What a wonderful weekend...(2nd date)

in front of Sendai eki

I am totally busy today until Kajimoto-san canceled the training so i will have some time before i start preparing my slide for Dr Brian's class. What should i do with the limited time..of course updating my blog. My handsome brother called last night asking me about our outing last weekend. Really wanted to update as soon as possible but as usual isogashii desu ne. My love and I really had a marvelous time and i guess mama n abah too.

Aoba Matsuri and lifetime experience (Saturday 16-May-2009)

We planned to go out after Zuhur around 1 pm. I dont have enough time to prepare my sample this week so on Saturday morning, went to the lab for a while about 3 hours to do experiment, went back..lunch and off to Sendai City. My love dropped us near Daiei and we walked to our first destinantion Sendai Eki. I have a task over there. I want to take pamphlet on trip to Tokyo Disney. Abah n mama plans to go there and of course their daughter and son in law..will follow hehe, semoga ada rezeki kami untuk ke sana. On our way out we heard some music outside sendai building. "Ting" tiba-tiba teringat my nihonggo sensei mentioned about Aoba Matsuri a.k.a Aoba Festival. Anything which is associated to matsuri is sort of festival. This weekend is the annual festival of Sendai. Trademark for sendai are Samurai mata satu (betul, tak tipu) and..tada..kipas..(doorgift during our wedding). As far as i know according to my tomodachi and nihonggo sensei, every prefecture have their own festival so boleh dikatakan every month akan ada festival depends on prefecture, so i told mama n abah there is sort of maybe dance outside maybe we should have a look. Tengok kat luar dah ramai orang so we find some space and try to watch the dance..there were a lot of performers, tak kira tua muda, same music and instruments just the clothes, the steps of the dance and how they decorate the fan would be slightly different according to their own creativity..maybe..(i'm just guessing). I tried to snap some pictures, ramai orang and i have to jump a bit to snap it..but still i couldnt get the full figure of it. Ditambah dengan kamera yang sungguh canggih ini..end up lots of blurry pictures..huu tapi takpela..ada jugak gambar yang ok.

Aoba Matsuri at Sendai Eki, i tried to approach the kids (they are busy practising their dance), walking at Clis road
i was snapping pictures, suddenly she came and pose beside my mum, kawaii, genki lagi aunty ni
before going down to Clis road

There were severals groups but we just watched about 3 since we have dinner date later on at 5 pm. Our next destination is shopping dori near sendai eki. There are 3 main shopping dori (street) here which are Clis Road, Sun Mall Road, Ichibancho Road, (setahu saya la) sorry kalau silap hehe..these shopping complex berbentuk T. Kebetulan my sis, Kak Yu wanted to repair her pearl, her husband bought it for her during his trip to Yokohama. Nasib baik ada Tsutsumi kat sini so senang la sket nak repair..bukan rosak tapi nak panjangkan lagi pearl necklace tu. After surveying the price and went to look around at several shop, we headed to Katahira campus for our appointment. On the way..there were this Aoba Matsuri parade along Ichibancho and Clis road. We were shocked, a lot of people and i'm getting to like the music..sort of catchy, nice..hehe. As usual we took some pictures tapi banyak tak jadi..huhu..

ramainya orang..
abah beside the dancers
shinsetsu hito took our picture, u guys rock...sporting..
love birds...(kuikui kerenat mama n abah)
tatau la apa nama..gondola agaknya hehe, the dancers, the musicians and the parade ends here

We were walking towards our car park at katahira campus. I glance to my watch, oh no it's 5 o'clock, mesti Fukumura sensei dah sampai, while my love said, there is another 5 seconds to 5 pm, as we mentioned his name...dgn penuh gaya keunggulan..he made a turn towards the parking and love said "wah exactly 5 pm, hmm jangan main2 kalau ada appointment dengan Fukumura sensei, so punctual.." he's definitely right. He greeted us and told us that he booked the restaurant from 6 pm, at the mean time he wanted to do a short tour around Katahira campus. We just knew that, Tohoku university started at this campus and then expand to Aobayama (our campus) and the rest. Katahita is near the city, during that time a lot of student likes to do street protess and so on...so pindah la ke kawasan bukit bukau itew..(Aobayama), and then there was also a museum inside there..he..tatau pun..nanti la ada masa jenguk situ (masa tu tutup). Albert Einstein pernah visit Tohoku University on 1922..glamer jugak rupanya sejak zaman dolu kala lagi...wah2..

