My Life in Japan

Programming the crowd by conditioned reflexes

2011-12-19T23:40:00.001+09:00

There was an interesting sharing yesterday by one my friends in facebook. The shared post was a slide showing the result of an experiment by scientists carried out on a group of monkeys. The outcome of the experiment is interesting and has significant importance to our social behavior, the reason why I would like to write here.

At first the scientists selected a group of 5 monkeys and put them in a cage. In the middle of the cage they placed a ladder. At the top of the ladder, they placed some bananas. Obviously, the monkeys will be tempted to eat the bananas. One of the monkeys climbed up the ladder and took the banana. Then the scientists splashed cold water on other four monkeys standing on the ground. Splashing of water was repeated whenever a monkey climbed and took the banana. The monkeys now realized that whenever a monkey climbs the ladder, the rest will be splashed with cold water, which they did not like. All the five monkeys one by one tried to climb to take the banana, but the one who try to climb would be punished by beating by other four monkeys.

As a next step, scientists replaced one of the monkeys with a new monkey. The new one’s mind was fresh and did not know about the cold water splashing. By seeing the banana he started climbing up. The other four got angry, pulled him down and beat him. Scientists did not splash the cold water, but the fresh one got beaten by others.

Scientists replaced the fourth monkey with a second fresh one. Now they had three old monkeys and two new monkeys. The second new one tried to climb up the ladder and he was beaten by other four, including the first new one joined later. Now the scientists replaced all the old monkeys one by one with new ones and ever time a monkey tried to climb to reach to the banana, he was beaten by other four on the ground. Surprisingly the scientists did not splash cold water, but the monkey who tried to climb to the ladder was beaten by others.All the monkeys were new and had no experience of cold water splashing.

The experiment suggest to the effects of conditioning and crowd behavior. Mostly people don’t know why they do what they do! They just do because their parents have been doing the same. They believe in one thing because their parents believed on that thing. The experiment on monkeys is the answer to the question of why we do many things in our life. The same can be of help to answer many of our social behaviors as well.

People in a crowd just follow and do not think. The crowd can be programmed and can be directed to commit serious crimes. Many religious and political leaders had taken advantage of this crowd psychology to satisfy their insanity.

A crowd of ordinary people or trained military people act almost in the same pattern. The best examples are the atrocities and brutal sexual crimes during Second World War, the communal violence in South East Asian countries, and the genocides in Africa. Such crimes had happened at almost all parts of the world and done by all sections of the societies in one sense or other. Let it be a small example of derogatory use of words to discriminate a person of other community, the crowd follows like those monkeys. This reinforces the doubts that human beings could not travel much from their ancestors.

The positive effects of crowd programming (Not cloud programming!) can be visible in Japan. There is a general feeling of uniformity in Japan. This uniformity is visible in the daily life, the way salary-men go to the office, the dress they wear, the manners, school kids uniform and a number of other things such as their likes and dislikes, including the public opinion about foreigners. In one sense this group behavior is good for social life.

What makes Japanese people different from others?

2011-12-15T20:15:00.000+09:00

Every time I read about the street fights and hooligan hostilities in my country I am more convinced that we are still at the primitive stage of human civilizations though it is widely thought otherwise. The motivation to start writing this post is Mr. Omar Abdullah”s tweet on hospital fire in Kolkatta, one of the famous city in West Bengal. While our history books are proud to acclaim thousands of years of inherited civilizations, the anarchic state and the vicious uproars points to the story of an immature and half way dropped civilization process in India.

We may have hundreds of reasons to justify the hooliganisms and vandalisms, sweetly coated with the reasons of freedom of speech and expression, democratic rights and so on. Freedom of speech and expression should not harm others as well. Those actions that harm others can not be counted as the result of democratic way of agitation. Such criminal actions are result of the desire to kill, the desire to destroy, the animal instincts that exists in the primitive minds of human beings inherited from their uncivilized ancestors.

People in southern states of India, one state which is home to the most educated people and the other which is home to the cultural capital of India, have been misled by their political protagonists. It is hard to find ‘differences between people in Tamilnadu and Kerala’ unless you are strongly motivated to write a thesis on that subject. The problem could have been solved through discussions rather than pulled out to the streets. The street dogs know only to fight and bark for a single piece of bone and this is what we see and hear now. Illiterate crowd could be malleable, but one thing has become certain now that education or the rate of high literacy won’t automatically bring any common sense or guarantee that the educated mass can not be mass-hypnotized.
Is this what we had inherited from our ancestors through the so called 5000 years of ancient Indian civilizations? The land where the looking in to the self was taught more important than looking to others had gone years back to the early stages of human development or might have stopped some where in the middle of the civilization process.

The chaotic state still exists in India where multiple ethnic groups have to share common land and bread. The migration of ethnic groups and their spread were not directed with a clear objective rather the movements might have caused due to war, famine and natural calamities. The intrusion by new elements to an existing system causes disorder. Disorder causes for collision. This is true in the science and now I am convinced that it is true in social science too.

In fact, collision is what we see in our society. As the particles collide and generate heat in a system, different groups ram and we call it unrest or agitation. This process may continue till a unification happens and it may take years, but any society where multiple interest groups co-exists has to go through these processes.

Japan is almost homogenous and has one of the highest rate of literacy. Four years before I read in a blog that Japanese race is unique. I started searching the truth of this statement and went through different academic papers and websites. There is no race called ‘Japanese race’. Japanese people belong to the Mangaloid race in which the Koreans, Chinese and other East Asian people belong to. The other way around is a propaganda that is similar to the one that Indian right wing groups use to find a common ancestry to all Indians by denying outside migration to India. Scientific facts are bad to many deceptive groups.

What make Japanese people different from other East Asian countries are their more civilized manners. That is the outcome of years of civilization process happened in a unique way that is exclusive to Japan. Here I don’t claim any superiority to the Japanese society and they don’t have it either. They are just like any other country’s people with all kinds of emotions and instincts. History may have something different to tell, but observing the current practices, I feel this way. It is my personal observation that the public behavior of Japanese people at least among themselves, if not to all the foreigners, is more refined.
There were internal fights in Japan and there were different interest groups as it is there in other parts of the world. Japan is like a bottle in to which differently colored solutions are poured, closed the cap, shook thoroughly and then allowed to rest for 250 years. Now the mixture has become a perfect and looks as if it is one of the unique base colors. That mixing produced a different color that is unique to Japan! Want to call it a different race? OK....

Signing off......

Japanese way of redesigning the nature and its resources

2011-12-13T20:31:00.001+09:00

God (not in the institutionalized form but in an absolute sense) might have His own plans, but human beings have their own plans. Both may not necessarily be the same. When it contradicts there is a conflict, which may result in catastrophes. We call them man-made disasters.

Some fifteen years before while going through a magazine article captioned ‘Future wars will be for water” I was prompted to think to redesign the natural resources so that such conflicts could be reduced. Thoughts of redesigning the natural water resources had its seed from the news on diverting the rivers through the water-scarce regions of Rajasthan state in India. India’s ever powerful lady prime minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi was ruling at that time. She had a great vision to redesign India and redefine the life. She did many attempts to achieve those goals, which the predecessors could not carry forward.

The reason why I started writing this post is not the current fight between two southern states in India for water which is in the headlines of Indian newspapers recently. While walking from Indian School in Nishi Ojima to our apartment at Higashi Ojima by the river side, we could see some construction work in progress on the river banks. Also I heard from Japanese teacher that the kyu-nakagawa river, which is visible from our apartment’s front side veranda is an artificial branch of the Arakawa river.

The town planners had redesigned the course of water, thus utilizing the natural resources to the maximum benefit of citizens in Japan. Nature can be redrawn yet making it appealing without loosing its originality. That needs vision, planning and good team to implement and after all a mass that can accept good things done to them as good. The redirected river is utilized for irrigation, transportation and water sports activities in Edogawa ward. The kyu-nakagawa joins back to the Arakawa river at Arakawa lock gate-Horikiri station.

There are many rivers in Japan and there is no water scarcity. Almost all rivers are short. Probably it may be difficult to hear that the prefectures quarrel each other for resources. Rather they may share by redesigning its natural course. Japanese brain is good in design. With all the respect to the nature and its resources they have reshaped the existing facilities. The best example is the reclaimed land near Tokyo Bay. Many areas near to the sea are reclaimed by filling, which experienced trouble during the earthquakes in March.

River Shinano is the longest river in Japan, which flows from Nagano to Niigata.There are 110 first class rivers all over Japan as per Wikipedia. Hokkaido is rich with its natural beauty and rivers. Altogether there are 316 rivers in Hokkaido itself!

What percentage of the salary a foreigner can save in Japan?

2011-12-08T23:38:00.001+09:00

Some of the visitors to this blog were interested to know the living expenses in Japan and how much they can save. It is quite natural to have these concerns about living costs before one makes final decision to come to Japan. For expatriates, apart from the job satisfaction, savings is one of the major driving forces to accept the offer from their prospective employer in Japan. Cost of living has increased recently. “Especially in the changed scenario” one would like to add with the preceding sentence in the wake of recent alarming news from one of the famous baby food producers.

Living cost for foreigners in Japan and I believe also for Japanese people has been on the rise after March. Either people buy water from the stores. Some book online from western sides of Japan or water from outside Japan. The consumption tax will have negative impact on the potential savings.

Anyway, based on my almost four years experience in Japan - first one year as a married bachelor and then the remaining three years with family, I did an attempt to estimate approximate savings in percentage of one’s gross income. The assumed gross income is 10 million Japanese yen, which I think is reasonable for an average foreigner salary-man in Japan. Average income per head in Japan is estimated to be around US$ 36000 per Annam. This will be converted into roughly 230,000 Japanese yen per month or 2.76 million Japanese yen per year. This averages the income of all the sections of the society, which if we consider may be too low to the majority of the foreigners.

The categories considered are 1.) bachelor 2.) Married couples without children 3.) Married couples with two children, none going to school 4.) Married couples with two children, one going to school 5.) Married couples with two children, both children going to school. For all the categories, the father is the sole breadwinner and the wife is free to do things at her wish but mainly taking care of children. A rough estimation of savings in percentage can go like this;

Bachelor without girlfriend(s): 49%
Married couple without children: 42%
Married couple with two children: 39%
Married couple with two children, one attend school: 30%
Married couple with two children, both of them attend school: 23%

Bachelors with girlfriends may have to borrow money either from their friends or from the employer. Same is the case with Captain Cooks. Travel addicts will spend more than their monthly earnings in Japan! Japan is ardently beautiful and a passionate traveler can never take rest of course by emptying his pockets. Travel expenses are higher in Japan comparatively.

