Consulate-General of Japan in Penang, Malaysia
在ペナン日本国総領事館

Culture

Japan Festival 2008 in Ipoh, Perak

The Japan Festival 2008 in Ipoh, Perak, was held on Saturday, October 18, 2008 from 1200 hrs to 1500 hrs, at Perak State Public Library.

During the 3-hour programme, the participants from all walks of life were introduced to Japanese flower arrangements, art of paper folding, traditional toys and they also had a chance of wearing Japanese summer wear, yukata.

During the event, participants were given Explore Japan magazines and documentary manga on Abductions by North Korea: Megumi free of charge.

The whole session ended with more than 700 walk-in participants at the venue.

The ikebana section is hosted by Master Sasaki, whose expertise is in ikenobo, in which ikebana was historically originated from. As the session is in Japanese language, Y. Bhg. Datin Ushiama (right) interprets to the audience.	A style of ancient roots, contributing to contemporary life. This arrangement is done with the knowledge of the composition and esthetics of traditional features, emphasizes expressiveness via the movement, brightness, and fresh impressions given by its floral materials.	Participants are arranging flower by the guidance from the Master. The Director of the State Library, Mr. Mohammad Nazari (right) is seen to join the crowd too.

Origami, Japanese traditional toys, and Food Corners

Origami session is among the popular corner for the participants of the Festival. They have the chance to learn from experienced origami teachers; Ms. Nishikawa and members from the Perak Malaysian Japanese Friendship Society (PMJFS).	Japanese traditional toys corner had attracted many young kids who are so keen in “learning” how to play the toys. They are deeply amazed at how some of the toys can have amazing features.	Japanese food replica corner offers the participants various food which is now very popular across the world; soba (cold noodles), sushi (raw seafood slice on top of small portion of rice), tempura (deep fried prawn and some other vegetables like lady’s finger, aubergine etc) as well as bento (lunch box).

Tea Ceremony

Nadeshiko Tea Ceremony Group performs their art of chado, the way of tea, to the Perakians for the first time. The group, lead by Master Sumiishi (left), presenting the beautiful Japanese tradition that emphasizes on the culmination of a union of artistic creativity, sensitivity to nature and social interchange.	In chado, the utmost priority for the host is the guest. Its quiet atmosphere of harmony and respect for people and object, with attention to cleanliness and order, strives to bring peace to body and spirit. Master Sumiishi is explaining the correct way of holding the tea bowl and drinking the tea served.	The manner of preparing powered green tea may be influenced by many styles and techniques, depending on the practices of the various schools. The Master is using a bamboo tea whisk to stir the tea powder after poured in hot water into the bowl. All the utensils must be cleaned and dried after use.

Too delicate that can’t let go and must store in your mobile phone? Walk in patrons have chance to choose a wide range of colour combination to wear for their precious moment of yukata wearing session.	Master Imura is fitting yukata to a girl. Yukata is summer wear that is flexible, can fit any body size. For Master Imura, to complete a model in yukata is just at her fingertips; needs less than 4 minutes only!	The yukata wearing corner receives very good response from the people. At the corner, there are about three teachers cooperate to dress up those who are interested in wearing yukata.

Japanese Cooking Class 2007

            Japanese Cooking Classes were held three times in series on October 17 and 26, 2007, and November 20, 2007, in conjunction with Japan-Malaysia Friendship Year 2007. On the first day, a dozen of journalists and photographers from 7 press companies attended the cooking class. While for the following classes, about 30 committee members from Pertubuhan Bunga Tanjung and other representing economic, cultural and social organizations were invited. The main objective was to promote Japanese food to locals. The participants also had a hands-on trial of making simple Japanese food like rolled sushi, and of course they were invited to our free lunch reception!
          See how the skillful chef Piyawong peels off the skin of the lobster. After the meat is taken out from the shell, it needs to be soaked in cold ice water to retain its freshness. The raw lobster meat is one of the components in sashimi dish too. The pictures shown below indicate the preparation process of cutting a lobster meat.

