Apa itu matang?

Lately, I've been questioning my maturity. Being almost 18 years of age, there is no doubt I have reached physical maturity. I will never grow any taller than this and I've accepted that, begrudgingly. The question is my mind. What is the definition of matang anyway? If I had to specify when I think I became matang of mind, I would say it was probably sometime before PMR or before SPM. I become extremely focused when the exams near. But that's not matang, is it - that's just being studious at the last minute, which isn't very matang at all.

When I spoke of this with my mum, she said she has her own opinion of when I reached mental maturity. Surprisingly, it was when I was 9.

When my family packed and moved to England, my mum was nearing the final stages of her pregnancy. She was as big as a house. To add to that, we had brought from Malaysia practically everything in our house. Not only clothes but also plates and bowls, spoons and forks, even a rice cooker. Our luggage filled up two trolleys. My dad is strong but he only has so many hands. My mum was having a hard time as it was, carrying her own "luggage". My little brother might as well have been part of the luggage for all the help he was, taking a ride on the trolley. So I, 9 years old, helped push the trolley laden with our things.

The image of a little girl pushing a trolley twice her size, probably weighing more than twice her weight, must have left an impression on my mum because it wasn't the first time she has told that story, but I have no recollection of it whatsoever.

I remember our relatives seeing us off at KLIA, my grandma even shedding a tear. I remember saying goodbye to Malaysia as the plane took off and my parents thought I was going to cry. I don't quite remember the long flight. I think it was spent playing games and watching something on the small screen every passenger had. But I can still relive the joy of watching my breath fog up in front of me the moment we stepped out of the doors of Heathrow Airport. I was fascinated. We all were. And then we realised that it was unbearably freezing cold and we crouched behind a wall of trolleys hoping it would shield us from the icy wind.

I don't remember taking hold of the trolley and pushing it because there was no one else who could do it. I don't think it was something I did because I was matang. Most probably I was just excited I got to push a trolley. I'm still, only a tiny bit, excited when I get to push a trolley now. Imagine how I was when I was 9.

I wouldn't say I'm matang now. But I'm definitely not immature either. My image of a matang person is someone who is quiet and keeps things to themselves. By that I don't mean someone who keeps secrets, rather someone who doesn't tell everyone everything, only the important things. Judging from the intense urge I get to tell someone whenever anything mildly interesting happens, I am far from my ideal of matang.

Now answer honestly. Apa itu matang?

Why Nino is a sweet, sweet man

Thank you, Mija, for giving me a chance to speak about Arashi! It goes like this:

Once (I can't remember when or where), Arashi were asked about the chocolates they had received on Valentine's Day. I don't remember all of their replies but I remember Jun saying he received chocolates from his entire class. As expected, he's popular. In contrast, Nino said he received only one chocolate. It wasn't given to him directly but was placed on the front door at his house. Nino said that the girl must have been nervous and dropped the box or something because when he opened it the chocolate was broken. It was honmei-choko. He could tell it was handmade because it was extremely salty. She must have confused sugar with salt. Even so, he ate it all. She made it especially for him after all.

Sweet, no? ♥ I saw Nino in a different light after that. He might seem nonchalant, like he doesn't care about things like this, but he knows to respect and appreciate it when a girl likes him seriously enough to make honmei-choko for him. This was before Arashi was formed, by the way. I'm sure now he has a lot of fans that would readily make chocolate for him (including me although I can't guarantee it will turn out edible. Knowing he will eat it all regardless worries me even more. What if my chocolate turns out so bad it gives him food poisoning? No, that would never happen). I wonder if that girl is a fan of Nino now.

Really, thanks, Mija! Sorry lambat reply komen kau. Kenapa blogger ni tak hantar email notification bila ada orang komen? Takkan dia expect aku check blog tiap-tiap hari.

In which I was a boy, probably

The other night I had a dream. In my dream, I think I was a boy.

I never saw myself in the mirror so I don't know if I really turned into Habib but the dream leads me to believe so. The dream was like this: I'd received chocolates from Fatin and Raja Syazwani on Valentine's Day so I was shopping for their White Day presents. How appropriate for me to have this dream on the night of March 14. I'll explain, but to explain White Day I have to explain Valentine's Day first.