In this post I don’t want to mention the amount of money one can save as it purely depends on individual factors. Some people have good control over money matters while others have torn pockets. So I take a neutral position. Percentage of savings is up to the individual. I just tried to give an example in this post and do not claim accuracy, but believe me this is based on my past four years of living experience here in Japan.

Disaster is a fact, so is life and death

2011-12-02T20:40:00.000+09:00

Some weeks back, along with friends I conducted some measurements to verify the radiation levels at different locations of Komatsugawa, especially where our children frequently play on weekends. Almost 9 months have passed since the disaster, still the fear of radiation linger in the minds of those who decided to stay back in Japan. Radiation is a fact and living with the painful facts needs an extra effort and justification. Probably the measurements we conducted were also to justify our decision to stay back.

It is also a fact that, solving disasters whether manmade or natural takes long time. Any kind of disaster is a sudden transition from a balanced state to an unbalanced state, where the whole system knowingly or unknowingly goes out of a defined set of procedures. Unfortunate, but it happens. It happened in Russia, now in Japan, tomorrow somewhere else. But the thirst of human beings to experiment with their own life to find new things and progress never ceases. It is this aggression of human beings to explore and conquer nature and universe differentiates them from other creatures.

Emotion does not play a significant role in the human endeavors for scientific progression. That is how humans evolved and learned to master things around them. Strong determination to tame the nature and surrounding things in the struggle for existence (more close to the definitions of Ayn Rand than Darwin) is the foundation of modern civilizations.

Humans evolved to the current state out of the experiments of taming the nature and surrounding things. Nuclear radiation may not tame very easily. It may be difficult task for humans, but raising hands is not the solution. The solution is to find out the ways to tame these untamed nuclear radiations and consequences.

The allowable limits of exposure to nuclear radiations and its effects are still debatable. The Japanese standard limit of exposure to radiation was 1 millisievert/year. This is equivalent to 0.114 microsievert/hour. Some parts of the world has higher than 3 millisieverts/year natural background radiation. Accumulation of radiation effects through food is a matter of concern.

The purpose of our measurement was to verify the officially announced and other individually measured values. Inside the home, the measured values were less than 0.1microsievert/hour. Some areas of Komatsugawa showed relatively higher values such as 0.4 microsieverts per hour, which can be converted in to 3.5 millisieverts per year. This is a theoretically possible maximum and nobody stay outside for 24 hours a day to absorb this level of radiation.

Experts say, these levels of background radiation is not a matter of concern. The acceptable levels of radiation is still a matter of debate as mentioned earlier. Anyway, all are in the hope that the concerned authorities will take appropriate action. Action is slow in this part of the world, but once taken it will be efficiently implemented and fervently followed.

One spring, summer and autumn had passed since March. Mild after shocks still continues bringing memories of the big quake, but the life goes on. Human life will not stop in front of disasters. It is a fact as death. Relatives weep one or two days, but the life doesn’t stop. Life is also a fact as death.

Providing education is not a business at India International School in Japan

2011-11-30T21:23:00.002+09:00

This is the second post about India International School in Japan (IISJ) in this blog. The first post was before more than two and a half years after a visit to the school when my elder daughter joined the kindergarten. Now the reason behind this post is the queries raised by some of the visitors to this blog through blog comments and personal e-mails.

I have received both good and bad comments about the school. Some commentators were rude to scold me for writing good things about the school. In that post I tried to see the good things of the school. I don’t really want to reply to those negative comments received earlier since reply to a negative thing will also be a negative thing.

One thing we need to realize is the availability of such a facility in a far away land for Indian children. The approximate number of Indians in Japan may come around 27,000. Most of them are bachelors. Those with children were facing problem due to lack of schools based on Indian syllabus. Most of the Indian professionals stay in Japan for a shorter period and they need to return to the country. Continuing education in India, once they return back was solved by the presence of Indian schools in Tokyo. Indians living in other parts of Japan does not have this opportunity.

Before the earthquake on March there were approximately 500 students in IISJ. Some of the Indians opted to go from Japan after the earthquake and nuclear disaster. Many Indians sent their children back to India.

There were very few students when I visited the school on April last week. That was the time when most of the Indians went back to their country after the disastrous quake and tsunami hit the eastern regions of Japan. Some of the parents were skeptic about the strength of the school building. There were rumors that the fifth floor of the school building was damaged in the earthquake. That was really a negative rumor aimed at creating panic among parents purposely spread by some miscreants. In reality there is no fifth floor for the school !

The city authorities did a check for the safety of the school building and allowed the management to reopen. Safety checks are strictly followed in Japan. The school is back to the normal and many new students were also joined. All the school events were held as usual and the winter concert is scheduled on 10^th December.

The school buses are available to many routes, which is convenient for students and parents. Classrooms have heating system now. Things are getting better day by day. Management has initiated to conduct periodic radiation measurements at the school premises with the help of EcoCycle Corporation, a Japanese company involved in investigation and cleaning of soil and groundwater contaminated with toxic chemicals throughout Japan and other Asian countries. These periodic monitoring helps to alleviate concerns of parents. Recently the school has received the IB candidate school status and the IB courses will be available from 2013. Improvement does not happen all of a sudden. It comes gradually with consistent and conscious effort.

In this modern age, providing education might have turned in to a profitable business, but during the past some years of interaction with the school management I have not sensed such an attitude.

We need to learn to see positive aspect of anything rather than focusing on negative aspects. There may be hundreds of negative things about anything in the world. Looking in to the positive aspects and finding ways to improve is the key to the growth and success. It needs strong will power and determination and hope the school management has enough of both.

Ropeway trip from Nihondaira to Kunozan Toshogu Shrine

2011-10-04T23:57:00.000+09:00

One of the possible options to reach at the Toshogu shrine dedicated to the Tokugawa Ieyasu, the great emperor of Japan, is to ride a bus from JR Shizuoka station to the Kunozan Yamashita. As the name indicates, Kunozan yamashita bus stop is at the bottom of the hill Kunozan. From the bottom of the hill, 1159 steps goes to the shrine at the top of the hill. That would have been more adventurous, but it might be a too difficult task for children. Moreover, the aerial ropeway ride would be more exciting to the children.

Frequency of buses are not so good from JR Shizuoka station to the Nihondaira hill top from where the ropeway starts. As per the instruction from the tourist information center located near to the ticket gate of JR Shinkansen line, we boarded the bus at 9:27 AM. The bus fare is 550 Yen per adult. The bus fare can be paid inside the bus before getting down. Even if you don't know how to pay, the driver will help.

The bus journey takes around 35 minutes from JR Shizuoka station to the Nihondaira ropeway iriguchi (entrance station). There is a zoo in between JR Shizuoka station and Nihondaira hill top with approx. 800 varieties of animals. If time permits it is worth to get down and visit the zoo. We could see the entrance of Nihondaira gakuin university on the way to the hill. The road to the hill top is with many curves and zig-zag. Persons with trouble of vomiting during travel has to take care by keeping a towel or anti-vomit medications during the bus ride.

The aerial ropeway connects Nihondaira and Kunoszan hills. After reaching the Nihondaira hill top near to the ropeway iriguchi, we took a break for half an hour as we have started our journey at 7:00AM from home and 8:03AM from Tokyo by riding the JR Tokaido Shinkansen. There are some outlets that sells ice creams and cool drinks.

The view of sea shores and the forest from the top of the hill is a feast to the eyes. After having a refreshment for around 30 minutes, we took the ticket. There are options for ticket for ropeway and the shrine and museum individually and combined. We got a discount ticket for all the three attractions for 3300 Yen. One way ride to Kunozan costs 550 Yen per person. The entrance fee to the temple is 400 Yen per adult and the entrance fee to the museum is 250 Yen. The total, for two adults and one child for aerial ropeway roundtrip, shrine and museum visit was 3300 Yen.

The staff at the ticket office and the person in-charge for collecting the ticket at the ropeway entrance were kind enogh to allow us to keep the baby stroller at the office. They gave an identification tag for the stroller by writing my name on a piece of paper. They told it is a special permission for us. We thought, since we are foreigners we got a special consideration to keep the baby strollers at the ticketing office.

The rope way ride from Nihondaira to Kunozan Toshogu shrine and museum takes 5 minutes. Unlike the ropeway cars in Hakone, the Nihondaira ropeway car packs a group of people in one car. There are ropeway service at every 15 minutes. The steel ropes used for the construction of the ropeway is extremely strong and at the entrance of the ticket gate, samples of the steel ropes used are displayed in a glass box.

Miho beach can be seen during the trip. The lady crew explained the history of the mountains and the places that we could see from the ropeway. The announcement was in Japanese language. Children could enjoy the ropeway round trip.

When entered inside the ticketing office to take the baby stroller, we found three more baby strollers kept there! The staff give special considerations to all visitors coming with baby strollers it seems. Very nice people!

The exotic beaches and the warm hospitality of Japanese people at Shimizu

2011-08-21T21:12:00.002+09:00

It was around 3:00 PM when we reached at the JR Shimizu station JR Shimizu station is approximately ten minutes journey from JR Shizuoka station on the way towards Hamamatsu in the JR line and is the third station from JR Shizuoka.

We were little confused after coming out of the ticket gate on the exit that goes to Kashi no-chi market, which is a fish market. After trying to locate the road by ourselves, we decided to approach some one local standing in the bus stop. He guided us to the west exit of JR Shimizu station by coming with us so that he might have thought the foreigners should not waste time again from enjoying the scenic beauty of his place.

We got down through the elevator to the ground and walked 5 minutes to reach to the Kashi-no-uchi fish market. As per our plan made after researching on the internet, we were supposed to find a water-bus service behind the fish market. Since we could not find it by ourselves, we asked an old woman standing in front of the fish market. Since she was not sure of the timings of the water bus that goes from the behind of Kashi-no-uchi market to the S-Plus Dream plaza, she took us to an Ojii-san who was guiding the cars going and coming from the parking lot. After explain where we want to go and how, the Ojii-san told the old woman to stay at his place and told us to accompany him.

We could see a water-bus leaving the barbor just a few minutes ago when we reached there. The water-bus stop (Water bus noriba) behind the Kashi-no-uchi market is a small place that it is difficult to recognize it as a place of boarding. The frequency of service is also less. We need to wait 40 minutes for another boat. So Ojii-san advised us to catch a taxi or bus from there to go to the S-Plus Dream plaza. He showed me the number to be called for the taxi and when I dialed it in the mobile, he talked on behalf of me to tell the location where we stand. The taxi charge we paid to travel from Kashi-no-uchi market to the S-Pulse Dream Plaza was 800 Yen. The Ojii-san and Obaa-chaan helped us generously to locate the place and get there without loosing much time during our one day exploration of Shizuoka.

