White pebbles shower from the heaven- snow fall in Tokyo!

My fingers are still stiff as I just returned from the Komatsugawa park and starts writing these words. The snow has literally covered Higashi Ojima! Now the time is 12:15 a.m. on 2nd February and I may not sleep without writing this post. I could not resist myself taking a forty minute walking on the snow before writing this post. Events like snow fall are rare and must be enjoyed to its fullest in our own way.

At first, I thought of writing here only few words like “The snow fall history repeats in Tokyo, again the snow is falling”. On February 1st 2010, as predicted by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the snow fall started at around 6:15 PM in Tokyo.

It was on 2nd February, 2008, I could see the first snow fall in the life. Last year on February 1st, the snow fall repeated. That was the only one snow fall happened in Tokyo during 2009. The precipitation was not so strong that the snow could not form a layer on the ground. The first snow fall on 2008 was impressive.

Today the snow fall is heavy in Tokyo. This is the third snow fall since February 2nd 2008. This time kids could enjoy the snow fall. In fact they were waiting for me to join after the office hours. The snow fall was predicted through out the night till morning tomorrow. Now itself we could see the ice layers formed on the Komatsugawa park and the nearby buildings. The photos taken today night may not be clear and we are waiting for tomorrow morning to take more clear photos.

The outside temperature is 1 degree Celsius and I recollected the reason for snow fall, which Suzuki-san explained me last year. The snow falls when the air temperature near the ground dips below freezing point. It is like the white cotton balls falling from heaven.

The humidity is 96% and the wind speed is just 3 kilometer per hour. The weather forecast shows Tokyo and surrounding areas like Yokohama, Hachi Oji, Kimitsu, Fujisawa, Narashino, Chiba, Saitama, Ebina etc are also witnessing the similar snow fall today. It may be almost once in a year phenomenon in Tokyo. Even though the temperature dips down to zero and reaches minus two or three at some occasions, the snow fall is rare in Tokyo. I have heard from friends that snow fall often occurs in the near by northern prefectures of Tokyo.

We could take a short video of snowfall through the window. The ice has started clubbing on the bush tops, roof-tops and on the play grounds, but still the road transportation is not affected. The night view of the snow fall was not clear from our apartment.

If the snow continues falling through out the night, tomorrow morning, it will be a feast for the eyes! The camera is charged and ready for tomorrow’s snaps! Now itself the layer of ice had almost covered the ground and the snow keeps on falling. It is a wonderful experience for us to see snow fall, as we have lived most of our life in tropical part of the earth. Changes in experiences make the life more meaningful.

Again on the living expenses for a foreigner family in Tokyo

On March 22nd I wrote a simple article on living expenses for a foreigner in Tokyo. As I told in this blog and other discussion forums, cost of living in Tokyo is much higher compared to other East Asian and European nations. When I was writing that post in this blog on March, I was living alone and my family was in India. Almost three weeks after writing that post, they joined with me along with my mother.

It will be interesting to compare the cost of living in Tokyo for a bachelor and for a family, especially for foreign people. I think this will be a helpful hint for at least some of the Asians planning to come to Japan for work.

In order to tell how big the difference in expenses will be for a family in Tokyo when compared to the bachelor life, I would like to narrate the real incident. One day in May, I got a phone call from my wife saying that, one of the Japanese woman has come to our home telling something. As my wife was new to Japan, she could not understand even a single word, but could guess it is something related to the bill for gas.

As I also did not have confidence to speak in Japanese especially over phone, I requested help from one of my Japanese colleagues. My Japanese colleague after talking over phone explained to me that the Gas bill has suddenly shoot up to 13340 Japanese Yen (JPY) for the last month. Compared to the March month’s bill of 1600 JPY, that was more than 8 times high! The Japanese staff from the Tokyo Gas company was surprised and doubted for some leakages inside home. She wanted to enter the home and check! When I heard from my colleague, I thought of the promptness and alertness of Tokyo Gas company’s staff. It is really appreciable. They are not only for billing the customer, but also to educate and alert them of a sudden change in the billing amount.

My colleague explained that my family has joined with me from last month and that was the reason for sudden change. Taking the high cost of living in Tokyo with family, we could control the Gas bill for the subsequent months by putting restriction on the usage of gas heaters and water heating system.

The same thing happened to the Electricity bill during summer seasons, when we switch on the air conditioners almost throughout the day. Compared to the bachelor life, the bills for Gas, Electricity, Water and sewage, has more than tippled on average. Yahoo BB bill is same and there is no much change. The Softbank mobile bill has increased a little to reach something around 3600 JPY per month. Putting all the bills together, it comes around 30,000 JPY per month for Water and Sewage, Gas, Electricity, Mobile, Internet connection, Cable TV etc.

The drastic increase in expense is on the education. The school fee and the bus fee for children is the biggest contributor to the high cost of living for foreigners. The education is free in Japanese schools. The fee in international schools in Tokyo is too high for an average paid foreigner especially in Japanese companies. Japanese companies mostly have no separate rules for giving special allowance to support the education of children of foreign staff.

