Cherry blossom! When Sakura flowers perfume the morning sun

For many days I have been thinking of making a post on cherry blossom and the O-hanami festival. At Tokyo part of Japan, the Sakura flowers started blossoming during the early days of April. We were invited to join the O-hanami party that was held at the sakura garden in front of the Yasukuni shrine with the whole family. That was an enlivening event for all of us to socialize with Japanese people.

O-hanami party is conducted at the cherry blossom occasion in Japan. Look at the flowers, drink O-sake (Japanese alcohol), eat and praise the beauty of Sakura flowers are the general activities being done during the O-hanami party. There may be variations in the mode of the parties being conducted. The concept is to praise the magnificence of Sakura flowers. The view of Sakura trees with full of light pink Sakura flowers is really a feast to the eyes. So appealing are the views that even while rushing to the office, it is hard to avoid taking a moment and look at those glamorous bunches of flowers.

Why, even this post is motivated by the alluring sceneries that had caught in the eyes after the start of cherry blossom in Tokyo. The period of end of winter season and the start of spring is marked with the blossoming of sakura flowers. Sakura flower is synonymous to the Japan in one sense. For an outsider like me, Japan could be symbolized to Mount Fuji, Sakura, and Hiroshima-Nagasaki – the three most striking things that come to the mind at first while referring to Japan.

For ages unknown, the sakura has been the most affectionate and adorable for Japanese people. Let me borrow from Nitobe Inazo-san’s ‘Bushido’, to best represent the feelings of Japanese people towards Sakura flowers; “The Yamato spirit is not a tame, tender plant, but a wild – in the sense of natural – growth; it is indigenous to the soil’

The Sakura trees in Komatsugawa garden near to our apartment were leafless till the end of March. Now all of them have turned to look like light pink clouds hanging from the branches. People started come out of the home and spend their leisure at the garden. Children play with the falling flower petals. The chirping sounds of birds are back to the garden.

The most thrilling experience after the O-hanami party was to meet Mrs. Akie Abe, the former first lady of Japan (2006-2007), who is a popular and prominent figure in Japanese political and public life. We were really lucky to have a group family photo with Abe-san. I do not intend to post the group photo before getting her written permission to do so. We were wondering, compared to India, how freely a known personality like Mrs. Abe could walk on the road in Tokyo!

This post may be incomplete without the following lines (again excerpts from ‘Bushido’) by Motoori Norinaga, the famous poet of Edo period;

                                    Isles of blest Japan!

                                            Should your Yamato spirit

                                    Strangers seek to scan,

                                           Say-scenting morn’s sunlit air,

                                           Blows the cherry wild and fair!

What is Japan?

Kenichi Tanaka-san’s blog video ‘Japan – The strange country’ prompted me to write this post. Tanaka-san did translate successfully and humorously his observations about his own country to 11:21 minutes movie. While Japanese people are known for their generalizations, Tanaka-san stands different and looks in to the facts with a distinctive perception.

That might be the fifth grade when the science teacher told about cold countries. Probably there was a country name Japan. Almost 29 years, during the 1980s, I was fond of Soviet Union. Our text books were protected by the thick pages of Soviet Nadu (Soviet land), the magazine which we received free of cost to home during our childhood. My father was an Indian National Congress leader during those years who was involved in the active politics with ex-chief minister of Kerala, K. Karunakaran. Even then he did not show any hesitation to receive the magazine from Soviet Union, which boasted the achievements of communism in Soviet Union.

Soviet Union was powerful in those days and influenced Indian political brains, while hard core communist leaders and followers dreamt on the thunder sounds of spring in India that will come from China or Soviet Union. Japan was not known to me at that time. Japan came through electronic products such as Sony, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, and Hitachi and through the Suzuki motors. Japanese automobile companies influenced India much more than the electronic products in terms of cost.

In upper primary schools, we learned about volcanoes and Japanese earthquakes. We heard that Japanese people make light weight roof to their houses, in order to reduce casualties in case of earth quakes. We heard about the intelligence of Japanese people. We learned Japan's victory over China and Russia.

Japan returned to our study corners during high school days, when we learned about Second World War. That was first time I really admired Japan. More than any Japanese electronic products or Suzuki’s joint venture to produce Maruti to the Indian streets, Japan’s help to Indian freedom fighters during the war impressed me. That was a topic of discussion in our friends circle. That was one of the rare subjects where all friends reached to a common agreement! Japan – an Asian country dared to stand alone and fight the European colonial forces in Asia. Japan might have tried to colonize some Asian countries, but the Japanese military helped S.C Bose, popularly known in India as Netaji to form Indian National Army (INA). Indian National Army along with Japanese military fought against British East India Company and advanced through Eastern India. They could form the first Independent India Government in Andaman Nicobar Islands under the leadership of Netaji. Unlike many of the South East Asian countries, I believe, Indian people supported Japan and wished for its success. We were so depressed to learn Japan’s surrender in the war.