Children played in the amusement park and enjoyed the ferry wheel. We posed for a family photo at the entrance of ferry wheel, which costs 1000 Yen. There was an artificial beach where children and adults can enjoy playing in the water and the shells. After crossing the stadium, we could see some ferries and one passenger boat coming to the harbor. The driver of the passenger boat was a girl. I told her our intention to see Miho beach and asked the timings. As per her message we went there at 5:00PM. She helped us to get the ticket from the ticket vending machine.

We sat at the deck for a good view of the surrounding mountains and the sea. We could see Mount Fuji standing with all its might and nobility. We decided to get down at a nearby port after riding around 10 minutes, so that we can explore the village life of Shizuoka. Along with us one of the staff of the boat whose house is in the village, also got down. He had a bicycle with him, but he walked with us, talking with us about the life of India and the cultural similarities of Asian countries. He guided us how to reach to Miho Beach by walking from the port at which we decided to get down. While walking I insisted him that we can go alone and he does not need to waste his time for us. When we reached at the main road, he said good bye and we walked to the beach. The drizzling started and some of the residents told us to wait in front of their home till the water drops ceases. By walking on the streets, we could see the village life of Shizuoka.

The people were kind to smile and greet us. We felt as if we reached to a different land from the busy Tokyo, where nobody bothers who is sitting next to them. Shizuoka's villages are totally different. All the people we met on the road were eagerly looking at us and children. It is some times fun to be an object of attraction.

We stopped for a while to buy cool drinks from a vending machine near to a fruits and vegetable shop. When we sat in the bench in front of the vending machine, one old woman came out of the shop and greeted us. She was keen to ask the Indian life and how we feel about Japan. Her son also came out and talked with us. When we were going back he came running behind us with a peach in his hand.

We returned from Shizuoka with memories of exotic panorama and warm hospitality of Japanese people. At least for us, this trip to Shizuoka proved wrong that the anti-Japan propaganda that Japanese people do not like foreigners. We could not feel any racism, rather we could see a young Japanese man running behind us to give a peach fruit. We could not feel any discrimination, but we could see the lady driver of the boat helping us to get the ticket. We could not feel any anti-foreigner attitude, but we could experience the kindness of a boat staff walking with us to ensure that we were going in the correct road. We did not feel any 'doubt on foreigners', but we could experience the generosity of Ojii-san and Obaa-san who came with us and helped us to get a taxi.

One day trip to Shizuoka by Shinkansen

2011-08-16T19:35:00.000+09:00

Inside the Tokyo station, there are separate counters for the reservation and ‘today's booking’ of Shinkansen tickets. While spending 5 minutes in search of the counter for reservation, I approached the information center, which is near to the counters that sells tickets for today's travel.

Though Shinkansen ticket charges are expensive compared to the normal type of JR tickets, it is worth enjoying the luxury and speed. If we travel alone and does not matter when to start and when to come back home, JR or other freelance transportation methods may be the preferred choices. Elder daughter was insisting on travel to some place by Shinkansen and we decided to go to Shizuoka. We had decided to cover maximum spots of attractions in Shizuoka in one day with children. The ticket was reserved on the Hikari Shinkansen at 8:03 in the morning.

There are three types of Shinkansens based on the speed and number of stations they stop. The fastest is the Nozomi. Nozomi stops at very few stations (big cities) and runs faster than other shinkansens. It was the fastest train until we hear more higher speeds from China. The second fastest in Japan, the Hikari stops at limited number of stations. Since Shinkansen get more travelers from Shinagawa and Shin-Yokohama stations, The Hikari Shinkansen stops at Shinagawa and Shin-Yokohama on its way to Shizuoka being the third stop. It covers almost 180 kilometers in 73 minutes.

The advantage of travelling in Shinkansen is its speed and thereby the time we could save. The third type of shinkansen is the slowest one, Kodama. The name of the Shinkansen resembles to the word Kodomo, which means child in Japanese language. Kodama stops at every station, but less number of stops compared to the normal JR trains.

The trains that runs from Tokyo to Osaka and Kyoto sides are JR Tokaido Shinkansen. Stations such as Odawara and Mishima comes in between the way to Shinzuoka. Kodama stops at Odawara and Mishima. To go to Hakone, we need to get down at Odawara and then change to JR lines. Mishima is the stop for Mount Fuji and Fuji safari.

The speed of Shinkansen is commendable. For a round-trip to Shizuoka from Tokyo, the total reserved ticket cost for two adults and one child above 6 years was 31,900 Yen. One side fare for an adult is 6380 Yen in a reserved car and it reduces to 5670 Yen if we choose a non-reserved car. Shinkansen offers free travel for children below 6 years. The staff at the reservation counter advised me that if we can keep the child above six years also within the two adult seats, they do not charge for the child. The ticket fare for the child above six years is half of the adult ticket. We opted for a half ticket for trouble free and convenient travel.

Hikari dropped us at Shizuoka station at 9:16AM and we had lot of time to plan the sights to be visited as we reached early. Though we had done a thorough homework on the places to be visited in Shizuoka, we decided to approach the tourist information center. The tourist information center near to the exit of Shinkansen ticket gate told us about the famous spots in Shizuoka and the means of transportation. After a full day outing at Shizuka we returned back to Tokyo by Hikari Shinkansen at 8:36PM.

Rinkai Koen Tokyo sealife aquarium and diamond and flower ferris wheel

2011-07-29T22:21:00.001+09:00

Though it was a sunny day, the Rinkai Koen was reasonably crowded. We preferred to visit there after the lunch. As the climate was not kind enough to allow for an outdoor walking we headed to the aquarium, which is known as Tokyo Sealife Aquarium.

Children enjoyed walking around inside the aquarium. We could see lot of tuna fishes and other sea creatures. The aquarium also have penguins and seabirds. At a specially made water tank, children can touch fishes with their hands.

Rinkai Koen’s Giant wheel, which is called the Diamond and Flower Ferris Wheel has been visible to us from our apartment. Ever since we shifted to the apartment in Edogawa-ku, we have been thinking of making a visit to Rinkai koen. The Diamond and Flower Ferris Wheel is believed to be the second tallest ferris wheel in Japan. Tokyo bay, Disneyland etc. are visible clearly from the top of the Ferris wheel. On a clear day, Mount Fuji can also be seen from the top.

The ticket charge was 700 Yen per person both for aquarium and ferris wheel. Ticket charge is same for children above 3 years old also.

Rinkai koen is often called as Kasai Rinkai Koen since it is in the Kasai area. From our place, Higashi Ojima, the access is very easy, but it takes around 40 minutes to reach if we depend on public transportation methods. From Funabori station’s south exit, there are buses that goes directly to Kasai Rinkai koen. The bus number 26 goes directly from Funabori station to the Rinkai koen. The frequency of buses that goes direct to the park is less, and if I am not wrong, there are buses after almost every one hour. The other way is to go to Nishi-Kasai or Kasai by bus from Funabori since the bus frequency to these locations are high, and then take another bus to Rinkai koen.

It takes just 15 minutes from Tokyo station to the Kasai Rinkai Koen station of JR Keiyo line. From the station, the park is only a minute walking distance away. The meaning of rinkai koen in English is Seaside Park. The name is Rinkai koen since the park is very near to the Tokyo bay. Kai means sea in Japanese language.On the way to the ferris wheel, just after climbing the stair cases up, we could pose for a family photo, that was being taken by a studio operating inside the wheel basement. The photographer and his assistant were marketing their product by telling to the visitors that the photograph will be a momento for their visit to Rinkai Koen and ferris wheel that they can cherish after going back home (home country). The visit to the Rinkai Koen gave pleasurable moments to our kids and they enjoyed playing around.

Renkoji - A temple for Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Japan

2011-07-10T16:15:00.002+09:00

On June 18 we visited the Renkoji temple, where the ashes of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is believed to be kept. We have been thinking of making our visit to the temple ever since we heard of such a temple in Japan. It was a surprise to us to hear that Netaji is being respected in Japan, far away from his own country.

Netaji was a revolutionary freedom fighter who has a special place in the hearts of the youth in India. Though the history books in India have limitations in teaching about Netaji and his principles, people respect him as the most influential personality who could contribute the most to the Indian freedom fighting. He was the first to call Gandhiji as Mahatma. Mahatma in Hindi means the great soul. Due to the differences in approaches and opinions towards the methods adopted for India’s freedom movement with Indian National Congress, Netaji left India to seek possible help from other global partners like Germany and Japan. He succeed to get the help from the then emperor of Japan during second world war and formed Indian National Army, INA by gathering Indians settled in Malaysia, Singapore and similar neighboring countries. Many Indians from the British India also joined in INA to fight against British East India Company rule.

Netaji was a successful leader in forming Azad Hind Government in Andaman Nicobar Islands after a severe fight with British military at the Eastern parts of India with the help of Japanese military. Right or wrong through the eyes of western media, the actions of Netaji were all justifying to the Indians, who were ruled by the British. Capturing and ruling another country is more ‘wrong’ than fighting for freedom of one’s own country!

Japan lost the war and Netaji was forced to leave the Indian regions he captured back from British. Death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose still remains mysterious. Some of the commissions established by the Government of India found that he was died in a plane accident at Taiwan. Some believes he was living like a monk in Faizabad or somewhere near the capital of India. But the ashes of Netaji is believed to be in Renkoji temple.

It was raining when we visited the Renkoji temple. I explained a little bit of history to my children who still can not understand what is freedom fighting and all. My elder daughter asked me, if Netaji was an Indian, why Japanese people made his statue and temple for him in Japan?. I am not sure how many Japanese people really know Netaji and his contributions to the Indian freedom fighting. Probably the new generations may not know Netaji. They might have heard of Radha Binod Pal, the judge who supported Japanese cause for the second world war and whose opinions saved many of the Japanese prisoners of war from execution. We could see this Judge’s photo in the garden of the Yasukuni shrine, which is in Kudanshita when we visited the shrine in April 2010.

We heard about this temple from a friend living in Japan. The temple is 40 minutes by train from the place we live. It is accessible easily from Shinjuku Sanchome by Tokyo Metro Marunouchi line. From Shinjuku Sanchome it takes only 10 minutes. We got down at Higashi Koenji and took Exit-1. The trains that goes to Ogikubo which have stops in Higashi Koenji can also be used to reach at Renkoji temple.

If you are going from Tokyo, take Marunouchi line that goes to the direction of Ogikubo. Get down at Higashi Koenji, which will take only 27 minutes.

