Is it Possible to Pass JLPT Level N2 in Less Than Three Months?

Here is a good news to share; I passed JLPT N2 !! やっと日本語能力試験Ｎ２級に合格したよ！！

After a two and a half months of literally vigorous and focused study at JLPT Academy that started from April 14, 2018 to June 23, 2018, I took the N2 exam on July 1, 2018 in first attempt. Before the exams, I used to search on the internet to get tips on how to pass JLPT N2 (Japanese Language Proficiency Test Level N2) in 6 months. Their posts were inspiring and when I realized that the time is not enough, I started searching to check if it is possible to pass JLPT N2 in 3 months. It was unbelievable while reading the blogs written by those people who had achieved their target in 6 or even 3 months. Now, it is possible to say that if your current level is N3, you can pass level N2.  

The first thought to try for the JLPT N2 exam surfaced on the mind somewhere in December 2016, but came to know from one of my sensei that I was not even near to the Level N3 (After her evaluation of Japanese reading/listening ability). Before those classes, in 2015 and 2016 I had attended a few classes at a volunteer organization in Gyotoku. The classes were conducted by an organization that supports 'Hikikomoris'. Those classes helped me to refresh what I studied for JLPT N4.

In December 2016, one of the ads in Craiglist offering Japanese language lessons for 1000 Yen per hour triggered my desire to prepare for the N2 exam. I contacted the sensei who had given the ad and went for the trial lesson/interview. Though my desire was to start preparation for N2, I was informed by the Sensei that my level of Japanese was not sufficient to read and understand the text books for Level N3!! That was tough for me to accept, but unfortunately that was the fact.

A gap of more than 6 years, it was too hard to bring back the interest in Japanese language study. The classes started in February 2017, were in Yokohama and I had to travel from Higashi Ojima on weekends. More than one hour travel to the classes, I had to keep myself motivated and energized on weekends. Support from wife and kids were commendable. Continued the classes for almost 6 months, which in total had given me around 80 hours of study of materials for Level N3.. At the end of the lessons, I had started talking in Japanese.

Later I realized that level N2 is not a simple task and need more focused and systematic preparation. In February 2018, I came across an ad of JLPT Academy in Facebook regarding their JLPT preparation courses. Applied for N2 exam in March and started the power-packed JLPT N2 level preparation course from April 14. The nearest train station I used to reach the classes was Ogawamachi in Toei Shinjuku line. The lessons were on Saturdays, starting from 9:30 in the morning and ending at 5:45 in the evening with a one hour lunch break.

All grammar, vocabulary, Kanji, Reading and Listening practices were included in the classes, taught by two teachers, one in the morning session and another in the afternoon session. In total, ours was a group of 3 students. Initially it was hard to catch up to the tight schedules and targets that the teachers set on us. A lot of homework and self study were required to memorize especially the new vocabularies learned in the classes.

Showa kinen koen – Tulip garden at Tachikawa

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

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.

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!

雪が降っています

Yuki, the snow in Japanese language is one of the words I like most. When I did learn to use the ‘te’ form in our Japanese language lessons, I was almost obsessed to repeat the sentence ‘Yuki ga fute imasu’ means ‘It is snowing’. ‘te’ form is used to express a continuous action.

Snow is ardently attractive to me and the Japanese word for snow carries some mysterious beauty with it. Yuki is one of the names of Japanese girls too. I like the kanji for Yuki 雪. The Kanji character for snow or Yuki bears a modified Kanji character for rain. Rain is called ‘Ame’ in Japanese language and is written as雨. Kanji brings the nature into scripts. We can see the rain drops falling from the roof of our universe in this Kanji character or we can imagine as we open the window, we see the water drops falling and we call it rain! Snow is another version of rain and so it carries the kanji for rain too, but on a modified form.

Thus Yuki ga fute imasu is written in Japanese language as 雪が降っています. This is a combination of Kanji and Hiragana. Though I have been learning Hiragana and Katakana in our Japanese class, Kanji is still a dream project. It may take years to learn Japanese Kanji.

