While passing through a turbulent and uncertain economy

Today I am little bit out of mood as I could not meet one friend whom I used to talk with at the McDonald outlet. Yesterday also I could not meet him. We are all passing through a turbulent economy, which is overcast by uncertain future. This one is really harder and nobody knows what will be the coming days. It is so uncertain that even companies that performed well in the past are nose diving to declare massive lay offs and job cuts.

My friend from Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany whom I used to meet at the McDonald outlet is an interesting person to talk with on many topics on politics, technology and economics. He has been in Japan for the past 3 years. Since the business has come down and affected the sale of many products from outside Japan, his company is also in trouble.

It is interesting to mention here that I have one more friend from Vienna whom I used to meet at the ‘Makudonarudo’ (McDonald) outlet at Kiba.

Many of the Japanese use the word ‘Shrinking economy’ for the current economic phenomenon. Contraction of the economy another popular word in Japan used for the economic slowdown. My friend from Bamberg has planned for a vacation at the end of this month, but what happened to him today. It is unlikely that he will miss for two consecutive days.

My knowledge about Germany is very limited. He told me that Bamberg is a town area in Bavaria and Bavaria is the largest state in Germany by area. Bavaria is located at the south east of Germany.

He is interested to hear about my place and I will ask him about the places in Germany as if the whole Germany is very small for him to know everything about Germany. Japan’s association with Germany during Second World War is a historic fact, even though not so popularly welcomed publicly by many people.

The juicy chicken setto (Chicken hamburger) or Ebi fileto setto (prawns hamburger) with hoto kohee (hot coffee) is our favorite at McDonald. He also prefers the same. Some days we sit more than one hour with our hoto kohee sharing our ideas on world affairs and recent developments in technology.

If I am correct in hearing from my friend, there is a river named Regnitz. He told in Bamberg smoked beer is famous. It is called Rauchbier in German language. I still keep the tissue paper on which he wrote the spelling in German language.

Economic recession is deepening. I could not meet my friend today at McDonald outlet. I waited there for almost one hour for him sipping the hotto kohee slowly with the hope that the he will come.

I could not see any reduction in sales in terms of number of people at any of the McDonald outlets in Tokyo. This is my personal observation and I am not much sure about the exact number of people visiting each outlet. Before one year and now I could see equal number of people chooses to eat out at McDonald. In fact McDonalds had come down with economic packages like one chicken hamburger set cost 630 Japanese Yen before, is now available for 490 Japanese Yen. This is during 11:30 hours to 13:30 hours. This is the time they get peak business and many Japanese like the McDonald food. These 'stimulus packages' implemented by McDonalds attract more customers even at the time of economic slow down or shrinking economy.

My hotto kohee has cooled down. There is no point in waiting for him today. Economy is uncertain and we don’t know what is there for us tomorrow!

Japanese language friends reunion at Funabashi

There were lots of fun and play when our Japanese classmates met once again for get-together party at Remus’ house. We decided to meet at Funabashi railway station exit before moving together to his apartment. Remus, an Engineer by profession and a prospective young and gentle bachelor from Singapore is one of the few friends I got during my stay at Sakura for training. His Japanese language proficiency is good and he takes care to help friends – one of the rarest human values we slowly miss in the process of modernization and industrialization.

We saw some free medical checkup campaign tent built right at the entrance of the station. One of the volunteers approached us as part of inviting us to have a free medical checkup. The volunteer showed his interest in talking to us. He told, he had a neighbor from India when he lived at Osaka. He was all admiration to the beauty of Indian women! It was interesting to hear his experiences.

We, the Asian friends are from different countries, mostly from ASEAN. Ms Pappathorn Kongkrew from Thailand, Mr. Mohammad Mustain from Indonesia, Mr. Remus Sim Teck Huat from Singapore, Ms. Misaki from Japan, Mr. Wong from Malaysia and Watashi ('watashi' in Japanese means 'I') from India – it was an Asian friends get-together.

Remus had prepared East Asian foods to serve us. Such casual reunion of friends working together brings more excitement and color to the otherwise usual life. Sharing of experiences, communication with different nationalities, ideas on new cultural trends, travel experiences and related friendly activities are signs of healthy interpersonal relationships. I was always fond of such gatherings and longed for more in life, though came rarely.