After coming out of the exit No.1, we were little confused where to turn and walk. I approached the “Lost and Found” division of the Tokyo Metro to ask about the road that goes to Renkoji temple. After searching in there area map book, one of the staff came out of the office to show us how to go to the temple. As he told, when we turned left from the exit, we found a cycle stand, a park and then a small pedestrian road. We took left at the end of the park to the pedestrian road. As per the instruction of the staff we walked on the road looking at the right side for the temple. I guess, we might have walked around 150 meters to reach to the temple. The temple is small and we could find Netaji’s statue at the garden.

Those were the proudest moments in my life in Japan – paying homage to the great Indian leader – Subhash Chandra Bose – who have always been an inspiration in my life.

Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures

2011-04-24T01:01:00.003+09:00

An interesting topic came out during discussion with friends recently was the right age for marriage. The discussion on this topic was particularly useful as it added more Japanese vocabularies that are associated with the culture and daily life. The first word learned was Tekireiki written in Hiragana as てきれいきand in Kanji as適齢期.

The old concepts of marriage and the right age for marriage might have changed or deviated in Japanese society. The concept of appropriate marriage age differs from country to country and even within the country intself. In India for example, where multiple races, multiple religions and multiple customs are being practiced, the concept of marriage age is not uniform. While it may be difficult or practically impossible to find an average age for marriage age in any country, it is possible to find the average trend in any society.

Social customs have played an important role in deciding the Tekireiki or the right age for marriage in the past. After industrialization, the economic conditions play a major role apart from social customs. Family values is another factor that decides the right age for marriage. Many of these values are under threat as the gloabalization takes its ride over human relations. The values has to be revised to update with the changed living conditions and social relations.

The legal age for marriage in Japan for a men is 18 and that for a women is 16 in comparison with 18 and 16 respectively in India. The law goes its own way and the individuals go their own way. Though the legal age is much lower in Japan, the average age of marriage is around 30 for both men and women. Wikipedia says the average marriage age is 30.4 for men and 28.6 for women in Japan. In comparison, in India the average marriage age is around 26 for men and 20 for women. The southern state of Kerala, where the literacy rate is higher (more than 95%) than other parts of India, the average marriage age 29 for men and 23 for women roughly. Searches on the internet suggested these best averages.

Our discussion on right age for marriage toured through social stigma associated with unmarried, new concepts of living together instead of marriage and so on. Japan has a high educational level that is in par with other developed European and Americal economies. High education and the change in the traditional concepts of marriage are linked each other. There was considerable pressure on men and women to get married when they approach the marriage age set by the society. Parents and relatives start putting pressure on individuals to decide on their married life.

The social pressure to get married is more evident on women in any culture. The society puts pressure on individual to get married, but it does not solve the individual’s problem to reach to a state where he/she can get married and lead a married life. Marriage is an easy process, but to lead a married life is difficult. This realization is not only from own experience, but also from the observations on the recent trends in divorce and broken families. The society has its own way to tag those who are not married, while closing both the eyes on the individual reasons.

A woman, not married even after completing her education and entered into a job in India may be viewed with weird eyes. Most of the Asian societies are male dominated and the criteria they draw to define and measure unmarried individuals are biased and based on conventional and most of the times a feudal standpoint. Unfortunate though, that is the way society has been working for centuries. The main stream society differentiates those who choose to travel alternate paths with clearly discriminating words often derived from local slang. While Tekireiki can be fairly translated to the right age for marriage, it has become a tool to put psychological pressure on single women. The negative connotation of the word Tekireiki is such a pressure tool. Another uncivilized slang ‘Urenokori’ means ‘Unsold goods’ puts more pressure on single women to get married at the right age for marriage. When I typed Urenokori in Hiragana and changed to Kanji I got this one - 売れ残り. I guess the Kanji should be fine as I remember the Kanji 売 during the preaparation for N4 test. Urimasu売りますmeans to sell and urerumono売れるものmeans sellable goods or things that sells. Nokori残り means the left out things.

As English Poet and critic Samuel Johnson says ‘Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures.” What is to be done if marriage has many pains and celibacy has no pleasures? The interpretation of Johnson’s quote is very clear that the marriage though with many pains is the preferred one. Finally it is an individual decision. The decision to marry or not depends on many factors including social, economical and individual experiences. Marriage is a powerful institution in our society. It has its own traditions and rituals to be performed from time to time. To determine the right age for marriage must be an individual decision. What the society has to do is to learn to respect the individual’s decision rather than measuring all individuals with the same scale.

Young men in Japan were lucky to be reminded by their parents well before they reach Tekireiki. Parents searched for the appropriate bride for him. Their criteria to find a suitable bride for their son centered around concepts like good wife for their son, caring daughter in-law for them and a wise mother for their grand children. Social structure of Japan has undergone severe changes after the war. Parent’s role in marriage has taken a backseat or pushed aside. Often they are not consulted. From the level of an important social institution, Marriage has come to an individual’s decision level. Thus marriage has become an individual affair, more precisely an affair where two individuals are involved.

It must be in this context that we approach ‘Urenokori – unsold goods’ in the modern Japanese society. Japan has changed from the concept of ‘powerful buyer selecting goods’ to ‘powerful goods selecting the buyer or decling the buyer’ In the worst case the goods decide themselves not to get sold in the market!

Ganbare Nippon!

2011-04-03T03:16:00.001+09:00

The immigration officer at Chennai Airport asked me whether it is safe to go to Tokyo now. I told the situation is getting improved. That might be what anybody could have said on 26^th March. Things were uncertain when started to Tokyo. Uncertainty prevails even now to a ceratin extent. Today’s live radiation levels in Tokyo showed a higher value, but still well below the permitted safety levels.

More than three weeks from now, the disaster had shaken the world’s second strongest economy. The fear of nuclear radiation has not gone and an uncertainty prevails all over. The Japanese televisions presents the actual facts on a daily basis. There is bilingual service available in NHK that helps foreigners to understand the situations in Japan.

Looking back three weeks, it is a pure coincidence that we planned our vacation on 11^th March to leave to India to perform my father’s 10^th annual death anniversary rituals. With kids we left Tokyo at 11:00 AM on 11^th March. We heard the news after landing at Chennai Airport and by seeing the scenes at the hotel television we were literally terrified. With teary eyes, we went to bed. Next day, while traveling on domestic flight to Kochi, we could read the headlines on a leading Malayalam daily about the earth quake and tsunami in Eastern Japan. The heading conveyed the magnitude of the tragedy happened in Japan, the country we left hours before. We could read the heading as ‘Japan was swallowed by tsunami’.

The foreign media had done more damages to the Japanese business than the nature. The foreign media were irresponsible in reporting the facts. The other side of the story is the lack of tmely information in English that spread pessimism among foreigners staying in Japan. Foreign embassies also started issuing advisory notes to its citizens to leave Tokyo and the affected areas.

We were at home getting updates from friends who were still in Tokyo. The after shocks were going on and there were shortage of some of the food items and bottle water for some days in Tokyo too. That might have created more panic among the foreigners than the earthquake. The news from Fukushima nuclear reactors were also scaring as the reactors were not under control. Even now the hard and dedicated work is going on in Fukushima to prevent bigger damages.

Personally I was under pressure to decide not to return to Japan from all quarters. Suddenly Japan has become an unfavorable place in the world! We heard that people from Japan returning to their countries through some South East Asian countries were being checked for possible nuclear radiation. The food and other imports were also checked for radiation. These things created more panic in the world outside Japan.

We can not change the past and things happened very bad in the Eastern Japan. Some how the nation has to recover soon to stop further tragedies. I have been sure of the spirit the Japanese people possess especially during crisis. The disaster areas are silent, The shelter camps are silent. People wait for water and food with patience. Patience is required at these tragic moments. Panic will create more troubles. Discipline has not gone from the daily life in Japan.

Tokyo has been slowly coming back to normal life. Food items are available in stores. Bottle waters are also available now. People save electricity by not switching on more lights. Only necessary lights are on. Trains are running in normal schedules. Escalators are not operated at some stations to save energy.

TV programs show songs that encourage people to reconstruct and come back to normal life faster. The Japanese spirit will reborn with more energy. Japan is like a phoenix bird, that can come out even from the ashes! Though Japan is not my mother country, I believe the people Japan are gifted with the kind of energy that will make the rebuilding faster. Japan will be back soon. Ganbare Nippon!

A unique way of teaching Japanese language to foreigners

2011-01-16T20:29:00.005+09:00

It seems as if the thermometers in Japan recently are reluctant to rise more than 10deg C. Yesterday the iGoogle weather gadget was showing -1 deg C at midnight and as per the reports on Sunday a cold air wave is supposed to hit Japan that will lead to low temperatures. It has been snowing at the surrounding prefectures of Tokyo. Tokyo remained at low temperatures with cold wind at times.

Recently, I used to watch the weather reports in NHK after I learned the basic words and phrases being used in a weather report from Mana Suzuki-Sensei. Ever since there were reports of cold air wave thwarted the life in Europe and Northern America , Japan was also expecting similar climatic pattern this year. Japan Meteorological Agency had warned of strong winds and heavy snow and high waves, specially along the coast of the Sea of Japan that will continue through Monday. As per the weather reports a strong cold air mass and freezing cold pattern continues to stay around Japan.

From the third week of December and after the Japanese language proficiency test, Mana Suzuki-Sensei changed the style of teaching Japanese language from the conventional way of following a book. I experience her way of teaching Japanese very useful when students get many chances to hear and practice daily life conversations. It is almost impossible for fresh foreigners to follow announcements at public places and also words used at public places in day to day life in Japan.

Sensei brings 4 to 5 pages of a topic that she selects from a recent television program. Today was the third session of that peculiar way of teaching Japanese. The first lesson was to practice hearing and reading the weather report that comes in the NHK television. Sensei separates the lesson note to two parts where the first part is the written form of the television program and the second part is the words or idioms (語彙 or ごい). The語彙 or ごい section is the most important as Sensei explains the usage, conditions and situations where similar words can be used. This helps to build a rich vocabulary that in turn can be retrieved when similar situations are met with in the daily life. It may be a tough job for foreigners to remember these words and idioms at first hearing, but practicing with Sensei reinforces the newly learned vocabulary in mind.

Sensei writes the idioms both in Kanji and Kana characters, which helps effectively to learn the traditionally difficult Kanji characters. To mention as an example from the first lesson, fubuki is one of the words I could recall easily when I watched the weather report. Fubuki means snow wind and it is written in hiragana as ふぶき and in Kanji as 吹雪.