This year this is the sixth or seventh snow fall in Tokyo today. Last two years there were only one snow fall each. Though we got more snow falls, only twice it became heavy. On February 1st and today snow accumulated on the ground and remained for some time. Today it was second of such snow fall in the morning, but not very heavy as happened in the first day of February. The snow accumulated on the tree tops and on the play grounds, but was melting soon.

Taking the opportunity, some of the students got an excuse for absence from the school and play on the ground. There were not many, but in the morning some of them made their way to the play ground. We managed to capture some of the moments of today’s snow fall. It was morning 7:00 and my hands were shivering while standing at the balcony.

Emotion recollected in tranquility!

There might be a Wordsworth walking in the tile paved streets. He might have written thousands of praising words and poems on his solitude about the colorful leaves that falls on the street. On his way back to home through this street, he might have spent more of his unconstrained time on one of the wooden benches on the garden imbibing the beauty of the nature.

It is thus the poetry takes birth. The beauty of nature here in autumn season will inspire even a monster! Emotions could be recollected in this tranquility, thanks to Wordsworth for putting all those words to make a meaningful definition for poetry.

Life in Japan is more beautiful than before with the start of autumn season. Life becomes colorful when the nature around us makes up herself in colorful wardrobe. During autumn season, leaves change their color, thus making the whole panorama more scenic.

This photo is taken from the balcony of our apartment. The street down was not visible with the densely packed green leaves till some days back, now turned to be visible from top. The green leaves also turned into different colors.

This street that goes to the Higashi Ojima station looks enticing with yellow, orange, green, orange, dark brown and red leaves intermingles each other. Ideal place to spend time during day time if we are free!

The trees near the river bank also turned their leaves colorful, making the river more attractive than ever before.

Change of seasons in Japan and its impact on life

The rain brought more cold to Tokyo during the last two days and it is predicted to have rain tomorrow also. The rain started yesterday evening around 15:00 hours, when we were just went out of house on our way to Kameido shopping center.

Japan is getting on her autumn dress looking gorgeous all around. The winter is yet to come. The trees started shedding the yellow leaves and it is a hard work for the ward office staff to clean the whole street with full of leaves in the morning. Especially when it is raining, the leaves stick to the ground.

The color change to the leaves will happen at the beginning of November, it is expected this year in Tokyo. Trees at Komatsugawa park will also to discard the leaves thus preparing themselves to face the winter. Last subsequent two years had mild snowfall during second month of the years.

The cold wind is blowing today in Tokyo. The temperature has not gone down to make the climate cold. It may be due to the rain we feel cold. The temperature is around 14 degree Celsius now and it is considered to be hot in Japan. The real winter during December and January will show the mercury down to zero.

The dipping down of mercury will not freeze the life in Japan. It won’t bring any immobility to the usual things happening here. In fact the changes of seasons are warmly welcomed in Japan. People arrange festivals, get-together parties, Season welcome drinking parties, Season good-bye parties and the likes.

There will be discount offers by shopping centers during the season change in Japan. The cloths suitable for October and November are more available in the market now. During the second week of November, winter cloths will start appearing. The impact of economic recession on the textile industry was more in the US than in the Japan. One of the peculiar characteristics of Japanese people is their obsession towards the brand items in the market. They don’t mind to spend to get a branded cloth or costume.

The color changing of leaves during October and November is one of the beautiful natural phenomena in Japan. Japanese people like to talk about the minute changes in the weather and its mysterious beauty. They are so careful to observe and comment on the deviation of even a single day here and there for a climate change from the expected date. So is the weather reporting system in Japan. It is an accurate prediction almost 99.99% of the cases and we can rely on it and plan our activities accordingly.

Since we did not log into see the climate, we planned our outing to Kameido shopping center. For us, living in Higashi Ojima, Kameido shopping center is near if we get down at Nishi Ojima Toei Shinjuku subway, take a straight road walk in front of Daiei that goes to the back of Kameido shopping center.

The biggest attraction of Kameido shopping center is the ToysRus, which is a dream world for children. The sunstreet Rambling Market at Kameido is great place for spending evenings with children. Sometimes there will be stage shows. I will write about Kameido shopping center and ToysRus on a separate post.