We are paying 60,000 JPY per month for the kid’s fee and 15,000 JPY for school bus. The miscellaneous expenses for the children relating to education may vary from 10,000 JPY depending on the schools. Since my kid is going to Indian International School in Tokyo (Morishita), she has to go by school bus.

To summarize, the living expense for one month on an average for a simple living family will be around 300,000 Japanese Yen. This expense does not include the House rent, tax and other deductions. Including the house rent, travelling expenses, the expense will be around 450,000 JPY per month if the whole amount of house rent is to be paid by us. Many Japanese companies pay 70 to 80% of the house rent to their employees. This is a great support for employees. Since the tax depends on the basic pay, I don’t want to make a comment here.

In short, living in Tokyo is not simple! There are very few chances in Tokyo to live simple and save a lot of money from our salary, compared to many other major cities. This makes Tokyo unique. One of the biggest cities in the world, where more than 12 million people reside at the heart of the city and more than 30 million people including the surrounding areas. The cash flow in Tokyo is high…….and still Japan has been the second strongest economy in the world!

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!

Reflections of exotic stones, greenery and Japanese history in a pond

Her tears fell in to the pacific and there arose a group of islands called Japan. There are many myths associated with old Japanese culture. The Goddess behind the creation of Japan may be a myth, but when I read the pamphlet distributed at the entrance gate of Kiyosumi gardens, I recollected the mythical story.

The artistic and beautiful stones laid around the pond in the Kiyosumi gardens were being collected from all over Japan. Thus while stepping on each stone, I could feel that I walk all around Japan! It is an imaginative feeling I shared with my family when we visited the Kiyosumi gardens on a Sunday.

Kiyosumi gardens located near to the Sumidagawa river in the Shitamachi area of Tokyo is very near to Monzen Nackacho. The Kiyosumi gardens is just a few minutes walk from the Kiyosumi shirakawa station in the Toei Oedo line. For us coming from Higashi Ojima, there is one transfer from Toei Shinjuku line to Toei Oedo line at Morishita.

There were groups of people lead by a guide, but we opted to be independent as understanding Japanese was still on the half way for all of us. The pond has three islands and a building where we saw some people practicing meditation. It reminded us of the Buddhist monasteries at some remote village. But the information written on the English leaflet says the building is a tea ceremony space architecture.

Rainwater is used for pond at present, but in old days water from Sumidagawa river was brought into the gardens. Thanks to the Iwasaki family who took the pain to collect all those beautiful stones from all over the Japan and brought them here in this part of Japan by steamships. Those exotic stones now decorate the pond and the surroundings. For that reason the Kiyosumi gardens may look like a stone garden. The tea ceremony building mentioned earlier is known as Ryotei in Japanese. Ryotei was builit as a guesthouse for the visit of British military personality Lord Kichener.

My kids could enjoy the fishes and the tortoises and the ducks in the pond. There were pigeons as well sitting on the stones. We walked towards the Ryotei building stepping on the stones laid in the pond. We could see a big stone monument in which a poem was inscribed. Sitting on a nearby chair we could recognize that the poem tells about a frog who jumped into an old pond. The monument stone was originally located on the banks of Sumidagawa, but was moved to the Kiyosumi gardens when the protection walls were constructed along the Sumidagawa river bank.

The shallow parts of the pond have stepping stone pathways that looked amazing for my kids. They enjoyed the scene of fishes and tortoises while crossing the pond and found the reflections of trees in the water. After walking a while we took rest and gave food to our kids. The climate was ideal for an outing with family with low sun but clear sky.

The tallest hill in Kiyosumi gardens is known as Fuji-san, resembling the name of Fuji mountain. There were Crape myrtle flowers in the garden. We were not tired after walking one round around the pond. On our way back to the exit gate which also the entrance gate, we could meet warm-heated Japanese people greeting while passing on the way. The garden was built by a business magnate Kinokuniya Bunzaemon, who lived in the Edo period.


The entrance ticket charge is JPY 150 per adult and for children, admission is free. It is a place recommended to be visited in Tokyo and which is worth to visit as we can recollect some part of the history of Japan while walking through a typical Japanese garden. Kiyosumi gardens is designated as “Scenic Park” by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The pond inside the Kiyosumi gardens reflects the history of Japan along the with the reflections of the exotic stones and the trees.

Arakawa River, Nakagawa river and Barbecue square in Komatsugawa

Narcissus would love to spend times unlimited on the bank of this river Arakawa where we used to spend evenings on weekends whenever possible. Though little bit embroidered with Boeotian mythological hero’s passion to his own reflections, the beauty of Arakawa river banks offers more or equal attraction to the residents in Komatsugawa.

The barbecue square built on Arakawa river bank is an ideal meeting place for many of the locals here in Komatsugawa. Nakagawa River is another river flowing parallel to the Arakawa River. Two rivers flow parallel and an aerial bridge going exactly at the middle of the rivers from Funaboribashi bridge to connect to the national highway makes the whole scenery stimulating.

