NAMASTE FOODS - A Home away from Home for Indians in Tokyo

Namaste Foods at Higashi Ojima – Indian spice, grocery and food shop

I was an occasional customer at Namaste foods at Higashi Ojima when I was staying at company apartment at Kiba. Bala-san used to help me to get the Apa Kabar? International prepaid telephone calling card and tell the number over phone. Higashi Ojima was not so far away from Kiba. It is only a 30 minutes by Tokyo Metro trains. I need to take Tozai line from Kiba to Monzen nakacho then from there change to Toei Oedo line up to Morishita. From Morishita, I will move to Toei Shinjuku line to reach at Higashi Ojima. Since Balasan’s apartment is near to Namaste foods he did not mind to help me.

The meaning of ‘Apa kabar’ is ‘What is the news’ in Indonesian language. Apa kabar card is an attractive selling item for many of the Asian expatriates in Tokyo. The cost of one Apa kabar card is 2400 Yen at Namaste foods. With one apa kabar card I can call to my home at India for 6 hours 40 minutes (to mobile phone) if I use the Yahoo BB landline phone. When I moved to Higashi Ojima on September 2008, one of my problems, the availability of Indian food is almost solved. The Namaste foods at Higashi Ojima have many Indian food and snack items at their store.

Namaste foods is owned by a Japanese man who like India and Indian Culture. Running a grocery stores like an Indian shop at Higashi Ojima is not only a business for him. More than business it is his passion towards India that interests him to help the Indian expatriate society in Tokyo. It is a service he does to the Indians living in Higashi Ojima and the near places.

The most important thing is the owner of the Namaste foods ‘Katouno Tatsuhiro-san can speak Hindi apart from his mother tongue Japanese. He is also good at his English skills. One day I was surprised to hear him talking in Hindi to one of his customers over phone.

Namaste Foods have many Indian food items like Ready to Eat brands from MTR, Priya etc. MTR is one of the largest selling Ready to Eat brand in India and outside India. Sambar Rice (Curry Rice), Kesaribhath, Channa masala, Dal fry, Palak Paneer, Rasagulla, Mixed vegetable curry, Muttar paneer, are some of them I used to buy.


The snacks from India like the murukku, mixture, moong dal, Raita boondi, Shahi garden, Nylon sev, Haldiram’s masala peanuts, masala channa, etc are also available from Namaste foods. Maaza mango juice is really cheaper in Namste foods. One liter bottle of maaza mango juice costs only 200 Yen at Namaste foods.

Katouno-san told he will soon start home delivery service and this will help many Indian expatriates and Japanese people who wish to try Indian food to order the items from home. This will enable the Indian people living away from Higashi Ojima to get the Indian food delivered at their door step. The shipping charge is free if the total purchase is more than 10,000 Yen. The margin for free shipment is very attractive as the food items purchased at home for one month will generally cross this amount. The delivery will be through Fukuyama Transporting Co., Ltd. The payment as per the information from the website can be Cash on delivery or Bank transfer. Please check from the website for the details of bank for bank transfer.

Namaste foods at Higashi Ojima is easy to access. The Indian store Namaste foods is near to the Higashi Ojima station in Toei Shinjuku line. After getting down at Higashi Ojima station you have to pass through the Ojima exit. It is near to Shin Ohashi street. Stepping down the staircases of the railway station, Namaste food is just less than one minute walk. The store is on the ground floor (First floor in Japan) of the building No. 9-3-12. The address and telephone numbers are given below:

NAMASTE FOODS
Higashi Ojima Metoroad 18
1F, 9-3-12, Ojima, Koto-ku, Tokyo.
Tel: 03-5836-6638, Fax: 03-5836-6639
Email: shop@namaste-foods.com
Or info@namaste-foods.com
Website: www.namaste-foods.com

Contact for Indian foods now!

I highly recommend shopping at Namaste foods, Higashi Ojima. Katouno-san is very kind and well mannered gentle man who possess good knowledge about India, Indians and the culture of India. He had visited India many times and is fascinated by Indian culture.

Snowfall in Japan - exquisite and mysterious as the name Yuki

Today it is 4 degree Celsius now in Tokyo, but feels like less than 1 degree. Snow fall is predicted in the midnight in Tokyo. When Balasan conveyed this message that snowfall is predicted in the midnight, I remembered the 3rd February 2008. Almost more than one year now. It was on my fourth day in Japan, I saw the first snow fall.