It is cold outside and inside the house it is noisy with children playing and thus making the room heated. Children may not feel this cold as they are interested in playing on holidays. They may feel cold on week-days before going to school!

The shedding of leaves and changing colors are part of human life too. Without change the life is dull. Things should be in a state of flux to make the life exciting. The changes in the nature brought out by 4 distinct seasons are much visible in Japan. The life is not monotonous if we keep on changing the physical activities keeping the inner world intact as the nature herself does!

An evening trip to Funabori Tower, Tokyo

We heard about Funabori Tower from one of the friends last week. Funabori is just a two minutes by Toei Shinjuku line from Higashi Ojima. Yesterday, we went to visit Funabori tower with two friends.

Funabori tower, an integral part and main attraction of Tower hall Funabori, is also a place of conference, wedding parties, meetings, events and hotels. Calm and quiet Funabori station is just less than a minute walk from the tower hall Funabori.

Funabori Tower got its name from the place name Funabori. Funabori is near to Higashi Ojima and Ichinoe in Toei Shinjuku line. Funabori tower is approximately 7 minutes from Yawata/Motoyawata when we come from Narita Airport in Keisei line. A 7 minute walk from Keisei Yawata is required to reach Motoyawata in Toei Shinjuku line. It is recommendable to burn the extra fat accumulated! Japanese people are health conscious to the extent that they purposely make some of the destinations reachable by walking only!

It was around 6:30 PM when we started from Higashi Ojima with kids. Kids like to play outside and such journeys are ideal occasion to impart knowledge on them by talking about what the elders know about the place and history. Unfortunately I was not much informed on the importance of Tower hall Funabori.

Funabori tower is named after the tall tower, which is 115 meters tall and location, Funabori. At the entrance place there were wooden sculptures of musicians with violin in their hands. When we entered the Tower hall building, the first thing I noticed is a Japanese girl clad in black suit with a black hat coming walking to the reception area. Our friend approached the reception to ask how to access the tower. They explained how to go to the top of the tower.

We could see model statues of bride and groom on the first ground floor (First floor in Japan).Tower Hall Funabori is an ideal venue for holding events that ranges from expos to conferences to weddings. Funabori tower hall also have a bridal salon, restaurant and cinema. Funabori tower hall have a big hall, small hall, Banquette room, Event hall and Shop & Service room. Parking lot, Movie Theater, Exclusive service yard etc makes the Funabori tower hall a unique place for events.

The staff at the ground floor guided us to the elevator (Erabeta in Japanese) which took us to the seventh floor. Came out of the elevator at the seventh floor, we walked on the corridor which is long that reached to the end of the building. There another staff guided to us to one of elevator. Baby strollers are allowed to take up to this point only.

We entered to the elevator to reach the top of the Funabori tower. The digital display inside the lift showed the distance we covered in meters. When the display showed 105 meters, the lift stopped. Conveying our Arigato gozaimasu to the lift operator, we entered to the observation tower area. It is built in a square shape allowing 360 degree view of the surrounding Tokyo city and skyscrapers.

The night view of Tokyo is exciting! The extreme engineering skills manifested through the construction of attractive tall structures illuminated with electric bulbs are a feast to the eyes.

We saw Tokyo Tower from the observation tower in dim light, Sky scrapers in Odaiba was also visible. The photos taken from the top of the Funabori Tower at night were not so clear.


The view of vehicles moving not so far away on the bridge along with Arakawa river was really amazing. Another attraction was the view of trains moving on Toei Shinjuku line from the top of the tower.


We spent more than one hour at the tower top. There were no crowd and the observation area was silent, except our children made some noise when they played. Funabori Tower in the Tower hall Funabori is a recommendable place to visit in Tokyo.

Funabori tower is free to visit. To reach Funabori Tower the following link have a pdf file showing the nearby places and approximate time to reach the tower from Narita Airport and Keisei line.

