A Fresh and Rejuvenating Restart

For quite a long time, I could not update this blog. Still I used to receive some comments on the blog. I tried to reply to some of them, but admit my failure for majority of the comments. Interestingly almost 90 percent of the comments are in "Cost of living in Tokyo for a foreigner"

I realized the importance of this blog when I was away from here for almost two years. You may wonder why? This is the sixth anniversary of this blog. I started writing this blog just for fun at first and then went curious to learn 'the new platform' from where I could address. Over the past six years (including the two years of absence) I learned that the posts I wrote here were useful to many people.

Many of the visitors to this blog asked for vital information to frame their life changing decision. There may be some online resources for getting general information about Japan and the cost of living. The prime purpose of starting this blog six years before was not to write about the cost of living in Tokyo. One of my friends in Singapore asked me the details of expenses in Tokyo for her article in a magazine. After sending the details to her, I thought of sharing excerpts of that content in this blog. Somehow the search engines brought many visitors to this post.

There may be other online resources for cost of living in Tokyo. Nature of expenditures for a foreigner is different from that of a Japanese national living here. It is quite natural for people who get job in Japanese companies to go curious about Japan and the cost of living. People are eager to get some useful information, especially when they are far away from the place where they have to go and make a living. Though, there aren't any obligations, there may be a factor of social commitment to each individual to be useful with one's neighbors. In an online social platform such as this blog, every visitor is close at the length of a hand that we can feel his presence in front of our eyes.

This prompts me to restart this blog. I don't make any commitments. This blog was born on a golden week. This is the sixth golden week since then. This is the spring season and once again the nature outside has robed herself in floral dresses. The air is fresh and rejuvenating and I feel this is a good time for a restart.

Two years of life in Japan

It is more than two years in Japan!. Still the moments of departure from Cochin airport remain fresh in memory. It was not so long before that I left India to Japan. The period spent in Japan is around 5% of my life till now, but the diversities and excitements of experiences have been vast and have substantial effect in life.

I did meet a young man from China at Morishita last week, who was in Tokyo for a short business trip. While sharing general things like the socio-political and cultural differences between China and India, he got curious in my stay in Japan and attitude towards life in Japan. My answer was short: Life in Japan is calm and peaceful.

When I say the life in Japan is calm and peaceful, it just reflects the general attitude of a majority of foreigners living in Japan. This ‘calm and peaceful life in Japan’ image should be embroiled with the private or professional life. The experience of working in Japan, that also for a Japanese company is totally different from that of working for a company from any other countries. The calm and peaceful atmosphere prevails in the general life affairs in Japan.

Almost all basic necessities of are easily available and easily accessible in Japan. One of such thing that will strike in the mind of a foreigner in Japan is the ‘convenient stores’. They are really convenient and make the life simpler and easier. We don’t need to wait behind long queues to pay the utilities bill when it can be paid in less than one minute in a nearby convenient store. The food for breakfast, lunch and dinner, snacks and many kinds of eatables and juices are available all the time, all the days in a week.

Convenient stores are called Konbini’ in Japanese language. It is written in Katakana as コンビニ [Ko-n-bi-ni] and this is one of the Katakana words I liked to use frequently while talking with friends. As sensei compares jokingly, Konbini is the friend and Konbini is the spouse of many of the workaholic and lazy people. Convenient stores are now a synonym with a life partner for many of the bachelors in Japan.

Another striking point during the last two years is the obedience to the law and order in Japan. This can be translated into the discipline in public places. The life in Japan is like a life in a company called Japan Incorporated. Whatever be the roots to this existing discipline and obedience to the law, it is a great plus point for the Japanese society, which they might have cultivated with consistent efforts over many years. Such kind of public discipline can not be implemented with the aid of external forces within a short period. It is the inborn nature of Japanese people to obey the rules and regulations. This is one of the concerns when Japanese companies bring foreign people from different cultures to Japan that the new comer to Japan may feel uneasiness to easily absorb into Japanese culture. It takes long time to get adjusted with the new social structure and in many cases the foreigners does not get involve in the mainstream. They resemble the floating element that may fly away after some time. There are cases where foreigners who can manage communication in Japanese language get involve in Japanese social and cultural events along with local Japanese people. If the language barrier is removed many of the routine concerns of foreigners will be solved.

The life in a company called Japan, ruled by some rules and regulations, is convenient when the new comer to Japan starts learning what is good and what is bad in Japan. One of the great information sources maintained by Japan Police is really helpful to foreigners to understand the rules in Japan. Rules Regarding life in Japan is a must read document which is written in English.

There are many websites dealing with the life in Japan especially made for foreigners in English language. Japan is one of the leading countries in terms of broadband internet users, second after South Korea, but tops in terms of fiber to the home broadband internet connectivity. The websites and online information sources dealing with the life in Japan for foreigners are helpful to those who wish to come to Japan. One of such useful sites, that is worth to add to the favorites in your browser is Your Complete Guide To Life In Japan!

Looking back to the two years life in Japan, by knowing only survival Japanese language to communicate, I feel what is more required to live in a different culture is the ‘empathy’, which will drive us to fusion.

Sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka? - Pushing people into the crowded trains

On an average, three to four visitors of this blog comes from a google search for “Pushing people into the train in Japan”. The google analytics gave this statistical data of visitors from different parts of the world to this blog. It was interesting to know that people from 79 countries out of 167 countries searched for “Pushing people into train in Japan”. This shows the popularity of this “pushing” in Japan in the outside world.