I was staying in Day nice hotel in Koto-ku. Day nice hotel is near to the Monzen-nakacho Tozai line exit. Initially for around 5 days I stayed in Day nice hotel before moving into the apartment. Balasan invited to visit his home on 3rd February 2008. When I got ready and came down to make a phone call to him, I saw the pure white cotton like snow falling on the road. Balasan told it is snow rain in Higashi Ojima too. The snowfall was there in the whole Tokyo. We could not meet, but I could witness the snowfall for the first time.

Our program got cancelled as it was difficult to go out. The temperature was too low and walking outside was really difficult. It was the first time in life I witnessed a snowfall. When I visited Switzerland and went up all the way near to the Alps mountain on April 1996 also I missed the snowfall. It remained a desire in me to enjoy the snowfall.

On the fourth day in Japan I could watch and enjoy the snow fall. I went outside and walked on the road here and there without any purpose only to experience the snowfall. There were children playing on the road with full body covered with jackets. Their face was only visible and they were fully clad with sweaters and jackets. Small bushes on the roadside were fully covered with snow. Top of the buildings got entirely covered with snow and it looked amazing!

In Japanese language, snow is Yuki. It is a lovely name for many Japanese women too. Yuki – beautiful and mysterious like snow…pure and white in heart….Yuki gave poets in Japan enough food for imagination.

Snow is rare in Tokyo, but a common at the northern prefectures of Japan. The heavy snow area of Japan is probably the Hokaido. Visiting Hokaido is till now realized for me, while many of my friends visited there they say it is a place to see and enjoy. Japan is a land of snow. Japan due to her proximity to the Siberia get the colder wind.

The climate reports say the heavy snowfalls of Japan's snow country are caused by moisture-laden clouds bumping up against the mountains along the backbone of Honshū and releasing their moisture under the influence of easterly winds blowing off the continent or down from Siberia. As a result, the region includes some of the world's snowiest spots at the same latitudes, as well as the northern hemisphere's southern-most ski resorts.

Life does not come to a standstill due to snowfall. Nobody stops walking or take a leave in the name of snowfall. The life continues just in the normal way in most of the cases. If the snowfall is too heavy and disrupts the rail transportation, then it becomes a trouble. I could see even old people walking on the road which was filled with snow. Ward authority staff were engaged in removing the snow from the road which blocked the vehicle movement.

Even though I could not take the snaps of last year snowfall, Balasan had taken some nice photos. The date on the photos says the snow remained on the 4th morning also. I requested him those photos to share them here.

Fully Automatic Hi-tech Japanese Toilets – Ultimate human engineering skills!

At first I was really baffled and thought to use the old manual way of business in the toilet of the Hotel room at Katsutadai. It was the first time I encountered a Japanese hi-tech toilet after I landed in Japan. Confused and bewildered I tried pressing on the buttons randomly to know what happens.

When pressed a button at the keypad provided near to the arm rests, a nozzle like thing looking like a squirt gun came out from the bottom of the flush and started jetting water all over the toilet.

Even though embarrassing at the first experience, the hi-tech toilets in Japan is really convenient. People who are used to it will never like to do their daily morning business in any other old fashioned toilets. I could not see this much automation in any of the toilets used so far in any of the luxury hotels at places I had chance to visit and stay. Japan is home to the real hi-tech toilets.

Virtually the toilet will do almost everything for us. The only thing we have to do is to do the thing properly for what we can in!

There is a control pad with many buttons on the side. The sitting pad can be heated to make it warm during winter. The sprinkling or Jetting speed of the water which will squirt water beam to clean the backside once the business is over is also controlled. There is low pressure, medium pressure and high pressure. As we like we can control the speed by pressing it. Also the warm water and normal water options are there in the control pad.

The toilet senses once the business is over and even if we forget to flush, the toilet will do it. Japanese toilets are also self disciplined!

In public toilets, there is provision to place kids which is very convenient for mothers who carry their kids to the toilets. The safe use of toilet and the baby seat is also displayed inside the toilets through instructions. It is amazing that Japanese care even minute details of every walk of life. It is beyond words to praise those genius minds who planned and implemented all these conveniences to the common people in Japan.

Japan is the world leader in producing automated hi-tech toilets. Japan’s biggest automatic hi-tech toilet maker Toto sells their toilets for a price approximately at US$ 2000 to 4000. There are some toilets which will chemically analyze the urine of the user and tells the medical problems! I am not sure, just heard about it.

