My Resolutions for 2019

Assalamualaikum w.b.t.

       We will enter a new year soon, so I hope all of you who are reading my blog right now have already came up with new resolution, new spirit and new hope for this upcoming new year. Year 2018 for me is a year where I learned a lot of new things, meet many new people and facing some new difficulties that I never expected before. Honestly, I did pray that this year will end as soon as possible because I thought it will be the only way I can escape from all these difficulties. But I was wrong. Every challenge that I faced, I learned 10 lessons from it. Every one person that left from my life, I got 10 new friends that came after that.

       Year 2018 is also a year where I started to follow this one incredible young vlogger lady, Aida Azlin from Singapore. As I started my new job in Japan this year, it was so tough at the beginning and I often got stress as I am the only foreigner and woman in my department. One day, I began to watch Aida’s video at YouTube every morning inside the train on my way to work. Every single video that she created indeed helped and inspired me to go through my life as a woman engineer in this foreign land. From her videos, I began to start doing new things to overcome my loneliness and my stress such as reading new genre of books, learning new language which is Korean language and trying many Japanese cultures during my free time.

       For my resolution this year, I want to explore new knowledges that out of my working scope. I want to write more new things for my blog. I want to push myself to the limit, perhaps beyond my limit because I want to see how far I can go with my own capabilities. And of course, these are all inspired from one of her videos where she talked about a 60-year-old Korean taxi driver that learned English while driving. I was so awed when I heard the story because I’m sure it’s not easy for a man at that age to learn new language, but he did. He didn’t put limit to himself to start new things but the best thing is, he didn’t think that it will be wasted.

       One of the reminders from Aida Azlin that I still remember till now is no knowledge is a waste knowledge. So yeah, I decided to use that as my motto for year 2019. When I started learning Korean language around April 2018, many people around me questioned about it. Why are you learning Korean language in Japan? How are you going to use it when you go back to Malaysia? Did you plan to stay in Korea after this? And most of the time, I told them that I love Korean language and the fact that the grammars of Japanese and Korean language are almost same, make it so much fun for me to learn it. Learning Korean language indeed help me to understand more about their history because I love history so much.

       Every 12 December in Japan, there will be a national ballot to select a kanji that represent the events of that year called 今年の漢字(read: kotoshi no kanji, meaning: kanji of the year). For year 2018, the selected kanji was 災(read: sai, meaning: disaster). This is because of the 2018 Osaka earthquake along with the heavy floods in southwestern Japan. For my kanji of the year 2018, I chose 勇(read: yuu/isamu, meaning: courage). As I started to live alone this year, I did everything on my own, I faced my own fear, I am the one that motivated myself whenever I feel down, I challenged myself to go out from my comfort zone, I mingled with people who have opposite characters with me, I forced myself to be courage even when I’m scared.  

       If I compare year 2018 with 2017, I think that I faced almost similar level of challenges for both years. In year 2017, I lost my beloved junior, I gave up my dream to further master degree because of certain circumstances, and in year 2018, I felt so lonely when I started living alone as most of my closest friends getting married and have their own commitments, I struggled on my own as the only foreigner and woman in my company but Alhamdulillah, Allah granted me with good and kind seniors that always guided me whenever I made mistake during my work. I began to realize that this year is the year where I less depend to others except to Him.

       I pray so that I will become stronger to face more challenging experiences in year 2019 because the older you are, the harder your life will be. Am I right? As my name, Amalina means hope, I really hope all of you who read this right now, as long as you are alive, do not lose hope. You are still breathing, you still have people that love and support you, it means you still have hope to achieve whatever you want in your life. Whenever you feel down, remember how you got through your difficulties until today. I know the feeling to lose hope, to give up on people around me but I always remember this one thing, there is ease along with hardships. May Allah ease our journey in the next year of 2019. Happy New Year everyone!!!

        

Hidangan Tahun Baru di Jepun

Assalamualaikum w.b.t

       Pada hari terakhir saya bekerja sebelum bermulanya cuti akhir tahun, senior saya di tempat kerja menceritakan tentang budaya makan soba pada waktu petang atau lewat malam 31 Disember sebelum masuknya tahun baru. Tradisi memakan soba ini dipanggil 年越しそば(baca: Toshikoshi Soba) yang membawa maksud dalam bahasa Inggeris ‘Year-End Noodles’. Senior saya beritahu salah satu sebab kenapa orang Jepun mengamalkan tradisi memakan soba ini kerana bentuk soba yang panjang dan nipis melambangkan umur yang panjang. Jadi, memakan soba ini dikatakan membawa harapan untuk menjalani kehidupan yang lebih lama.