This week’s subject was about the National center test for university admissions that held at 706 test centers throughout Japan. The entrance test is being held on 15th and 16th January and the number of candidates this year had increased to 520396. Compared to the last year there is an increase of 7145 candidates this year. National center test for university admissions is written in romaji as Daigaku nyushi centa shiken and in hiragana as だいがくにゅうしセンターしけん(大学入試センター試験). The news announcer says there was a long queue (ちょうだのれつ) of candidates near Fukui JR station to buy the Omamoriお守り (おまもり). Omamori is the Japanese amulet that is believed to protect a person from trouble and bring good luck. I think, these kind of customs might have come to Japan through Buddhism. In Indian culture, these kind of sacred protection and ‘bring good luck’ devices are part of daily life.

The female announcer says it was freezing cold outside the Tokyo University at morning 7:30 and when asked about the counter measures taken to resist the cold, a girl student replied that she had pasted Cairo at her stomach and back. When Sensei asked about the Cairo I could not reply as I was not aware of Cairo. Sensei told Cairo is a body warming adhesive tape and if we paste it on the inner wears it will make the body hot. Care should be taken not to paste it directly on the skin. This body warmer helps in the chilling coldness and it is widely used in Japan. It is available in pharmacies. If we put one on the stomach (not directly on the skin, but on the inner wear) and one back, it is enough to go out in the freezing cold.

Sensei gave one sample, the photo of which is shown above. One or two tapes can keep us warm for up to 12 to 14 hours. The body warmer that Sensei gave is manufactured by a Japanese company Kiribai Chemical Co.Ltd. Reaching back home, I did a google search to know more about Cairo brand of body warmers from Kiribai Chemical Co.Ltd.

Kiribai Company produces and markets this warmer bag, which is made of natural bamboo charcoal. History of body warmers used in Japan dates back to the Edo period. Technically, the bamboo charcoal gives off negative ions and far-IR radiation. Average temperature can go up to 53 degree Celsius and the highest temperature the product claims is 63 degree Celsius. The body will be warm for around 14 hours, which is well enough when we go out during winter. As for any other products, there are dos and do-nots for Cairo as well. Remove the Cairo body warmer before going to the bed. Also it is not advisable to use near hot places such as fire place, stove, burners and electric blanket.

I hope I have not deviated much from the talk of this post. In fact the inspiration to write this post was the Cairo received from Sensei. Her unique way of teaching Japanese language not only helps foreigners to learn the language but also gives them a distinctive way to know Japanese culture and life style. Here the teaching and learning process does not finish at the class room, the teacher inspires to pursue more….

“You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives” Clay P. Bedford

New Year celebrations in Japan

2011-01-10T19:21:00.000+09:00

Before the chirping birds liven up the eastern horizon, we walked out to the chilling cold. Literally shivering in the chilling cold, yet with the single-minded resolution, we walked on Funabori-bridge that crosses the river Arakawa. The temperature was around 2 deg C. The wacky herd of seven was proceeding to the middle of Funabori-bridge to say nothing but a ‘Happy New Year’ to Arakawa River.

A New Year celebration without this ritual would have been meaningless. Arakawa River symbolizes to the whole Japan and neglecting the winter morning cold wind, we could say Happy New Year to the whole Japan. This is how we started the first day of 2011.

This year’s New Year party celebration was unique and standout with memorable events. In the past I had participated in New Year celebrations at Riyadh, Goa, Gurgaon and Chennai apart from the hometown Thrissur. This year, the celebrations started at 31st evening and continued the whole night till 2011 January 1st morning with exciting amusements. The final crazy ritual, i.e., to say loud happy New Year to Arakawa river in the morning cold was directed by Uday-san, popularly known as Neelan among friends in Japan.

New Year is celebrated in Japan in a big way unlike many other East Asian countries. The Japanese people follow Gregorian calendar and celebrate New Year's Day on January 1st the same way as Europe and America do. Though different cultures have different concepts and period for celebrating their own specific New Year day, January 1st has become an international New Year day. History says Japan was following Chinese lunar Calendar till the year 1873. I think Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam are still following Chinese calendar. Japan adopted Western style to celebrate New Year on January 1st with the acceptance of Gregorian calendar after some years of the famous Meiji Restoration.

Japanese people celebrate New Year with their own unique customs. There is a belief that if the New Year events are not done properly the rest of the year will be ill-fortune. There is a spirit for New Year also. It is called ‘Spirit of New Year’ and in Japanese 年の神 (としのかみ-toshi no kami). Spirit is Kami in Japanese language. Houses and business places are decorated with Kadomatsu (門松―かどまつ). Kadomatsu is made of bamboo and branches of pine branches. I could read more on the festivals in Japan from the notes given by Seki-sensei. Also, recently I encountered Kazumi-sensei’s blog that teaches Japanese language and customs using English and Japanese. Kazumi-sensei’s recent post has a photo of Kadomatsu. When we went to Oshiage to see the Tokyo sky tree yesterday, I could take photo of Kadomatsu that was displayed in front of a Japanese restaurant.

I used to receive New Year greeting cards from my colleagues for the past years. This is a custom in Japan to send post cards to friends and relatives similar to western culture. In India too people send greeting cards to friends and relatives. With the growth of internet, e-cards are popular recently. New Year day post card is known as nengajoo年賀状 (ねんがじょう).

The New Year cards were there in the post box on first day of January itself! New Year cards arrive on first day of the year and thereby convey the spirit and warmth of the sender to the receiver. This year I received a New Year card from Mana-Suzuki Sensei, who is my Japanese sensei on Sundays. Sensei gave two gift cards too. It is also a custom in Japan to return or reciprocate equally for any kind of favors one received from another person. I can use those gift cards from the nearby convenient store (Konbini – コンビニ) to buy things.

Though Japanese adopted Gregorian calendar and celebrate New Year on January 1^st similar to the western cultures, the customs and rituals are purely Japanese. This is point Japan differs from other countries. My observation is that Japan adopts things from other countries and soon converts them to a unique Japanese style.

Once something is accepted to Japanese style, it is very hard to identify it as foreign again, similar to the process happened to the word ‘convenient store’. The word ‘Convenient store’ is adopted to Japanese language as Konbini and foreigners without any introduction to Japanese language can never guess any of the similar English word like Konbini. New year celebration and customs in Japan too are best examples of this typical Japanese adoption process. Such an indigenous conversion happens in Japan and this is one of the distinct characteristics of Japanese culture.

Use of plain form during conversation in Japanese language

2011-01-04T23:15:00.000+09:00

Use of plain form is one of the confusing sentence pattern I have encountered in the study of Japanese language. The confusion is on the situation and with whom the plain form can be used. It is understood that the plain form can be used with friends and among family members for example. When it comes to switch between forms – plain – polite – honorific, Japanese language becomes too harder for a foreigner.

One of the most frequently used and easy to use conversational piece to understand the use of polite form is the reason a person says to explain why he became late to meet his friend. The question can also be in the plain form by adding か at the end of the sentence. Let us assume the conversation between Tom-san and Kimura-san.

木村さん：どうして　遅れたんですか。（どうして　おくれたんですか。Dooshite okuretan desu ka?)

トム：バスが　来なかったんです。（バスがこなかったんです。Basu ga konakattan desu)

Kimura-san: Why were you late?

Tom-san: The bus did not come.

Kimura-san was expecting that Tom-san will reach at the scheduled time of their meet. Tom could not come at the promised time. Tom was late for the appointment. When they met each other, Kimura-san asks Tom-san the reason for his late coming. Tom-san explains the reason for his delay that the bus did not come. It is understood to the listener that Tom might have used another mode for the travel. Many Japanese language text books use this reason for the delay. Tom-san says the bus did not come and does not say how he reached, or it may be the continuation of their conversation.

After learning the plain form, we tend to use plain form with all situations. The switching between the forms depending on the conditions of conversation is a conscious process. Plain can not be used when one talks with his/her superior or a person of higher status.

The reason for the delay could be (train delayd…)　電車が遅れて…..which is more frequent now a days due to じんしんじこ(human accident or suicide).

If we see a friend wearing a new shirt, we can ask どこで　かったんですか。(from where did you buy). “When did you come to Japan” in plain Japanese is いつ日本へ

きたんですか。Here きましたか changed to きたんですか。Interestingly, the ですか is still used in the plain form.

If something is not beautiful or attractive, we can say きれいじゃないんです (kirei ja nain desu). To express the (i) い adjuctive like さむいsamui (cold) in plain form, we can say さむいんです。The (na) な adjuctive for example again the きれい will be きれいなんです (kirei nandesu)。Note that for na adjuctive is changed to nandesu.

The Japanese name used in the above example is Kimura which is written in Japanese Kanji as 木村. The 木 or ki stands for the tree and the 村 or mura stands for the village. The Kanji村 is a combination of two Kanji, the left one is the Kanji for tree (ki) and the right one is the Kanji for law or measure. Kimura is one of the popular names in Japan.

This post is a kind of revision for me of what I have learned from the Japanese language class. The new year holidays is a long gap for Japanese language study. During the recent new year holidays, the score report of the practice JLPT test for the new JLPT also came. As I have written in the previous mail the New Japanese language proficiency test （新日本語能力試験 - しんにほんごのうりょくしけん）was a free practice test for candidates applied for the original JLPT held on December 5th, 2010. As expected my listening （ちょうかい）scored less than the average score, when the language knowledge and reading (げんごちしきとどっかい) scored around 86%. The original JLPT result is expected to come on the first or second week of March 2011.

Please notify me if there are any mistakes in the Japanese hiragana or Kanji typed in this post. This is the first time I typed Japanese scripts directly from the keyboard. Before I was using MauveCloud's Browser Tests: Kana Generator to input Japanese scripts in this blog.Recently only I could change the windows English setup to type Japanese scripts.

Wish you all a happy and prosperous New Year!

Japanese language proficiency test

2010-12-14T23:07:00.001+09:00

Approaching towards the end of three years living in Japan, taking Japanese language proficiency test (JLPT) gave a good understanding of the level of Japanese language so far I have acquired by attending the lessons and daily interactions with Japanese people. The test site was at Yoyogi. The TKP business center at Yoyogi was crowded with foreigners who aspire to test their knowledge on Japanese language.

The Kanji paper was comparatively easier (for me) as I have done a fair justice to the book 'Write Now! Kanji for beginners' published by 3A Corporation. This book has 323 Kanji arranged in 21 lessons. The writing and reading practice notes given in the book is also helpful. Learning Kanji is the toughest part of Japanese language learning for a foreigner. The Japanese language teachers are good at teaching grammar, vocabulary, listening and speaking parts of Japanese language. Learning Kanji needs a great effort from the part of the foreigner more than from the teacher.

For Japanese people who learn Kanji from childhood, it is a part of the curriculum and they learn it over a period of 9 years. Whatever the structure, the stroke or the shape, Kanji is just a script for Japanese people. For grown up people, especially after a certain age, this kind of learning will not work effectively to the foreigners. Kanji needs logical thinking and it has the right logic.

