをやめないでいると、
その人の中に　大きな矛盾が生まれて　生産性が落ち、目標を達成できなくなる　と思うからです。

自分達の行動を変えて　周りの人達に影響を及ぼすことで　環境は変えられる　と思います。

例えば、たくさんの人がスピードを出して　自分勝手な運転をしているとき、ある人がスピードを落として　隣の車に道を譲ろうとすると、その人の後ろの車からクラクションを何度も鳴らされたり、ヘッドライトをフラッシュされたりすることが　よくあります。でも、たまには、「うん、思いやりがあっていいな～」とか「いいことをしているな、自分もやってみようかな～」と思う人もいて、そんな人が　少しずつ増えていきます。

ここで　私の経験を　お話ししたいと思います。

６年ぐらい前、私の弟は　友達とイスラム教の祈りについて　議論しました。友達が、「僕は神を信じている。それだけでいいと思う。祈りは必要じゃない。」と言うのに対し、弟は「イスラム教にとって祈りはたいへん大切なもので、正当なイスラム教徒には欠かせないものだ」と主張しました。しばらく押し問答をした後、友達に「お前は祈りが大切だと言っているけど、自分はしているのか？」と聞かれて、その時、祈りをしていなかった弟には　返す言葉がありませんでした。

以来、弟は　毎日　祈りをするようになったのです。 その頃、私の家族や友達は、イスラム教に毎日五回の祈りが　不可欠だと信じながらも、実行している者は　一人もいませんでした。

はじめは、同じライフスタイルを続けている私たちの間で、この新しい経験を分かち合える人も、彼の行動を支持してくれる人もなく、弟は一人で大変苦労しました。

でも、時間が経つに連れ、彼の祈る姿を見ているうちに、私や両親を含む周りの者たちが、少しずつ、「自分も祈りをするべきだと思うのに、どうしてやっていないのだろう」と考えはじめ、この心の中のかすかな声は、やがてアザーン*のように大きくなってきました。

こうして、 一人また一人と、弟の側で祈るようになり、 家族や友人の間で祈りをしない者がほとんどいなくなりました。

ここまで変わるのに、およそ２年かかりましたが、この経験から、私は、周りの人の流れに逆らって、更に彼らに影響を及ぼすためには辛抱強くそして根気強く頑張ることが大切であると　教えられました。

ムスリムでない方々には、祈りの大切さをご理解いただけないかもしれませんが、自分の信念に沿って行動することの大切さは、どなたにも分かっていただけると思います。

最後にアイルランド人の作家ジョージ・バーナード・ショウの名言で締め括りたいとおもいます。

「分別のある者は自分を世界に合わせようとする。
分別のない者は世界を自分に合わせようと頑張る。
ゆえに、分別のない者がいなければ進歩はありえない。」

さて、皆さんはどちらですか。

*アザーン（اذان adhān）は、イスラム教における礼拝（サラート）への呼び掛けのこと。

---

以上です。読んでありがとうございました。
今回のポストにはコメントが不可能です。何かコメントがあれば、メールでぜひ教えてください (samerabb {at} yahoo.com)

Friends!

Everytime I think about September's trip, I involuntarily say 'Alhamdulillah' again and again. Alhamdulillah for many things. Alhamdulillah, because it was a very smooth trip with very little trouble. I'm a hectic person and this lends to trouble most of the time, but with this trip, everything went magically smooth. Well not everything as in EVERYTHING. Well, actually it's everything except when I set foot in Jordan; one of my check-in bags didn't arrive and the books I sent arrived a month late. But aside from that, almost everything on the way to Japan and in Japan went really smooth and easy.

One of the things that I was very fortunate for was that I met friends everywhere I went to in Japan (okay, except Hiroshima) in addition to some wonderful participants in the program. This really made me feel at home and enjoy the trip to the max.

