During last hajj break, My family and I spent vacation in Tokyo as our son has an opportunity to study there. Although we were in vacation mood but we didn’t want to miss a great gift from Allah by fasting on the Arafah day. Alhamdulillah .
Since we were in Jeddah, we prepared a paper written in Japanese language that we don’t eat pork, “no pork”. Since we know, most of Japanese food at restaurant or food court contain pork.
If we wanted to buy ready food, we must read the food’s ingredient. Most of the food written in Japanese, we had to show the paper to ask them whether there was pork or not. One day we ate at Coco curry house restaurant, we thought it was a halal restaurant, but to make sure I asked the waiter “Is there any pork on the food?” And she said yes! I thought there was no pork in chicken curry but I was wrong, they used oil of pork at the curry sauce. I was so surprised. So fish and seafood are more safe to eat, unless they use pork oil. Sushi is made of vinegar (mixed in the rice) and various toppings. Usually the toppings or fillings are raw fish, but other kinds such as vegetables and cooked egg are also popular. Many kinds of sushi have a little wasabi (a spice made from a root plant) and we eat it with a bit of soy sauce. But some sushi made of vinegar rice which alcohol in it! So we need to be extra careful.
At the day of Arafah, Embassy of Saudi Arabia invited us for breakfast. We felt at home. Saudi’s breakfast, dates, briyani rice, sambusak/samosa, tabbula salad , etc. We met many Saudi people who live there for work or study.
Eid Adha in Tokyo is completely different from Jeddah. I didn’t hear the sound of takbeer, tahlil, tahmid, because the place we stay was far away from mosque. No vacation for school or office work . At Eid day, my son went to school, he couldn’t pray Eid. The pray started at 8 o’clock. The nearest mosque from the place we stay was one stop train from Ikebukuro. The mosque is at Otsuka, about 15 minutes walk from hotel to Ikebukuro train station, take Yamanote line, 10 minutes in train. 15 minutes walk from train station of Otsuka to reach the mosque. So we need around 40 minutes to reach the small, clean and tidy mosque at Otsuka. The speech was in English and not too long. The Muslim community there were so friendly.
There are several mosques in Tokyo such as Turkey mosque at Shibuya. Besides, there are also Islamic center that Muslim people can do pray in congregation, get lectures or study of Islam. I hope next time I can visit there.
