HIDAJournal 2013 AUTUMN No.3

22/22

20 HIDA JOURNALHIDA NEWSTrainees with various religious backgrounds come to stay at HIDA’s training centers. Among them, many Muslim trainees practice Ramadan (a month of fasting) in accordance with the teaching of the Qur’an. Therefore, training center staff make concerted efforts every year to help them make it through Ramadan. In this issue, I would like to report on how we are coping with Ramadan at the Kansai Kenshu Center.The Ramadan period is determined by the lunar calendar and is moved forward by approximately 11 days each year. Since it is officially announced by visually observing the new moon, the Ramadan period is not determined until the day of the announcement (30 days from July 10 to August 8 in 2013; the period diff ers by one day depending on Muslim sects). Ramadan is an act described in Qur’an, Chapter 2: Surat Al-Baqarah (The Cow), Verses 183 to 185, which is practiced to understand the feeling and pain of those who are hungry (poor) through self-discipline and abstinence of food, beverages or legally allowed pleasure. Ramadan is also a holy month when Allah revealed the Qur’an to the Prophet. Since worship during the Ramadan period is 1,000 months’ worth of ordinary worship, Muslims devoutly worship Allah every night during Ramadan.At the Kansai Kenshu Center, we have been using the party room for the worship service every year. However, since we were scheduled to have as many as 122 Muslim trainees this year, we initially used the gymnasium for Ramadan. But due to the streak of extremely hot nights with temperatures exceeding 30℃, we had to use the air-conditioned large-sized lecture room instead of the gymnasium, moving desks around for each worship service. The number of Muslim trainees mentioned above, which is the number of trainees who applied for provision of Ramadan meals (meals served before dawn), was the largest since the opening of the Kansai Kenshu Center. During the Ramadan period, many trainees fell sick as a result of the excessive heat and a lack of sleep due to hard work. As a result, the number of meals taken decreased by about half. To help the trainees make it through Ramadan, which was more distressful than we had imagined, Japanese instructors and interpreters drank water during lunch breaks in places where they could not be seen by the trainees; we also took care to refrain from talking about food.The canteen staff used fish and shrimp to serve nutritionally balanced main dishes and side dishes prepared with vegetables and fruits along with juice to make it easier for the trainees to take meals even late at night. We rented a large refrigerator to store Ramadan food and explained in each Japanese language class how to use the refrigerator and how to dispose of waste after a meal. We also turned on and off the nighttime lighting and air conditioning for meals in a timely manner so as to save power consumption as much as possible; and all training center staff members, including the facility staff , front staff and cleaning staff , made concerted eff orts to make it through the Ramadan period.Post-Ramadan Hari Raya partyAlthough the trainees did not ask for a reward for the Ramadan, we were requested by a representative of the Muslim trainees to cancel lectures after the Ramadan (Hari Raya). Since we were unable to approve the request, we instead held a party organized by the trainees after an ordinary dinner. After a prayer, a slide show started with music composed by Kazumasa Oda and Ikimono-Gakari (a Japanese pop rock band) in the background. The slide show was followed by introduction of Japanese language classes, a music performance, an Indonesian dance performance, a song, a fashion show, and a Japanese language class tournament game and funny play. Everyone was roaring in laughter, and amid loud exclamations and blinding photo fl ashes, the festive party continued until late at night (11:00 p.m.) on August 8 (Friday).Finally, in the Kansai area, services for Muslim tourists, which are expected to have inbound effects on tourism, are recently attracting public attention. The other day, we were requested by the Osaka Chamber of Commerce and Industry to cooperate in preparing a guidebook on the preparation of Muslim food. The guidebook is scheduled to be published in this autumn and distributed to interested parties.(Motohiro Koshiba, Kansai Kenshu Center Group Senior Manager)Refrigerator for the storage of Ramadan foodTrainees watching a Balinese dance performance by a woman traineeReport from Training CentersHow to Cope with Ramadan

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