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!