Respecting the nature is a traditional way of Japanese culture!

Enjoy the nature and tradition just 50 minutes from Shinjuku station!

This is the advertisement caption on which I get something to stare while riding on Toei Shinjuku trains to and from Higashi Ojima on weekdays. Most often this advertisement shown on the Toei Shinjuku line trains or Keio line trains that goes to Keio-tama center is the one that has caption in English. Indeed, advertized to attract foreigners, Mount Takao is a place to visit especially during the season of color change of leaves on November second week.

By repeatedly seeing the advertisement inside the trains, we decided to make a trip to Mount Takao today. We are just back from Mount Takao, which is just one and half an hour away from our house at Higashi Ojima.

The ideal visiting season is November when the trees change the colors. Mount Takao looks gorgeous with trees bearing colored leaves in a varying mix of red, yellow, green, pink, orange, dark brown and grey. The winter is near and the trees will prepare themselves to shed the leaves. During autumn season, maple leaves change color which is known as momiji in Japanese. もみじ momiji is romantic season in Japan and we could see many young couples making their trip to the top of mount Takao.

Mount Takao is 599 meters tall in the city of HachiOji. HachiOji is in Tokyo prefecture and for me HachiOji is particularly important as one of the initial visitors to this blog Mr. Hashimoto was from this place. Mount Takao is a popular hiking spot for Tokyo people.

To reach Takao-san, take a keio line train that goes to Kitano and then change to Keio Takao line to reach Takaosanguchi. Alternatively, from Shinjuku, we will get express train to Takaosanguchi. Pasmo or suica card holders do not need to buy separate tickets to reach Takaosanguchi.

From the basement of Mount Takao known as Takaosanguchi, where the Keio trains stops, we need to walk around 5 minutes to reach the cable car station. We had two option to reach at the top of Mount Takao. One is by using Cable car and another one is by lift chair. Lift chair will be an open air atmosphere and as we were with small kids and strollers did not opt to use. Cable car was pulled by giant high strength ropes that was operated from the station at the top of the mount Takao. The cable car have two cars and the travelers are well controlled by the staff at the entrance. The round trip by cable car costs 900 Japanese yen for adults and for children below 6 years old it is free.

It took around 3 and half minutes to reach the station at the top of Mount Takao. We could see the Tokyo city far away with skyscrapers looking like match boxes piled one over one. The observatory hall built on the mountain has telescopes that operate by inserting 100 Yen to view the far away places.

Walking further through the forest, enjoying the nature and tradition as the advertisement says, we could see many sculptures on the way to Yakuoin Buddhist temple. The temple built with the traditional Buddhist style have influence of Chinese architecture.

Though not so far away from busy Tokyo city, Mount Takao is rich in wildlife with more than 1200 species of plants, bushes and diverse species of insects, birds and animals.

The temples in Japan as per my experience goes is a mix of Buddhist and Shinto cultures and almost all of them I have visited have Buddha and other Shinto Gods. The Gods co-exist in good harmony in all the temples. We could see many Gods in the temple and too many sculptures of Buddha everywhere on the way to the temple. We learned that visitors to Yakuoin temple pray to mountain Gods (tengu) for their better future and good fortune.

One of the photo shown in the advertisement inside the trains is of such a God having long nose with an angry face. We could see many statues of Gods with long nose and another with a crow beak in the Yakuoin temple premise.

It was 5 in the evening, but was dark when we got inside the cable car to come down to Takaosanguchi. The journey was too memorable and all of us enjoyed, with plans of revisiting as we could not cover all of the attractions on the top of Mount Takao. Probably we need one more day to plan the journey properly.

Mount Takao, Takaosan as Japanese people say with respect, is one of the best examples of traditional Japanese culture of respecting nature and living things equally. Behind all those sculptures, the shapes we saw on the way to Yakuoin temple, the customs being followed in the temple, we could realize that it is a tradition in Japan to respect the nature!

Indian International School in Japan - IISJ Morishita, Tokyo

For almost eight months from now, I have been thinking of writing about the Indian International School Japan, having their campuses at Morishita and Yokohama. On March 2009 I went to Indian school to inquire on the admission procedures for my elder daughter. After talking to the staff at the school office, I got the opportunity to talk to Mrs. Nirmal Jain, The Director of the Indian international school Japan.

Indian international school Japan is popularly known as IISJ in Japan. It is located in Morishita, in Koto-ku ward of Tokyo prefecture. There are two Indian international schools in Japan. The second one is Global Indian School, the campus of which is at Mizue.

It is a great service being done by Indian international school Japan authorities, especially by Mrs. Jain at Japan for the Indian community. Some years before, for Indian people living in Japan with family and kids, education was a major problem. I came to know from friends that their kids go to other international schools in Tokyo. For Indians, curriculum based on Indian syllabus is important as most of the Indians are here for a short stay.

When I met Mrs. Jain I conveyed my admiration towards the service they do to the Indian community in Japan. Far away from India, giving children an atmosphere of International curriculum yet based on Indian values and syllabus is not a simple thing. That is one of the objectives of Indian international school in Japan. To make the coming generations of Indians living in Tokyo global citizens, it is a must to impart values and habits suitable to live in an international community, also by keeping traditional Indian values and customs.