Osaka (and Kobe):

Before this trip, I knew nothing at all about Osaka. One of my friends in Amman was good friends with an acquintance who studied Arabic in JU, and he told me that he's now in Osaka. So he offered to send our Osaka friend an e-mail telling him about my visit and he did. So, I connected with N-san and we met twice in Osaka after my lectures in Rinkuu town ended. The first time we met, he offered to take me to Nara or Kobe and I chose Kobe, which then became my favourite place in Japan. In fact, I already miss Kobe. Kobe, can you hear me? I love you. So, anyways, we went to Kobe and it was around sunset we entered Kobe university (where N-san is studying) and there we waited infront of a beautiful view of the city; we waited for N-san's French friend, S-san, who's doing his masters also in Kobe university. Together we had a lot of interesting conversations and learned a lot of things from each other. For example, I learned how bad my Japanese was, N-san how bad his Arabic was, and we both learned how good S-san's English and Japanese were. And I also learned a lot about Osaka and various other things. N-san, I can't stress how thankful I am for taking me to and showing me around Kobe! I hope you can come again to Jordan to return the favour (although, I'm sure you saw almost everything already).

Anybody's got razors, please?

Kyoto:

My knowledge about Kyoto is a little better than Osaka. For example, I know that nature in Kyoto is beautiful and I know that Nintendo is headquartered there. That's all.

In Kyoto I met my dear friend Y-san, who was a JICA Intern researching Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. We arranged to meet by e-mail while I was in Amman, and my sensei at that time, N-sensei, was going to return to Japan just a week before I went there, so she gladly joined the gang. Last February, before Y-san left Jordan, I invited him for Palestinian food at my home (Msakhan, Mnukhiyeh and Maftool) and at that time two of his friends in Japan were touring the Middle East and they happened to be in Jordan so he brought them along. So, in Kyoto one of them H-san was in Kyoto and she also joined us and brought along another friend. Y-san had a Jordanian friend working in Kyoto who was all too happy to join because someone is visiting from Jordan and he also brought along a colleague from work. It was a much bigger gathering than I expected, but it was a good one, or as they say in Japanese: 「いい集まりでした」

I was really delighted that I could meet Y-san, N-sensei and H-san once again and we had a good time. Although it was raining that night, I felt warm :)

Y-san got me a mamori for my family and H-san got me some delicious Gion festival Maccha cookies, which were so good I had to hide them from my friends (and greedily eat them alone).

Group picture in Shin-miyako hotel, where I was staying the night.

Tokyo:

In Tokyo, fortunately, I was able to meet two of my neighbours in Amman and K-sensei, who taught me Japanese for the better part of her two years stay in Jordan and still supports me in my studies until now. In Tokyo, I stayed in the Japan Foundation's Center in Kita-Urawa, Saitama-ken. T-sensei who was doing his Masters in Japanese language at the time was staying at the very same center and he had already completed his thesis and presentation and getting ready to return to Amman's warm bossom. I arrived to the Urawa center on the night of September 15th, and he left to Amman the 10am the next morning (whew, that was close). I also met my dear neighbour Saqufu-dono (as T-sensei fondly refers to him), better known in JICA as 'Occha no Ahmad' who is doing a Master of Arts in Tokyo and I also met S-san who is doing masters in Electronics Engineering in the best and most famous university in Japan, Tokyo University. The atmosphere in Urawa center, where we all gathered was wonderful, especially after a tiresome trip to Tokyo.

We had dinner in some restaurant and I chatted to my hearts content with Occha, S-san, T and K-sensei. I exchanged gifts with K-sensei: a bottle of Wadi Rum's purest and reddest sand for a popular Japanese picture book. Afterwards, I walked in Urawa a little with T-sensei and he took me to a supermarket to try the much talked about 'Tunamayo-nigiri' and I went into the place were he spent most of the last 365 days in: his room.

On the next day, Occha no Ahmad took me around for "One free day in Tokyo".

Group picture in Urawa with K-sensei, T-sensei, S-san and Occha no Ahmad.

Kishiwada, Osaka (Homestay family)

The following picture is of homestay family's youngest daughter, Hiroko-san. I met her in the homestay family's house only for a few minutes. In a few minutes talk we somehow arrived to Miyazaki and Ghibli and I told her that 'Grave of fireflies' is one of my favourite movies and said I saw a picture on the internet of a large version of Setsuko's 'fruit drops' in some outdoors location in Japan. I thought it was well known but she only recognized the Laputa soldier outside Studio Ghibli. Anyways while I was out, she bought and left home one 'Sakuma drops' and when I first saw it, I was very surprised and affected as I thought it was based on Setsuko's drops, but then I realized that Setsuko's drops were based on Sakuma drops. I know it isn't expensive or not that special in Japan, but I was very delighted when I saw it and I was surprised that a 10 minutes talk caused her to go and buy my this present. It tasted good by the way, when I finished the last drop last week, I understood why Setsuko cried!

