Gossip Session With Matsuda Sensei

I wanted to put the title as "Farewell Party With Matsuda Sensei" initially, but I found out that we gossiped so much on the night, that it would be more fitting to replace it with "gossip session" instead haha! Since all of us will be separating, going to different places very soon, we thought about having a dinner together with our Japanese language teacher, Matsuda Sensei, who taught us during our first two years in kosen for one last time.

We actually did a farewell party in the classroom during our last class with her early last year, but it was just eating snacks and soft drinks. This time, it was a more proper party. Matsuda Sensei, who lives in Niigata, drove all the way down to Nagaoka for this dinner, held at a nearby Japanese restaurant - Satomi in Kawasaki. All nine but two (Yan Kuang and Sodo) of our batch members made it to this gathering.

里味 (川崎店).

We set out gathering time at half-past six in the evening. By then, all of us were there already but our sensei had yet to arrive. We waited, and waited. Ten minutes, fifteen minutes, twenty minutes passed and she had yet to arrive. It is very unusual for the Japanese to be late for an event. That prompted us to start making several hypothesis; perhaps she had gone to the wrong restaurant, or maybe we had seen the wrong date. I tried checking the message I sent her a day earlier, and only then that I realised that I'd told her to gather there at seven, not six-thirty! At that very moment, everyone in the room sighed at me lol! Sorry-lah guys, technical mistake haha wtf!

After the long wait, Matsuda Sensei finally arrived, while bringing some stuff for us!

Matsuda Sensei gave us a big ang pao wooott!! At the same time, she did a Karam Singh Walia pose haha!

She asked who was the 幹事 (kanji), which means the "coordinator" of the dinner, and everyone went blur haha! That's because the pronunciation is similar to that of 漢字 (Japanese characters) and 感じ (feeling). So, she took out a pen and a piece of paper, and write the word for us. Not bad, having dinner with sensei also still can learn Japanese language haha!

So, the reason she asked who was the organiser is because she wanted to hand over her big ang pao. It's just as an expression of gratitude for inviting her over for the dinner.

Guess how much inside this envelope.

And two boxes of sakura mochi, Kansai style.

Sakura mochi is a sweet pink mochi filed with red bean paste (angko), and covered with a leaf of sakura. It used to be available at certain seasons during the olden days but now, it is available throughout the year. The sakura leaf is usually pickled in salt water, which gives the mochi a sweet and salty taste when we take a bite on it. All the sakura leaves had fallen now, so these leaves were actually preserved from the leaves collected from the sakura season one year ago.

Every one's stomachs had signaled to us to make our orders, so we took the menu and started to make our pick straight away.

There are just too many choices here, that we took almost half an hour to decide on what to eat.

My まぐろ丼そばセット (Maguro-don soba set).

Let me tell one funny story, but you won't find it funny unless you understand Japanese. Never mind, I will explain the two terms first. 持ち帰り (mochi-kaeri) means "take-out" or "tapao", while 持ち込み (mochi-komi) means "bring-in", mostly used during exams where it means "open-book exam". Ridzuan wanted to make a take-out order for our junior in the dormitory, but he wasn't sure if the restaurant provides such service. So, he asked the waitress.

「持ち込みの注文は出来ますか」(Can I make a "bring-in" order?") haha wtf!

Our orders came, and Ridzuan was gonna ask that question haha!

All of us burst into laughter right at that moment. Of course it was just merely a slip of the tongue by Ridzuan, but it is very common for him to do that haha! Even the waitress appeared to be trying hard not to laugh lol! After that, we kept teasing Ridzuan, that the dinner wasn't a open-book test and we don't have to ask the waitress if we can bring in our textbooks into the room haha!

How? Funny or not? Even if it's not funny also please laugh-lah, okay?

Matsuda Sensei is really good in imitating a person's way of talking and gestures. Here, she was so angry at one junior who had lost his homework haha!

Kena lectured by Matsuda Sensei haha!

While enjoying our dinner, we had various kind of talks. Besides the main topic of gossiping about our juniors, we talked about our future, reminiscing our times during Japanese language class, and also about relationships.

I cannot reveal too much about the details because I'm afraid the juniors might read my blog. Anyway, there appeared to be some juniors who will only attend the Japanese language class according to their mood. Come winter, attendance will worsen, probably because they are lazy to walk on the snow in the cold weather to the class. Maybe they prefer to hibernate in the warm and cosy room haha!

From a serious mode...

Then, it suddenly turned into a siao mode haha!

Matsuda Sensei has taught Japanese language to the international students in our kosen for about fifteen years and the amazing thing is that she is still able to recall the students she used to taught back then. Kamal-senpai, if you are reading this, we did talk about you and Nazri-senpai as well, including how he was blacklisted by Matsuda Sensei haha!

But don't worry, we didn't bad-mouthed anybody, but just joking around hehe.

Muazam, my ex-roommate last year. He revealed that he prefers cute and kawaii girls. I hope he doesn't kill me for mentioning it here haha!

By the way, I bet not many people would imagine that Matsuda Sensei has a special interest for dancing during her free-time. She usually does ballroom dance, and even participates in national level competitions. But all this while, despite us insisting her to inform us if there are any competitions she joins, she never wanna invite us to attend them because she said her dance is too poor for us to watch haha! Anyway, there was one time when her picture appeared in a local newspaper, in which she only realised that it was her after taking a second look lol!

