Ohayo gozaimasu Week and Ohayo gozaimasu Team

Ohayo gozaimasu is the first Japanese word I learned and it is very much required and used throughout Japan in the morning. This is the word being exchanged among people in Japan when they meet frist time in the morning. Good morning is not a word to word translation for Ohayo gozaimasu, but we can say it is equivalent to good morning in English.

For the last three days I have been noticing that there are more than 10 people at the entrance of our office building in the morning along with the security staff to say 'Ohayo gozaimasu'. When I enter the building, all of them in one voice say 'Ohayo gozaimasu' with a smiling face.

I used to exchange Ohayo gozaimasu with the security staff in all the working days after entering to the building. Either he say first to me or I say first to him does not matter. It is a custom in Japan to respect each other in the morning itself. When I reach to my section, many of the Japanese staff will be there started their work well before the office time officially starts. I will repeat Ohayo gozaimasu to all of them.

Ohayo gozaimasu is the polite form exchanged with senior colleagues and strangers and respectable persons. The more friendly derivative of ohayo gozaimasu is just 'Ohayo' or 'Ohayos'. That is too casual and can be used between friends. The gozaimasu makes a big difference to the listener and make them happy that the other person respects him. Give respect and take respect is well practiced in Japan.

Coming to the point, I could not understand, why there are additional people infront of the reception in the morning only to exchange 'Ohayo gozaimasu'. I asked one of my colleague and she explained that this week is "Ohayo Gozaimasu week".

It was interesting to hear her explanation. Many people forget or overlook to say Ohayo gozaimasu to their colleagues when they enter in to the office or their work area. It is a formality which all managements in Japan wants their staff to be practiced and strictly followed for give respect and take respect. This will reduce the ego related problems between staff. Eventhough majority of people exchange this greeting in the morning, some people keep mum while they enter into the office and their work area.

The security staff standing at the reception area will say Ohayo gozaimasu to every person entering to the building. But some staff do not repeat and exchange their greeting in return. This makes the difference. The person who told Ohayo gozaimasu at first feel bad at the mind and probably the next day he may not use Ohayo gozaimasu to that person. This attitude spread throughout entire organization slowly. It will affect the culture and mannerism Japanese people followed and observed for many years and will finally leads to cultural deterioration.

Our management does not want that cultural deterioration to happen in our organization. Management want to keep all people responsive to exchange of respectable words in the moring itself so that the respect will continue throughout the work also.

In order to remind people about the imporatance of Ohayo gozaimasu and thereby respecting each other by responding the teller, management made an 'Ohayo gozaimasu team'. The team members include respectable senior staff from many sections. Even the person who does not want to say Ohayo gozaimasu will respond when a whole team of his senior staff tell in advance the 'Ohayo gozaimasu' to him when he enter the office.

If he is not responding (he can't avoid that) that should make him shy. It will transform him slowly. This is the reason for the Ohayo gozaimasu week and Ohayo gozaimasu team. It is really a nice creative idea to make people realize their duties and customs as respectable members of a respectable society - Japanese society.

Komatsugawa - my new habitat in Japan

This is what I could take into my mobile camera, two pegions. There are a lot in this area of Komatsugawa Park. It was a fine autumn evening, I walked out of Higashi Ojima station to the nearby apartment named Komatsugawa Park Mansion. Some of the pegions flew to the trees when people started coming out of railway station.


Evenings are good in Komatsugawa. There are seating arrangement in the park. It is a common scene there people chatting with their friends, lovers make love and so on along with these pegions, the whole process makes Komatsugawa different from the busy Tokyo suburbs.

This is the building near to the Higashi Ojima station. It is just a one minute walk from the building. Starting from the room to the platform it may take two minutes, including waiting for the lift at the apartment. A fourteen storied apartment, Komatsugawa Park Mansion 2 is not a competitor for high rise buildings in Tokyo or even in the Komatsugawa area. There are 32 floor buildings just near to this apartments.

Komatsugawa is calm and quiet. The evenings are really enjoyable. Since I am living with Solitude at present, mostly I will be just walking around the apartment with her ! Solitude is the best companion ever a man can wed. There are poems on solitary reapers who enjoy singing in the lonliness.