I didn't take pictures of Hiroko-san and her little Takuto, so she sent me this picture by E-mail. This is infront of the Amanohashidate (天橋立 Heaven's bridge) one of the three scenic views that represent Japan. It is a natural bridge covered pine trees connecting two opposite sides of a bay. By the way, I visited another one of the scenic three: The huge torii in Miyajima (pictured in the 'beautiful scenery of Japan' post)

Everywhere else (The participants):

In this program, there were 61 participants from 59 countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and South America (Sorry North America and Europe, you can come with your own pockets!!). There were people of all colours and languages and from countries I never heard of and while some weren't very friendly and quite introverted, others were extremely friendly and outgoing. Naturally, people clustered according to their continents and languages mostly, South Americans were together most of the time, Western Europeans, Africans and even the Arabs (ahem)..

Me and my Egyptian and Yemeni friends (and my backpack to the far left) in Miyajima.

Also in Miyajima with Chile, Turkey, Madagascar and Vietnam-san

Two participants who were always together and interacted a lot with me, Egypt-san and Yemen-san are Madagascar-san and Vietnam-san. Madagascar-san was really kind and silent most of the time, but she picked the wrong company (Vietnam-san). Vietnam-san is the one I talked about in the awkward moments post. At first, we all thought that she was acting crazy, but in the end we agreed that she might be indeed crazy! As for Madagascar-san, she kept coming to me and telling me "anaaaa bahebak, anaaaa bahebak".. yoroshiku habeebti!!

All participants in the program during the farewell party

Last but not least are the Japan Foundation program organizers. They all were so helpful and understanding. Always trying their best to help us with our troubles and special needs.

In addition to being a very nice person, M-san helped me a lot during the program.

So in the end, all I can say is thank you to everybody who took care of me and Alhamdulillah for such good friends, teachers and people.

They arrived FINALLY!! ヤット届いたんだ!!

Alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, alhamdulillah, おかげさまで.

Today, I picked up from the post office half of my trip to Japan! 5Kgs of books, all dear to me, have arrived!

Aaaah, what a relief!! I was SO VERY worried. They were supposed to arrive one month ago! Because of baggage limitations, I had to send some stuff to Japan and I chose to send books and printed materials, which was the most cost effective way: 5000 yens for 5Kgs to arrive in two weeks by Airmail.

For some reason, it took one month more to arrive and I was getting really, really worried. I consider those books to be half of my trip to Japan!

Some hastily taken photos with my mobile's crappy camera:

You have no idea how much I was happy to see this.

One of the worst feelings ever is to lose something you really value.
One of the best feelings ever, is to find it again..

Introducing the books.....

Don't bother clicking, the picture quality is so bad that the titles are unreadable.

Free Japanese books of my choice from the Japan Foundation:

Practical Japanese Workbooks series:
擬声語-擬態語　（初/中級） Onomatopoeia (Elementary/Intermediate)
接続詞　(初/中/上級): Conjunction (Elementary/Intermediate/Advanced)

The Japan Foundation displayed and organized all the books that we can choose from and there were JF Japanese language teachers present to give us advice and recommend books according to our needs. I was looking for books to improve my conversation skills, in particular, to get read my frequent pauses and to improve the flow of my speech. So I asked for advice and got recommended the series above.

Onomatopoeia refers to the characteristic Japanese words with the same syllable repeated twice. For example, ぺらぺら (perapera)、すらすら (surasura)、にこにこ(nikoniko)　and にやにや(niyaniya). Such words are used very often by Japanese people and also are used to emulate and describe animal cries and musical instrument sounds. Sweet!

As for the conjunction book, I seriously hope to get rid of the stiffness in my speech and enhance its flow.

にほんご敬語トレーニング　Japanese polite speech training
I am completely behind with Keigo and I don't know how good this book is, but I hope it helps me some.