Due to our long chatting session, which lasted more than three hours, we were the last group of people to remain at the restaurant. Nevertheless, we had great fun with Matsuda Sensei. Finally, before we leave the place, we had one final group picture with Matsuda Sensei.

皆、お疲れ様でした!

Nagaoka Yukishika Matsuri

Over the two days of last weekend, it was the annual Nagaoka Yukishika Festival.

This is my second time attending the snow festival, as my first time was two years ago. Last year, I gave it a skip because of the bad weather. The term "yukishika" can be traced back all the way prior to the widespread of refrigerators. Back then, in every parts of Nagaoka, snow was stacked into pyramid-shaped structures, covered with rugs made of straws, and these snow are sold throughout the year for refrigeration. These shops which sold only snow are known as "yuki-shika-ya"「雪しか屋」 ("shika" in Japanese language means "only") and it is from that name that this festival got its name.

Statues of Kome-Hyappyou, an important event in Japan's history, where it symbolises the idea that patience and perseverance in the present will lead to profit in the future.

The venue of the snow festival, Hive Nagaoka. The helicopter in the background let visitors to experience viewing the city from above the sky.

Naoe's Tiger, the biggest snow carving taking part in the 100 Dolls Contest.

I took part in the contest two years ago but this time, taking a picture with this tiger will do haha!

Only now that I'm able to relate that perhaps the reason a tiger was picked is because it is the year of tiger this year.

Anyway, next to that tiger, there was a huge hill of snow which was as tall as a two-storey tall building. It was built specially for a few events, which included the snow-wall climbing, jumbo snow slide, plus a mini-sized one for young toddlers. This is the main spot where most kids who attended the snow festival would be gathering every time.

Climbing the snow-wall with ropes, and then gliding all the way down.

Sitting on a huge tire and glide down. Looks really fun!

A more flat slope for younger kids.

Some kids were too young, that they needed their parents to accompany them.

At another corner, there were several other events and activities for visitors. Among others were throwing snow balls into holes on cardboards, mochi pounding, and sawing large tree trunks. From what I observed, most of the activities there were specially prepared mainly for the kids.

In other words, this snow festival is held for the kids, who were accompanied by their parents to have fun in the weekends.

Another two heads of mascots; on the left is Jabbit-kun, the mascot of Yomiuri Giants, while on the right is ... I don't know haha!

Rabbit (that's me, just in case you don't know) posing with Jabbit haha wtf!

The kids will make a few snow balls, aim at the hole on the board, and try to hit the target.

Mochi pounding with an unknown mascot, which I have forgotten already what is it called.

Scary looking Doraemon haha!

Sawing huge trunks. One of the staff asked me if I wanna try it, and I gave him a nod straight away.

If a pair manages to cut the trunk within thirty seconds, they would be giving out a certificate to the pair.

So, my partner and me tried hard to saw the trunk as fast as possible, while the guy in green jacket took our time.

Looks simple but it was quite tiring. In the end, we only managed to finish cutting it in 56 seconds, so didn't get any certificates-lor haha!

They will then heat up these steel stamps on charcoal.

And stamp it on the wood and give it to us as souvenirs.

Food stalls around the area.

There is another event, 100 だるま大会 (100 Daruma Taikai), or simply, "100 Dolls Contest". I have posted a detailed entry about this contest in this entry, in which I have participated in the contest by making my first ever snowman in my life, although it looked quite ugly haha! This year, I didn't take part in the contest, but just merely took a stroll at the area, where the participants build their snowman.

Walking along the rows of snowman, one will come across several weird shapes and hard-to-be-indentified snowman, which will make you laugh.

100 Dolls Contest.

"Fashionable Pig", which had lost one of its eyes haha!

"Me", which I think it looks pretty scary.

"Doraemon" looked so pitiful and all over the place lol!

A family still busy putting the finishing touch to their sculpture.

At night, it was one of the highlights of the snow festival - the illumination event, called "Yuki Akari", or "The Light of Snow". This year, as the snowfall is much more than the previous years, the area they had the light-up was much bigger as well. Preparations started early that evening, with hundreds of candles placed along the walking path and around the trees. When it started to get dark at night, these candles were lighten up and it turned the place into a different atmosphere.

The lights and shadows made the area looked serenely breathtaking and romantic, just almost the perfect setting for dating couples.

Those triangular monuments are made of fiber and candles are lighted up inside them.

The place looks like a fantasy land, but at the same time, it is super chilly, can die! I swear I would never go there again haha wtf!

I didn't bring a tripod along, so guess where I placed my camera while taking this picture haha!

Taiko (not "big brother", but it refers to "drum" in Japanese) performances.

Gotta give them credit for going ahead with their performances normally, while bearing the cold temperature, despite wearing only a thin layer of costumes.

As the finale to the snow festival, they had snow fireworks display. The fireworks display didn't last long; it was nothing compared to the summer fireworks festival. Nevertheless, it certainly provide a different experience altogether to watch fireworks in a freezing winter night, surrounded with hundreds of illuminated candles on the snow.

It started off with the display of fireworks for people who wished to make dedications to their loved ones. Apparently, there was a time a few years back, where a guy proposed to his girlfriend during this fireworks display.

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I wonder how a girl will feel, to get a proposal in such way. Is it romantic, or is it the opposite?