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| Japanese Restaurant "HiMaWaRi (Japan-Malaysia-Peace-Village)"（In Japan Club） |
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| Japanese Restaurant "HiMaWaRi (Japan-Malaysia-Peace-Village)"（In Japan Club） |
| When I first srart living in Malaysia , my family bought water from Pet
Pottle for all the water they put in thier mouths , such as drinking water
, tea , and water for cooking. My family of four went out every Sunday to buy 2 dozen bottles of 1.5 litters of water (2 boxes , 24 bottles). You can purchase one box (12 pieces) for RM 8.8 (about 264 yen). As you can see , water can be purchased relatively cheaply , but the weight of water is too heavy. Nowadays , only the water and ice that are drunk directly without boiling are the water that I bought , and the water that is used for boiling tea and cooking is tap water that has been passed through a water purifier. Therefore , the purchase of 1.5 litters of PET bottles of 2 dozen water (2 boxes , 24 bottoles) can be compleated once every two weeks. |
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| 1.5 Litters of Water in a PET Bottle Is Sold for RM 0.73 (about 22 yen) |
| One of the places we often use in Malaysia's local restaurants is called
"Hatsuchunhatsu","Chouya", and "Churuchul." If you pay RM 5 (about 150 yen) , you can get enough food. At the time of meal , it is crowded with customers. For example , there is a menu that we call "economic cooked grain". Ask the clerk to put white rice on the plate , and from among more than 10 kinds of side dishes , put your favorite food on or around the rice. If you take it to the counter , it will be priced according to his scale. Both curry and grilled meat are different from Japanese ones and are delicious. Curry has a difference in spaiciness , and the grilled rice is dry. There is also a Japanese restaurant in Malaysia. Japanese enka (music) may be played there. I am deeply moved by the Japanese enka that I hear in Malaysia. But the price is not cheap. |
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| You Can Eat "Bak Kut Tea" for RM 9 (about 270 yen) per Pearson |
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| Curry Rice with Banana Leaves as a Plate (Banana leaf curry) |
| "Oh , the light bulb has burned out." This is also common in
Japan. So as not to panic , I calmed down and first removed the lamp cover
on the celling. So far , everything is going well. And when I saw the light bulb inside , I was surprised. The light bulb that I have never seen came out. Even if I tried to remove it , it didn't come off. Well , I didn't know how to remove it. I went to an electric shop to buy the same thing and found an explanation on how to remove the light bulb at the store. In the end , it was to forcefully remove it. When I got home , I was able to replace it with the light bulb that I bought. That's it. In an unfamiliar foreign country , even replacing on light bulb was a pain. |
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| "Lighter and Light Bulb"No electric stick ? (240V , 100V is written.) |
| In Japan , there is an image that the president and rich people use checks , but in Malaysia , every one usually uses checks. In Malaysia , individual checks are often used for elementary school fuition , vent , car purchases , travel expenses , etc. I feel like I've become president. you can also check the balance of your passbook by phone. First , push the telephone dial to find out in what language you want to explain. Choose from English , Malaysia , and Japanese.Then push the check account number. Finally , push your PIN. Then , you will hear the balance from the phone. Thus , in Malaysia , indivisuals usually pay by both check and cash. For this reason , it is necessay to open two accounts , a checking deposit for paying checks and a saving deposit for withdrawing cash. |
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| Bumiputra Bank on the Campus of University Malaya (Locally owned Malay bank) |
| There is a trafic light at an intersection in Japan. There are some intersections
with trafic lights in Malaysia , but there are no trafic lights , and the
entire intersection has a circular shape called "roundabout". The car moves clockwise and passes through the the intersection. Before you get used to it , it takes a lot of courage to get into a roundabout. Poor driving will stop the smooth flow of the car . |
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| Information Sign That Shows the State of the Roundabout |
| The "gratitude" of "standing , gratitude , and sitting"
at the beginning and end of Japanese lessons is generally done silently
or with the words "please" or "thank you". At the University Malaya Preparatory Education Department Japan Study Abroad Special Course , where I work , at the biginning of the class , each student stands with the command of "standing up" and prays for about one minute on their own with the signal of "gratitude". Then , after everyone prays , they will be seated at the signal of "sitting". A the end of the lesson , all the students say "Thank you , teacher". It is rare to add "teacher" to "thank you"in Japan. |