Somewhere in the mind, there was a desire to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki at least once in life. During our high school days, Japan was almost a model country. A country with dedicated work force, a country with educated, healthy, disciplined and polite people live, stood as a role model to our generation. Teachers taught us to learn from Japan’s experience, Japan’s return to the world’s economy like a phoenix bird. History teacher Mrs. Rathi compared the phoenix bird and Japan’s waking up from the ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The desire to visit the land of Phoenix birds were heaping up. Internet and access to the information was not so popular on those days. I searched the encyclopedia pages to read about Japan. I could see pictures of beautiful women with colorful umbrellas and hand-fan. Japan remained a mystery in the mind. People are different, their faces are different, eyes are small and after all Japanese people believed the manufacturing technology ‘Small is beautiful’. Japan makes everything small.

Japanese workaholic nature is famous all over the world. One of my colleagues recollected his professor’s visiting experience to one of the Japanese company, where he could see an operator with a black badge on his uniform. While inquired about this, he was informed that the operator and his union were in strike against the management. I am not sure of the truth behind this story, but such kind of stories surfaced in our discussions during tea breaks when I was working in India. This was an extraordinary incident as the strikes in India have never been gentle.

Japanese management style has become popular in India. The collective responsibility and treatment of all people in all grades with equal respect has been some what different from the one, Indian companies and institutions inherited from the colonial British system. When working in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, one of the Pakistani friends, who worked in Japan, used to tell his observations on Japan. The discrimination in the society is not so open and severe in Japan based on the nature of job of a person compared to India or Pakistan.

Japanese product quality and quality implementation systems are famous around the world. There is a significant section of the Indian society believing in ‘brand Japan’ image. Japan is a brand for quality products.

My first encounter with a Japanese national dated back to 1996 April 11 when I was on a short business tour to Geneva and visited United Nations office. During business meetings there were chances to meet people from Japan. While talking with them, I have not tried to hide the veneration towards Japan.

There is no intention to assess the present living experiences with that of the old imaginations right now. I may do it on another occasion. It is always better to keep imaginations to our heart. Practical experiences may differ from person to person and can not be weighed and criticized with imaginations. I have tried to recall maximum possible images of Japan before I came to Japan. Now it will be interesting to watch what is Japan in Tanaka-san’s video.

Japan - The Strange Country (Japanese ver.) from Kenichi on Vimeo.

Hello, my name is Nimura

Before starting, I like to take an advance bail that this blog post is a personal one.

Yesterday my colleagues were deeply thinking how to write my name in Japanese. Anything foreign including the names, objects etc are written in Katakana script. Thus it is easy to identify by seeing the Katakana script that the thing or person is an outsider to Japan. My first name: Jayaprakash itself is little longer for Japanese people and after coming to Japan, the name is cut short to Jaya. As Japanese people add san to every name, they call me Jaya-san. In fact, Jaya alone is female name in India. When the colleagues told their desire to call Jaya-san, I did not show any hesitation. After all, what is in a name…..a rose is a rose…..

Things and people are divided broadly as Japanese and non-Japanese. This classification makes the things easier for Japanese people to understand things better and differentiate. The end purpose is not yet known to me. Hiragana and Kanji are used for Japanese things. Japanese names are written in Kanji.

Yesterday, one of the new systems required all the names to be entered in Kanji. It was necessary to put my name in Kanji. After much discussion, translation of my names in to English and then to Japanese they came with some suggestions. In India, names have meaning. Hindu names are based on Sanskrit language and each name has one meaning. For example, my first name Jayaprakash is a combination of two Sanskrit words Jaya and Prakash. Jaya means success and Prakash means light. The total meaning is some thing like ‘Light of success’

Converting the ‘Light of success in to Japanese Kanji, my name will be 成功光 (success light). There is no Japanese name like this and the colleagues told it is not a good name in Japanese language. Family names are used in Japan and they asked me the meaning of my family name in English. My family name in my mother tongue is Kottampilly. Some of the old Malayalam-Tamil meaning of Kottam in English is ‘New’. Pilli stands for Village. Modern Malayalam language and many of the new generation Keralites do not know these meanings. This Kottampilli has many variations in the southern states of India. Some of the people living in the border areas of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Andhra and Karnataka have family names like Kottapilli, Kottampilli, Kottampally, Kottapalli etc. While I was in Riyadh, one of my friend from Andhra Pradesh and another friend from Karnataka has same family name as Kottampilli. Interestingly according to them also, the regional versions of Kottam is New and Pally is village.

Recollecting the old Riyadh friends, I translated my family name as ‘New village’ The new village in Japanese language is ‘Atarashi Mura’. 新しい村. Japanese people do not use Hiragana while writing names. They just take 新 from新しい and村 to make the name新村. This is pronounced as ‘NIMURA’ in Japanese.