While I was in Tokyo, I visited Islamic Center Japan office in the Setagaya ward and I had iftar there, but this is the topic for another post. I recieved a lot of documents from them about Islam and Japan and I also recieved the following Japanese books about Islam:

イスラームの理解　Towards Understanding Islam
コルーンとハディースの根本教義 Basic teachings from the Qur'an and Hadith
イスラームの信仰　The Muslim's believes
４０のハディース　40 Hadiths (For those muslims in the know: These are what we call 'the 40 Nawawis')

For me, learning Japanese is not just about taking, it is also about giving. I don't like the one-sided approach of many students of the language, were they embrace Japan and Japanese to the point of forgetting themselves and their cultures. I want to exchange viewpoints; I believe that I can offer something equally beneficial and interesting, just like I'm learning a lot of stuff through my study of the Japanese language and interaction with Japanese people. So, I requested Japanese language books about Islam to read them (if I can) and to lend them to whoever is interested.

ぬすまれた月 The stolen moon
This is a wonderful picture book I got from my dear K-sensei, when I met her in Tokyo. What a relief that it has arrived. Thank you sensei, I will read it and try my best to translate it to Arabic.

Practical Japanese Cooking
A cookbook for my mom. Too bad she just left yesterday to Kuwait for a few weeks. :'(

Unequal Equities
A book I got for a dear friend who is specialized in finance. Too bad, he too will leave to Dubai today for a few days. I hope he finds it informative.

Hiroshima
A book I got from the Peace memorial museum. In the museum, Camera flash was not allowed and my hand was not steady at all, so most of the pictures I took in the museum were not clear. Fortunately, when I opened the book today, I found many of the pictures of the effects of the Atomic bomb, which I tried, but failed to take good pictures of.

Muji catalog and magazine
I like Muji and IKEA. Simple, plain, minimalistic and comfortable. So I took the season's Muji catalog for my family and my twin brother's family to take a look at and get some ideas from.

Plus, many brochures and print out documents...

Alhamdulillah, now I have fully returned from Japan.

Excuse me now, as I perform the happy dance..

Awkward moments 気まずい瞬間

Awkward moments. We all had our share of them and they won't stop coming anytime soon.

When I was in Japan, a combination of cultural differences, Japanese language deficiency and my not-so-refined (read: vulgar) nature have caused me to endure some of the most awkward situations ever. Below are some of the situations which I masterfully put myself into. Read on!

The thing I enjoyed most in the first homestay day:

During the first day of homestay, after a fairly eventful day, we were having lunch at some restaurant in Osaka. Homestay big sis came to the restaurant and joined us and after we left the restaurant, while walking outside, since I had a long day and we barely met, she asked me the million dollar question:

"what was the thing you enjoyed most today?"

At first I hesitated. Y'know, I met homestay dad's rich friend, ate a fancy homemade lunch and went to a lot of places, So, I paused and - it pains me to say - thought about it. Then after consideration, I dropped the bomb:

"The electric toilet."

..... You know, if I had said it on impulse, it would have been not half as bad, but I paused and I thought. I went to Kishiwada castle, Danjiri hall, a Japanese game center, met and got acquinted with a guy who owns 20 malls, a personal jetplane and God knows what else, ate lots of new delicious homemade Japanese dishes, ALL for the first time, and what did I tell homestay big sis? The damn electric toilet!!

How awkward can things get!!.. I mean, what if her parents hear this? what would they think?

But in my defense: It was the first time ever to enter an electric toilet and the one I entered had 'extra options'. You see, I saw all these buttons and I started testing them, and while I was testing them, I was smiling all the time as I imagined 'how will I tell my friends in Amman about this', and I was really amused by the volume-like control of water strength, but what really cracked me up was that there was a 'move' button, after I tried it I started laughing! But I didn't stop there. I wanted to see the thing that sprayed the water and so, I pressed the button while looking at the urinal and nothing happened. Then I noticed a sensor, and put my hand over it and pressed again. A small flat stick electrically expanded exactly like the stairs come out of the landed spaceships we saw in cartoons and started spraying water on me.

This was a very culturally shocking and amusing experience for me. So, while my answer was stupid and vulgar, I can't help but think that there was some truth in it, in terms of impact.