Listening to Fukumura sensei's history about Tohoku Univ, nasib baik love manage to snap some pictures
the museum, bukan nak dengar duk sibuk posing hehe

After that we went to the restaurant. It is very near to Katahira campus. We passed by this road several time and saw this road, we never thought there would be a restaurant behind all those houses. Rupa-rupanya a very traditional yet an exclusive restaurant. The restaurant is 100 years old, yet they modified it a bit but still preserve the traditional element. All of us were amazed..ternganga uu..terkijat..tak sangka la nak pergi makan to this kind of places. It is truly a lifetime experience. The waitresses were dressed in a complete kimono. We have to open our shoes, nasib baik tak dukduk bersila/bersimpuh gaya jepun, or else lenguh nanti especially my parents la..Fukumura sensei request seat and table. We were escorted to our room, so big..siap ada pemandangan taman lagi..wow wi bestnya..i jst cant express how happy i am...this is too much..u are truly very kind to me and also my family. Kena la keje rajin2 lepas ni uhuhuhu..

feels like perkampungan jepun di zaman dulu hehe..
entrance to our dining room
our dinner setup
view of the garden and a part of Sendai city since it is situated on the hill, totemo kireina
Fukumura sensei explained why the "door knob" (i dont know the exact name) was low, b'coz people open it while seating like the position in the picture

Gosshhh truly, madly, deeply traditional. We had 9 courses but we didnt manage to snap all the pictures, duk ralit makan and sometime we are sort of shy, each time amek gambar mesti Fukumura sensei pandang, jakun sungguh budak ni katanya hehe..memang pun huu...lepas ni we cant afford to eat at this posh restaurant so we wanna have as many memories as possible.

our menu..9 course, 1 pun tak faham huu
appetizer
sashimi..lupa course no brapa..hu
a dinner to remember...
i forgot the name of this...
and this too..(tapi ikan sungai)
2nd last dish, my love had udon
i had cha soba
dessert

All of us were so full..kekenyangan yang amat. The noodles are delicious, mama had rice ans soup (kalau kat our place ala2 nasi air) tapi tak sempat plak amek gambar...totally awesome. We also receive an envelope which contain their bussiness card and also free postcards which are the paintings of the view near the restaurant.

abah n love n also miyagi kokeshi doll..masa tu tgh tunggu Fukumura sensei paid the bill, i tried to sneak but he said, pelase wait over there..hehe..kalau tak nanti leh tahu amount that he spent that night
last picture before nite2 to Fukumura sensei
nice postcards

So that was the end for our first outing...it was really an unforgettable day (suddenly i'm humming Nat king Cole's song unforgettable..hehe)


Dream come true (Sunday 17-May-2009)

Wakey2 quite late hehe..we were exhasuted, around 9 am, woke up bath, bekfes. It was raining since last night, ingt nak g jenjalan at park, to see some flowers..so we cancelled and since tak habis tawaf lagi the T mall at sendai city we decided to go to the other side, and also Tsutsumi, last night dah balik fikir and decided untuk buat at Tsutsumi, but have to wait 3 weeks and a bit expensive, got green light from Kak yu, she wanted it no matter how much it cost. Today my love and i decided to strat from Mitsukoshi..masuk siru sekejap jer..so posh, and expensive, not affordable for me especially..when walking towards Tsutsumi suddenly i saw this kimono..sebelum ni kalau tengok price dia..tak sah kalau tak cecah 100,000 yen. But this time i saw 10,000 yen. Agaknya belt dia je kut...we were about to leave suddenly i saw one of he staff my instinct kept telling me to ask what can i buy with that 10,000 yen. She said the kimono and the belt. This is spring time kimono..during summer-yukata (very thin cotton) and winter is different kind of material, wahh biar betul excited dah ni rasa macam nak beli terus. Belek2 material mmg la sort of low quality, tak selembut sutera, padan la dengan harganya, it's been since little girl that i wanted to wear and also buy a kimono..lepas tu masuk plak kedai..suddenly she asked something but i didnt understand and she guided me to the front of the mirror and asked me to open my shoes and step onto the small stage. She opened the kimono and start putting it on me. My heart beat fast..is this true..i'm actually wearing a kimono..but it's not a perfect set just the outer side and belt without the other accesories to complete the kimono set. These 2 things cost 10,000 yen. The best part of shopping in Sendai or should i say Japan, if we didn't buy, it is ok...they would still say thank you instead of ugly face impression and also bad words (it's from my home country of course..). Takper nanti dengan aksesori2 dia seme i beli (sandal, rope, etc..) hehe..

kirei na kimono
watashi wa daisuki desu
totemo takai desu ne

Move on to Tsutsumi..banyak betul insiden tiba2..coz we saw some student started to do sort of acting, rasanya it is about the history of Sendai, sebab ada samurai mata satu..hehe kan betul what mentioned before...we dont understand what they said, tapi sort of kidnapping the princess and samurai ms (mata satu) tu berjaya save the princess..i didnt see the end coz i went to the shop to buy drinks for mama. Love told me the ending..went to Tsutsumi, settle pearl Kak yu, and all of us were very tired and very2 cold..we went home and had dinner at Marumatsu, our favorite spot. Mama n abah also likes the food. Oishii...soshite yasui..desu. baru belajar at class this morning..kan love kan..

street performance (Aoba Matsuri)
Samurai MS...
dah lama nak capture this, we always saw this walking doll, sort of fashion here but this time tak cukup aksesori la huu..usually they will wear wig n very huge ribbon on top..funny yet cute very daring to dress up like this..
dinner at our fav spot..munch2 shop grocery at jusco and went back home...