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.

Festivals are essential drivers for social life

The second day of Edogawa ward festival at Komatsugawa park had some new and exciting shows. The dancers were more professional and their movements were eye catching. There were professional drummers brought to perform at Komatsugawa stage. They took the audience to a highest level of enjoyment.

The social gathering found a new phase when the local Indian community got mixed with the Japanese people in stage performances also. Indian girls performed classical dances and the performance of Bharatanatyam, a form of classical South Indian dance by an Indian girl got wide appreciation from Japanese community. Interestingly the dance performer’s teacher is a Japanese national.

Japanese students also have shown their dance skills for the second day of the festival. The food stalls were crowded. Kimono dress stall also attracted many people.

During one of my trip back to India, I could meet Ms Nakamura from Tokyo, who teachers Indian dance to Indian and Japanese students. She is a well known dance performer in Kummi dance, which is a dance form being performed in Tamilnadu, one of the south Indian states. It was a new experience to hear from a Japanese about classical dances of India.

At the end of the stage performances, the Japanese classical dance was performed. The old woman performer showed her skills at the stage and dancers came down to the ground to join with the public. The public also joined with the dancers and they made a circle, moving slowly with a dance steps around a tree. It was a perfect example of cultural fusion point. People from different nationalities, most of them from India, joined in the traditional Japanese dance.

It was 9 O’ clock in the night and still the music was in the air compelling people to dance with the steps shown by the elder performer at the stage. People were not tired even after making several round around the tree with dancing steps. Departing seemed painful for many people.

The next day, while going to office I could see some people still sitting around the stage and park as if they did not like to go back. This is the gloomy part of any festival. The festival and celebrations will be over, but still people carry the memories with them.

The good moments they shared in the social gathering and celebration linger in the mind. That is one of the purposes of festivals. The sweet memories tempt people to organize and join for festival in the coming years too. This is what we also do, waiting for the next year’s festival. Such small hopes are the bigger motivations for life – essential drivers of social life.

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.

Snowfall in Japan - exquisite and mysterious as the name Yuki

Today it is 4 degree Celsius now in Tokyo, but feels like less than 1 degree. Snow fall is predicted in the midnight in Tokyo. When Balasan conveyed this message that snowfall is predicted in the midnight, I remembered the 3rd February 2008. Almost more than one year now. It was on my fourth day in Japan, I saw the first snow fall.

I was staying in Day nice hotel in Koto-ku. Day nice hotel is near to the Monzen-nakacho Tozai line exit. Initially for around 5 days I stayed in Day nice hotel before moving into the apartment. Balasan invited to visit his home on 3rd February 2008. When I got ready and came down to make a phone call to him, I saw the pure white cotton like snow falling on the road. Balasan told it is snow rain in Higashi Ojima too. The snowfall was there in the whole Tokyo. We could not meet, but I could witness the snowfall for the first time.

Our program got cancelled as it was difficult to go out. The temperature was too low and walking outside was really difficult. It was the first time in life I witnessed a snowfall. When I visited Switzerland and went up all the way near to the Alps mountain on April 1996 also I missed the snowfall. It remained a desire in me to enjoy the snowfall.

On the fourth day in Japan I could watch and enjoy the snow fall. I went outside and walked on the road here and there without any purpose only to experience the snowfall. There were children playing on the road with full body covered with jackets. Their face was only visible and they were fully clad with sweaters and jackets. Small bushes on the roadside were fully covered with snow. Top of the buildings got entirely covered with snow and it looked amazing!

In Japanese language, snow is Yuki. It is a lovely name for many Japanese women too. Yuki – beautiful and mysterious like snow…pure and white in heart….Yuki gave poets in Japan enough food for imagination.

Snow is rare in Tokyo, but a common at the northern prefectures of Japan. The heavy snow area of Japan is probably the Hokaido. Visiting Hokaido is till now realized for me, while many of my friends visited there they say it is a place to see and enjoy. Japan is a land of snow. Japan due to her proximity to the Siberia get the colder wind.

The climate reports say the heavy snowfalls of Japan's snow country are caused by moisture-laden clouds bumping up against the mountains along the backbone of Honshū and releasing their moisture under the influence of easterly winds blowing off the continent or down from Siberia. As a result, the region includes some of the world's snowiest spots at the same latitudes, as well as the northern hemisphere's southern-most ski resorts.

Life does not come to a standstill due to snowfall. Nobody stops walking or take a leave in the name of snowfall. The life continues just in the normal way in most of the cases. If the snowfall is too heavy and disrupts the rail transportation, then it becomes a trouble. I could see even old people walking on the road which was filled with snow. Ward authority staff were engaged in removing the snow from the road which blocked the vehicle movement.

Even though I could not take the snaps of last year snowfall, Balasan had taken some nice photos. The date on the photos says the snow remained on the 4th morning also. I requested him those photos to share them here.