How to reach Funabori Tower and Tower Hall Funabori? Click here

For those who are interested to contact the Tower hall Funabori for any kind of events, conference, the following address and website address will help. The site is in Japanese language;

Tower Hall Funabori
4-1-1 Funabori
Tokyo, Japan
phone: +81 3 5676 2211
fax: +81 3 5676 2501
Funabori Tower Hall

Dancing to the tunes of mele music – Edogawa ward festival at Komatsugawa

When the cute and beautiful girls flowed to the rhythm of the Hawaiian music, the stage looked magnificent. The little girls trained by a professional dancer were literally like waves in ocean. The Polynesian dance Hula is one of the most widely performed and popular dance forms in Japan.

Hula dance was performed by kids on the stage built for Edogawa ward festival organized at Komatsugawa park. Our aprtment's doors open to the Komatsugawa park and it was a nice experience watching and mingling with the local community for almost 4 hours. The programs started at around 4:0 in the evening.

The stage was built for the Annual ward festival. The Edogawa ward festival was organized by local leaders of Edogawa ward. Festivals are common in Japan and it helps people to gather at public places, see each other, refreshing relations and chat with each other. The daily life is busy and nobody have time to stop and chat even for a while. People might be seeing each other while travelling in trains or at shopping malls, but there are very few opportunities for them to get mixed up and come to know each other.

There were stalls being built on the Komatsugawa park for selling fast-food. The temporary stalls with tarpaulin were run by people from different apartments. Indians in Komatsugawa are also an influential group of minority. Yesterday there was a bolly-wood style Indian dance performed by Japanese dancers. The influence of India at Higashi Ojima area is much higher like in areas of Nishi Kasai, Ojima etc. Indians groups were also running some stalls for selling Indian food items, cloths etc.

Such festivals are good opportunities for the local Japanese people and other foreigners to know each other and are platforms for cultural exchange. Today also there are Indian classical dance performances by Indians in Higashi Ojima.


Almost all were thrilled by the hula dance performed by Japanese kids. The Hula dance form was originally developed by the Polynesians who first settled in the Hawaiian Islands. The attraction of Hula dance is the flow in the body movements of dance performers. The body becomes waves like the oscillations of ocean waves. The Hula dance style is performed with a chant or a song called a mele. The Hula dance dramatizes the stories sung in the 'mele'. Unique to the Hawaiian Islands there are many variations and styles of Hula dance.



The dance performance by school girls and other groups were also impressive. There was funny games for the elders to build the tallest structure with the empty cool-drink tin-cans. The wind was moderate and still many of the tin-can castles made were collapsed. The scene reminded me of the expected earthquake in Tokyo, which is feared to happen in any of the future years.

One of the Indian stalls was selling Samosa, Fried chicken, Rice and curry. Butter chicken curry and rice also attracted many of the Japanese people which was run another group of Indians. In between there was a stall for Indian cloths. Japanese noodles and tempura stalls also were crowded. Beer is a natural drink during such festivals and not at all considered as an alcoholic beverage.

Gatherings give enough opportunity to mingle and helps remove apprehensions whatever some people may carry in their head during daily living. Japanese people are open minded to accept other cultures. There are many stereotypic misunderstanding about for foreigners both in Japan and outside world. Many of such concerns have roots at some of the books written by western travelers long years back. An Indian view of Japan is much different from the Western view. Festivals are part of Indian society too and almost all of them are associated with temples and religion in India. I do not intend to enter into the differences in Indian view points and Western view points about Japan.

When we judge a society, first we have to be part of the society. Judgment of a person who separates himself from the society he judges and starts seeing from his cultural point may not do any good to anybody except for him to write a book.

Festivals of this kind give opportunities to know the Japanese psyche in more depth, of course by mingling with the local community, not by keeping ourselves away from them!

A day out listening to the murmurs of sakura leaves in Komatsugawa Park

The weather was good with moderately warm environment. The shadows played hide and seek game with the light. The shadows were dark grey in color…..shadows everywhere in all cases are colorless. Shadows may have nothing to do with dreams. With leaves of sakura trees and maple leaves immerse in dreams with tantalizing murmur, the Komatsugawa Park looked more pleasant.

We could see ants and centipedes crawling. That was one fine Saturday we decided to eat out at the Komatsugawa Park. There were Japanese people sitting on the wooden benches in the park. Eating out is a common thing in Japan. Holidays are more enjoyable when all family members relax under the shadow of trees with small kids playing nearby.