Language sharing was useful as I learned some new Japanese words and forms of use. While we attended the Japanese class itself, our classroom was one of the lively one with more fun. Cultural information sharing among friends of different nationalities is an appealing way of learning new things in life. The essential criteria is to have friends of almost similar mentality.

One of the lengthy discussion was about the white elephants in Thailand. Ms. Pappathorn told they have white elephants in Thailand. Though I have learned in childhood that the Hindu mythical king Indra possessed white elephant named ‘Airavat’, it all seemed excerpts from Indian fairy tales. She told is a truth and to be frank, it is really a new knowledge for me. She told the elephant is not exactly white, but having grey shades or more like a cream color. Since I have not seen such elephants I can not comment.

My interest in elephants is natural and inborn as I hail from Thrissur in Kerala. Thrissur is place of temple celebrations with decorated elephants. Since my childhood, I can recall, our lives are very much associated with temple celebrations and decorated elephants. My native place, Kerala in India is known for its famous elephant pageant. Many of the stories elders used to tell us were surrounded to temples and elephants.

Possessing a white elephant may seem a metaphor for an encumbrance, a worthless possession. For people at Thailand a white elephant is a highly unusual creature to be venerated. Thai art and handicrafts are flooded with the pictures of elephants.




Ms. Misaki brought strawberries, which we tasted after lunch. Strawberry is called ‘Ichigo’ in Japanese language. Ichigo is one of the first few Japanese words I learned in India before coming to Japan. I loved to snapshots the lovely strawberries to my mobile camera.




It was almost 6’O clock in the evening when we decided to part away. I could not resist asking my friends to gather for a photo so that I can go back to memories of sweet shared moments and ruminate them once in a while. We said good bye to each others and diverted to six different directions along with the sun at the western horizon saying good bye to the earth in the cloudy sky.

BUSHIDO – an expedition to the enigmatic twirls of Japanese psyche

I have been reading through the book Bushido written by Inazo Nitobe. First published in 1900 written originally in English, the author of Bushido was Under Secretary General of the League of Nations.

One of my Japanese friends Mr. Hiranuma Yoshiaki suggested this book for reading, when I expressed my desire to learn more about the history of Japanese culture, mind and behavior. Mr. Yoshi is a nice gentleman working in firm engaged in education planning and research.

I have been almost with full admiration and surprise ever since I heard of Japan and the nature of Japanese people from a friend in my native village who was working with a Japanese bank at New Delhi. It is a coincidence that I got a chance to live in Japan.

My first encounter with a Japanese dates back to 12 April 1996, when I visited UN headquarters at Geneva. I was in Switzerland to visit a fiber optic cable production machine manufacturer at Lousanne, 100 km away from Geneva. The Japanese national was very happy to meet an Asian at Geneva. We became friends easily and talked about the culture and society of India and Japan. She was alone on her travel to Europe. That also excited me as generally even the highly educated Indian women are very conservative in nature and would not dare to explore the world alone.

It all surprised me to think what is special with Japanese people? Who taught them to become self disciplined? Japanese people are so disciplined by themselves that they do not need many of the external policing or separate rules to keep the society and environment clean. Majority of Japanese people are self ruled with high morals. There may be few exceptions as is with every culture and society. But the percentage of good people – that makes the difference to a society.

Majority of the Japanese people are not seriously religious. Religion has taken a third or fourth place to many of the Japanese. God is not a great thing in Japan. Still Japan has the lowest crime rate. Low records of violence. High morals at public places and high levels of self discipline are observed in Japan. Japan prompts to think: Is religion a necessity to make a good society? No! my experience in Japan tempts me to say this.

Coming back to Bushido, the book has good forward by Yoshio Hatano who was former Ambassador to the UN. The book is titled as BUSHIDO – The soul of Japan – An exposition of Japanese thought. My friend recommended a bilingual version of the book. The Japanese translation is done by Tokuhei Suchi.

It is interesting to mention how excited the author himself was when he travelled through the history of Japan and explored fine reasons to justify many of the present day Japanese behavior. Though it may seems his over anxiousness to prove his nation and people extra ordinarily, whoever lived in Japan and have chances to interact with Japanese people can not possess much different concepts as expressed in Bushido.