| There are so many motorcycles running in Malaysia. When driving a car
, the motorcycle often comes to the right or left of my car without knowledege
, and the motorcycle hits the body of the car. It is dangerous if you are
not carefull about changing routes. I often see people riding motorcycles who wear their front-opening jackets in the opposite direction , perhaps to avoid wind resistance , and run with their jackets fluttering in the wind. |
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| He Wears the Back and Front of His Jacket in the Opposite Direction |
| In Malaysia , there are almost no motorcycles or automobiles that produce
turn signals due to route changes or curves. Malaysia is the same as Japan , and cars drive on the left side. The following picture is a sign indicating where you can make a U-turn in some parts of the road. |
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| A Sign That Tells Us the Existance of U-Turnable Zone |
| How long has it been since I stopped eating Japanese Yoshinoya beef bowl
? I never thought that I could eat Yoshinoya beef bowl in Malaysia. The taste is the same as that of Japan , and it is exactly the Yoshinoya beef bowl. It was written as "Japanese's No.1 Beef Bowl" |
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| In the Shopping Center "MidValley Megamall" |
| There is a method of paying tolls on the highway called "Touch and
Go" in Malaysia. Payment is by card , but the difference from Japanese highway cards is wheather or not the person at the tollhouse is involved in the payment. In Japan , The card is given to the person at the tollhouse. The card received by the tollhouse person is passed through the machine and processed. In Malaysia , the driver , not the tollhouse person , handles the card directly. The driver reaches out from the driver's window ,and touches the card to the panel installed in the tollhouse dedicated to "Touch and Go". This "Touch and Go" card is sold near the tollhouse. Of course , in addition to the touch and go specific toll booth , ordinary toll booths paid in cash are always installed. |
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| You Can See the Words "Touch and Go" at the Tollhouse |
| Malaysian toilets look and use almost the same as Japanese style toilets. Just like in Japan , flush toilets allow water to flow when you press a button or lever. However , what is different from Japan is the direction of crouching and the black hose where water comes out on the side of the toilet bowl. In Japan , it is usually used by trouchung toward the wall , but in Malaysia , it is used by trouching toward the door. The black hose is for washing the buttocks , so to speak , the Malaysian version of the washlet. |
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| There Is a Black Hose in the Toilet |
| Do you know Durian ? Durian is sold in alleys and supermarkets in Malaysia
for about 1 RM (about 30 yen) per kg. Durian is a fruit with a strong odor
and is said to be "the taste of heaven , the smell of hell" ,
and "the king of fruit. It is about the size of a child's head , and
its surface is covered with rough , pointed thorns of 1 to 3 cm. By the
way , mangosteen is the "queen of fruits and contains as many fruits
as the number of calyxes. Both durian and mangosteen are native to Malaysia
, and some of the fruits native to Malay are rambutan , which means "hair"
in Malay. I first met Durian when I ate with everyone at work. I couldn't eat it because of the strong and unique smell of Durian. |
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| Dorian Is Lined Up in the Store |
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| Mangosteen Native to Malay |
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| Rambutan Native to Malay |
| When I went on a trip , the bus giide said , "It's a good idea to
put Durian in your mouth and put up with it for 10 seconds until the smell
spreads in your mouth and nose." It also means that you should not eat durians while drinking alcohol. In particular , I heard that some people died after eating durian while drinking strong alcohol like whiskey. On the other hand , Durian and Mangosteen should be eaten together. The reason is that eating durian raises the body temperature , and eating magosteen lowers the body temperature. |
| Highway tolls are considerably chaeper than in Japan , but the toilets
in the servicee area are not clean. Like the Japanese highway , the highway has a median strip , with two lanes for climbing and two lanes for descending. At one point , when driving on the highway , the car on the other side of the medician strip is running in reverse. It's not just one. Many cars are running in reverse. This is because the number of lanes adjusts the trafic volume for climbing and descending. In other words , another lane is temporarily created on the other side of the median strip , and a total of three lanes are used for the descent. I was worried that it might lead to a trafic accident because it is absolutely not in Japan. |