The life in Japan is calm and quite. For senior citizens, Japanese government will take care of all medical expenses. They also get pension from government for their daily living. Ward offices will pay money for small children. Children below the age of 3 get 10,000 Yen per month from the ward office. Children above the age of 3 get 5,000 Yen per month till the age of 15. Many of our friends in Japan will buy toys and new dresses for their kids with this money. The money will be credited to the bank account of head of the family once in every four months.

Our children stopped when they saw a cat on the park. They insisted me to take snaps. The cats in Japan are also disciplined well. He posed for us! A grandma walking near to us stopped and watched us. She looked keen and expressed surprise by seeing our daughters.

The Komatsugawa Park is just less than one minute walking distance from our apartment. In fact the apartments name itself is Komatsugawa Park Mansion. Japanese gardens and public parks are well known for the maintenance and cleanliness. The visitors to the park with their pets, mostly dogs take care to collect the fecal droppings from their pets in a plastic bag and carry it along with them! The public discipline and regard to the law and order is at highest value in Japan.

The dogs in Japan are well cherished by their masters. Most of the dog lovers treat their pets more or the same way as their kids! Sometimes they will be carried to public places on a stroller with all kind of royal attention! The grandma looked astonishingly on us also carried her dog. The dog was silent even after seeing the cat. The scene reminded me of the Japanese lessons we had at OVTA in which the life of a dog was described. The dog in that story was jealous of the cat that was lazy and desired to be at master’s home everyday without doing any work.

The climate has been favorable for a full day out with kids. The coming weeks will witness much rain compared to the foregone days. After the rain Japan will be hot. While walking back to home, we saw the cat still watching on the birds sitting on the bushes. Cats pay more attention and concentration in each and every action than us. As we stepped back home, the sakura leaves whispered to bushes and the cat was still listening to it.

Japanese language class at Higashi Ojima Bunka Center – Higashi Ojima Nihongo

It was quite difficult for me to write my name in Hiragana when the organizers of Higashi Ojima Nihongo - Japanese class at Higashi Ojima culture center (Higashi Ojima bunka center) told me to fill up the interview form. I could manage to write name, address and other details in Katakana, a little bit of hiragana and some portions of the address in Kanji also.

For some initial months after coming over to Japan, I had an elevated interest to learn Japanese language. That was the time my first nihongo (Japanese) sensei (Teacher) Mr. Kennichi Tabe (Tabe-san) started teaching initial lessons of Japanese along with the classes at OVTA. I found myself enjoyed learning from Tabe-san, though it was an informal way of teaching.

Sometimes we learn more from casual way of teaching than from professional teachers. The Japanese classes at Higashi Ojima culture center is one of such an easy way of learning Japanese. The teachers are volunteers who teach foreign people who are interested to learn Japanese at a nominal fee of 500 Japanese Yen per class.

One class will be around 1 hour 30 minutes. The first lesson is free and is considered as a trial for the students. Being a student at this age is a funny thing. Anyway, life is a continuous process of learning and we are always students in life. Life teaches us many things in due course of its flow. Some people learn fast and some lag behind. That learning process is different from language learning process.

It is a one to one classes, means for one student there is a teacher. It is convenient to learn from the teacher as he/she is fully available for the total class hours. Though a bit informal, I enjoyed the first day of learning from Higashi Ojima culture center Japanese language class. There were around 12 students, some of them are quite older than me!

When my colleague, Mr. Remus sim found this new way of learning Japanese language for me, I was little skeptical on the timings. The timing of the classes at Higashi Ojima cultural center is from 7 PM to 8:30 PM. There will be one class in a week. Here in Higashi Ojima, it is on Wednesdays. If there are five Wednesdays in a month, the last Wednesday will be a holiday. Totally, there will be four classes in a month.

Language learning is more a personal effort than a teacher’s ability for the grown up people. For children, to a great part, it depends on the skill of the teacher also. I did not put much effort for the past many months to learn Japanese language. Learning Japanese will make the life in Japan more comfortable, though it is not really required for the work. For many people working in multinational companies in Japan, Japanese language is not essential. Many of them stay long in Japan and still be able to manage the life only with Ohayo gozaimasu, that also with erred slang.

