Farewell Party 2010

パンダの会 (Panda's Party)

It was the annual farewell party for the international students from the fifth grade of Nagaoka National College of Technology today. The theme for the event was "Panda Party", just like what you see in the colourful banner above haha! The location was same to last year's place - Suyoshi Community Center, which is situated around fifteen-minute walk from our dormitory. This year however, we used a different hall and hence, we had to walk through several other halls, which I suppose they are used for kindergarten kids.

Walking through these rooms, we got to see the environment, in which we usually see in Japanese shows and dramas. In other words, we saw small little tiny cute cute stuff in these rooms haha! Here are a few examples.

Shoe boxes and notice boards, decorated with colourful pictures.

Cartoon-characters school bags, hanging on the wall.

The classroom, which holds about 30 kids.

Kiroro and Keroro haha!

Textbooks and reference books on the racks.

Even the toilet slippers are decorated with Disney characters!

Reminded me of the antique telephone at my grandparent's house.

*Disturbance from girlfriend who asked me whether she looks old while I'm so busy blogging rght now =.=|| And now she is telling me that she's gonna restart her modem haha wtf*

Haha, ignore what's written above is you don't get it. In fact, everything written above has nothing to do with the farewell party haha wtf! Now, let me tell you the real version, no bluffing already this time; I promise! Otherwise, I will turn Pinocchio, okay?

This event is called 餅つき・送別会 (Mochitsuki・Soubetsu-kai) or "Mochi Pounding-cum-Farewell Party". It was held specially for the fifth year school leavers, who are gonna graduate in a month's time.

Time really flies as my three years in Nagaoka Kosen will finally come to an end this March, and I will begin my new university life in Chiba.

Okay, I will stop myself from being emotional; otherwise I will not be able to finish typing this entry haha! If you are interested to read a detailed entry about mochi pounding, I have blogged about it here. However, I will do it again this time, in brief though.

So, first thing they do is to utilise the technology by using a machine to make the mochi easier to be pounded.

Move the mochi into the huge wooden mortar, called 臼 (usu).

Bai, my third year junior was the first to start pounding the mochi, and I took over the task later on.

Okay, all ready, get set, hold the wooden mallet as high as possible.

Come let me teach you a secret to get a perfect pound. Just before you pound the mochi, think of someone you hate haha wtf!

But then, sometimes the mochi can be a little bit mischievous, that they would stick to the mallet; just like how semen stick to your hand after you ejaculated (idea was from girlfriend, don't blame me haha!)

The solution? Soak the sticky hand mallet into the pail of water.

After the mochi is done, it is transferred into a steel pot filled with some water.

While waiting for the second round of mochi to be ready, we played around with the tools haha!

Some of the lecturers and students who were there.

Second round started, and this time, I was the first to go.

O-M-G! I was gonna hit the uncle's head!!! Sorry pak cik!!!

School principal also joined the mochi pounding.

See, he was damn bersemangat today, that he carried the mallet so high, it almost hit the ceiling haha wtf!

Who said girls cannot pound mochi?

Even after the mochi was taken out, smoke was still visible from the wooden mortar. The mortar was smoking haha wtf!

Mochi, which has been transferred into a steel pot.

The sticky mass is then formed into various shapes, usually a sphere.

The small pieces of mochi are then dipped into various flavours, for instances, red bean paste, soy sauce, sweetened fine groundnuts, or even walnut sauce. This is the red bean paste, called anko.

As for this one, they were dipped in soybean flour or kinako.

The girls took charge of the shaping and topping the mochi with the read bean paste and soybean flour.

I told Joann that I was the Santa Claus for the day because I was gonna arrange the bananas, snacks and chocolates on the table. But she got jealous and tried to pull away one of the two plastic bags. She failed, and she came charging down at me lol!

Then, Carine who saw that quickly ran to us to make sure we didn't fight haha!

"What, wanna fight isit now?"

Back in the cooking room, Tada-san who has been working at the dormitory office for 28 years, was busy preparing something else. It is a soup which contained among others, dried squid, bean curd, fish cake, leeks, sweet potatoes, konjac, and some other weird stuff which I don't know haha!