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| Many Cars Are Running in Reverse Across the Median Strip |
| It was when I went to the dealer to buy a new car. It was when the new
car to purchase was decided and the CD changer to be attached as an option
was also decided. A dealer has began a demonstration of openning the locked door of a new car with something like a rular. The moment he started , the door was already open. However , the car alarm buzzer didn't sound. Simply putting a ruler in the window crevice should sound the car's alarm buzzer. However , it was sad that the alarm could be turned off in some way. Therefore , in order to prevent the lock from being easily unlocked like this , it is recommended to put something like an iron plate inside the door as an option. I was asked if I could included it as an option. Why do they make such an important thing an option ? Isn't it a good idea to sell as throughly as possible with security ? I was wondering and questioned. |
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| Commuting by Car in the Morning |
| It was when I went to the designated hospital from my workplace because
it was a regular heaith checkup. On the pillar , a scale for measuring height was written by hand. Standing with my back against the pillar , the the doctor put his palm on the top of my head and read the scale. The measurement result was 173 cm . I was 2 cm taller. The colleagues in the workship who we measured together were also happy to grow taller. |
| On my way to KLIA(Kuala Lumpur International Airport) , I saw a very interesting
big road sign. It said "London 11010 km , New York 17065 km , World's
Best Cabin Staff 9.3 km" |
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| "Serious ? Joke ?" |
| In Japan , bulges to control the speed of automobiles are often installed
on roads such as university campuses. However , here in Malaysia , there are bulges on ordinary public roads , which has effect of suppressing speed , but it is very difficult to drive. Also , since it is a public road after all , I sometimes drive without being aware of it. At that time , the impact on the car is great. I don't think you should diffinitely ride a luxury car in Malaysia. |
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| The Bulge of the Road That Worries About My Car（The yellow shaded areas is the bulge） |
| There are dozens of shops selling watches in Chinatown. When the clerk
finds a Japanese person , he calls out using the Japanese that he remembers
, "It looks like a real thing". The cleark never said "It's real" , but when he said "It looks like real", I laughed unintentionally. Copies of luxury brand watches are lined up in the store. At the storefront , there are watches for hundreds of yen in Japanese yen , which are displayed and sold. Copies of luxury brand watches are lined up in the showcase at the back of the store. If you want something of high quality , the clerk will take you to the showcase at the back of the store. It is something you can not get in Japan. , so it feels like a super valuable item. What about copyright ? DVDs , such as movies , VCD , etc. are sold at unbelievable price in Chinatown. A recent Malaysian newspaper has mentioned that it will strengthen the crackdown on pirated DVDs , VCDs , etc. , but I have never heard of watches. |
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| Chinatown Crowded with People |
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| There Are Many Watch Stores in Chinatown |
| "Dokhan Dokhan" After a day's regular work , I was asleep and
was awakened by a tremendous loud noise. I wondered what time it was ,
and when I looked at the clock , it was past midnight. And , outside the
window , full-scale big fireworks were rising one after another near my
eyes. In Japan , we don't have big fireworks at this time. The fireworks are throughly communicated. I wondered who was doing such a full-scale fireworks at such a late time. If an indivisual were to rise these fireworks , it would be completely unbelievable in Japan. |
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| Fireworks Launched Past Midnight |
| The Bon Odori (Dance) in the photo is not in Japan. It's in Malaysia.
Can you believe it ? Tens of thousands people gathered to enjoy Japanese
Bon Dance. This year on Saturday , July 16 , 2005 , the Bondance was held
at the Shahram venue. Most of the people who gathered are Malaysians and
Chinese other than Japanese I was surprised and impressed to see such a big Bon dance performed in places other than Japan in the world. There were many night shops and food stolls at the Japanese festival , and the atmosphere of Bon dance is was lively. |
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| Many People Are Gathering Even before the Start of Bon Dance |
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| The Number of Bon Dance Circles Is Gradually Increasing |