Annnyways, the very next morning, during breakfast, I waited for a moment when only I and big sis were on the table and quickly rolled out my apology and expressed my shame, and how my answer was incorrect and it was because of the culture shock. All the while she was saying 'daijoubu' and 'wakaru' (it's okay, I understand).

Too bad I didn't take a picture of the electric toilet.

My homestay family's son's husband!

I have this kind of mental bias in my mind, which I think a lot people also have but to a much lesser degree, that makes me group every two similar words or words that have something in common and interchange them by mistake, even though I fully know their meanings and the difference between them. A famous example of this is when people mix between left and right. The problem with me, is that sometimes I don't feel that I switched the words. For example, I would say 'left' and think that I said 'right' in my mind.

In the homestay photo-fest post, I recounted how I met my homestay family's son-in-law by accident in Nanba, and how he guided us to Dotonbori, where we met Mie-san and her Japanese friend, also by accident (all pictured in the post below).

At first I introduced Tomoya-san to my Egyptian and Yemeni friends and said "My homestay family's daughter's husband" and again when I met Mie-san and her friend "My homestay family's daughter's husband". Everything was fine until I was alone again with my fellows. They said "Samer, what's the problem with you? you said 'homestay family's son's husband twice, when you introduced him to us and then to Mie-san". Of-course, my white face immediately became red with embaressment. And they continued "Everytime you said, son, he would correct you and say daughter. At first it was okay, because we were all guys, but then with Mie-san and her friend, he got red faced and corrected you again 'daughter'. I didn't hear him when he corrected me at all.

A little explanation: Son in Japanese is 'musuko' 息子 and daughter is 'musume' 娘, but because musuko ends with 'ko' which means 'child' and because the same 'ko' also comes at the end of many, many Japanese female names (like 'Youko','Masako' and 'Mitsuko') I keep confusing musuko and musume, but after this episode I don't think I will ever confuse them ever again ever...

While we were going back to the Center in Rinku town, my fellows kept mocking me about this and how its a very basic mistake and I, in turn, was boiling inside and outside, angry at how simple my mistake is even though i started learning Japanese 4 years ago, angry at how I might have looked stupid while repeatedly saying 'Son's husband, son's husband'. I think I really overreacted...

Kanji Master

Okay, this is a milder story than the ones above, but it is still awkward nonetheless.

I was in Kansai airport, in my last moments in Japan and I was buying last moment snacks and souviners in order to shut the mouths of a handful of my friends and colleagues. So, I was doing the routine check on one of the chips snacks in a shop, before buying it and I was rotating the cyclindrical container as I checked the ingredients for the "two no-noes". Two clerks were staring at me eyes wide open and then one of the let out "SUGOI, zenbu yomemasuka" (You can read everything? AWESOME!).

"Iya, Iya" I said while I automatically raised my hand and made a peace or victory sign (depending on where you live) with my fingers and assumed a humble look in my face "fututsu no kanji dake o sagashiteimasu, buta to sake ga dame desu kara" (No, no, I'm only searching for two characters, I can't eat pork or alcohol). "Aaa" they said in unison and one of them offered to help. I gave her two cans (different flavours) and she said one had pork and the other was okay. After I left the shop, I thought "I wish". I wish I could read them all; maybe in 5 years time..


That's all. Darn, I feel awkard after all these awkward stories. Please, try not to post awkward comments. I've had enough awkwarding!!

Oh oh!! I almost forgot!!...

Unintended impoliteness at the Aikidou lesson

As part of the program, we had cultural experience lessons and I chose Aikidou and Ikebana (flower arrangement) because I had a lot of Shodou (Calligraphy) lessons in Jordan and I don't like Tea ceremony (sorry K-s!).

During the Aikidou lesson, one of the exercises involved one of the Aikidou team members sitting low and waving a stick from left to right slightly above the group and we had to run through without getting hit by the stick and we should touch the man's shoulder. The member doing this was a fairly old ojiisan with a bald head and grey hair. I watched the line before me as a participant ran, leaped and tapped his shoulder, then the next participant ran, leaped and tapped his shoulder and so on, until my turn came:

I ran, I leaped and I tapped his... HEAD!!!!!