Now, I got a Japanese name – Nimura-san. 新村

Interesting experience! Japanese names have their origin in the nature. The mountain, river, village, bridge, chopsticks, bell ring, trees etc are the major inspirations for Japanese names. If translated to English, some of the Japanese names can be read as Blue tree (Aoki), Middle Field (Nakada), Middle river (Nakagawa), Upper field (Ueda), Tree village (Kimura), Paddy village (Tamura), Middle village (Nakamura) etc.

Similar naming system has been followed in India too since ancient time. Our family names also bear some meaning in the old language, which many new generation people can not recognize. Sanskrit names are meaningful, but recently in the name of fashion, baby names are twisted and it is hard to find any meaning in any of the existing language. A great percentage of population still follows the traditional way of putting names in India too.

The names taken from natural things show the civilization’s affiliation with the nature. It is a kind of union achieved in the society by calling human beings the names of natural things. The preservation and maintenance of nature comes from within. People carry the mountains, villages, trees, animals and rivers wherever they go, while they sleep, wake-up, eat and go to school and always with them! This is the ultimate example harmony of human societies and nature!

Are the wheels coming off Japan’s traditionally organized social structure?

Recently one of the Japanese friends, who had visited major Indian cities for business purpose, commented on the economical developments happening in India. It was good to hear that a country like India with an explosive population makes remarkable achievements in industrial growth. He was eager to tell me the energy and confidence he could observe in young entrepreneurs and business executives during his interaction with them.

That must be true. The young educated generation in India is ambitious to reach new heights and prove their abilities. Drawing encouragement from the proven success of Japan and other developed countries, the young generation is motivated to add new dimension to the traditionally stained image of their country. I told my friend that the recent economical developments are concentrated in the industry only. There might be a low penetration of growth to the basic necessities too, but the growth is highly not organized or distributed in India. The poverty rate is much higher and alarming in India. The human rights violations, child labor, aggression towards women, malnutrition, infant deaths, and poverty to mention a few things that UN has put India on the top of their list underrate the recent economical growth.

As an Indian, it is a proud to hear that our country is growing. It is a relief and gives hope to those downtrodden millions of human beings, termed as ‘cattle’ by her wealthy class. Even the right to education bill proposed by the central government in India is questioned by some vested interest groups in the name of funds and basic infrastructure. They don’t understand that the idea of right to education is important to feed into the social structure, so that the administration, bureaucrats, social organization will strive to meet the requirement. That attempt is enough in a society to bring success. Years of suppression, caste and class based discrimination, disparities etc, have reinforced optimism in political brains too in India. India needs more enthusiastic young brains to overcome those optimistic blocks in the political front and move forward.

On the other hand, Japan’s economical growth and social structure has appeared as a model for me. During discussions, I used to point out my observations that Japan does not need any communist parties to bring socialism in to the society. The governments had done their job well to bring justice to all the citizens in Japan. I don’t claim that I have not seen anybody sleeping on the street. Yes, I have seen homeless people twice or thrice while walking with friends in the night through the busy Tokyo streets. For me and friends the scene was a strange experience in Tokyo. It is quite common in India or any other developing country.

Economy matters. If the country and people are rich and have enough money to satisfy the basic necessities, the money can be spent for luxury. Then the social life becomes a celebration. In developing countries, corruption in bureaucracy and political system has their roots in the poor salary structure. In Japan, as far as my experience goes, a good percentage of the population can afford to live with many luxury things in life.

Socialism is interwoven in the society. One of the reasons for this socialistic mentality among Japanese people as told by friends is the feeling of ‘unique race’. Japan, though possess similarities with the neighboring East Asian countries, has many unique things to make it separate from others. The almost homogenous society had made the things easier for the administration and law to implement, organize and interwove socialistic threads into the society. That was the efforts of past generations in Japan and the result is today’s Japan as a model state that other nations can learn.

I have always heard stories of loyalty, truthfulness and righteousness from foreigners living in Japan when they tell their real life experiences of losing money and valuables. One friend forgot his bag including passport, money and other valuables in a taxi, in which he came from Narita airport on his first day to Japan. He did approach the nearby police station to report. Following the instruction from the police, he went to the station the next day and to his surprise the police handed over his bag with all the valuables inside intact. Another friend from Singapore forgot to take change for 10,000 Yen from the vending machine. When he realized this loss on the next day, he made a hopeless attempt to check at the vending machine to get the change that was approx. 9200 Yen. After searching at the vicinity of the vending machine, he approached the nearby shop and explained his loss. To his surprise, they asked him what is the exact amount and time he lost the money. When he told both time and exact amount, they handed over him the money!

Yes, these have been what I used to hear from foreign friends, but recently, started hearing suddenly about taking care while riding crowded trains and do shopping etc. Some of the people started losing their money. The money won’t disappear by itself. It happens when the wheels coming off. The society could be symbolized to a vehicle. When the economy shudders, it is hard to keep the wheels in place.