Toto have their market in the United states. They sell the automated toilets at a lower price in US as per information I have, which I am not sure to comment. Please check with Toto USA for prices and related inquiries.

The use of tissue paper is also almost eliminated in Japanese modern toilets, but the option is still there. The work instruction for use and change of tissue paper is also displayed in the toilet.

Japanese hi-tech toilets are good example of ultimate human engineering skills. First embarrassed though, once get used to, people get addicted to use these hi-tech toilets even though it is a few minutes business. Some models display the time too. The clock will say how much business we did inside! Wow!

Visit to the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa with many memories of bygone years

Once upon a time, but Japanese history says it is in the year AD 628, there lived two brothers in Asakusa near to the Sumida River. Their names were Hinokuma Hamanari and HIinokuma Takenari. They used to fish from the Sumida river. Everyday they got lot of fishes and people enjoyed good meal with fishes they caught. Fishing from the Sumida river was their job and they continued doing that sincerely.

One day as usual they went for fishing in the Sumida River. The brothers were astonished to see that they got a statue from the river. They realized that they fished a statue of Goddess Kannon. Goddess Kannon is the God of mercy in Japan.

They thought that statue has no value and threw back into the river. Again they started fishing, but to their surprise they again got the statue back to them! The statue was ready to leave them. They brought the statue to the village and told their experience to the villagers. All of them were surprised. The village chief Hajino Nakamoto san realized the divine value and sanctity of the statue.

Hajino Nakamoto-san preserved the statue of Goddess Kannon at his home in Asakusa. It is believed that he remodeled his own home to a small temple to preserve the statue. He thought that the statue possess divine power and the villagers by worshipping will get the mercy of Goddess Kannon.

The Sensoji temple was thus formed in AD 645 to worship the Goddess of Mercy in Asakusa. Thus Sensoji temple became the oldest temple in Tokyo. Japanese people worshipping at the Sensoji temple started getting good results in their life by the blessings of Goddess Kannon. The word spread throughout Japan soon and people started flocking to Asakusa to seek the blessings of Goddess Kannon.

I heard all the story of Sensoji temple from my friend and told him that I will write this story in my personal blog. After visiting the Omiyage shops in Asakusa I decided to visit the Sensoji temple.

Sensoji temple is also known as Asakusa Kannon temple. I entered through the Kaminarimon. The meaning of Kaminarimon is Thunder gate. This is the outer gate of the Sensoji temple in Asakusa.

Asakusa is symbolized by the Kaminarimon, we can say. Walking through the gate I entered to the Nakamise dori, which is about more than 200 meters length starting from the Kaminarimon to the second gate of Sensoji temple. The second gate is known as Hozomon. The gigantic paper lantern was painted Red and black and some Kanji letters were also written in that. This is really thunder!

I could see many Japanese Omiyage shops and traditional local snacks prepared and served there itself in Nakamise dori. People were enjoying the snacks. There were shops of Kimono, Yukata, Ukiyo-e and painted and colored folding fans.

Passing through the Nakamise dori, I reached to the Hozomon gate. Hozomon means ‘Treasure House Gate’ in Japanese. Sure, there is treasure inside, that is the treasure of Mercy! Built in traditional Buddhist architecture, with dramatic color combinations and structures, Hozomon gate stood with its dragon like corners.



Entered to the temple complex, I could see smoke and a small crowd in the forecourt of the temple. There was a small structure inside which a incense sticks were burned as part of traditional worship. Devotees were seeking blessing by waving their hands to the flame and smoke coming out of the metallic pot and showing it to their head. It is a concept that they are blessed.

At the side of the Sanctum sanctorum building, I could see a big statue of Lord Buddha. My mind travelled back to 563 BCE to one of India’s small kingdom where Gautama was born. The prince Gautama left all his worldly wealth and went in search of ultimate truth and meaning of life. Now, even at this 21st century, He is being worshipped by one the world’s most intelligent people in the world – Japanese people!

I entered to the main worship area where the idol is placed. Stepping up to the sanctum sanctorum, there were many devotees throwing coins (Japanese yen) to the metallic box placed in front of the idol. There were lights all around. It reminded me the Hindu temples in India. Hindu people do the same kind of worship.

Stepping down from the sanctum sanctorum, I decided to take snaps of the five storied pagoda. It looked gigantic in the sky. The Asakusa shrine was built by the Tokugawa lemitsu.