The lonliness fill the nights with silence and the dreams are colorful with lot of friends and relatives. It is all dreams and we are the one who directs how it should be viewed! This is the building where I dream in lonliness. Its name is Komatsugawa Park Mansion. There is an ampm convenient store just dowh the apartment. It is really convenient to me and open 24 hours, 7 days a week. Varieties of Japanese food are available in this convenient store and on week ends I get my lunch and dinner from this store.

At the rearside, there is a bridge over the river. For me, that bridge goes to 'Namaste India Foods'. This stationery stores own and run by a Japanese young man is a meeting point for the Indians living in Higashi Ojima and Komatsugawa area. Walking over the bridge itself will bring Indians passing through, many times recognizing by identifying through typical Indian physical figures and passing a smile on the face. This gives a sense of unity among Indians, Yes I recognized you!

'Namaste India' is exclusively for Indian food items. The main attraction is Basmati rice and the ready made, Ready to eat' food items from MTR and Priya are also available, eventhough highly pirced. It is a relief for many bachelor Indians that these ready to eat foods they can buy far away from India also.

Other attraction of Namaste foods is Apa kabar card. This is an international calling card. This telephone card is sold at 2400 Yen. To India, I can call more than six hours through a Yahoo BB phone. If it is used in NTT public telephones in Tokyo, we can make a 4 hours call to India. Many other international telephone cards have less time compared to Apa Kabar card. I used to purchase this calling card from Namaste foods for my Indonesian and Thai friends, without taking any commission!

One of the primary reason for me to select Higashi Ojima - Komatsugawa are is that these locations have a high concentration of Indian population. And there are two Indian schools easily accessible from these places. One is at Mizue the Global Indian International School, GIIS. This is at Edogawa ward, I heard and the other one is at Morishita. India International School Japan, IISJ is affiliated to CBSE, New Delhi, India. For Indian students, the syllabus is one of the important concern. Their parents may have to go back to India after some years and continuing education in India should not be a trouble in such circumstances.

Morishita is accessible from Higashi Ojima within 8 minutes by Toei Shinjuku trains. Morishita is situated in Koto ward. Morishita is the transfer place to Toei Oedo lines for me to reach to the at Koto. Morishita also have a high concentration of Indian people in Tokyo.

When I get bored with internet and blogging, I will opt for an hour out on the river banks. The river bank will be a good place for us to relax. Komatsugawa has it all. Just 35 minutes from busy Tokyo, but this natural relaxing place provide cool breeze to the solitary minds.

Where these water goes ? It must be to Tokyo and then to the Pacific ocean. There is a buddhist philosophical thought that nothing is permanent in the world. Buddhists compare the life with a river. How can we call a river by a name? It is not reason to call a river by a name. A river is what we see with water. But water in a river always changes. Then how can we fix a name for something that always changes. Rivers can not assume name!

Going with the same philosophy, human beings can not be named, as the body is always in a state of change. The minute changes happens in the body which we are not aware in day to day life. New cells are getting formed and old one degenerates. When this process is going on, how can we name a person ?

Life is like a river! do not have a place to fix, do not have a name to attach, and really don't know what we are! but only know that we are flowing!

But like rivers, life is beautiful with flowers on the life's banks. In the course of flowing, we miss to notice them. Those flowers on the banks of river brings color to my solitude. My great meeting point for life and philosophy. The evenings I can ruminate old memories while walking on the river side. Still not missing the flowers.

We miss on this busy life many beauties of nature. They just manifest themselves and go from this earth, a life of two or three days, but still fragrant, still attracting bees. We, human beings don't have time to enjoy all these natural beauties.

The little rocks on the banks, half immersed in the river water has many stories to tell. But is there anybody to hear them. They may be telling their stories to the flowers and the fishes in the river. The way they travelled from far away mountains, the hardships they experienced while rolling, and so on. rolling, rolling down to the country side their sharp edges has gone and became smooth. But we humans living, living to this age became sharper and sharper in our behavior! That is the difference between human beings and nature. Nautre is humble at its beauty and knowledge, while we pride and show ego at our possessions.

The rolled stones did not gather moss! but the ones stopped rolling got enough moss on them. What story they might be telling to flowers ? About the lost Samurai warriors? About the mysterious geisha beauties who might have shared their life stories with these stones? Or the U.S army invasion of Japan?

Not sure, but sharing my lonliness with the nature at Komatsugawa, I have been learning one of the world's great heritage called Japanese culture.