Woven with the history, psychology, culture and social systems Bushido is more or equally beautiful like a Japanese kimono. If borrowed from Bushido, Japanese psyche is represented by Sakura flowers!

I could complete reading the 299 page book. Now reading it once more gives more insight to minute details of reason. Bushido is interesting and a must read book. I may explore more on the Japanese psyche by reading Bushido once more.

J-pop music performance at Funabashi by MYST

Funabashi is a lively city, which I realized when I used to travel between Sakura and Kiba. Sometimes I get down at Funabashi and change the train to Nishi Funabashi on the way to Kiba.

Today, for purchasing along with a friend from Singapore, we chose Funabashi. From Higashi Ojima I travelled to Motoyawata in Shinjuku line. From there changing to JR Sobu line, reached to Funabashi. I had to wait 5 minutes for my friend. Just coming out of the Funabashi station’s exit, I could see a group of young Japanese men clad in traditional samurai kimono, singing and telling stories in Japanese. At first I could not understand the subject, but the whole scene was interesting as it was very new to me.

The main actor wearing the Samurai cloths had one sword at one side. While telling story he used to take out the sword and flashed for a while on air. It created a scene of Japanese feudal period and I was totally immersed in their activities. The visual images of feudal Japan that I got while reading the book Bushido written by Nitobe Inazo came out to mind again by seeing the group’s acting.

One girl distributed a notice of the event. It is written MYST on the top of the notice which also looked exactly like a Kanji letters. I could take some snaps of them. The main actor turned a singer suddenly. I thought of J-Pop music by hearing his songs.

Probably that was the fusion music. The group wanted to mix the pop music with the traditional Japanese way. It was very nice a samurai turned into a pop singer! The concept is excellent, though some tradition lovers won’t like the idea. I guess (I can only guess at present) the whole show was a promotion of their music CDs.

The whole show evoked feelings of Samurai Japan transforming to a westernized society by absorbing western music and culture in to theirs. This transformation was not a blind mimic of western culture. Japan by absorbing the western styles made their own style suitable to the land of sun and its people. J-pop is the best example of such fusion of west and east.

The MYST group can be accessible through this link; http://www.kagami.tv/

Till my friend reached, I enjoyed their performance. Right at the station exit, the map of Funabashi city is displayed which is convenient for new people to plan and locate their destinations before starting for a tour in Funabashi. Such guide maps are available in all Japanese cities which make the life easier in Japan especially for foreigners.

Statue of Ino Tadataka in Tomioka Hachiman Shinto shrine at Monzen Nakacho

When I visited the Shinto temple at Monzen Nakacho, I did not even know the name of the temple itself. During my stay at Day Nice Hotel last year, I used to walk on Monzen Nakacho streets at evenings to have a look at different varieties of Japanese food displayed in front of restaurants and Japanese shops.

I have seen two temples during such evening walk but feared to enter inside alone. The fear was due to my ignorance that I may need permission to enter into a Japanese temple. After hearing from friends that Japanese temples are not like the Hindu temples in India, where only Hindu people are allowed to enter, I had a desire to visit those temples at Monzen Nakacho.

I was alone today visiting the temples, and I was the only gaikokujin (foreigner) at the premise. Here, when I say I was the only gaikokujin it clearly reflects my inability to distinguish the Koreans, Chinese or similar looking foreigners from Japanese people. Though I could recognize many of the East Asians other than Japanese from the gestures, dressing style and attitudes it required more observations and not by a mere look at them. There might be more foreigners from Korea or China or some other East Asian countries. My face was the only ‘different face’.

Anyway alone, but with many friendly Japanese people all around, I never felt, I am alone or different from them. When I entered inside I could see a statue and started thinking who it will be. I had no idea. I thought he will be the founder of this Shinto temple. Let me tell you frankly, as I wrote in the first, I did not know the name of the temple itself!

But information always comes with exploration of new places and things. Had not I been visited the temple today, I would have still remained ignorant on some of the interesting information on Monzen Nakacho.

What to say, my pure luck? When I was standing in front the statue of a man and trying to interpret the Kanji characters written on the black stone behind to get some idea of the man, I saw one Japanese young man looking at me with his face full of friendly smile! Oh, I could approach him, because he was friendly and seemed interested in offering his help. To be frank, I have seen during similar situations, Japanese people are friendly and helpful contrary to what I read from many websites.