The entrance to the Barbecue square is towards the Komatsugawa play ground. There was a professional acrobat who was performing his skills on unicycle with multiple pieces of juggling clubs. Clad in professional gymnastic dress, he was not reluctant to wish passers-by. My daughter was surprised and keen to watch his performance and insisted to stay there more. The older gymnast, when reached near to us did not forget to wave his hand and touch my daughter’s hands. She was thrilled literally. The week-end evenings at Komatsugawa play ground give more opportunity to mingle with the local community.



The barbecue square is a well maintained place, where visitors also take care not to spoil the beauty of the nature. The garden is with many trees and beautiful flowers. White, Yellow, Pink and Blue flowers in a mix of green leaves and the light blue sky at the top of this part of the earth, with a dome at the mouth of Arakawa river presents euphoric days out of the concrete walls.




The life in flats, that also in the midst of a jungle of concrete buildings has been a new thing for us. Being come from a place where transformation of lives from the feudal persuades to the industrialized one is still at a confused stage, we had not been with negligible stress due to a sudden change. Transformation from single family houses to multi-dwelling apartment, where we may never meet neighbors for the whole stay in Japan is something a new experience for my mother too.


The Arakawa River and the Nakagawa River flowing to Tokyo bay with a long stretch of river bank with vetiver grass is rich with eco-system. We could see small frogs while walking on the road near to the river bank. I told my daughter the story of a frog that waited on the river bank for his friend to come from a far away village on a rainy day. Spending time with kids is a good way of reducing everyday stress. The stories are never real and kids never want them to be real. The colorful stories will deviate from the original story and mix with many local additives. She was happy to walk with me on the road parallel to the stretch of vetiver grass.


We never felt come back home. The days are becoming longer in Japan again. Sun is yet to set at the horizons of the land of rising sun. Thousands of boats might have carried loads of wood and food through this river from far away places to Tokyo. Arakawa River might have seen years of human transformation and making of one of the most intelligent society in this part of the earth. Still Arakawa River flows silently. That is the way of Samurais – rich in knowledge and thoughts but still silent!

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

Memories of a boring golden week in Japan

‘Students walk to school and rush to home’ is an advertisement caption I read somewhere in the newspaper. The reverse was the case for me till April 10 of this year in Japan. Virtually I cursed the week-ends for almost past one year and wanted to attend office to the maximum possible extent. Personal life in Japan was not very exciting as the whole family was miles apart.

For some initial weeks I had nothing to do in Japan on Saturdays and Sundays and that was one of the reasons for this blog too. Last Golden week was a silver week for me as for most part of the holidays I was found myself alone except in occasions together with Mustain-san. When one of my colleagues asked about the golden week holidays, I replied as if I celebrated a bronze week, not even silver!

During last Golden week holidays I was involved in internet browsing and Yahoo answers. Life in Japan with friends is thrilling, but never a lonely life. Coming out of the initial adjustment troubles with Japan after Golden week holidays, I could mingle with friends from other countries and some Japanese too.

This golden week is really more than golden for me as my whole family is here with me to make the holidays happier. Holidays in Japan now are not boring as I have kids to play with. My elder daughter is my companion now to accompany wherever I go. She will play football with me on the ground near to our building. She insists me to go the park and have fun outside.

Life with kids even if we are in hell will be cheerful! Children are natural in their behavior which almost all of the adults lack. The life in Japan with many adult Japanese having the attitude of children are thus more blissful!

When we go together outside especially in trains many Japanese people look at us as we have different face and skin color. I never felt this before as Japanese people have not stared at me as if I am an alien. Now while going with my daughter, some of them look with curious face at my daughter and say “Kawaii ne”. I learned a new Japanese word Kawaii, which means ‘Cute’. I don’t think Japanese people are staring at us, but they just wanted to show their curiosity in seeing a foreign child with big eyes. Many of them show in gestures that she has got big eyes with their fingers folded in circles around their eyes.

That is interesting and we never felt exhausted or embarrassed as we have taken those experiences in the positive manner. No Japanese have shown any kind of antagonistic attitude till now.

Coming back to the golden week holidays, I have good play times with my daughter. In Japan, Golden Week is a group of holidays together in one week. There are four national holidays within this week. During Golden week, Japanese people plan for long outing with their family. If there is a working day in between national holidays, many of the Japanese apply for a holiday to avail long holidays. As per information from friends, Golden Week is one of Japan's three important holiday season apart from New Year holidays and Obon week. The Constitution Day (Called in Japanese as Kenpo kinenbi), Greenery Day (Called in Japanese as Midori no hi) and Children's Day (Called in Japanese as Kodomo no hi) comes on 3rd, 4th and 5th of May.

Even during long holidays, after going out, I rush to return home. ‘Students walk to school and rush to home’ becomes a meaningful caption in my life in Japan too.