Gambar 1: Soba

       Satu lagi makanan dalam tradisi menyambut tahun baru di Jepun ialah おせち料理(baca: Osechi Ryouri). Osechi Ryouri ialah hidangan berwarna-warni yang disusun didalam bekas makanan khas yang dipanggil 重箱(baca: juubako). Mengikut tradisi orang Jepun, Hari Tahun Baru ialah hari untuk semua orang berehat jadi tiada apa yang perlu dimasak pada hari tersebut. Kebiasaannya Osechi Ryouri akan disediakan sebelum malam menyambut Tahun Baru. Malah, kebanyakan pasar raya di Jepun juga ada menjual Osechi Ryouri memandangkan kesibukan bekerja menyukarkan orang Jepun untuk menyediakan hidangan ini di rumah kerana memerlukan masa yang lama dan bahan yang banyak. Setiap hidangan yang disediakan dalam Osechi Ryouri mempunyai maksud yang tersendiri dan berkait rapat dengan harapan dalam Tahun Baru. Antara makanan tersebut ialah:

Gambar 2: Osechi Ryouri

1. 海老(baca: ebi, maksud: udang)

       Oleh kerana bentuk fizikal udang yang melengkung (seperti orang tua yang membongkok), udang menjadi simbol panjang umur bagi orang Jepun dan dimakan semasa Tahun Baru. Senior saya pesan untuk banyakkan makan udang pada tahun baru haha.

Gambar 3: Udang

2. 栗金団(baca: kuri kinton)

       Kuri kinton ialah sejenis pencuci mulut tradisional yang diperbuat daripada ubi keledek dan buah berangan. 金団(baca: kinton) yang membawa maksud dalam bahasa Inggeris sebagai ‘gold dumplings’ atau ‘golden futon’ merupakan pencuci mulut berwarna emas yang melambangkan kekayaan dalam perniagaan dan kemakmuran dalam kehidupan.

Gambar 4: Kuri Kinton

3. 黒豆(baca: kuromame, maksud: kacang soya hitam)

       Kacang soya hitam pula melambangkan kesihatan tubuh badan yang baik supaya dapat bekerja sepanjang tahun. まめ(baca: mame) ialah perkataan yang asalnya membawa maksud sihat dan tahan lama.　まめjuga digunakan dalam peribahasa bahasa Jepun seperti まめに働く(baca: mame ni hataraku) yang membawa maksud bekerja keras, bekerja bersungguh-sungguh.

Gambar 5: Kacang Soya Hitam

       Berdasarkan pemerhatian dan pengalaman saya tinggal di Jepun, tradisi orang Jepun sememangnya berkait rapat dengan alam semula jadi seperti sakura atau gunung Fuji, begitu juga dengan makanan seharian mereka. Bagi mereka, setiap bentuk fizikal atau proses sesuatu kejadian itu mempunyai maksud yang boleh diterapkan dalam kehidupan seharian. Malah menurut Islam, kita juga disuruh untuk sentiasa memerhati serta memikirkan setiap makhluk ciptaan Allah supaya kita sedar dan yakin bahawa hanya Allah sahaja yang mampu mencipta alam ini. Inilah perbezaan kaca mata orang Jepun dan kaca mata orang Islam terhadap alam sekeliling.

       Pada pendapat saya tidak salah untuk mengamalkan tradisi memakan soba atau Osechi Ryouri (yang halal) pada Tahun Baru seperti orang Jepun. Tetapi makanlah sebagai tanda bersyukur atas rezeki yang diberikan oleh Allah kerana berpeluang untuk menyambut satu lagi tahun yang baru. Kemudian, berdoa supaya dipanjangkan umur serta dilimpahkan rezeki kepada Allah bukan kepada makhluk. Dengan berbaki masa beberapa hari sebelum masuknya Tahun Baru, jangan lupa untuk banyakkan muhasabah diri pada tahun ini dan letakkan azam baru pada tahun yang seterusnya. Semoga tahun 2018 menjadi tahun yang penuh makna dan tahun 2019 menjadi tahun yang lebih sempurna.