Sashimi
        Sashimi is also called tsukuri, fresh seafood fillets cut into bite-sized pieces and eaten raw with soy sauce and wasabi (Japanese horseradish). Almost any fish can be used, but most common are red-meat fish like tuna, white-meat fish like sea bream, flounder and horse mackerel. In addition, shrimp, squid, abalone are often used too.

         You may wonder how many knives will be used for preparing sashimi as shown in pictures below. There are 4 of them in total. These knives are specially brought in from Japan . Only the very sharp knives (pix. 1) can produce the finest cutting of the fish meat, without affecting its delicate structure (pix. 2). According to Chef Piyawong, if the structure is affected by slightly improper cutting, the tastiness of the fish will be affected too. The very good cutting skill only can produce such appetite-pleasing sashimi.

Onigiri (Rice Ball with Fillings)

       Onigiri, in the olden days, was a common food for travelers in Japan . It is filled with some ingredients such as salted plum, fish meat, pickles, seaweed, etc. The preparation is easy, but needs a little bit of techniques, especially when it comes to shaping a rice ball into just about a triangle form.
       However, there is no fixed shape an onigiri should appear to be. Nowadays, it is an ideal food for a picnic or outing. Wrapped with seaweed paper on the side and filled with two or three ingredients, food lovers can anticipate or are curious about what are hidden inside an onigiri while the taste of seaweed paper on the outer part melted in their mouths. One thing for sure, a piece of onigiri can fill up half of your stomach for your much awaited lunch time!

Rolled Sushi

       The guests were also shown the making of rolled sushi, or also known as maki-zushi. Among the ingredients used are sushi rice (short grain rice with rice wine, sugar and a little bit of salt), seaweed paper, cucumber, salted radish, egg, shiitake mushrooms etc. The guests were also shown the different types of rolled sushi like futomaki (large sushi roll), matsuri-zushi, also known as festival sushi (combination of 2 to 3 hosomaki) and hosomaki (small sushi rolls with one or two ingredients).

       Rolled sushi, like all other sushi, should be served immediately. You can store it in the fridge for up to 1 hour, but doing so will result in the rice hardening and the fish losing its freshness. After 3 to 4 hours, the rice will be unpleasantly hard. The most difficult part is to roll the sushi tight enough so that the ingredients will not flow out.

Participants are first shown the way of making rolled sushi and then are being guided by chef Piyawong to try to make it on their own. It is learnt that it is not easy at the very first step of spreading the rice evenly on a bamboo roll mat.

In order to produce a good sushi, one needs initially to spend as long as 5 years of training under a real experienced Japanese cook. The sushi chef to-be also needs continuous practice of several years before s/he is considered qualified to be sushi-making master.

All the participants are amazed with the speed of making one sushi after another by chef Piyawong. The chef emphasized that only the very fresh fish can produce the very good sushi.

Tempura (Deep-Fried and Lightly Battered Vegetables and Seafood)
         For those who are scared of hot oil, preparing tempura dish is not a great threat to them actually. Chef Piyawong revealed the secret that there is only one way to “make peace” with the hot oil. He explained that the item to be fried, may it be seafood like prawn or vegetable like mushroom, needs to be dusted with flour first, and then dip it into batter, consisting the mixtures of egg yolk, ice water and flour, then only slowly put it into hot oil at 160 degrees. This way of making is shown in pix. 1(a) and (b), where flour and batter play an important part in “frying without worries” with the boiling oil, as shown in pix. 2. Pix. 3 and 4 are the dishes ready to serve.

Picture 1	Picture 2	Picture 3
Picture 4	Picture 4	Picture 6

Participants are also shown how to fry tempura. Some of them are very good at repeating what chef Piyawong teaches to their members who hesitate to get near to the hot oil.