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