World war II destroyed a major part of the temple and Japan rebuilt. But in the courtyard I could see a tree to remind us of the Second World War, which was hit by the air raid bombings by Allied forces. The tree is a symbol of Japan and its people, I believe. The tree has grown again from its old husk! Exactly the same way Japan has grown after world War-II keeping almost all its traditions and customs!

A trip to Asakusa - City of temples in Tokyo

It was from Morishita sensei that I heard about Asakusa first time while I was attending Japanese language class at OVTA. She mentioned about Asakusa while referring the Japanese word ‘Omiyage’. Omiyage in Japanese means gift or presentation. She told, there are plenty of traditional Japanese Omiyage shops in Asakusa.

Asakusa is a tourist spot both for people visiting in Tokyo from other parts of Japan and for foreigners. Today I got that opportunity to go to Asakusa. In fact, I was thinking to visit Asakusa for quite sometime after hearing about this place from Morishita sensei. I made the trip with a friend who was also wishing to visit Asakusa.

Asakusa is famous for its Sensoji temple. It is a Buddhist temple. Asakusa is a district in Taito Tokyo. There are several more temples in Asakusa, as well as various festivals. Asakusa is a traditional Japanese city famous for its temples and festivals.

Coming out of the A4 exit of Asakusa line (Tokyo metro), we asked the way to a Japanese girl standing in front of the exit. She could partly understand our broken Japanese, but she could manage to direct us to the desired location. We walked to the location to where she pointed her finger.

There were many foreign people on the road. I was surprised by seeing the man pulling rickshaws on the road. There are still these kind of old traditional vehicles seen in Tokyo! I could not resist taking photos of those rickshaws on the Asakusa road. I had a wrong notion that rickshaws are popular in India only. Now I realized that was my biggest mistake. I have seen a plenty of human powered rickshaws in India’s Northern states. Still those are bicycle connected. Human pulling rickshaws are considered a human rights violation.

In Asakusa, these rickshaws are maintained as part of tourism. Nobody really want to travel long distances in rickshaws. Sitting and travelling in human pulling rickshaws bring back memories of past mode of transportation. Later I learned that in Japan also rickshaws were popular. Probably I made a big mistake before realizing now that the word rickshaw have its origin in Japanese word Jinrikisha.

In Jinrikisha, we can see a combination of three words like Jin, riki, and sha. The word ‘Jin’ means human or person, ‘riki’ means power or force, and the word ‘sha’ is for vehicle. So, the word ‘Jinrikisha’ is human-powered vehicle! It was a new knowledge for me when my friend explained the concept of Rickshaw. Moreover, my wrong concepts of origin of human powered vehicles were being rewritten when I visited Asakusa. English people called human-powered vehicles ‘Pedicabs’.

Asakusa is famous for its ‘Omiyage’ shops. The street that leads to the Sensoji temple and the nearest area are full of Omiyage shops. We could see many women dressed in Traditional Japanese kimono. Asakusa is famous for geisha population also, I heard.

Asakusa was the center of entertainment in Tokyo for a most part of 20th century Japanese life. Now the attraction for entertainment has shifted to Shinjuku from Asakusa. Still Asakusa is famous for its classical Japanese films as many of the tourists are elderly Japanese who visit Buddhist and Shinto temples of Asakusa.

The real meaning of the psychological term, Empathy in Japan

Empathy is more likely to be connected with psychological feeling of one person for his ability to understand the feeling of another person. Psychology books have references to such kind of feelings human beings possess. The feeling of empathy is said to be the reason of harmony and healthy relationship among the individuals in a society.

Japan is a highly empathetic society. One reason is attributed to its high level of literacy rate. But literacy rate alone can not alone ensure highly developed mind characteristics like empathetic feeling. To understand and act according to the need of another person requires an extra ordinarily developed mind and thought process. While I was in my home country, I was informed by some of my friends that psychology is a well developed branch of knowledge in Japan.

Japanese people have attempted to describe minute fluctuations of mind obviously from their observations on their own individuals. The highest level of understanding of another person’s feeling and realize that it is their own feeling and more over contribute whatever they can to help is a rare characteristic of human beings. In that sense Japan has many citizens with empathy than any where.

I experienced the feeling of empathy from Japanese colleagues, when I met with a physical trouble. The help comes before asking! One of my friend told his experience when he lost his way at a strange place. He went to Osaka alone from Tokyo to meet one of his old friend from his country. In the middle of the searching the friend’s home he lost his way and was unable to even go back to the railway station. To his misery, he missed to carry his mobile phone and did not remember the phone number. He knows only survival Japanese language.