The wooden stairs looks attractive and gives a village touch to the whole scenary. Walking up and down the stairs is play for many children. The river, the flowers, the wooden stairs, the bridge, the pegions, and the trees in Komatsugawa communicate with my lonely moments, to which my senses responds and to which I love to hear. The music of nature I could hear here in Komatsugawa, my new habitat in Japan!

Heavily Packed Tokyo Metro Trains

Today, I could see a heavy crowd in the Toei Shinjuku train, which arrived at Higashi Ojima station at 8:07 AM. Usually the trains are fully packed and it is a surprise that there are always place for the crowd waiting on the platform at each station and all of them manage to enter into the train.

Journey in Trains at morning time is a horrible experience. But Trains are maintained well in time and it is convenient to reach at office in time. Daily I have to commute from Higashi Ojima to Kiba to reach to the office well before 9:00 AM. From Higashi Ojima station to Morishita I have to travel in Toei shinjuku line. From Morishita I will change to Toei Oedo line to reach Monzen Nakacho. From Monzen Nakacho again I have to change to Tokyo Metro Tozai line to reach at Kiba. The whole process, starting from my apartment near to the Highashi Ojima station to the office at Kiba takes approximately 35 minutes.

Today in the heavily crowded train literally I was pushed out at Morishita station. On the platform I could notice a crowd helping an old man who fell unconscious. It is not a surprise that today it happened, but people were helping him to take to the first aid.

Eventhough the trains are heavily crowded, Japanese people are well disciplined and follow the queuee system. Otherwise there would be many casualties for daily news. Tokyo's train system is so convenient that we don't need to keep any car for daily living as the trains reaches literally everywhere. My first experience with Tokyo train was on the day I landed in Japan and coming out from Narita Airport to the hotel at Katsutadai with my boss. He showed and taught me how to take a train ticket from Tokyo stations at the Narita airport subway.

At Katsutadai station, in order to go out, he told me to take the ticket from my pocket. I started searching everywhere and could not find. I thought, there is no need to keep the ticket once it is purchased. But fortunately, I got it from my bag as unknowingly I kept the ticket in the bag and forgot about it. It was my first experience with such a system to come out of the station by putting the ticket at the passenger exits.

The commutation in Tokyo metro trains is very convenient, except in the morning, especially in the trains going to Tokyo city. Trains towards Tokyo will be crowded, but manytimes it prompted me to think, if this same crowd was in any other part of the world, the situation would have been different for sure. The public discipline and the authority's vigilance keeps the trains well maintained and passenger friendly.

Bala-san forwarded the Tokyo metro map, which I used to keep everywhere I go. It is a useful guide for transfering the trains to reach the destination without fail. One good thing about Tokyo metro is that even if we miss our destination to get down, we can get down at next station and just change the platform, and return back without paying extra money. But it won't be a wise idea if we start travel between stations to and fro in the same line without exiting in order to make the Tokyo metro loose money !!!

The Tokyo Subway is one of the world's most extensive subway systems. Tokyo Subway’s networks are operated by Tokyo Metro Co. Ltd with 8 lines and Tokyo Metropolitan Bureau of Transportation (Toei in Japanese) with 4 lines. The lines are called Toei Subway.

Tokyo Subway and Japan Rail (JR) are separate and charges a separate fee from the Toei and other private lines.

There is a widespread complaint from many corners that the separate administration of two metro systems in the same city makes inconveniences to passengers.

Tokyo metro’s Shinjuku station has the reputation of being the world's busiest, and second largest railway station. This station has an estimated traffic of 2 million passengers per day.

Generally I use, Shinjuku line upto Morishita, Toei Oedo line upto Monzen Nakacho and then Tozai line to Kiba. To reach OVTA to attend our Japanese lessons, I use Tozai line upto Nishi Funabashi and from there JR lines.

I have observed some unique characters of Japanese people during my daily commutation to office and back to apartment. Yes, I will post them one day in this blog.

The following links will be useful for newcomers to Tokyo:

Tokyo Metro

Tokyo Metro map in English

Toei Lines

Earthquake at Kiba, Koto-ku, Japan - Training to act when earthquake happens

The announcement came in Japanese language that an earthquake happening at Kiba and all are instructed to go under the desk till further announcement.

I took my safety helmet issed to me and with a towel in hand rushed to the bottom of the desk to save the life. My Japanese colleague was there under the desk. The total office was silent and I felt as if everything will fall on my head. The announcement said the earthquake magnitude measured Shindo 4.o.

