Gather information so that you don’t have trouble in Japan
Written by Rahmania Radjadi
#3 Get Some Online Information for Local Mosque and Halal Food
Do some small online research about halal restaurants that you could visit during your time in Japan. Japan does have some restaurants that has a halal certificate for their food. In Tokyo alone, there are some halal restaurants located in Harajuku, Asakusa, Meguro, and you can search for more. There are also some halal restaurants in other town like in Osaka and Kobe.
How about mosque?
There are some local mosques which built by Muslim communities in Japan that you could visit. Not only to perform prayer but some of the mosque has a culture center information like the Tokyo Camii & Turkish Culture Center and Hiro-o Mosques which located in Arabic Islamic Institute. Some other prefectures in Japan also have their local mosque. What you have to do is just get the mosques information and take a note for the location, so you can go there easily when you arrived in Japan.
#4 Planning to Go to Disney Sea? Ask One of the Crew for Space to Perform Prayer
Yes, now Disney Sea has space for Muslim to do Pray. Thank you to HMJ for the petition which collected a thousand signatures that bring a really great result for Muslims who are planning to visit Disney Sea. The Prayer space is located in the manager’s room of the Electric Railway.
Important to remember that you have to bring your own prayer mats to perform prayer there and don’t forget to ask one of the Disney crew about the place and tell them that you want to perform prayer.
#5 Make Your Wudu Easy and How to Find a Spot to Perform Prayer
You can always perform your wudu in a public toilet that has water, but do you know that sometimes it is still difficult in Japan to perform wudu even if you are in the toilet. Whether the toilet itself has no water or the sink is not possible to perform wudu.
Here is the tips for you:
1. Bring a water bottle for you to perform wudu in the toilet.
2. Perform your wudu at the hotel or places that are possible to perform wudu and then you preserve it until the time for prayer is come and do your prayer.
3. Do tayammum (only if you can’t find clean water to perform wudu)
Now, how about finding a perfect spot to do your prayer?
As narrated by al-Tirmidhi, the Prophet Muhammad says “All the earth is a mosque except for graveyard and bathroom”. So, you can perform prayer anywhere as long as the spot you choose is clean, not a graveyard or a spot that has a dead body (human or animals), and not a bathroom.
Women can also pray anywhere in a place that is clean and it is an obligation to cover your body since you are praying in a public place and men could see you praying.
Little tips to find a spot to perform your prayer is you can pray in a parking lot or in an emergency staircase when you are in a building. For women, sometimes you can use a fitting room to perform your prayer or a nursery room for babies (I know, maybe for some of you, it’s not convenience at all, but it’s private and for me, it’s better than pray in public as a woman). Don’t forget to always bring your prayer mat, bring one that is big enough to be used on prayer and small enough to be folded inside your bag.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own and do not necessarily represent those of Halal Media Japan.
