Yagoob’s Dome

Now it has been four days since I arrived to Japan and it seems that I have gained an unwanted friend..or pet rather

For the last couple of nights, whenever I return to my dorm room after spending the night chatting with my fiancee (awww!) I am greeted by a lonely cockroach who only seems to appear whenever I come back home at night and never during the day. Unfortunately our acquaintance was short lived as he met the bottom of my slipper (ewww!)

Another sign of Japanese insect love I felt today was when a centipede ‘kissed’ me on the neck. Now it seems that Japanese centipedes are notorious to be poisonous, but not to worry I’m fine!

I hope I see a couple of butterflies while I’m here to brighten up my day..

I have arrived in Nagoya, Japan in one piece ilhamdulillah although I must admit the 16 hour haul from Bahrain>Dubai>HongKong>Taipei>Nagoya knocked the stuffing out of me, not including the endless train rides to my dorm with over 45 kilos worth of luggage on my shoulders!

Nagoya is a much larger city than I expected. The university campus is huge and even has its own subway station!

To be honest, the culture shock has hit me very hard! Hardly anyone I’ve met so far had the slightest knowledge of the English language. I feel like a 21st century caveman, trying to communicate with the most primitive of ways, hand waving and speaking English in a very slow and loud way. I do pepper some of the very few Japanese words I know but they rarely help me other than Konichiwa and Denwa (hello and telephone)

My dorm room is quite Japanese, extremely tiny and everything is earthquake proof so its like living in an aluminium sardine can. Many of the things I have around the room seem to have instructions on it, but all in Japanese so I have no idea how they work so far!

I had a few problems when I first arrived, it seems that the culture shock hit my Zain ’shain!’ SIM card very badly and it just frizzled for some reason so I basically lost contact with the outer world (Bahrain) and my family especially my fiancee got extremely worried but that ordeal finished once I got my free wireless access at my dorm!

After finally talking with my family I started to live a little and I’ve gotten used to hopping on the subway and going around Nagoya (mainly because I can buy the tickets in English plus all the areas are spelt in English too!)

The subway is quite reminiscent to the London Tube except that it’s much cleaner and a person like me sticks out like a sore thumb (as if a tall fat sweaty hairy Arab wouldn’t stick out anywhere. I do get a lot of looks on the subway from the ‘you’re interesting’, ‘what the hell are you doing here’,'Hey! you’re a foreigner’ and ‘Damn, you’re sexy!’ (the last one is not true but the way!)

The people of Nagoya seem to have never met a Bahraini before, at least that’s what the people at my dorm office say, although I am surprised that they know where it is (maybe of the many hard fought battles on the football pitch over the last few years) and when I chatted with one of my Chinese neighbours ‘Andy’ he said “aah , you are from West Asia!”

I guess I am.. especially when I’m in the Far East

Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a Happy Eid, and may Allah accept your fastings, praying and good deeds throughout the Holy month.

In a wee bit over 24 hours, I’ll be leaving The Island of Golden Smiles to The Land of The Rising Sun and start a new life as a research student, speak a new language, walk down new streets and struggle with a new cuisine!

The thoughts and emotions going through my head and body are indescribable at the moment. I’ve experienced living and studying in a foriegn country for my BSc. but this is way out of the ballpark!

The last time I was only 17 years old and didn’t have a worry in the world! Now I’m 24 and I will leave so much behind.. my job, my unpaid loans and bills and most importantly.. my fiancee

But don’t let the negative tone in the previous paragraphs make you feel that I’m dreading the fact I’m leaving, quite the contrary!

It is the wonderland called Japan!

Anyways I would like to say goodbye to everyone who knows me and follows this blog (ha!) and inshalla the next time I post something here, it will be from my dorm room in Nagoya, Japan!

Sayonara!

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of participating in (and kicking off) Elham’s third season.After almost a year since I first gotten into Elham and attended their monthly sessions, I was asked to read a short story and I managed to write a short story titled “Zaleekha’s Fingers”

The story touches a bit in Bahraini culture and superstition, and the conflict between them and modern science and logic. It was quite an experience and the turnout to the session was mindblowing with a 120 strong audience! I’d like to thank the guys behind Elham and tell them that they are doing a wonderful job and wish them all the best..

I’m sorry the video is a tad dark! Enjoy!

And if you’d rather read then watch, here it is in PDF format:

Zaleekha’s Fingers

..Nor is the word queue in the Arabian’s dictionary!

During my studies in the UK, I learned a lot about the art of queueing and figured out why British people love to queue and why we Arabs don’t believe in it!

To a British person, not queueing means chaos and where there is chaos, nobody can do their jobs efficiently. Queueing makes sure that they get served quickly and efficiently.

To an Arab person, queueing means that they will rot in their place and EVERYONE will cut in front of him and get their job done whilst he ends up being the sucker who actually queued.

Different types of queues:

**Legend:

White circles=clerks
Black circles=customers

1- Typical British queue:

 The customers queue in a straight line without the need for barriers or dividers. Very civilized.

2- Civilized Arab Queue:

These kinds of queues are only found in banks, where there is some sort of order by introducing dividers that indicate the way the queue shape should be. There is an extra invisible queue for women which only appears when a woman enters the bank. This invisible queue gives women the privilege to cut striaght to the head of the line, and if anyone objects her cutting through the queue is considered rude and has poor manners!

3- Snake shaped queue:

Such civilzed queues are usually found in airports or places where there are many customers yet very little queueing room. The queue shape is defined by dividers and the customers wait their turn.

4- Turtle Shell Queue:

Well..OK, it’s pandemonium and the reason for calling it a turtle shell queue is that the customers stand in a semi circle fighting for their turn and as you can imagine the service is extremely slow..Unless you are a VIP!

If you’re a VIP, as you need to do is nudge your way to the front, get what you want and leave the chaos behind you!