Kanji is the abstract of ideas and thinking process. Kanji reflects the wisdom of the East Asians, their association with the nature and living things on this earth. May not be an exaggeration that a book can be written based on each Kanji. 3A Corporation has done a great work to compile the most frequently used 323 Kanji that will appear for the old JLPT level 3 test. From this year onwards there will be change in the levels. I took the Level N4, which is equivalent to the level 3 of the past JLPT. From this year there will be five levels of JLPT starting from N1 to N5. More details can be found in JLPT official website

Many websites helped to study Japanese Kanji online. Those sites are updated with plenty of study materials aimed at foreigners who may wish to start from the scratch. Charles Kelly's Online Japanese Language Study Materials, which has the quiz on vocabulary, grammar and Kanji helped a lot to do revision of what was learned. Repeated attempts in the quizzes provided in the website will help students.

Recently I found a very useful site smart.fm which introduces an impressive way to master languages. Not only limited to Japanese language, smart.fm has many areas of knowledge useful to students all over the world. This website has a special tool to measure the level of study, which will tell where we stand in the course of learning process.

Basically, I have been learning the Japanese language by using Minnano Nihongo books series I and II. In our Japanese language classes, we have completed Minnano Nihongo book I which has 25 lessons and half of Minnano Nihongo book II, up to lesson 38. For level N4, an examinee is supposed to study both the books and approximately 300 Kanji. Minnano Nihongo books follow the conventional way of teaching methods. Though conventional, the examples, pictures and live situations illustrated in the books are impressive. The caricatures are lively and we can observe a sarcastic attitude in the illustrated situations.

Mr. Mike Miller is a character who represents foreigners in the books. In one of the conversation strip, Miller's boss is a lady, which is extremely rare in Japan. In western cultures it is normal and since Miller is a foreigner, he can have a lady boss! The caricatures convey the face expressions effectively to the reader when the characters encounter with unexpected or unusual life situations.

JLPT is conducted by Japan foundation and Japan Educational services and exchanges. Japanese Language Proficiency tests are conducted twice in a year. Exams are held on first Sunday of December and July every year. There was a trial JLPT this time different from the old years. It was a good experience to prepare for the practice JLPT examination. The practice test was on November 21st at selected centers. Hitotsubashi University, which is at Kunitachi, around 40 minutes from Shinjuku, was the center for the trial JLPT. The test was for the selected candidates and the criterion of selection was not disclosed to the applicants. Application form for trial JLPT was sent to a few numbers of actual JLPT test applicants and from the list of applicants for trial, a few were selected for trial exam. As an encouragement to come for the trial JLPT, an amount of 2000 Yen was given to those who completed the trial test. JLPT official website also has the sample of the JLPT test. Japanese Language Proficiency Test
The first sensei to teach Japanese language was Morishita Sensei, then Imade sensei and Suzuki sensei. Currently I am learning from Seki sensei under whom I could start a little bit of conversation in Japanese language. I have been learning from Seki sensei for more than one year. For the past four months I have been taking a private tuition from Mana Suzuki sensei in Komatsugawa on Sundays.

Taking JLPT gives a good understanding on the current level of learning Japanese language and the areas where one needs to concentrate more. Application kit can be obtained from the stores for 500 Yen. For details of JLPT application procedure test samples, the following site will be useful JLPTGUIDE

Preparatory Course for the JLPT N5 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test)

The 2008 Japanese Language Proficiency Test JLPT Level 1 and 2 Questions and Correct Answers (2008 1-2 Kyu Nihongo Noryokushiken Mondai to Seikai)

N2 JLPT Practice (Gokaku Dekiru)

2010 New Japanese Language Proficiency Test Guide Book (N4 - N5 Outline and Question Examples, Atarashii Nihongo Nouryoku Shiken Gaido Bukku N4 N5 Hen)

JLPT N3 Kanji Vocab and Grammar (Preparatory Course for the JLPT)

Revisit to Showa Kinen Koen

2010-11-25T21:58:00.005+09:00

The word ‘Déjà vu’ might be an exaggerated expression of feelings that aroused when reached at Tachikawa again. It was a revisit to Showa kinen koen to observe the autumn leaves. Indeed, this time the looks of Showa kinen koen were different from the one we observed in the last spring.

Personally for me and for this blog, the Showa Kinen Koen played a crucial role in the preceding months. Tachikawa was the place where I was compelled to put a stop to the blog writing almost more than six months from now. It was the peak of spring in Tachikawa during the last weeks of April. An unexpected impairment, followed by the doctor’s advise kept me away from sitting long hours in front of computer. As you know well, blogging needs a lot dedication and I was unable to commit that loyalty to this blog. Last spring, we walked a lot inside Showa Kinen Koen.

The photo posted above was taken by Mr. Jayaraj. The beauty of the nature and photo shows the skills of photographer too, though I have taken this photo from his Picasa album without his permission!

For sure, I must express my sincere apology for not able to reply to the queries that I received. I could read some of the comments in this blog and those appeared in expat-blog. Frankly I do admit my failure to do justice to those comments.

With the autumn season presents itself to the nature and people charming and pleasant memoirs, I feel as if the mind is filled with renewed energy. It took almost a season to come out of life’s tremor.

Now the blog is back! It might be a coincidence that I do restart blogging from where I stopped – Showa Kinen Koen. The life is all about coincidences. Some of us believe in super-natural powers. We like to believe those coincidences as miracles of God. If it gives a sort of comfort, it is fine. For a few, unwilling to accept those super natural miracles, the life is a flow of repetitive experiences.

Decision to revisit Tachikawa was sudden followed by a call from family friends who were already reached at Showa Kinen Koen. I had just finished the Japanese language class and was heading home for the lunch. Recently, I have been attending the Japanese language classes taken by Mana Suzuki-san who conducts classes at Komatsugawa. I may write more about these new Japanese lessons separately.

We got around one hour to walk around Showa Kinen Koen. It was not enough to imbibe the nature’s marvels. In the rush, we forgot to take the camera too. The photos in this blog are received from friends. The bonsai tree leaves were also turned to red, pink and yellow.

The Japanese garden was especially beautiful and was the only place we could visit and take photos during this visit. For those who plan to visit Showa Kinen Park the area guide will be useful to plan before starting from home. Showa Kinen Koen Area Guide

Showa Kinen Park needs a full day. For those who enjoy the nature, it needs many days and still a revisit will give a different experience. We were also literally surprised to see another face of Showa Kinen Koen during the autumn season. During spring, the garden was clad with flowers, Tulips to say more specifically.

(Another masterpiece from Jayaraj's camera)The nature refills the life’s energy or in other sense the nature has abundant energy that any living being can absorb. Showa Kinen Koen is one of such beautiful part of nature where we can take renewed energy and fill the mind with tranquilizing landscapes.

Photos copyright to Mr. Jayaraj and Mr. Eldho

Showa kinen koen – Tulip garden at Tachikawa

2010-05-13T00:12:00.000+09:00

It took around two hours to reach at Showa kinen koen, popularly known as Tulip garden from higashi Ojima. The travel time is around one and a half hour to reach the garden from our place. One of our friends, who did recently visit this garden, suggested this as a place of must visit place around Tokyo. The photos shared in a social network forum looked stirring, something which drove us to the garden on the next week end.

Showa kinen garden can be reached from Shinjuku by taking JR-Chuo line that goes to Tachikawa. It takes around 38 minutes to reach Tachikawa station from Shinjuku. It is possible to walk to the Showa kinen garden from Tachikawa station. It takes around 15 minutes by walk, if you enjoy walking, but we took another option of boarding JR-Ome train that goes to the Nishi-Tachikawa.

Showa kinen koen is just 3 minutes walk from Nishi Tachikawa station. It is better to go to Nishi Tachikawa by taking JR-Ome line when going with a stroller. The entry fee is 400 Yen for adults and 80 yen for kids above 6 years old. It is a negligible amount considering the fun and enjoyment that the landscapes of Showa kinen koen impart to us. On 29th of April, Showa day, the entry is free to the garden.

There was an event of international flower show on the day of our visit to the garden. The entrance of the garden itself is well maintained and pleasing. Entering to the garden premise we can directly head towards the lake premise and have a boating for a while or it can be put aside to the end of the tour in the garden.

After taking our lunch at the lawn near to the lake, we headed towards the Tulip garden, which is the center of attraction of Showa kinen koen. The area of the park is around 163 hectares of land and is one of the attractive spots in Tokyo metropolitan area. Sight seeing is the major activity of adults while children can enjoy playing in garden and children’s forest. There are numerous spots for children to enjoy and make their day memorable one.

Walking through the garden viewing the beautiful flowering plants enjoying the harmony and tranquility of nature gives a sense of unification with mother earth. We saw some of the visitors to the park enjoy reading books under the shadow of the tree; some of them have a barbecue.

Bird watching is another recreation for some of the visitors while some enjoy cycling. Some of the visitors enjoy jogging and some enjoy boating. Children would love to play in the open ground and in the children’s forest. Our children enjoyed playing in the net.

Photos are powerful than the words written. The photos posted here will convey the beauty of Showa kinen koen. I have shared more photos in facebook, orkut and Flixya, which is a photos, videos and blog sharing and social networking site.

There was a booth inside the garden displaying and selling bonsai plants. Bonsai is one of the most attractive things for me in Japan. Before coming to Japan, I have tried to make bonsai trees by reading books, but failed to do so. At least for me, Bonsai is almost a synonym to Japan. It was a surprise to us to see bonsai sakura and orange trees. We took permission to take photographs and put them in this blog from the shop owner.

The artificial beaches made for children are also very attractive spots for kids to give a feeling of visiting the real sea shores. They can play with water without the fear of getting drowned.

While walking back to the garden gate at 6 P.M we were thinking of another day when we can make our second trip to the garden.

A revisit to Meiji Jingu shrine

2010-05-02T16:07:00.002+09:00

The climate has been turning good in Tokyo with the approach of golden week. The sky is clear or cloudy but not raining, which is suitable for going out with kids. Last Saturday when we decided to go out with kids we had no clear plan where to go. It was then the name of Meiji jingu which is located in Shibuya, Tokyo, came to our mind. One of the reasons to remember Meiji Jingu was the recent visit of Mr. Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister to this shrine. During lunch break one of my German friends recollected the news appeared in the local newspapers about the visit of German foreign minister to Meiji Jingu. Last year Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State had also made her visit to Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine.