This is like the compulsory, must-have dish in every farewell party for us. But to be honest, it was nothing compared to our very own authentic bak kut teh, or tom yam kung, because it was just a simple soup without much flavours.

See how happy Tada-san was, while we was preparing the portion soup for everyone lol!

The soup, enough to feed 50 people.

"Faster-lah!" Both kena scolding from Tada-san haha!.

Food and people were already there; time to start the event very soon.

The main menu of the day; the white stuff in the soup is mochi.

So as usual, the event started with the speech from Iwata Sensei, the current President of the Yukitsubaki-kai. It is an association made up of past and present lecturers of the school, who takes lead in organising various activities related to the Japanese culture for the international students here. He just underwent a surgery on his shoulder recently, and we were glad that it was a successful one. But then, let me tell you a funny story happened halfway when Iwata Sensei was talking.

After he told us about his cancer and surgery, he proceeded to talk about other stuff. He continued to talk enthusiastically...

And talk...

And talk...

Until something happened. Awkward and a little bit embarrassing for him, but funny for us nevertheless. Tada-san walked up to him and told Iwata Sensei, "Errr, if you still continue talking, I'm afraid that the mochi is gonna turn cold. Mochi is better to be eaten while they are still hot, you know?"

Haha, imagine you are talking to so many people, then suddenly somebody come up to you and potong-jalan by saying that. Damn potong-stim and paiseh, can! Iwata Sensei smiled and sat down immediately, while the rest of us had a great laugh until we had stomachache haha! Everyone was so anxious and hungry already by then, that we totally forgotten about the kanpai session. So, a few of us asked everybody to stop eating and kanpai first.

Where can start eating without kanpai first, right?

So, after so many abrupt interruptions, we finally got to eat peacefully haha! The school principal was the next person to give his short speech. This time, Tada-san didn't stop him halfway already haha! It followed by some words from Tada-san herself. I am sure she was praying that Iwata Sensei wouldn't walk to her and ask her to cut-short her speech as revenge lol!

Sato Sensei, who represents the current teachers in the school was next to stand up and talk.

Prof. Takada Koji, the school principal.

Tada-san, who has seen different batches of international students for twenty years and gonna retire this March. Actually, she has been telling us she's gonna retire for the last three years already but every time, she is still around. Maybe she missed us a lot haha!

Sato Sensei, whom we owe a huge gratitude for taking us to so many trips for the last three years.

Although there were performances as side-events during the farewell party in 2008 and 2009, it was a much simpler party this year. No performances whatsoever; nevertheless, it was still an interesting one which we enjoyed it a lot. It was done in a more informal way, in which we could share ideas and crack jokes when somebody was talking.

Take this for example. Maruyama Sensei asked everyone what was the thing that we find it most surprising after coming to Japan. Some said sorting the garbage into different categories (ゴミ分別), some thought that the drinkable water from the water tap in Japan is surprising. We then asked Maruyama Sensei in return, what was the most surprising thing when he visited Malaysia last summer. His answer was quite humourous!

It was concerning Malaysian toilets. No, no, it has nothing to do with the smell; we all know we have the most fragrant toilet in the whole universe haha! He said he find it amusing to see water hose inside toilets. The problem is, he didn't know how he was supposed to use it. Interesting part is when he made the gestures using his hands haha wtf! And everyone was still halfway enjoying their mochi that time that he kinda pointed to his backside lol!

My question to every Malaysian out there, is our toilet bowl really this big? Haha!

Kubota-san, who is one of the library staff then stood up to give her two cents from her time in Malaysia two years ago. Again, it was about toilet. It makes me wonder, are the toilets in Malaysia that interesting, that they attract so much attention from the Japanese lol! This time, it was about the size of the toilet bowl. She thinks that our toilet bowl has XXL size and wonders how people are supposed to sit on it. "Is it safe enough to sit on it, and our butt won't fall into the toilet bowl?" she asked haha!

Tada-san then replied, "It was specially made for sumo wrestlers; that's why it's huge!"

That is why I said the farewell party today was simply awesome! We don't have to have performances, crazy moments like that was enough to make it a memorable one!

Pineapple-cutting session, to see who cuts pineapple faster.

