Dinner & Dialogue Session With Anwar Ibrahim In Tokyo

"Madiba, mad for sure we are,

Crazy, I'm certain we are"

Anwar Ibrahim,

when he visited Madiba

Proboscis monkey, the mascot of Visit Malaysia Year 2014 welcoming guests.

Anwar Ibrahim; a name which is just too synonymous not only to Malaysians, but also the global community.

After a failed attempt to get himself into Japan a month ago due to some complications, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim finally managed to pass the Japan Immigration for a short business trip to Tokyo. Despite his tight schedule, we managed to get him to join us in a dinner-cum-dialogue session a day before he flies home.

The entrance to the restaurant.

A very well furnished interior, which provides a warm and cozy ambiance to the diners.

A name tag prepared for the guest, just in case people doesn't recognise him haha!

The venue was the same - Malay Asian Cuisine, a Malaysian restaurant which was opened in early January this year, and located just a short 10-minute walk from Shibuya station in Tokyo. The chief chef in this restaurant is Chef Muski, from Terengganu and you can expect authentic Malaysian dishes carefully prepared with local Malaysian touch at this restaurant.

Back to the event, the delegation this time also consists of Prof. Dr. Ramasamy, the Member of Parliament for Batu Kawan, who also the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang, Dato' Kamarudin Jaffar, the Member of Parliament for Tumpat, Shamsul Iskandar, the Member of Parliament for Bukit Katil and also Khalid Jaafar. Besides the guests, there were approximately 70 Malaysians and a few Japanese who joined this dinner.

Mr Yeoh introducing the guests.

As our main guest was busy with his Facebook and Twitter.

Food was served in buffet style.

The food was simply fantastic.

A very mixture of everything on a plate lol!

Not often you get the chance to have DSAI to serve you haha!

The event started with a welcoming speech by Mr Yeoh, followed by a brief self-introduction (each of us were given 15 seconds due to time factor), and some words by each of the guests. Group photo session followed up afterwards, and then the makan session. Food wise, the free-flow food and drinks were great, and there was no complain at all. 

The evening was continue with the main event, which is the Q&A and dialogue session with the guests. To be honest, the questions raised were mostly issues which I shall call "basi" stuff, and the answers provided were quite disappointing; we was not given a concrete but instead vague replies, especially when asked what is their strategy to penetrate the people from East Malaysia. Well, I don't know, probably that is something which they would prefer to keep it behind close doors.

 The man running his show.

Q&A session, with Siew Fong posing a question regarding the term "justice".

Prof. Dr. Ramasamy, answering another question from the floor.

The giant killer in Bukit Katil, who showed a former Chief Minister the exit door - Shamsul Iskandar.

Another giant killer who also beat another former Chief Minister in Penang - Prof. Dr. Ramasamy, now the Deputy Chief Minister of Penang.

This is not a giant killer, but a very close friend of DSAI - Dato' Kamarudin Jaffar.

 With the most mad and crazy person in Malaysia.

Nevertheless, I personally enjoyed the sense of humour that is always associated with Anwar in his speech, especially when he talked about his visit to see the late Nelson Mandela. Both fought for a slightly different cause, but they shared one thing in common - the two has tasted the life of living in a prison but never allowed that dark experience to stop them to continue to fight for what they strongly believe on.

The session was closed with a presentation of a souvenir for DSAI, whom Mr Yeah described it as something which will be useful during his upcoming campaign and by-election he is facing in Kajang. The special gift turned out to be a 24 million yen cincin (pun intended).

"I guess Azizah will like this a lot."

Aha! Just kidding lol! It was a hand-painted Japanese traditional fan. I bet it will be useful when he is preparing satay in Kajang lol!

Malaysia Won Big At Chiba Kun Ambassador's Grammy Event

"Arigatou"

one word to summarize 

yet another amazing journey

The 2nd Ideas Exchange Ceremony for Chiba Kun Ambassadors at the Chiba Prefectural Office.

The Chiba Kun Ambassadors had its last and final gathering of the year, capping off the year with a presentation event and ideas exchange session recently. This is my third year being a small ambassador in a foreign land and each single year, I am blessed with an amazing team members, getting the chance to explore the beautiful prefecture and also meeting new people throughout the journey.

It is something I am very thankful for, especially to the International Division staffs who have always given their best in the interest of the Ambassadors, and also to all the Chiba Kun Ambassadors for their amazing company. You guys rocks!

The name tag for all Ambassadors, written with our names and country in katakana.

Chiba Kun taking a photo with one of his Ambassadors lol!

So, what we did we do at the final event?

All the Ambassadors were divided into several groups according to their respective countries and we we given a task to plan an itinerary for visitors from our country who happen to visit Chiba prefecture. In the same presentation, we also did a simple introduction about our country, the characteristics of travelers and what the visitors from our country look for when they are on a vacation.

We took the opportunity to also point out a few things which can be improved to make Chiba prefecture an even better place and tourist-friendly, especially to the foreign tourists.

First award - "Appreciation Award" for a selected members of the Ambassadors.

Mr Ishikawa Tooru, the Director of Chiba Prefecture General Planning Department International Affairs Division.

It was unfortunate that my partner, Ros could not make it to the presentation event, so I represented the Malaysian team. Well, to be honest my slides were done on the eleventh hour. And by that, I mean it literally. It was done at eleven p.m., a day before the submission dateline hahaha!

More than two years have passed since I made a presentation. The last time was during my university research presentation back in 2012. So, you can imagine my anxiety when I stepped up once my turn was called. I think I did quite well, considering the amount of practice I did beforehand (which was by the way, close to zero lol!).

The result - China team finished as the first runner-up and the grand prize went to the South Korean team. I thought they gave a very informative and interesting presentation, and the girls certainly deserved their prize, which happened to be Chiba Kun soft toys! 

Prize number two - "Most Article Written Award", which won me two pairs of Chiba Kun special edition neckties.

As for the remaining three prizes, they were the "Appreciation Award" for the Ambassadors who has significantly contributed to the project, the "Most Article Written Award" and the "Best Article Award". I thought I could win one of the awards. And so, the winners were announced.

Along with Gina (the Philippines), Rochelle, and Gina (both from the US), I was among the four who was awards the "Appreciation Award". Then for the next two awards, it went to...

Yes, Malaysia kinda made a clean sweep there :)

The third and biggest award - "Best Article Award".

My article on the amazing autumn foliage in Yoro Keikoku was the article that was picked for this award.

Well, I was certainly delighted to be picked and it gives the feeling of satisfaction for the effort put in throughout the year. Winning this awards was not the main intention I decided to be part of this project, because more important thing is to let people outside there to know more about what Chiba has to offer. And I guess this project has certainly played a big part in attracting more foreign tourists to the prefecture.

So, what are you waiting for? Time to book your flight and get yourself to Chiba!

Arigatou!

All of us gave the staffs a surprise by presenting a hand-made card, written with our messages for them.

Finally, one last final group photo! I will cerytainly miss this people a lot!

P/S: Just for your information, Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea are both located in Chiba. That I believe is another big reason for you to visit Chiba, isn't it?

Below are the slides used during my presentation for team Malaysia.