雪が降っています

Yuki, the snow in Japanese language is one of the words I like most. When I did learn to use the ‘te’ form in our Japanese language lessons, I was almost obsessed to repeat the sentence ‘Yuki ga fute imasu’ means ‘It is snowing’. ‘te’ form is used to express a continuous action.

Snow is ardently attractive to me and the Japanese word for snow carries some mysterious beauty with it. Yuki is one of the names of Japanese girls too. I like the kanji for Yuki 雪. The Kanji character for snow or Yuki bears a modified Kanji character for rain. Rain is called ‘Ame’ in Japanese language and is written as雨. Kanji brings the nature into scripts. We can see the rain drops falling from the roof of our universe in this Kanji character or we can imagine as we open the window, we see the water drops falling and we call it rain! Snow is another version of rain and so it carries the kanji for rain too, but on a modified form.

Thus Yuki ga fute imasu is written in Japanese language as 雪が降っています. This is a combination of Kanji and Hiragana. Though I have been learning Hiragana and Katakana in our Japanese class, Kanji is still a dream project. It may take years to learn Japanese Kanji.

This year this is the sixth or seventh snow fall in Tokyo today. Last two years there were only one snow fall each. Though we got more snow falls, only twice it became heavy. On February 1st and today snow accumulated on the ground and remained for some time. Today it was second of such snow fall in the morning, but not very heavy as happened in the first day of February. The snow accumulated on the tree tops and on the play grounds, but was melting soon.

Taking the opportunity, some of the students got an excuse for absence from the school and play on the ground. There were not many, but in the morning some of them made their way to the play ground. We managed to capture some of the moments of today’s snow fall. It was morning 7:00 and my hands were shivering while standing at the balcony.

When the glaciers melt and volcanoes turn ice skating resorts

There is one more snow fall out of the windows in front of me. Rarely, we open these windows during winter season. Occasion like snow fall are precious for us and we like to snapshot them in cherished memories. This is the fourth day in this winter season that we are lucky (!) to get snow. Compared to the previous years, snow fall in Tokyo this year is high this year.

This year’s winter is the coldest one I have ever experienced with more snow falls. The climate world over is changing unpredictably and this was one of the hot subject of debate when leaders met at Copenhagen on January to discuss and outline carbon emission regulations. That was a failed climate conference. The depressing fact of the climate change is that it is a universal phenomenon. Those responsible and not responsible for more carbon emission to the environment will equally share the burdens of climate change.

Copenhagen has not given anything hopeful to us that our national leaders in the recent future will be able to find a common chord to start a reverse process for the climate change. Reminding the biblical predictions we hear the variations in the weather predictions world over. The Vancouver winter Olympics was interestingly highlighted by the media with the absence of snow! Deserts starts getting more rain, migration of tropical sea creatures towards the poles are now the subjects of talk in coffee shops.

When I visited Indonesia, it was supposed to be a rainy season in the typical tropical area. When enquired to Indonesian friends the reply was pointing to the recent shift of the climate due to global warming. It was hot and the temperature was around 40 degree C. Recollecting own experience, I have also noticed the drastic climate change happened in Kerala, a southern state of India. We used to comfortably enjoy the cool climate of the green state of India during our childhood with the temperature moderates at 24 to 30 degree C throughout the year. During the 1990s we started hearing about the upward shift of the maximum temperature and now it reaches during summer at 40 deg C that reminds me of Indonesia’s climate now.

 

Human migration happened in the same way as the insects move from the unfavorable climate to the more favorable climate. It is the survival of the fittest theory that forces all the living things. When the desert becomes forest and when the forest becomes desert and the snow fall turns into fire of the desert, creatures also have to shift their habitats. When I talked to some people from Maldives at Trivandrum some years before, they shared similar concerns of migration at a near future to a nearby friendly country due to the rising sea water. Maldives will be one of first few island nations that will suffer the serious consequences of green house effect.

The reason for more snow during this winter may not be due to the climatic change or it may be due to the heavy snow at the northern hemisphere. Recently Japan has also concerns of virus and bacteria migration from the tropical countries as the climate at the tropical countries turn hostile to those viruses and bacteria.

Copenhagen was the graveyard of Kyoto protocol. More glaciers will melt in the coming years and the sea will gulp more island nations. Those who live at the top of the mountains think they are safe and laugh at those living down. They don’t know that ice at their bottom is melting. This happens at a time when the volcanoes turn ice skating resorts!

It is still snowing outside!

Breach of etiquettes while riding subway trains in Tokyo

I was told during a conversation by a Japanese friend that one of the survey conducted by Association of Japanese private railways revealed that noise is the biggest nuisance passengers get annoyed most. True! Recently everybody have mobile and almost all the time except sleeping it is the only companion for most people.

Use of mobile phone near priority seats is prohibited in Tokyo subway trains. Yes, the words written in the trains behind the priority seats could be read like this; “Please turn off the mobile phone near priority seat” This is considered as the manner while travelling in subway trains in Tokyo. Priority seats are reserved for aged people, physically challenged, pregnant women and lady passengers with babies. Priority seats or courtesy seats can be found at the end of each car.

Some of the public behaviors that attracted and impressed me in Japan are discipline, obedience to the law and regulations and cleanliness. Recently (Saikin in Japanese) I have been getting negative blows to my impression by seeing the public behavior, I must admit very frankly. Still I do praise the pin drop silence at subway trains. The self discipline is much higher than that in any other countries that I have seen. The very often noticed bad manner is the making-up of some of the J-girls. It is extremely a public nuisance especially to those sitting near to them. Applying make up while riding in the train is one of the biggest breaches of rail etiquettes, though it is written well in Japanese to please do it at home.