Valentine's Day in Japan
During the 1960s, numerous campaigns by Japanese confectionery companies made Valentine's Day popular in Japan. A translation error during the initial campaigns, however, led Japan to believe that only women give chocolates to men. They couldn't correct this error so to this day, Valentine's Day in Japan is a day where only girls give. But no matter, the Japanese confectionery companies still achieved their objective; to make money. Half of their annual sales are from the week before Valentine's Day because the custom is to give chocolates. Gifts such as flowers, greeting cards, stuffed toys and romantic dinner dates are uncommon.

There are different types of chocolates depending on whom they're given to.

Giri-choko （義理チョコ）
Giri means obligatory so giri-choko are chocolates that girls give because they have to. Recipients are usually bosses and co-workers. The chocolates are cheap. Nothing special because they have no special feelings towards them.

Cho giri-choko （著義理チョコ）
Ultra obligatory chocolate. These are super cheap chocolates given to someone that girls really hate and would rather not give but must because they have to. For example, an unpopular co-worker.

Honmei-choko （本命チョコ）
Favourite chocolate. These are chocolates girls give to the boy they like. They are expensive chocolates but it's also common for girls to give handmade chocolates and these are chocolates that boys really want to get. They're special because the girls poured their heart into making them (this reminds me of a story Nino once told but I already said no Arashi for this blog...).

Tomo-choko （友チョコ）
Friend chocolate. A recent trend where girls give chocolates to their female friends (because the girls want chocolates too).

Gyaku-choko （逆チョコ）
Reverse chocolate. Where boys give chocolates instead (because girls feel stressed due the fact that they have to give chocolates to everyone they know). There's also the term chokomen （チョコメン）used to refer to men who give chocolates on Valentine's Day.

White Day
Seeing the success of chocolate companies, a marshmallow company tried to get the men to reply by giving marshmallows to the girls on March 14. This attempt failed but the idea of a "reply day" was widely accepted. For the men who received chocolates on Valentine's Day, a day was made one month later, March 14, when they are expected to return the favour: White Day. The official website of White Day (yes, it has a website apparently) claims the colour white was chosen because it is the colour of purity, evoking "pure, sweet teen love", and because it's also the colour of sugar (but I think it could also be because marshmallows are typically white). As the name suggests, white chocolates are usually given but clothes and other things are also common.

Black Day
I think the custom of only girls giving chocolates and the types of chocolates are only seen in Japan (at least, I think it's only taken so seriously in Japan because I've read somewhere that Valentine's Day in Korea is no big deal, which is odd seeing how romantic Koreans are) but it's worth mentioning that Korea takes White Day a step further by introducing Black Day. A day when singles wear black and eat jajangmyeon, noodles with black bean sauce.

In conclusion, that was a weird dream.

The Birth of the Blog

For some reason, I feel like announcing the fact that this will be my first post on blogger. A first post is something to be celebrated after all. It's the beginning of something. Possibly, hopefully, something worthwhile and meaningful.

Now this first post won't be just an announcement; it will have actual content too.

Why have I created this blog?
This is a question even to me because the way it went was, I couldn't get to sleep one night and created this blog on a whim. After I made this blog, it was left empty for a good month or so because I didn't know what to do with it. Why did I sign up on blogger when I already have a livejournal account?! After thinking it through, I decided that, well, I made livejournal to be able to join the online Arashi community there so livejournal will be for everything Arashi and blogger will be for everything else. Yes, I think that will be a nice arrangement.

What is this blog?
As I've mentioned above, this blog will be for everything else. Interesting things I learnt, random thoughts that I think of, just really anything that's not Arashi that I think is interesting enough that it deserves a post. That said, I might write an introduction to Arashi or something like that to explain that there are reasons why I love them so much. I'm not crazy, deluded, fanatic or anything like that. Really.

Who are the intended audience?
I said above that I made this blog on a whim but I might have been influenced by my friends who have blogs too. So this blog is mainly for them. Dear friends, though since graduation we haven't been able to see much of each other, and the opportunities to meet up will surely decrease from here on, this marvel called internet is allowing us to keep in touch. Let's not forget each other.

I've always written but I was always embarrassed to have them read. But my dad said to me once that you write to be read. With these words of wisdom, I publish my first post on this new blog.