My colleagues are wonderful friends who have been helping me for every walk of life. They talk on behalf of me sometimes to clarify doubts raised by water and sewage department or electricity departments or sometimes with Yahoo BB. Due to the inability to speak Japanese language, the life in Japan is that of a kind of dependent, but of good friends. I am fortunate to get good friends in Japan including some foreign friends and Japanese friends. Remus found the Japanese classes for me and Iwabuchi-san talked on behalf of me with the organizers of the Japanese language class. After talking with the organizers, she informed me that there is one more Indian national attending the class at Higashi Ojima.

Today’s Japanese lesson was interesting and worth. The Higashi Ojima bunka center is near to the Daiei in Shin Ohashi dori, right after the exit of Higashi Ojima station at Toei Shinjuku line. We have to walk 7 minutes from the station to the bunka center. The classes are at the third floor. After all learning is partial process. Student must invest own interest and effort than the teacher! You need to inform over phone for the first day or contact directly to the class and explain.

Find the map here to reach at the bunka center and attend Higashi Ojima Nihongo

When the castles of good images of Japan falls down in the mind…..

Some of my preconceived notions were getting jolts when encountered with an incident of discrimination though not directed at me. I saw it happened at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station while waiting for train towards Higashi Ojima. Though I tried to convince myself that the acts of racism were not due to the skin color of the victim, I could hardly succeed in convincing myself. There were no other reasons to believe it was not due to skin color. If I could guess correctly, probably it was due to the hate towards a particular race.

And Japan is known for it as many of the personal bloggers declare with their own experiences. I defended many of the negative opinions expressed about Japanese people through this blog.

In acts of discrimination there are always three parties involved. The one who shows the hate feelings, the victim of discrimination towards whom the acts of the racists are expressed publicly and the third one are the witnesses. I was at the third position of witness and was watching the discriminator’s actions as he walked through the plat-form from where the victim was standing in the queue.

At first I thought of not writing about this incident as it may project Japan and its majority good and kind people in a detrimental manner. The discriminator here may be an exception from the vast majority of friendly Japanese people. Though an odd event, I could observe contrary to what I have been telling to my friends that I have never seen any kind of discrimination in Japan. This one of course was pure racist comments he spat on the plat-form with his antagonistic foul mouth.

Let me come out openly with what happened. I was coming down to the plat-form in the escalator at Morishita Toei Shinjuku station. The time was around 6:40 in the evening. The pink car is no more reserved for women. I used to board into the first compartment/car since it will reach first at the Komatsugawa exit by the time the train reaches Higashi Ojima.

There was standing a person who might be from one of the many countries of African continent. The physical characteristics of people including the skin color gives sufficient clue to guess the region and race of them. The person in black was gentle in his position, dress and looks. The moment he entered in a queue, I could see the Japanese young man who was already standing in the front looked at the guy in black and uttered some words in Japanese. The J-man walked away with an angry face and he showed as if he spit on the plat-form. This was to show his unlikeness to the person in black.

We, the witnesses could not see any reason for the J-man’s anger except the one that the B-man stood in his back of queue. They had to travel together once they enter inside the train. The J-man might have dislike towards the B-man’s race. There were no other reason I could guess in mind.

The witnesses of the J-man’s venomous words were just witnessing and did not show any surprise at his action. That is the great thing with Japanese people I have observed. Japanese people have an expressionless face towards many of the events in public.

What was the reaction of the B-man? He was engaged in eating chewing gum as if nothing new has happened. Some of the people walking were looking at his reaction, but he was not looking at anybody. He was gentle in his stand and the J-man was the ugly one showed up his foul mouth at the public place. Who is the winner here!

This one event looks different and dirty among other pages of life in Japan so far. Though not a victim of Japanese racism and discrimination towards foreigners, it hurts my feelings. At many incidents, some witnesses bear deep wounds than the victims. Still I bear the wounds and remember the moment I get down to the plat-form. That plat-form was the place where the castles of flatter on Japan built from the images of beautiful and kind people fell down in my mind. Still I like to believe this is an odd incident.