With a small introduction, he became my guide to the temple! He could speak English which I could follow too. Thanks to the stranger friend. If you happen to read this blog, please put your comments. There is a ‘Ta’ in his name, other parts of his name I could not remember and anyway, it is not fair to put his name on this blog without his permission. Let me call him ‘Ta-san’. As per Ta-san, the statue is Ino Tadataka, who was the great surveyor of Japan. Ino Tadatakasan started his survey from Hokkaido.

Later, after coming back to home, I searched for Tadataka-san and learned more about him. Otherwise, I would have forgotten the name of Ino Tadataka-san also with in a day or two. I have still that problem of remembering Japanese names.

Ino Tadataka was born in a village in Chiba Prefecture. He was adopted at the age of seventeen into the Trio family in Sawara. After working actively for the community of Honjuku and his family's business for thirty-two years, Ino Tadataka-san retired at the age of forty nine.

Ino Tadataka-san studied Western astronomy under Takahashi Yoshitoki, a specialist in the astronomy and calendar department of the Tokugawa Shogunate. With an order from the Shogunate, Ino Tadataka-san started a tour for surveying the whole of Japan to make accurate maps, using precision instruments for his astronomical observations.

During Edo period many Japanese people tried to imbibe Western science and technology into Japan for modernizing Japan. Ino Tadataka was one of such famous figure. His map of Japan won praises from all the quarters. Again, before forgetting let me write down the name of the shrine I visited today at Monzen Nakacho. It is Tomioka Hachiman shrine.

Just for you!

The second snowfall in Tokyo after more than one year

The snowfall expected on February 20 did not turn on as expected at the early morning. I pinched my cheek. That would have been a rare opportunity to witness the second snowfall for me in Tokyo. Unfortunately the snow turned rain.

It was not unexpected today as there was a forecast for snow after 10:00 hrs in Tokyo. It was an amazing scene for me to watch through the window glass the snow falling outside. I could not resist asking my boss to go out to watch the snowfall.

Memories travelled back to childhood when we sat at the stairs in front of our ancestral home to watch the monsoon rain. That was just rain, the plain water drops showering from heaven. Then we could hear the elders at home discuss about the snowfall at countries where the temperature dip lower than the freezing point. Did they mention ‘Japan’ when they talked about snowfall? I am not very much sure. I remember, they sure mentioned the name Siberia. Subsequently, what they told was due to Japan’s proximity to Siberia, snow fall is usual in Japan too. Then the mind imagined a place called Siberia, where people wear many thick leather dresses to protect themselves from cold wind and snow. Not sure whether I really could imagine a snowfall but really wished to experience a snowfall. How thrilling it will be! The heaven throwing down the white cotton bundles!

The elders were talking about the science behind the rain and snow. When the ground temperature is below the freezing level, the snow falls from the sky as it is with out getting converted into water drops. If the ground temperature is above the freezing level, the snow will be converted into water drops well before it reaches to our visible range of height in the sky. This transition from snow to rain happens at a midpoint in the sky. It was something like this that elders at home discussed and wanted to convey to the little ones.

The monsoon rain slanted along with the wind and touched our feet. We pulled back our feet to play with the rain drops. There was fun while playing with rain, but the nature’s mysterious sequences excited us to explore further. We were not allowed to sit more time with our feet outside to let the rain drops fall. The elders at home were strict and they allowed us to play with rain five to ten minutes. Then the call from inside will come first for everyone as a group, then for one by one repeatedly till everybody of us get into the rooms.

I am free now to enjoy the full snowfall outside. Not only I can show my legs to the snow, but I can also go out and have a walk around to allow all the snow to fall on my head!. Why I need umbrella? Snowfall has just started at around 10:00 hours. While going for lunch, we could take some snaps. Most of them are inside my friend’s camera. Hope I can post them soon to share with all of you.

Today's (27/02) snow did not pile up to form a thick layer like the one happened last year. The snow was melting immediately once it touched the ground.

I was half wet while taking the photo. Even though the snow was melting, it remained on the dresses for sometime.