The positive attitude and values Mrs. Jain keeps to impart knowledge to the new generations is impressive. Indian International school in Japan is a co-educational institution that is affiliated to the CBSE (Central board of secondary education, New Delhi, India. Interestingly, there are students belonging to other countries also studying in IISJ, Morishita. Recently, some of the Japanese parents have been attracted to the Indian curriculum.

The development of mathematics in India is amazing. Though India still bear the images of a poor country with almost half of the population under darkness of illiteracy and lower living standards, the mathematics has got a place in Indian society. Indian vedic mathematics is an amazing product of India with which complex arithmetic calculation becomes too simple, that does not need a calculator.

I have learned some basic vedic mathematics from a teacher when I was in India and when I showed the easy way of calculating complex numbers to some of my Japanese colleagues, they were astonished virtually. On my last trip to India, some of my colleagues requested to bring vedic mathematics books.

Due to the popularity of Indian mathematics and the English language medium of education, Indian schools have students from other countries including Japan. My daughter is studying in the upper kindergarten. Indian International School in Japan has got trained and qualified teachers.

For more information, please visit the official site of Indian International School in Japan – IISJ Morishita

Revisiting Tokyo Tower on a sunny day with family

There was news that cold wind from Siberia will hit Japan and the mercury will dip further from 14 degree Celsius to 7 degree Celsius suddenly. We could feel the signs of that cold wind from yesterday evening onwards. Today the temperature in Tokyo is 7 degree Celsius. The coming days are going to be chilled ones.

The vendor machines will serve hot coffee and tea along with other hot drinks. Even though the night temperature has come down the day was much clearer than previous days. Morning we got a clear sky. Today, November 3rd is a holiday in Japan. November 3rd is a national holiday in Japan. The holiday is called cultural day or Bunka no hi in Japanese language. Japanese people celebrate bunka no hi as a day for promoting culture and love of freedom and peace. Government institutions will award selected individuals for their contribution and achievement in the cultural field.

Anyway, it is just a holiday for foreigners in Japan. Holidays like this coming in between the weekends are good to plan for an outing with family. Since the day was clear we planned to visit Tokyo tower. It was my third visit to Tokyo tower! We will get a good view of the surroundings from the top of the Tokyo tower on a sunny day.

The best transfer point for us from Higashi Ojima (Toei Shinjuku line) to reach Tokyo tower is Morishita. After getting down at Morishita we need to change to Toei Oedo line that goes to Akabanebashi. I had a bit confusion on the places in Tokyo since some of the names pronounce similar. There is one more place called Akebonobashi in Toei Shinjuku line. The Tokyo tower is near to the Akabanebashi in Toei Oedo line. After the exit, we need to walk 5 minutes to reach Tokyo tower.

When we entered to the complex, we saw a crowd clapping and dancing to the tunes of the singer and performer on the stage in front of the ticket counter. There were food stalls temporarily arranged for the audience. Such street shows are common in Japan and the performers can sell their albums and can reach to more customers.

Since the day was clear we got a good view of Mount Fuji, which I missed on the last two occasions. The night view of Tokyo Tower is also very exciting. Tokyo tower is the tallest steel structure in the world with 333 meters height. The weight is 4000 tons. The Eiffel Tower of Paris is 320 meters high, but has 7000 tons weight. Tokyo tower is made of light weight steel structure but still can handle more shocks and vibrations.

Tokyo tower has many attractions for children and adults like Wax museum, Space Museum, Aquarium and its gallery, Guinness book of world records museum etc to mention a few apart from many gift shops. Gift shops sell miniature structure of Tokyo tower. The Aquarium has many rare varieties of fishes and sea creatures that I could never see before.

In front of the Aquarium ticket counter , which is also place for exit from the aquarium, there are several fish and sea creatures toys, big and small, high price and low price available to attract children. After visiting an exciting place like Aquarium, naturally children will be thrilled to buy toys of creatures whatever they have seen inside. This is one of the interesting marketing techniques I have observed in front of the museums, parks, zoo, historical places, public tourist spots etc. It is good to buy and keep something related to that place to remind our visit to that place. That will make our memories alive.

The ticket to aquarium for an adult is 1000 Yen and for children more than 4 years old, it is 500 Yen. It is worth visiting the aquarium with children. This place will surely boost up their imagination and knowledge about our planet and its creatures. Our children were joyful to play around at the R floor. My daughter had a bagfull of doubts on what she saw in the aquarium on our back home. The shape and variety of sea creatures will surely increase the imaginary inner world of children. This is one of the prime objective of going for outing with children too. Tokyo and surrounding Japan have many such places which is especially useful for children to grow their curiosity. Igniting the curiosity will turn on the hidden interests in children that will drive them to know more.

View of Tokyo tower at night is beautiful. I could not wait on the last two occassions till it become dark to get an illuminated view of Tokyo tower. Since the day is short on winter season, it was already dark at 5:15PM when we came out of the aquarium. We searched for the turkish food stall that was temporarily built on the tower complex. Unfortunately the turkish food stall was closed and they were packing up to leave the place. The stage show was over and the crowd was reduced.

With thousands of lights illuminating the tall steel giant stood proudly with its head high as a symbol of Tokyo and Japan. The wind was cold to shiver us and forced us to reach home faster. The Bunka no hi, the holiday on November 3rd is thus finished with some treasured memoires