NAMASTE FOODS - A Home away from Home for Indians in Tokyo

Namaste Foods at Higashi Ojima – Indian spice, grocery and food shop

I was an occasional customer at Namaste foods at Higashi Ojima when I was staying at company apartment at Kiba. Bala-san used to help me to get the Apa Kabar? International prepaid telephone calling card and tell the number over phone. Higashi Ojima was not so far away from Kiba. It is only a 30 minutes by Tokyo Metro trains. I need to take Tozai line from Kiba to Monzen nakacho then from there change to Toei Oedo line up to Morishita. From Morishita, I will move to Toei Shinjuku line to reach at Higashi Ojima. Since Balasan’s apartment is near to Namaste foods he did not mind to help me.

The meaning of ‘Apa kabar’ is ‘What is the news’ in Indonesian language. Apa kabar card is an attractive selling item for many of the Asian expatriates in Tokyo. The cost of one Apa kabar card is 2400 Yen at Namaste foods. With one apa kabar card I can call to my home at India for 6 hours 40 minutes (to mobile phone) if I use the Yahoo BB landline phone. When I moved to Higashi Ojima on September 2008, one of my problems, the availability of Indian food is almost solved. The Namaste foods at Higashi Ojima have many Indian food and snack items at their store.

Namaste foods is owned by a Japanese man who like India and Indian Culture. Running a grocery stores like an Indian shop at Higashi Ojima is not only a business for him. More than business it is his passion towards India that interests him to help the Indian expatriate society in Tokyo. It is a service he does to the Indians living in Higashi Ojima and the near places.

The most important thing is the owner of the Namaste foods ‘Katouno Tatsuhiro-san can speak Hindi apart from his mother tongue Japanese. He is also good at his English skills. One day I was surprised to hear him talking in Hindi to one of his customers over phone.

Namaste Foods have many Indian food items like Ready to Eat brands from MTR, Priya etc. MTR is one of the largest selling Ready to Eat brand in India and outside India. Sambar Rice (Curry Rice), Kesaribhath, Channa masala, Dal fry, Palak Paneer, Rasagulla, Mixed vegetable curry, Muttar paneer, are some of them I used to buy.


The snacks from India like the murukku, mixture, moong dal, Raita boondi, Shahi garden, Nylon sev, Haldiram’s masala peanuts, masala channa, etc are also available from Namaste foods. Maaza mango juice is really cheaper in Namste foods. One liter bottle of maaza mango juice costs only 200 Yen at Namaste foods.

Katouno-san told he will soon start home delivery service and this will help many Indian expatriates and Japanese people who wish to try Indian food to order the items from home. This will enable the Indian people living away from Higashi Ojima to get the Indian food delivered at their door step. The shipping charge is free if the total purchase is more than 10,000 Yen. The margin for free shipment is very attractive as the food items purchased at home for one month will generally cross this amount. The delivery will be through Fukuyama Transporting Co., Ltd. The payment as per the information from the website can be Cash on delivery or Bank transfer. Please check from the website for the details of bank for bank transfer.

Namaste foods at Higashi Ojima is easy to access. The Indian store Namaste foods is near to the Higashi Ojima station in Toei Shinjuku line. After getting down at Higashi Ojima station you have to pass through the Ojima exit. It is near to Shin Ohashi street. Stepping down the staircases of the railway station, Namaste food is just less than one minute walk. The store is on the ground floor (First floor in Japan) of the building No. 9-3-12. The address and telephone numbers are given below:

NAMASTE FOODS
Higashi Ojima Metoroad 18
1F, 9-3-12, Ojima, Koto-ku, Tokyo.
Tel: 03-5836-6638, Fax: 03-5836-6639
Email: shop@namaste-foods.com
Or info@namaste-foods.com
Website: www.namaste-foods.com

Contact for Indian foods now!

I highly recommend shopping at Namaste foods, Higashi Ojima. Katouno-san is very kind and well mannered gentle man who possess good knowledge about India, Indians and the culture of India. He had visited India many times and is fascinated by Indian culture.