2014/ January 11th (Thursday) and 12th (Friday)
Including the representative of Masjid Nagoya, 9 Muslims joined a trial trip to Muslim-friendly project’s (associations) in Hida Takayama.
We are grateful to that they fitted our journey’s plan holding the concept of natural reception, without being concerned about Halal certificating, and that they made the reception of Muslims smooth.
The report about (that trip) is as below:
Attendee:
2 Malaysians, 2 Indonesians, one Pakistani, one Japanese and three persons who are half Pakistani and half Japanese.
The first day:
Events: Experience sewing Hida’s Sashiko / a stroll through stores and houses in the old town/ visiting “Takayama Festivals’ Floats Hall Assembly”/ a courtesy call on Deputy Mayor of Takayama CityFood: Tenpurasoba (Aji No Yohei restaurant)/ banquet dishes using Halal chicken (Ryokan Tanabe)
※We performed Zuhur and Assr prayer in the same (Japanese-styled) room we had lunch in.
We were kindly guided by an English-speaker guide in the Floats Hall Assembly.
In the Ryokan, since we were offered to choose Yukata , females enjoyed selecting their favored colored patterns. Although there was a hot spring, unfortunately it was only a
large public (common) bath with no reserved bath; even some attendee was very disappointed but patient to use the unit bath.
As for dinner, we received Houba Miso -grill and Mizudaki both of which were using Halal chicken. The representative of Masjid Nagoya was impressed that “it is my first time to come to a hot spring and eat meat”.
The second day:
Events: a morning stroll in town/ a ride in Shinotaka Ropeway/ experience sledging in Hirayu hot spring’s ski area
Food: Houba Miso (Ryokan Tanabe)/ a lunch box with banquet dishes including Halal chicken-used Karaage (Okuhida Garden Hotel Yakedake)
※Since it was Friday, we performed Jumua prayer in the hotel room in which we had lunch. They kindly prepared two rooms for us to be used by males and females separately; however, for the circumstances of Khuttbah and collective prayer we used only one room. We told them that males and females could be separated into two front and back lines and could perform prayer in the same room, and it was not necessarily that males and females would be separated (in two rooms).
At lunch, the (famous) appetite-stimulating Hida beef was prepared, but unfortunately we couldn’t eat it as it was not Halal. They said they didn’t understand that all sorts of meat must be Halal because the order was only to use Halal chicken. In spite of that, everybody was pleased to eat Halal Karaage.
They told us there was a (prepared) room for prayer in a station in the middle of the ropeway. But unfortunately, because of time limit we couldn’t pass by it. Both the ropeway and the sledge were precious experiences for the Malaysians and Indonesians. We had fun playing with snow for the first time after we forgot the coldness.
