In the East Coast With A Japanese Family Friend

We had a few days rest at home in PJ, after attending the funeral of Ram’s nephew in JB, when we had to prepare to go away from PJ again as we had planned. This time to Kerteh in the East coast.

Several weeks earlier we received a phone call from a Japanese family friend Ohtani, Tadasu-san, living in Kobe, Japan that he, his wife and daughter will be holidaying in Club Med Cherating, in the east coast, for about a week. This time around they will not stop over in KL, as they often did whenever they holiday in Malaysia (they had stayed over with us in PJ several times previously), as the daughter had just changed job and cannot get away from work for too long. Hence we made plans to stay with Sita in Kerteh during the period that the Ohtanis were in Cherating. Kerteh is only about a 45 minutes drive from Cherating.
The Ohtanis enjoy tennis. They play tennis whenever they get the chance and when in Club Med Cherating. In fact they go to Cherating with the main intention of playing tennis!

I have known the Ohtanis since the early eighties. I was then working in Tokyo for the Bintulu Fertilizer Plant Project and was in the same office with Tadasu-san. Tadasu and family later moved to Bintulu for the construction of the plant. Our children were small then and they used to play together. We maintained contact even after the project was completed and visited each other whenever we can. While working on the project a few other Engineers were together with me and most of them who knew Tadasu Ohtani are now working in Kerteh. Sita made arrangements and invited those who know Tadasu to her house for dinner but not telling them that Tadasu will be there. I meanwhile arranged to pick up Tadasu and family from Cherating on our way up to Kerteh from PJ, and I too did not tell Tadasu of the impending presence of old friends.

It was raining most of the way from PJ to the East Coast. It was expected as it’s the monsoon season in this part of the country. It was still raining in Cherating when we arrived at the hotel at about 5.00pm, fetched the Ohtanis and headed straight to Sita’s house. Tadasu had catalogued old videos and pictures into a DVD and we viewed them while waiting for dinner. It was fun watching videos of the kids when they were small, ourselves when we were much younger and various other scenes that we have somewhat forgotten. It was nostalgic.

Meanwhile Ram and Sita, also with Fahrul’s help, got dinner ready and waited for the arrival of other old friends. Sita had invited four families and when they arrived there were ‘surprised banter’ between the Japanese and the Malaysian old friends and it was hilarious looking at them. Everyone had a good time that night, including the children. I think most were not too excited over the food served as they were more interested to catch up on old times with Tadasu-san and family.

The next few days were spent with the Ohtanis, taking them around the area, introducing them to local food, showing the sites and so on. Tadasu was also fascinated by a fruiting mango tree. He had his camera, both still and video, clicking on and on, at the mango tree, at the 'strange' looking food, (some of them wrapped in banana leaves or coconut leaves) and also at local scenes . Miyuki-san wanted to get local spices to take home and we brought them to a local shop where these stuff can be obtained quite cheaply, more so when compared to prices of the stuff in Japan (which can be more than ten times!!).

The last day of the Ohtani’s stay in Cherating came so soon. It was Friday and they were scheduled to leave in the late afternoon. Sita was not working (Friday being the official weekend off day for the Terengganu state) and invited them to play tennis with her at her club in the morning. We picked them up at 7 am and headed straight to the club in Kerteh. While the four were playing tennis, Ram and I practiced our qi gong while little Najla played around by herself. We had late breakfast and sent them back to the hotel. We said our goodbyes and promised to meet again hopefully not in Cherating this next time but in PJ and Bintulu. We can perhaps squeeze a day or two in Port Dickson as well then. They can still play tennis there as there are tennis courts in our resort condo. They are already planning to come again in 2007 . . . . which really is just around the corner!!

MKI Ramblings Unlimited
Petaling Jaya