Shindo is the counterpart of Richter used by the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity to measure earthquakes in Japan. It is used in Taiwan also to indicate the strength of earthquakes. Richter magnitude scale measures the total magnitude of the earthquake, and represents the size of the earthquake with a single number whereas the Shindo describes the degree of shaking at a point on the Earth's surface. Because of this, the measure of the earthquake varies from place to place, and a given quake may be described as shindo 4 in Tokyo, shindo 3 in Chiba and so on.

Around 5 minutes we kept our breath to allow the things to fall down and waited for further announcement. Another announcement came telling us that the evacuation is now going on and they have contacted Tokyo Fire fighting for rescue operations and all are instructed to be under the desk for some more time. The evacuation will start from the top floor to the down floor.

Lifts can not be used and we have to get down through stair case. The announcement told us to keep discipline and do not make rush as it will create more casualties. Some where the smoke and fire will be there and people should not accidently jump into the fire while they madly rush to escape. Discipline even at the time of disaster is important to save ourselves and to save others as well.

We followed the instruction and when they told, one by one started moving down to the building. The eight story building housed approximately 300 people and the whole process took 20 minutes for them to take the whole staff out.

When we went out of the building, everybody was waiting outside in queuee for instruction. We followed them silently. There was a tent opened and we covered the mouth with the towel and were instructed to stand in queuee.

Two Tokyo Fire fighting vehicles came with siren and entered to the building premise. The action was quick and fire fighters jumped out of the vehicle and some of them wearing fire proof uniform rushed to the building to save those who could not come out.

The aerial ladders were lifted to the sky with one fireman to save the life of those trapped at the top floors. We witnessed the whole sequence of action. Tokyo Fire fighters are professional at their every action. Within seconds they reached to the top of the building and started rescue operation.

From fifth floor there was a 'help call' and the aerial ladder reached there suddenly. One fireman entered through the window and helped one staff who could not move down himself. The fireman lifted him to the box in the aerial ladder and he was took down safely.

The earth was still quaking, but the rescue operation continued. Some firemen could save a few people from the top of the building carrying them at their back and sliding down through the rope. When they reached down safely we clapped in appreciation.

There were no casualties reported ! Obviously !

This was a training given to us today to act in emergency if real earthquake happens.

Tokyo Fire Department provides training to fight disasters and help the public to become aware of the precautions they can take in case of emergencies. Learn how to Prepare for an earth quake 10 WAYS TO PREPARE FOR AN EARTHQUAKE

Interesting new waiters in a Japanese Pub

The first time I noticed the politeness and activeness of Japanese waitresses was when colleagues arranged a welcome party after my arrival to Japan. The party was at traditional Japanese restaurant. At that time I could not remember the name of the dishes ordered for party. Everything was purely Japanese food as it was my initiation to Japanese food.

Japanese waitresses and waiters are remarkably polite and guaranteed, we will be pleased. I had many times bad experience at some restaurants not getting enough attention, but that was not in Japan. Japanese waitresses are so polite that they use honorific form of Japanese to talk with customers.

Japanese restaurant staff are alert and vigilant to serve the customers. We will be pleased and will not mind for waiting for long time also, since he or she will be always there with a smiling face and always say sorry for the delay. I have many times thought, how we could show the angry face to a Japanese restaurant staff even if the service is delayed ! Such a pleasing service and care to the customers they show that we may put off our busy schedules and would rather prefer to wait!

Today I was browsing through the Reuters report and saw an interesting news about a restaurant waiter at a Japanese pub Kayabukiya. This bar is north of Tokyo and interestingly the waiters are not humans. They are a pair of monkeys named Yat-chan and Fuku-chan. Chan is another form of san used in Japanese language to call beloved younger ones.

Reuters reports that Fuku-chan is fond of first shift and is active in helping customers to hand over the hot towels before order for the nomimono (drinks). Fuku-chan has two years experience only and his duty is to hand over the hot towels to the customers. He is four years old now.

Both Yat-chan and Fuku-chan are appreciated by the customers to the bar. They will give them boiled soya-beans to eat.

Watch the video from Reuters,

Right or Wrong, Just obey the boss - Working in a Japanese company

Working in a Japanese company demands people to shed most of their past working at their home country itself ! This message has been conveyed to me through many incidents happened to some of my colleagues working in a Japanese company. But ultimately, the things will turn out to be good for the individual.