How embarressing! Everybody who watched laughed and another member of the Aikidou team, realizing that I'm one of those boorish foriegners, came to me and said (paraphrase) 'shitsurei deshita, ayamari shita hou ga ii desu yo' (you did something impolite, you should probobly apologize). And then I realized my folly and kept apologizing to him in 5 minute intervals until the lesson ended. Actually, I still think it's not enough; allow me to apologize one more time: "ごめんなさい!　許してくださいお願いします"

Mr. Jordan

One of the Vietnamese participantes (there were two) kept insistently calling me Joudan-san (Mr. Jordan). Joudan is 'Jordan' pronounced with Japanese syllables, but it actually does not mean Jordan; Jordan is 'yorudan' in Japanese. But she kept saying it, Joudan-san, Joudan-san. Anybody who's beyond toe-deep in Japanese knows why this is awkward for me. So, everytime she said Joudan-san, I tried to correct her 'Yorudan, Yorudan desu'. But she insisted 'Joudan no hou ga oboeyasui!' (It's easier to remember Joudan).

So, during the Ikebana lesson she came and sat beside me and said it again for what seemed like the 100th time, so I said:　「冗談じゃなくて、ヨルダンです!」 (it's not Joudan, it's Jordan) and everybody around us started laughing.

To clarify for those who don't get it, 'Joudan' in Japanese means Joke. So I was telling her something like "It's not a joke, it's Jordan" or "It's Jordan, no joking!"


Alright, that's about enough, I'll stop before I remember any more awkward stories..

The beautiful scenery of Japan - 美しき日本景色

Salam everybody,

Ramadan has departed, the Eid is over, the Ma'mul is all gone and it's been one month since I returned from Japan. In other words, everything is back to normal.

But not quite yet; I still feel that my mind is travelling in Japan. I'm still thinking over the things I saw and did, sometimes with a smile, sometimes with a frown. After a wholesome meal, your body takes time to digest the food, much longer than the time it took to eat the meal. Likewise, I'm still digesting my experiences in Japan, one month later.

Anyways, enough sentimental talk and on to the post. I have a lot of ideas for interesting posts and don't know where to start, should I post about the Hiroshima peace memorial park? One free day in Tokyo? Food? Friends? Being a Muslim in Japan? Lots of things to talk about! So in the end, I figured, let me start by what the people want to see: pictures and more pictures.

This time it will be about the beautiful scenery of Japan. Lots of beauty, lots of pictures...

Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion Temple), Kyoto

Yes, I was there. Yes, I took this picture.
Yes, you can use it as a wallpaper.


The golden pavillion temple..

Koi (Japanese Carp).

Koi are pretty popular in Japan. One reason is that they have nice colours and patterns on them (ahem, like the one in the picture above) and another reason is that Koi also means 'love'. There are also those long, snake-like fish in the lake surrounding Kinkakuji. They are of a dark colour, so I couldn't take a good picture of them. Maybe you can see them in this picture (I can't).

This is a stone lantern. You will find a lot of them in Japan as they're a basic ingredient of Japanese gardens.

you will also find a lot of them in this blog.

Kiyomizudera, Kyoto

This is the main gate to Kiyomizu-dera. It looks out of proportion with it's huge top, but this only adds to its majesty.

They speak the truth.
Kyoto must be busy with visitors now as it is the 'kouyou' (autumn leaves) season.

This is just under the roof of one of the buildings. Notice that there is nothing holding the wooden beams together; no nails or adhesives. This is traditional Japanese architecture; beams are held together by snapping or locking them together.

Look at the fixtures under the roof. Very strange, almost evil colours.

All this time, I thought dragons breathed fire...
This must be the coolest water fountain ever concieved.

hmmm, cave = curiousity.

This explains the 'mizu' part of the name..


Apparently this is one tree...

In temples and shrines, you will find a lot of standalone gates called Toriis. This is one small and slim torii. Don't worry, in a moment you'll see a huge one.

Miyajima

On the way to Miyajima..

Now that's one huge Torii

This is the laziest pose I have ever seen.
Someone should find work for those deers.

It's nice to have animals around you for a change. In Jordan, birds and cats always run away (or fly away) from you (unless you have food with you). The stone lantern included in this picture was unintentional, I swear.

Back in Osaka..

This is taken from Osaka castle.
Notice how the reflections on the building are continuous with the scenery behind it, making it appear transparent.

Soredewa, See you next post!