Raya In Nagaoka

Salam Aidilfitri.

I was made to know that Raya celebration lasts for thirty days. So, I suppose the people are still in the mist of the Raya atmosphere, indulging themselves with ketupat, rendang and of course, satay. Too bad that this year, the first Syawal was on Wednesday, unlike last year. Everyone had classes on that day, which means no raya feast could be held until the weekends came. On Raya night, only five of us ate some lemang and rendang that were brought back from our senior's place. Later on the same Saturday weekend, the four of us from the college went to the nearby Nagaoka University of Technology to join the rest of the Malaysians for the annual Raya party.

The hall where the party was held. Everyone brought different kinds of food to be shared with the others.

Talking about Nagaoka, it has to be the area with the most number of Malaysians in Japan; Tokyo being an exception. So, it is not surprising to have such a huge turnout to the Raya party every year. There were certainly no lack of food there; just name whatever food you can think of. From satay to kuah kacang, others included rendang, nasi himpit, murtabak, mee bakso, nasi kunyit, chicken curry, mutton curry, colourful Raya cookies, jelly, doughnuts and even onigiri.

Onigiri on Raya is something out of the place, ain't it?

Satay is like a must-have thing every year.

We were told to be there by ten in the morning. But we are Malaysians, and it is a too common already for Malaysians to practise MST (Malaysian Standard My Sukahati Time). When we thought we were a tad late already for getting lost inside the university midway, there were only less than ten people there when we arrived at the location. The rest where either still sleeping, or on their way there. Out of the ten, four or five were busy burning the satay and while waiting for the rest to arrive, we helped them to burn the satay.

Two polystyrene of fresh satay still waiting to be burned.

Slowly, one cars after another arrived, and the place began to get crowded. Still, the atmosphere could not match last year's celebration, when it was really lively. In my college alone, only seven out of seventeen Malaysians were back to Japan, as the rest skipped their classes to celebrate Raya at home.

Everyone was having fun and sharing jokes while burning the satay.

Until some fire broke out that it needed to be fan off.

The satay were transported into the hall inside through the tinted window, to the awaiting girls.

The event was much more simple compared to the previous year, and the main event was only the Raya party. After some prayers, all feast on the food on the table. Satay finished the fastest. Two whole huge plate finished in less than sixty seconds. Knowing that I will not make it, I went out to get from the people who were burning the satay.

Just in case you might have other thoughts, I did help out on the satay earlier.

Satay, kuah kacang with nasi himpit.

The rendang this year was just awesome. It was quite different from normal Malay rendang, as they used sufficient ingredients in it and it was cooked until the chicken break into fine slices. It was really good, that I went for a few more additional rounds. I felt guilty afterwards, as all my workout effort had gone into the drain in just one day. But I know I do not get to feast on this kind of food that often, so I should pardon myself once.

In fact, seeing that everyone had eaten and there were still leftovers of rendang in the pot. What else, I went to the kitchen and looked for some plastic bags to tapao some back for those from college who did not attend the party. Not only rendang, we bought back some nasi himpit as well. That was our dinner for the day.

Me, caught tapao-ing some rendang back. Picture stolen from Randy.

The event ended with a group shot in front of the hall.

The three of us behind were determining who was the tallest, instead of concentrating to the camera in front.

It was quite chaotic at first, because there were so many cameras and tripods. The fact that all of us had to hold on our smile for so long, it made our cheek muscle tired later that day. But the worst thing was that one guy tripped over the leg of the tripod when he was running over to the group after he set the timer.

The DLSR camera had a great fall.

From the left.

Three bees among the flowers.

It survived, because it fell exactly on top of someone's foot.

The guy in pink holding on my camera, was the one who saved the camera.

He turned out to be the hero of the day.