It is easier to get to the Meiji Jingu shrine from Higashi Ojima station. The Toei Shinjuku train goes directly upto Shinjuku or Shinjuku sanchome and then to Meiji-Jingumae with in 49 minutes including the transfer time. The transfer at Shinjuku sanchome to Fukutoshin line is a bit lengthy process. Another way is to transfer to Yamanote line from Shinjuku. To plan the convenient train travel route, I use the Tokyo Transfer Guide, an online train route finding facility provided by Tokyo Metro. By using the transfer guide, we can determine where to transfer using the Toei Subway, Tokyo Metro and other railway lines in and around Tokyo like Tokyo metropolis, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures. This is one of the convenient services which Balasan forwarded to me during my initial days in Japan. This is a useful guide for foreigners since the website information are in English.

We reached at Meiji Jingumae station at around 3 PM. As usual and expected the Harajuku area and Meiji jingumae area were crowded. My kids could enjoy the animation characters walking on the streets. This part of Tokyo is totally different! Harajuku is the meeting point for the young generation living in a romantic imaginary and fashion world making fun and love that many times crosses all barriers of genders.

The first time I visited this shrine was with my brother. The pamphlets written in English and Japanese have a brief history of the Shrine. Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. After their death people wished to pay their respects to the Emperor and Empress and they selected an iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor and Empress used to visit was selected for the location of the shrine.

The artificial forest is with trees brought from different parts of Japan and looks as if it is a natural forest. There are brooks flowing through the artificial forest. The construction of the shrine was started in 1915 in the Nagarezukuri style using Japanese cypress and copper. The air raids during Second World War had totally destroyed the shrine. The shrine was rebuilt on 1958 after the war.

The first time I visited this shrine was with my brother. The pamphlets written in English and Japanese have a brief history of the Shrine. Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. After their death people wished to pay their respects to the Emperor and Empress and they selected an iris garden in an area of Tokyo where Emperor and Empress used to visit, to build the shrine.
On the way to the shrine we could see huge barrels stocked in racks on the sides of the road. These are barrels of sake (sake means alcohol in Japanese language) known as nihonshu donated to the Meiji Jingu shrine.

Meiji Jingu Shrine is located in a forest that covers an area of about 175 acres. Meiji Jingu Shinto shrine area is covered by an evergreen forest with around 120,000 trees of 365 different species. These trees were donated by people from all parts of Japan when the shrine was established. The shrine has two major areas known as Naien and Gaien. The Naien is the inside grounds centered on the shrine buildings. There is a treasure museum that has articles of the Emperor and Empress.

The Gaien is the outer grounds with Meiji Memorial Picture Gallery and many sports facilities. There is a Meiji Memorial Hall, used for official meetings in the past which is now used for Shinto religion weddings. In almost one hour we did spend at the Gaien, we could see rituals of two weddings. Priests and maidens were in traditional Japanese dress. Tourist people were taking photos of bride and groom who were clad in traditional Japanese dresses.

We can write down and sign the prayers and put them in envelops along with offerings. Recovery from ill-health, protection from evil spirits, family protection, Children’s health, General well-being, Business prosperity etc can be requested through the prayers. It is believed that the prayers we make at the shrine will come true.

The trip was memorable and informative as it could help recollecting one of the important historical eras of Japan – Meiji Period. Emperor Meiji was open-minded to other cultures. A few lines from one of his poems says ‘By gaining the good and rejecting what is wrong, it is our desire that we’ll compare favourably with other lands abroad.’ These lines are displayed near to the Sake barrels.

The shrine closes at around 6 in the evening. Harajuku and surrounding areas were still boisterous with colorful and cheerful youngsters chirping around showing no interest to return to their nest. The shrine and the garden surrounding it stood behind us as a symbol of Emperor Meiji’s wisdom when we looked back.

Cherry blossom! When Sakura flowers perfume the morning sun

2010-04-18T23:39:00.001+09:00

For many days I have been thinking of making a post on cherry blossom and the O-hanami festival. At Tokyo part of Japan, the Sakura flowers started blossoming during the early days of April. We were invited to join the O-hanami party that was held at the sakura garden in front of the Yasukuni shrine with the whole family. That was an enlivening event for all of us to socialize with Japanese people.

O-hanami party is conducted at the cherry blossom occasion in Japan. Look at the flowers, drink O-sake (Japanese alcohol), eat and praise the beauty of Sakura flowers are the general activities being done during the O-hanami party. There may be variations in the mode of the parties being conducted. The concept is to praise the magnificence of Sakura flowers. The view of Sakura trees with full of light pink Sakura flowers is really a feast to the eyes. So appealing are the views that even while rushing to the office, it is hard to avoid taking a moment and look at those glamorous bunches of flowers.

Why, even this post is motivated by the alluring sceneries that had caught in the eyes after the start of cherry blossom in Tokyo. The period of end of winter season and the start of spring is marked with the blossoming of sakura flowers. Sakura flower is synonymous to the Japan in one sense. For an outsider like me, Japan could be symbolized to Mount Fuji, Sakura, and Hiroshima-Nagasaki – the three most striking things that come to the mind at first while referring to Japan.

For ages unknown, the sakura has been the most affectionate and adorable for Japanese people. Let me borrow from Nitobe Inazo-san’s ‘Bushido’, to best represent the feelings of Japanese people towards Sakura flowers; “The Yamato spirit is not a tame, tender plant, but a wild – in the sense of natural – growth; it is indigenous to the soil’

The Sakura trees in Komatsugawa garden near to our apartment were leafless till the end of March. Now all of them have turned to look like light pink clouds hanging from the branches. People started come out of the home and spend their leisure at the garden. Children play with the falling flower petals. The chirping sounds of birds are back to the garden.

The most thrilling experience after the O-hanami party was to meet Mrs. Akie Abe, the former first lady of Japan (2006-2007), who is a popular and prominent figure in Japanese political and public life. We were really lucky to have a group family photo with Abe-san. I do not intend to post the group photo before getting her written permission to do so. We were wondering, compared to India, how freely a known personality like Mrs. Abe could walk on the road in Tokyo!

This post may be incomplete without the following lines (again excerpts from ‘Bushido’) by Motoori Norinaga, the famous poet of Edo period;

Isles of blest Japan!

Should your Yamato spirit

Strangers seek to scan,

Say-scenting morn’s sunlit air,

Blows the cherry wild and fair!

What is Japan?

2010-04-10T23:20:00.000+09:00

Kenichi Tanaka-san’s blog video ‘Japan – The strange country’ prompted me to write this post. Tanaka-san did translate successfully and humorously his observations about his own country to 11:21 minutes movie. While Japanese people are known for their generalizations, Tanaka-san stands different and looks in to the facts with a distinctive perception.

That might be the fifth grade when the science teacher told about cold countries. Probably there was a country name Japan. Almost 29 years, during the 1980s, I was fond of Soviet Union. Our text books were protected by the thick pages of Soviet Nadu (Soviet land), the magazine which we received free of cost to home during our childhood. My father was an Indian National Congress leader during those years who was involved in the active politics with ex-chief minister of Kerala, K. Karunakaran. Even then he did not show any hesitation to receive the magazine from Soviet Union, which boasted the achievements of communism in Soviet Union.

Soviet Union was powerful in those days and influenced Indian political brains, while hard core communist leaders and followers dreamt on the thunder sounds of spring in India that will come from China or Soviet Union. Japan was not known to me at that time. Japan came through electronic products such as Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi and through the Suzuki motors. Japanese automobile companies influenced India much more than the electronic products in terms of cost.

In upper primary schools, we learned about volcanoes and Japanese earthquakes. We heard that Japanese people make light weight roof to their houses, in order to reduce casualties in case of earth quakes. We heard about the intelligence of Japanese people. We learned Japan's victory over China and Russia.

Japan returned to our study corners during high school days, when we learned about Second World War. That was first time I really admired Japan. More than any Japanese electronic products or Suzuki’s joint venture to produce Maruti to the Indian streets, Japan’s help to Indian freedom fighters during the war impressed me. That was a topic of discussion in our friends circle. That was one of the rare subjects where all friends reached to a common agreement! Japan – an Asian country dared to stand alone and fight the European colonial forces in Asia. Japan might have tried to colonize some Asian countries, but the Japanese military helped S.C Bose, popularly known in India as Netaji to form Indian National Army (INA). Indian National Army along with Japanese military fought against British East India Company and advanced through Eastern India. They could form the first Independent India Government in Andaman Nicobar Islands under the leadership of Netaji. Unlike many of the South East Asian countries, I believe, Indian people supported Japan and wished for its success. We were so depressed to learn Japan’s surrender in the war.

Somewhere in the mind, there was a desire to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki at least once in life. During our high school days, Japan was almost a model country. A country with dedicated work force, a country with educated, healthy, disciplined and polite people live, stood as a role model to our generation. Teachers taught us to learn from Japan’s experience, Japan’s return to the world’s economy like a phoenix bird. History teacher Mrs. Rathi compared the phoenix bird and Japan’s waking up from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The desire to visit the land of Phoenix birds were heaping up. Internet and access to the information was not so popular on those days. I searched the encyclopedia pages to read about Japan. I could see pictures of beautiful women with colorful umbrellas and hand-fan. Japan remained a mystery in the mind. People are different, their faces are different, eyes are small and after all Japanese people believed the manufacturing technology ‘Small is beautiful’. Japan makes everything small.

Japanese workaholic nature is famous all over the world. One of my colleagues recollected his professor’s visiting experience to one of the Japanese company, where he could see an operator with a black badge on his uniform. While inquired about this, he was informed that the operator and his union were in strike against the management. I am not sure of the truth behind this story, but such kind of stories surfaced in our discussions during tea breaks when I was working in India. This was an extraordinary incident as the strikes in India have never been gentle.

Japanese management style has become popular in India. The collective responsibility and treatment of all people in all grades with equal respect has been some what different from the one, Indian companies and institutions inherited from the colonial British system. When working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one of the Pakistani friends, who worked in Japan, used to tell his observations on Japan. The discrimination in the society is not so open and severe in Japan based on the nature of job of a person compared to India or Pakistan.

Japanese product quality and quality implementation systems are famous around the world. There is a significant section of the Indian society believing in ‘brand Japan’ image. Japan is a brand for quality products.

My first encounter with a Japanese national dated back to 1996 April 11 when I was on a short business tour to Geneva and visited United Nations office. During business meetings there were chances to meet people from Japan. While talking with them, I have not tried to hide the veneration towards Japan.

There is no intention to assess the present living experiences with that of the old imaginations right now. I may do it on another occasion. It is always better to keep imaginations to our heart. Practical experiences may differ from person to person and can not be weighed and criticized with imaginations. I have tried to recall maximum possible images of Japan before I came to Japan. Now it will be interesting to watch what is Japan in Tanaka-san’s video.

Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Hello, my name is Nimura

2010-04-07T22:52:00.001+09:00

Before starting, I like to take an advance bail that this blog post is a personal one.

Yesterday my colleagues were deeply thinking how to write my name in Japanese. Anything foreign including the names, objects etc are written in Katakana script. Thus it is easy to identify by seeing the Katakana script that the thing or person is an outsider to Japan. My first name: Jayaprakash itself is little longer for Japanese people and after coming to Japan, the name is cut short to Jaya. As Japanese people add san to every name, they call me Jaya-san. In fact, Jaya alone is female name in India. When the colleagues told their desire to call Jaya-san, I did not show any hesitation. After all, what is in a name…..a rose is a rose…..

Things and people are divided broadly as Japanese and non-Japanese. This classification makes the things easier for Japanese people to understand things better and differentiate. The end purpose is not yet known to me. Hiragana and Kanji are used for Japanese things. Japanese names are written in Kanji.

Yesterday, one of the new systems required all the names to be entered in Kanji. It was necessary to put my name in Kanji. After much discussion, translation of my names in to English and then to Japanese they came with some suggestions. In India, names have meaning. Hindu names are based on Sanskrit language and each name has one meaning. For example, my first name Jayaprakash is a combination of two Sanskrit words Jaya and Prakash. Jaya means success and Prakash means light. The total meaning is some thing like ‘Light of success’

Converting the ‘Light of success in to Japanese Kanji, my name will be 成功光 (success light). There is no Japanese name like this and the colleagues told it is not a good name in Japanese language. Family names are used in Japan and they asked me the meaning of my family name in English. My family name in my mother tongue is Kottampilly. Some of the old Malayalam-Tamil meaning of Kottam in English is ‘New’. Pilli stands for Village. Modern Malayalam language and many of the new generation Keralites do not know these meanings. This Kottampilli has many variations in the southern states of India. Some of the people living in the border areas of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka have family names like Kottapilli, Kottampilli, Kottampally, Kottapalli etc. While I was in Riyadh, one of my friend from Andhra Pradesh and another friend from Karnataka has same family name as Kottampilli. Interestingly according to them also, the regional versions of Kottam is New and Pally is village.

Recollecting the old Riyadh friends, I translated my family name as ‘New village’ The new village in Japanese language is ‘Atarashi Mura’. 新しい村. Japanese people do not use Hiragana while writing names. They just take 新 from新しい and村 to make the name新村. This is pronounced as ‘NIMURA’ in Japanese.

Now, I got a Japanese name – Nimura-san. 新村

Interesting experience! Japanese names have their origin in the nature. The mountain, river, village, bridge, chopsticks, bell ring, trees etc are the major inspirations for Japanese names. If translated to English, some of the Japanese names can be read as Blue tree (Aoki), Middle Field (Nakada), Middle river (Nakagawa), Upper field (Ueda), Tree village (Kimura), Paddy village (Tamura), Middle village (Nakamura) etc.

Similar naming system has been followed in India too since ancient time. Our family names also bear some meaning in the old language, which many new generation people can not recognize. Sanskrit names are meaningful, but recently in the name of fashion, baby names are twisted and it is hard to find any meaning in any of the existing language. A great percentage of population still follows the traditional way of putting names in India too.

The names taken from natural things show the civilization’s affiliation with the nature. It is a kind of union achieved in the society by calling human beings the names of natural things. The preservation and maintenance of nature comes from within. People carry the mountains, villages, trees, animals and rivers wherever they go, while they sleep, wake-up, eat and go to school and always with them! This is the ultimate example harmony of human societies and nature!

Are the wheels coming off Japan’s traditionally organized social structure?

2010-04-04T03:15:00.000+09:00

Recently one of the Japanese friends, who had visited major Indian cities for business purpose, commented on the economical developments happening in India. It was good to hear that a country like India with an explosive population makes remarkable achievements in industrial growth. He was eager to tell me the energy and confidence he could observe in young entrepreneurs and business executives during his interaction with them.

That must be true. The young educated generation in India is ambitious to reach new heights and prove their abilities. Drawing encouragement from the proven success of Japan and other developed countries, the young generation is motivated to add new dimension to the traditionally stained image of their country. I told my friend that the recent economical developments are concentrated in the industry only. There might be a low penetration of growth to the basic necessities too, but the growth is highly not organized or distributed in India. The poverty rate is much higher and alarming in India. The human rights violations, child labor, aggression towards women, malnutrition, infant deaths, and poverty to mention a few things that UN has put India on the top of their list underrate the recent economical growth.

As an Indian, it is a proud to hear that our country is growing. It is a relief and gives hope to those downtrodden millions of human beings, termed as ‘cattle’ by her wealthy class. Even the right to education bill proposed by the central government in India is questioned by some vested interest groups in the name of funds and basic infrastructure. They don’t understand that the idea of right to education is important to feed into the social structure, so that the administration, bureaucrats, social organization will strive to meet the requirement. That attempt is enough in a society to bring success. Years of suppression, caste and class based discrimination, disparities etc, have reinforced optimism in political brains too in India. India needs more enthusiastic young brains to overcome those optimistic blocks in the political front and move forward.

On the other hand, Japan’s economical growth and social structure has appeared as a model for me. During discussions, I used to point out my observations that Japan does not need any communist parties to bring socialism in to the society. The governments had done their job well to bring justice to all the citizens in Japan. I don’t claim that I have not seen anybody sleeping on the street. Yes, I have seen homeless people twice or thrice while walking with friends in the night through the busy Tokyo streets. For me and friends the scene was a strange experience in Tokyo. It is quite common in India or any other developing country.

Economy matters. If the country and people are rich and have enough money to satisfy the basic necessities, the money can be spent for luxury. Then the social life becomes a celebration. In developing countries, corruption in bureaucracy and political system has their roots in the poor salary structure. In Japan, as far as my experience goes, a good percentage of the population can afford to live with many luxury things in life.

Socialism is interwoven in the society. One of the reasons for this socialistic mentality among Japanese people as told by friends is the feeling of ‘unique race’. Japan, though possess similarities with the neighboring East Asian countries, has many unique things to make it separate from others. The almost homogenous society had made the things easier for the administration and law to implement, organize and interwove socialistic threads into the society. That was the efforts of past generations in Japan and the result is today’s Japan as a model state that other nations can learn.

I have always heard stories of loyalty, truthfulness and righteousness from foreigners living in Japan when they tell their real life experiences of losing money and valuables. One friend forgot his bag including passport, money and other valuables in a taxi, in which he came from Narita airport on his first day to Japan. He did approach the nearby police station to report. Following the instruction from the police, he went to the station the next day and to his surprise the police handed over his bag with all the valuables inside intact. Another friend from Singapore forgot to take change for 10,000 Yen from the vending machine. When he realized this loss on the next day, he made a hopeless attempt to check at the vending machine to get the change that was approx. 9200 Yen. After searching at the vicinity of the vending machine, he approached the nearby shop and explained his loss. To his surprise, they asked him what is the exact amount and time he lost the money. When he told both time and exact amount, they handed over him the money!

Yes, these have been what I used to hear from foreign friends, but recently, started hearing suddenly about taking care while riding crowded trains and do shopping etc. Some of the people started losing their money. The money won’t disappear by itself. It happens when the wheels coming off. The society could be symbolized to a vehicle. When the economy shudders, it is hard to keep the wheels in place.

Japanese, Indian and English Number systems

2010-03-27T21:14:00.001+09:00

Japanese numbering system and method to denote and name higher count figures are different from English number system. Initially it was a bit difficult to get an idea of amount of figures while discussing with Japanese colleagues. International business figures are almost always in millions or billions. Japanese people have the same problem to understand when the figures are in millions and billions.

The Japanese system for numbers up to thousand uses similar system with that of the western system of numbering. For numbers up to thousand, in India also we use a similar system. Similar system means, we have different names to denote 100 and 1000. Generally we do not use any separate name for 10,000. It is just ‘das hazar’ in Hindi as ten thousand in English.

Before we start comparing the differences in dealing with higher numbers, it will be worth to recall the smaller count numbers in Japanese, English and Hindi.

Numbers English Japanese Hindi

1 One Ichi Ek

2 Two Ni Do

3 Three San Teen

4 Four Yon/Shi Char

5 Five Go Paanch

6 Six Roku Che

7 Seven Nana Saath

8 Eight Hachi Aath

9 Nine Kyu/Ku Nau

10 Ten Ju Das

20 Twenty Ni ju Bees

30 Thirty San ju Tees

40 Forty Yon ju Chalees

100 One Hundred Hyaku Ek sau

1000 Thousand Sen Hazar

10,000 Ten thousand Man Das Hazar

100,000 Hundred thousand Ju man Lakh

1,000,000 One million Hyaku man Das Lakh

10,000,000 Ten million Sen man Crore

100,000,000 One hundred million Oku Das crore

1,000,000,000 One Billion Ju Oku Arab

Here, I wrote up to one billion only. One trillion, which is one thousand billions, is called Cho 兆 in Japanese and ten kharab in Indian system. Ancient Indian astrologers used big numbers to calculate the distance of stars and hence Indian numbering systems have names to denote really big numbers like one duodecillion, which is 1,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,000. In Indian numbering system this is called Adant Singhar. It is not a surprise to use such big numbers for calculation while dealing with the universe.

In Japanese numbering system, ‘man 万’ is used to denote ten thousand. From ten thousand onwards Japanese people use ‘man’. Then Ichi man is 10,000, ni man is 20,000, san man is 30,000 and so on. The western system use ten thousand for 10,000, twenty thousand for 20,000 while the Indian (Hindi) system use a system similar to English like Bees hazar for 20,000 and Tees hazar for 30,000 etc. Up to one hundred thousand Indian and English systems are different. In India we use One lakh for one hundred thousand, which is ju man in Japanese.

Lakh and Crore are commonly used in India for business, while in Japan man and Oku 億 are used, in English Million and Billion are used. For me, the translation of figures from Indian to English and then to Japanese system of numbering takes much time to get an image when we discuss Ni hyaku man yen or Oku yen. Schools in India also teache Indian way of counting and denoting the numbers and the brain is forged to imagine the figures in terms of Lakhs and Crores.

With the globalization of the businesses in India, use of million and billion are quite common and it takes less time to translate the figures in mind to our lakhs and crores. It takes time to accommodate with new system used to deal with numbers. Years of building up of images and mental calculation based on one system can not be replaced totally with another system. Computer will make the things easy to convert the It is easy now to remember das lakh is one million and sau crore is one billion. The two process conversion of numbers from Indian to English and then to Japanese is many times a test for brain.

The other side of the story is the complaint from Japanese colleagues that the million and billions are too difficult for them!