Useful words for pregnant women in Japanese-english-french

Fares and time table of Japanese trains

Salam, I am back again.

It is summer, time for trips. If you are planning to take trains, there is a very useful website called Hyperdia which is a search engine that allows you to do specific point-to-point rail searches for travel in Japan. It covers virtually all train services in Japan. It allows you to know, for each course proposed, the time required, the distance (km) and the total amount of money.

The english version : http://www.hyperdia.com/cgi-english/hyperWeb.cgi

The japanese version : http://www.hyperdia.com

Have a nice trip!

My Japanese home stay family and my burqa?!

The day of my meeting with the home stay family came.　We decided to meet at the station. Then the mother would take me by car to her home. In order to be recognized, she told me that she would be wearing a red hat. I told her that I would be wearing a black coat. I thought that being a foreigner with my every day black coat can’t be missed in a small town! However, given I am Muslim, my Japanese mother imagined that “black coat” means “black burqa”, like she saw them on TV!

I was few minutes earlier. I saw her coming with her red hat. I waved to her with my hand but she seems to be so absorbed in her thought (or perhaps worries J) that she didn’t notice me! When I was close enough to her, I called her “いさん,　いさん ファドワですよ！！”. Finally she noticed my existence!!

We had a nice chat on our way. She is communicative woman. I immediately felt easiness to speak to her. Upon arriving, she introduced me to her husband and daughters. We talked a lot! Only after deeper acquaintance, my Japanese mother told me that I look normal. “Look normal”? I asked her surprised how she was expecting me to look like. That moment, I knew that my Japanese family had not been well informed that there are different Islamic branches, conservative ones as well as liberal ones. She laughed when I told her that I am sorry to disappoint her since she was expecting a more "exotic" visitor.

I discovered that my Japanese family had borrowed books about Tunisia. They seemed to be studying them. My Japanese mother showed me Bourguiba’s picture and told me: “The book says that he is your hero!” Surprise, surprise, this is exactly the person who is responsible of making me look "normal" to her! To be continued…

Things you need to bring when travelling to Japan

I thought may be it will be interesting for muslims who are coming to japan to know what things they should bring with them:

1. Medicines: bring with you all the medicines you need or may need (in case of flu, headache, ...). It is may be impossible here in Japan to find the same medicines that you use in your country. Medicines here are sold under doctor prescription. There are drug stores where you can buy drugs without doctor's prescription but when you are new and do not speak/read Japanese it is difficult to find what you are looking for. If you have a baby, it is better also to bring medicines against fever because doctors here refused to give drugs against fever for my baby .
2. Clothes: it is difficult for a Muslim woman to find suitable clothes for her (I mean long skirts, long jackets, scarves...). It is more difficult if you wear large sizes, most of clothes here are size S, M or L and sometimes LL. LL is considered a very large size here. The same thing goes for shoes.
3. Bring lace-less shoes or shoes you can easily slip on. You’ll be surprised to find how often you'll be taking them off.
4. If you have problem to speak English, bring with you a dictionary to translate from your language to English. But do not worry because Japaneses do not speak English well so you will need to talk in English occasionally.
5. It is difficult to find Halal vanilla and gelatin, so if you need them, bring them with you. Tahini and Nigella sativa (black seeds) are also difficult to find. I recommend also to bring dried herbs like Oregano, verbana, mint.
   
6. Bring some food with you if you do not know any muslim where you are going to live, it is difficult in the beginning to know which food is halal .
7. Bring with you your official papers (translated in English) like the driving license, original transcripts and degree, vaccination record for children....
8. Many institutes pay salaries at the end of the month, it’s important to bring quite a bit of cash.
   
9. Gifts: it is appreciated to give a gift for your professor.
   

Things you do not need to bring with you:

1. Electrical appliances like a hair dryer because you will face electrical compatibility problems. Japan operates on 100 volts. In addition, used appliances are very cheap here and can be found easily.

Once you are in Japan and realize that you need things for your new home like plates and spoons, batteries, pens..., you can buy them from 100yen shops, these shops sells things at 100 yen, very cheap when you are in Japan.

My Japanese home stay family and my food

My first home stay experience in Japan was two years ago with a warm family. Although they hosted several foreigners in the past, they have never been in contact with a Muslim person. As many Japanese, their only experience with Islam was through TV or newspapers. Media is not always trustful source of information. Although, it is easy and practical way for widening our knowledge, it can be responsible of negative stereotypes and prejudices.

First, when I applied, I had to specify in the form my religion. Furthermore, in the same form they asked whether I have restrictions in food. At the beginning, I was not going to mention my preferences in food. I said to myself that I will try to avoid eating food that are suspicious to me and have sweets and cracks in my bag in case I find nothing to eat. Eating sweets and cracks for two days will not kill me, I can bear that. Furthermore, I am going for the cultural and social purposes. Food is not my priority along this home stay experience. But, I changed my mind; I want to enjoy Japanese homemade food!! Therefore, I mentioned that I would greatly appreciate if alcoholic drinks and meat are withdrawn from my meals.

Few days later, I received feedback from the host family. They accepted my application. Moreover, they included a questionnaire: “Do you drink milk?”, “Do you eat cheese?”, “Do you eat raw fish?”, “If we cook a soup with meat than we remove meat, can you eat the soup?”…

Oh!! So many details!! They could compete Ghada and Hafidha in their accurate selections of Halal Japanese products, just joking :) ! I really didn’t want to cause so much disturb! I am kind of person who does not feel comfortable in giving requests to unknown people. Having no choice, I replied to their questionnaire and politely thanked them for their care. To be continued…