School principal teaching some Japanese idioms to these curious boys.

With the uncle who used to work in the dormitory office and Yamaguchi Sensei.

Tada-san. Wonder if she would invite us to pluck strawberries at her house garden again before we leave.

The three stooges with Tada-san haha!

Before I end this long entry, credit to Hong Yao as some of the pictures in this entry were taken by him.

One final group shot to end the event and this entry.

皆様、３年間、大変お世話になりました。

Prof. Kondo's Tale

Prof. Kondo with his famous hat, during our school's hiking day - May 2007.

Here is a funny tale that I guess is worth to be shared with you guys.

I have a lecturer, who is in-charge of all the students in my class regarding our welfare, academic, and miscellaneous stuff. In other words, he is like the class teacher for our Mechanical Engineering class. He goes by the name Professor Kondo Toshimi, but we all are more comfortable to call him Kon-chan or just Kondo. So, it was a sunny Sunday evening yesterday and I while I was lazing around, I got a phone call out of nowhere. When I looked at the display screen, I saw that the caller was Prof. Kondo. I was a bit anxious initially. Who would expect to get a call from your lecturer on a Sunday evening, right? Nevertheless, I picked up the phone and this is what he had to tell me.

Prof. Kondo told me that he had a secret to tell me haha wtf!

He sometimes holds a long cane stick, which acts as a pointer on the blackboard while teaching haha - October 2008.

I was left wondering what secret he has to tell me. Don't tell me he wanna share his secret about his affair he has with some random school staff lol. Of course the secret isn't about that at all. So, this is what the secret was all about. It was regarding our finals which will begin from tomorrow and he asked me to "ganbatte kudasai". I suppose you know what that phrase means, but anyway, to those who are still in the dark, it means "good luck and give your best" in Japanese.

I got a phone call from him out of the blue, and now he told me to "ganbatte kudasai". Isn't that a bit awkward? I was still a bit blur at that time actually, unsure and curious why he is so nice to call me personally just to wish me good luck. I'm not saying that he is not a nice person on other times though, because when I just came here three years ago, he often asked me to see him in his room and discuss with him if I face any difficulties in life so far. The line had always been "何か困った事が無いですか？", which was his standard question, and my reply would always be, "特に無いですね" haha!

Prof. Kondo with his trademark hand gesture during the nomikai session with the rest of the lab members - October 2009.

So, the conversation (on the phone, not the conversation in his room lol) continued and I was told that there are other various prizes that besides getting our graduation certificates, there are gonna be other prizes awarded during our graduation ceremony next month. They include prize for perfect attendance, excellent achievements in academic and curricular activities. For the academic prize, it is awarded to students who had been the top two in the class over the years. Top two as in performance in exams, not our body height; otherwise I would be guaranteed of the prize for sure with my giraffe height haha.

Prof. Kondo told me that I was one of the two students in my class who qualified to get that prize, and that explains the reason why he called me and asked me to "ganbatte kudasai" lol!

Then before he ended the call, he some more reminded me (I guess it's more to scare me haha) by saying that the prize is only for the top two students, and if I drop to the third position this time, then I can say bye bye to the prize already. As a final word, he reminded me again that what he told me is a secret between him and me only. It sounded so much as if both of us are some undercover agents working on the country's top secret project haha. Just when I thought I could relax a little bit through my final exam in the college, now I felt a bit stressed up already haha. Nevertheless, I won't make it a big deal and I will just prepare as how I do it usually.

A creative work by one of my classmates haha! I hope Prof. Kondo doesn't see this, otherwise he is sure to disqualify me straight away lol!

The good news is that I have only four papers to sit this time and one of the four papers is an "open-everything" paper. I call it "open-everything", instead of "open-book" because we get to bring our text book, notes, photocopied notes from the lecturer, sample questions, and calculator into the exam hall! How can it be any easier than this, right? But sometimes, it is not necessary that it is gonna be a breeze for us. Anyway, I just wish that everything will be fine.

If I am lucky and awarded that prize, then I will be a happy boy and I promise to blog about it. However, if I don't mention anything about that prize again after this, then you should know whats is the ending to this tale haha!