He approached a Japanese person who was riding a bicycle. With his broken Japanese, he asked for help to find out his friends home. The Japanese person told him that his friend’s home is around 1 km far from where he stands. For him it was almost impossible to find out that place. He started worrying how to go there, but could not tell this to the Japanese. To his surprise, the Japanese person asked him if he would not mind to sit on the back of his bicycle, he will take him to the friend’s home.

He was surprised as the Japanese person was riding in the opposite way. The stranger Japanese person took him to his friend’s home. My friend said lot of thanks to him. That is all he could do at that time. The Japanese person returned in his bicycle to his destination. My friend was astonished to see the helping mentality of people of Japan.

This is exactly what we call the living examples of empathy, i.e., putting oneself into the psychological frame of reference of another person, so that the other person’s feelings, thoughts, troubles, miseries, and acting can be well understood. The understanding does not stand still in Japan. They really come out with practical help!

The feeling of Empathy in Japan does not stay as a feeling only inside the mind of people. Japanese people really come out with a solution, if they are able to help, otherwise also they would not forget to say a sorry.

This is what the feeling called empathy really means – Not only understand another person’s feelings and emotions, but really come with practically possible solutions to help him solve out and come out of his troubles!

Japanese politeness and discipline - How to distinguish Japanese people from other East Asians?

It was start of a debate when I declared that I can distinguish a Japanese person from other far east Asians. Probably I was little excited and exaggerated. But I had enough reasons to argue with my friends. The topic I started was interesting to many friends since they were from East Asian countries.

They wanted to know how I can differentiate Japanese people from other East Asian people. In fact, I used to observe the behavior pattern of Japanese people in public and their manners. The attitude of Japanese people to others, especially to people from India is totally different from the attitude of other East Asians towards Indian people. There is a great extent of positive patterns when Japanese people interact with Indians.

By observing East Asian people, I could guess to almost nearly accurately the country of east Asian people. I agree that it is difficult to distinguish Japanese and South Koreans, North Chinese and some Thai people. But most of the time, the behavior pattern helped me to differentiate other East Asians from Japanese.

One of the major characteristics with Japanese public behavior is Discipline. This is what I like to appreciate the whole system of bringing up a generation in Japan. Japanese people and education system has a vision to build future generation and they are well aware of the impacts of discipline in the society.

The robust and healthy Japanese society has been practicing an admirable system of discipline for many decades. History says the modern Japan became a self disciplined society from the time of Edo. I am not a scholar to comment on this. But I can say from my observation of Japanese people for the past one year that Japanese people are different.

There may be an argument when Japanese people say that they are a different human race. The secluded island culture for many centuries has resulted in a kind of oneness among Japanese people and similar cultural proximity among different regions of Japan. This may be the reason for Japanese people thinking that their race is different. By race they mean only the society, I believe.

Even though other East Asians looks like Japanese, they fail to behave like Japanese. In that sense, Japanese culture is different from other East Asian cultures though it is affected. The attitude of majority of people makes the society proud. In that sense Japan has got all to proud of her people. The aligned and programmed nature of behavior of Japanese people makes the things simple in every walk of life.

Airport is the most noticeable place for Japanese politeness. The moment I landed in Hong Kong Airport, I could experience the difference between Japanese and other East Asians, though they look same. The careless and arrogant nature of approach and attitude is missing in Japan Airports. Instead, people are warm and polite. They wish politely every traveler pass through. That is amazing. There are guides with smiling face in Tokyo Airport for any kind of help. Such a convenient and pleasant Airport I have never seen anywhere. Malaysian Airport is another place which reinforced my observation that Japanese people are different from other East Asians in behavior. The same arrogant nature as in Hong Kong I could watch in Kula lumpur airport also.

Why Japan is different? And who told them to behave good to strangers? Why most people at Hong Kong and Malaysia are arrogant?

The answer is in the culture. The cultural background makes the difference. Japan is a country with full fledged development. That development is not limited to the technological field, Japanese people are also developed much higher than other East Asians. That is the reason we miss to experience the politeness and pleasant experiences at Malaysia and other East Asian countries. I have no experience with Korea, but my interaction with Korean people says, they are also warm like Japanese.

Japan has an edge over others with their politeness, discipline and pleasant attitude. That makes life and society beautiful.