One fine evening, as I was resting in bed with my ipad in hand checking emails, a promotional message from MAS came through offering cheap discounted tickets to various destinations around the globe. These offerings were to end precisely at midnight and it was then slightly passed 10pm. One of the destinations on offer was to Osaka at RM739.00 return, which was very cheap indeed. I clicked 1st to 7th November, keyed in Ram's and my details, chose the seats and checked the total price. It came out to RM 1806 return for the two of us. I asked Ram whether she wanted to go to Kobe on those dates and told her a quick decision is in order. She agreed. I keyed in my credit card details and voila, we were confirmed straightaway for KLIA - KIX - KLIA.
Sometime later I emailed a very close Japanese family friend living in Kobe, the Ohtani's, whose two children, Ayako and Toshihiko, were like our children and they, were very close to our own children too. Informed them of my flight details and got an immediate response from Ayako-chan, welcoming us and offering us to stay in her 3 room apartment. She lives in the apartment alone and it is also close to her parent's house just about 5 minutes away by car. That settled it and we were all geared to go to Kobe come 1st November. There were excitements both sides and emails were interchanged with advices and informations for us. Although the Ohtani's have been to Malaysia many times, they also attended all of our childrens' weddings, this will be our return trip to Kobe after a very long time. About thirty years. Much must have changed in Kobe and we were excited. Also, November will be the season for Khaki or persimmon, which is my favourite and the Ohtanis' have set aside some time for us to go persimmon picking, which was thoughtful of them.
We got some Malaysian food ingredients, including curries and korma, which the Ohtanis like, to bring along with us. Packed our stuff and luggage in two bags and ready to go in the late evening of 1st November. Sita sent us to KLIA and we proceeded to check-in, went throuh immigration and on to the boarding gate all in due time although there was a very long queue to drop off our bags at the check-in counter. The flight was on time and arrived at Kansai airport at the scheduled time of just before 7.00am. Checking through the Japanese immigration and customs was easy. Tadasu and Miyuki Ohtani were waiting for us just outside of the arrival gate.
I was fortunate to be sitting by the window on the right side of the plane. As we were preparing to land into Kansai airport I observed the magnificent rising sun in the horizon. It was a beautiful sight. It was preparing to shine over the Land of The Rising Sun, as the saying goes. The rays of light emitting, getting brighter and brighter as the clock ticks on, colouring up the distance skies in various hue that left me in peace of mind. I was lost in my imagination of the beauty displayed for my eyes. So tranquil easing the soul into submission to the Will of Allah, the Almighty, the creator of this magnificent daily phenomenon.
We were also surprised to have met my cousin with his wife and son on the same flight with us. They were on holiday to Osaka and would proceed to Kyoto and later to Tokyo. They will be flying out of Tokyo back to KL.
Kansai airport stood on a man-made island on the east side of Osaka bay while a smaller Kobe airport was on another man-made island across the bay nearer to Kobe on the west side. A ferry took us across the bay in half an hour. Ohtani had parked his car at Kobe airport. It would have taken about two hours by car to go around the bay from Kansai airport to Kobe, and that too if there was free flow traffic.
Twenty minutes out of Kobe airport Ohtani took us to Kobe mosque on our way to Ayako's house. It is an old mosque, the first in Japan and built by the muslim traders who came in the early 18th. Century and has seen several refurbishment over time. It has a main prayer hall that can seat several hundred people at one time and an upper hall for ladies. Annexed to it is a utility hall with an attached kitchen and other amenities. Across the mosque is a shop selling halal food, a majority of which are imported from elsewhere, so the prices can be quite expensive comparatively. We bought some halal chicken to go. We had tea at a quaint little shop in a building near the mosque ithat was once a school and which had been turned into a food court of sorts. This little tea shop was once the school's Supervisor's office!
Another twenty minutes by car we arrived at Ayako's apartment. Lucky for us it was on the ground floor of a four storey walk up building. Comfortable. Ayako was at the community area playing tennis when we arrived and we went there to watch her. When done we went back to the apartment for lunch of rice, soup and Japanese otak-otak, some fish and vegetables fried in flour, a larger version of the popular Malay jemput-jemput or chokodok. Rice was typical sticky Japanese rice which I had missed alot. It was reminiscent of my time living in Japan some thirty years ago.
Then it was time to go persimmon picking at a persimmon farm not too far away from Ayako's house, about twenty minutes by car. For a fee, one can go into the persimmon farm, that stood on the hillside (Ram had to climb the hill with some difficulties, and so do I), eat as much persimmon as we like, and anything that we take out will be weighed and paid for accordingly. It was fun. I had six whole persimmon and Ram had five! more than enough to satiate our appetite, ha ha ha! I was like a child in a candy store, mouth agape, at the many persimmon trees each full of persimmon at various stages of ripening. It gets dark pretty early here at this time of the year. Sundown was at about 6.00pm. We spent our time in the farm until it was almost dark. No dinner that night after all the persimmon we had!!
To be continued......
MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Kobe
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