It took around 10 months after reaching to Japan for me to realize this phenomenon and on November 2008 for the first time I noticed one such pushing. I might have come across similar scenes but could not have noticed while rushing for own entry into the train. As many things are unique for Japan, it seems, this pushing people into the train is one the unique phenomena to Japan. I like to call it ‘phenomenon’ irrespective of the creation of this action. It might have formed as part of the subway journey requirements over a period of time.

Unlike in many other countries, the subway discipline is much stronger and strictly followed in Japan. Even if the trains are late due to some unexpected reason, passengers keep their patience. Japanese people generally would not deviate from their disciplined behavior and they follow the beeline into the trains too even if they know that they are going to be late if not rushed to the crowded trains. Trains towards Tokyo are terribly crowded in the morning hours. For almost all, it is a rush holding the time in hand. If any of the connecting train is missed or becomes late, reaching at the office will be delayed. Being late to the office is considered a shame in Japanese companies, where work is given the topmost priority.

What prompted me to write this blog post with a heading like ‘Sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ is one of the interesting conversation heard recently in the crowded Toei Shinjuku train, which I could managed to board from Higashi Ojima to Morishita. There was snow in the morning and due to troubles in the Keisei line, the trains in the Shinjuku line were also got delayed. I think, this was the reason for delay, if my understanding of the announcement in Japanese language made on the platform was correct! I have to frankly admit my inability to catch Japanese words.

When the train stopped at Nishi Ojima station, two stations from Higashi Ojima, and the doors opened, I could see many ‘heads’ waiting outside that were eager to enter to the train. Hardly there was space for them enter. The people inside the train were already crammed that entry of some more people into the train was almost impossible. It was hard for the closed door to open at the Nishi-Ojima station as the crowd inside was sticking to the doors. The time was almost 9:00 and everybody knew that they were going to be late in the office. That might had been the same feeling of people waiting at the platform too.

I was sure, only one or two managed to put their legs into the train, but with them in that position the doors could not be closed. It was then the driver appeared on the scene. The two passengers who managed to put their legs inside the train were struggling to get their body inside when the doors tried to close. It was impossible to close the doors with their body almost outside!

I could see the ‘heads’ and hear some sounds. I could hear a male voice asking ‘Sumimasen, Oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ and then a female voice ‘onegaishimasu’. Then the crowd inside felt a ‘Push’ from outside. The pressure from outside might have pushed the owner of the female voice inside the train! We were almost squeezed and there were grudges and exhaling sounds inside. The doors were closed and the train moved.

For me, the incident was an opportunity for revision and practice of one of the often used Japanese words ‘Oshimasu’. Oshimasu is one of the Japanese words I learned in lesson 16 of Minna no Nihongo I book. Oshimasu is the polite form for pushing or pressing. Minna no nihongo have examples of sentences using oshimasu and osu to. Osu is the dictionary form of Oshimasu. We learned the oshimasu, oshite, oshita, osanai and osu form to make sentences where we need to press or push any kind of button or keys.

Use of Oshimasu in subway trains to push the people into the train was a new knowledge for me. I went skeptic on what I might have heard. When confirmed from friends and sensei, I got an idea of the usage of oshimasu in subway trains also. The meaning of the conversation ‘sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ is ‘excuse me, is it OK if I push you?’ and the female voice replied politely ‘Yes, please (do)’.

This is not really an extraordinary or odd incident to write a blog post, but being a foreigner having no such experiences in the past, it stimulated me to think of the discipline, obedience, politeness and after all the compassion in the society where I do live. Is it not the manifestation of ‘compassion’ in Japanese society that I have heard through the words ‘sumimasen, oshitemo daijoubu desu ka?’ I mean the compassion in the sense of consideration, care, concern and kindness. I do not intend to use compassion in the meaning of ‘sympathy’ or ‘empathy’ here. Pushing people into train is a form of that consideration from the side of the person who pushes passengers into the crowded train. He helps them to reach their offices in time!

365 days of blogging life in Japan

If time, hours, day, months and years have something to do with human life, today is one of such important day in my life. May 17 had witnessed important events in the life earlier also. I don’t believe in celebrating my birthdays, but when it comes to notify my friends that it was on May 17 last year I started this blog, I should not hesitate to do so.

Yes, today is the 1st Anniversary of this blog. My life in Japan is one year old today!

Dear Blogger friends, your valuable suggestions and comments are anticipated. Thanks in advance.

Day and night, as written by Hawking, may probably be a relative phenomenon depending on the position of the observer. Though observed from within the mind, it was not so long ago that this blog started appearing in the google searches. The land of rising sun has ignited enough thoughts at the hearth of the mind.

While commute on buses and trains, the observer within was silently witnessing the activities outside. The observer inside was restless to learn new things when talking with Japanese people of different nature, while interacting with them and while reading through the culture of Japan and the society. It was this restless learning of new things in Japan that formed the reason for the birth of this blog.

Blogs does not happen automatically, but happens out of a restless desire to express own feelings and opinions, to share the new knowledge we learn in life, to find out a vent for nasty emotions generated out of the unpleasant experiences from all corners of life.

This blog on my life in Japan was a product of such restless mind and disorder. The disorder, not only in the society, but also within, urges for order on everything comes in contact. This blog did not happen out of sudden spurt of emotions in favor or against anybody, but happened out of a strong desire to tell the world outside thorough what I have been going through in Japan. The world outside including my relatives and friends responded equally well since the birth of this blog.

Today is the 365th day of blogging life in Japan. Google provided a blogging platform where I stand and share with the rest of the world what I have been experiencing in Japan. Thanks to all those who have been visiting this blog. Special thanks to Manisha and Anima for following this blog. I have learned many new things from their blogs.

Have a nice day to all readers!

Signing off ..........

Best Regards
Jayaprakash
May 17, 2009