One of the basic essential element of Japanese work culture is 'obedience'. Disobedience is not at all encouraged or tolerated in a Japanese company. Obedience is not only limited to the Japanese work culture, infact it is one of the behavioral aspect of almost all Japanese. Japanese obedience to the law, obedience to parents, teachers, doctors and other prominent figures in the society is remarkably higher than any other country. This doesn't mean that other countries have higher levels of disobedience.

Japanese obedience to the boss and the system has become popular to the rest of the world through Japan's participation in Second world war, where as per most of the western historian, Japan was dragged into the war by a group of misinformed leadership. Her suffering and myseries out of that wrong decision is not to mention and not a subject of discussion today. Whatever be the consequence, obey the boss is the primary thing a Japanese is supposed to do.

When I was doubtful about the effectiveness of machine physiotherapy suggested by my Japanese doctor and expressed my concern to go back to my country for further treatment, I was told to just obey the doctor and trust him by my boss.

Exactly like a Nihonjin, I obeyed my boss and continued the physiotherapy treatment with Japanese doctor. As of today I am only the beneficiary of my obedience to my boss. He told me to just obey the doctor. I obeyed both my boss and doctor. I got the result good and now I am able to recover through the method suggested by my doctor. It is assumed that seniors know well what the juniors want and always suggest the good their juniors.

It is this mentality of Japan, that 'seniors know what the juniors want' lead Japanese people to follow year old cultural trait of obedience. Teachers are well respected in Japanese society. Even a doctor is called 'Sensei' same as a Teacher. This is like 'Guru' which is used in India to denote a person of high respect. Guru is rather a teacher with higher knowledge and spiritual appearance. Sensei in Japan is a person at a respectable position, who advise good things to people. Obeying sensei is always considered an obligation to the people.

Before preparing the mind to work in a Japanese company, be sure to offset the mentality of 'Individual achievements'. Individual is not important in Japan. It is the group, the collective idea which will be counted as important in Japan. This psychological approach has led to many complex thought processes and behavioral mutations over many years in Japanese society which led many people to leave their 'ego' at home.

With grudge at the core of the mind, people continue to obey the boss. Over a period of time it will be proved to them that the boss was right and afterall the decision of the boss was in favor of the company. A Japanese boss never takes a decision in favor of an individual which is not in favor of the company. The interdepartmental transfers and work assignments decided by a boss is also a collective decision in favor of the company.

Personal ego has very less value in a Japanese company. This is one of the most important thing to be kept in mind and to be reminded self while being in Japan. Individual ego and individual ideas which is not useful for a group is not going to be entertained in Japanese companies. Curse the boss is the only thing you can do in Japan. But the time will prove that the boss was right.

But there are instances, where the subordinate can influence the decision of the boss. That should be well before the boss discuss the matter with his boss and other groups and reach to a collective decision. Once the decision is taken, there are almost zero possibility for a change. It will be fianl and our duty will be just to obey.

Obviously, there are many ways to disobey the boss. That can be done by submitting the resignation, but that will cost the job itself !

Dolphines on a diet loss plan - also in Japan !

Some two months ago I read in Reuters that Monkeys on a Japan zoo are put under severe diet for diet loss. It seems Japan is too conscious on the dieting and weight loss evedr since the proposed law for waist trim and metabolic identification and imposing more tax on them.

Now it is the turn of Dolphins. Today morning I came across this news in AFP. This is their full report:

Fatty food isn't a problem just for humans. A Japanese aquarium is putting its dolphins on a diet after their portly figures got in the way of their water tricks.

"These days animals at the sealand are a bit ... fat!!!" a zookeeper confided on the website of Kinosaki Marine World in western Hyogo prefecture.

Audiences have apparently noticed, with the dolphins failing to jump into the air as high as before, he said.

"But we ask you, please be lenient with them as they are making efforts to lose weight," he said.
The problem lies in their diet of mackerels, which are popular at this time of year in Japan. Mackerels are known in Japan for their rich taste but also their high fat content.

"We are trying to make them return to their best weight by feeding them other kinds of fish with less fat or by offering fewer mackerels," the zookeeper said.

The marine park offers audiences shows by dolphins, sea lions and other marine animals.

Dolphins are popular attractions in Japan, even though the country has come under fire abroad over the annual tradition of slaughtering thousands of dolphins for meat in the western town of Taiji.

It is exciting to know that Japan care its animal community for a better health and living along !