A good percentage of train passengers dwell in to their own world with their handsets. The handsets will be switched to manner mode. This is also one of the notices written inside the train with a symbol of mobile phone. Switch the mobile into manner mode is widely practiced in Japan while riding subway trains. "Please set your mobile phone to silent mode and refrain from making calls" is the words written inside the trains. Putting the mobile phone mode in to silent or manner mode is called ‘maanaa-modo” in Japanese language. It is written in Katakana scripts. Still some of the girls especially will be using their handsets though they occupy the priority seats. It is less offensive than turning the subway trains their beauty saloons!

Also, recent experiences force me to think there is a considerable deterioration in the cleanliness in the subway’s public places. The old and middle old generation tempts to blame the new generation’s growing ‘carelessness’ attitude, while some blames it on the recent economic troubles. The truth may be somewhere in between, but still there is considerable effort from the authorities to keep the roads and public places clean which is admirable.

Most often the breaches of manners are practiced by some foreigners too like talking loudly that will annoy the co-passengers and travelling in groups with baby strollers etc. This at one side, some of the friends have shared a peculiar problem of being a target of ‘staring’ by some of the local people while waiting for trains and riding in the trains. This one I feel may not be categorized as discrimination towards foreigners. This could be just out of curiosity. Even I will stare for a moment if I meet a foreigner at my own country. The point of discrimination is on how far the staring goes. After all, some people can not take out their eyes from some objects. Such kinds of people are there in every country and not only limited to Japan, though it is little inconvenience to become an object of staring!

White pebbles shower from the heaven- snow fall in Tokyo!

My fingers are still stiff as I just returned from the Komatsugawa park and starts writing these words. The snow has literally covered Higashi Ojima! Now the time is 12:15 a.m. on 2nd February and I may not sleep without writing this post. I could not resist myself taking a forty minute walking on the snow before writing this post. Events like snow fall are rare and must be enjoyed to its fullest in our own way.

At first, I thought of writing here only few words like “The snow fall history repeats in Tokyo, again the snow is falling”. On February 1st 2010, as predicted by the Japan Meteorological Agency, the snow fall started at around 6:15 PM in Tokyo.

It was on 2nd February, 2008, I could see the first snow fall in the life. Last year on February 1st, the snow fall repeated. That was the only one snow fall happened in Tokyo during 2009. The precipitation was not so strong that the snow could not form a layer on the ground. The first snow fall on 2008 was impressive.

Today the snow fall is heavy in Tokyo. This is the third snow fall since February 2nd 2008. This time kids could enjoy the snow fall. In fact they were waiting for me to join after the office hours. The snow fall was predicted through out the night till morning tomorrow. Now itself we could see the ice layers formed on the Komatsugawa park and the nearby buildings. The photos taken today night may not be clear and we are waiting for tomorrow morning to take more clear photos.

The outside temperature is 1 degree Celsius and I recollected the reason for snow fall, which Suzuki-san explained me last year. The snow falls when the air temperature near the ground dips below freezing point. It is like the white cotton balls falling from heaven.

The humidity is 96% and the wind speed is just 3 kilometer per hour. The weather forecast shows Tokyo and surrounding areas like Yokohama, Hachi Oji, Kimitsu, Fujisawa, Narashino, Chiba, Saitama, Ebina etc are also witnessing the similar snow fall today. It may be almost once in a year phenomenon in Tokyo. Even though the temperature dips down to zero and reaches minus two or three at some occasions, the snow fall is rare in Tokyo. I have heard from friends that snow fall often occurs in the near by northern prefectures of Tokyo.

We could take a short video of snowfall through the window. The ice has started clubbing on the bush tops, roof-tops and on the play grounds, but still the road transportation is not affected. The night view of the snow fall was not clear from our apartment.

If the snow continues falling through out the night, tomorrow morning, it will be a feast for the eyes! The camera is charged and ready for tomorrow’s snaps! Now itself the layer of ice had almost covered the ground and the snow keeps on falling. It is a wonderful experience for us to see snow fall, as we have lived most of our life in tropical part of the earth. Changes in experiences make the life more meaningful.

Melancholic pages of my life in Japan – departure of Remus-san

It was raining today in Tokyo. The rain added more cold to the already cold climate. The rain, which is used as a symbol in literature and movies, it seemed to me, was not merely coincide. Film directors have used rain, to express the pain of separation, death, miseries and depressed thoughts. While coming back from Narita airport today after sending off Remus-san, I was thinking of some of movie scenes where the rain symbolized the pain of separation.

Every departure is painful, but departure of some people, who are close to our heart, makes us depressed. The life amalgamated with pleasures and sorrows will not wait even a single moment for anybody’s consolation. I do not intend to search for the roots of sorrow or pleasure here. Today is one of the saddest days I have ever experienced after mother’s departure from Japan.

Today may not be a suitable day to write all the thoughts into this blog about the departure of Remus-san. As planned, Remus-san left Tokyo today. For sure, it is not just a departure for me. Remus said goodbye to Japan and I am just back home from the airport. Though I feel that today, it may not be a good day to write about his departure, I am unable to resist from sharing those painful moments of departure.

Either the otherwise crowded subway station was empty or I might not have noticed it. The mind was so preoccupied with thoughts of a good friendship which was started almost two years before. I have written about Remus before also in this blog when we friends gathered for a party at his apartment. Japanese language friends reunion

The friendship started from Sakura, when I was on a short transfer from the head office. We used to dine out some days at the Indian restaurant near the JR Sakura station. When Remus was moved to the head office, I was happy to get a companion.

Remus helped me a lot to set up my family, before they come to Japan. He was the one guided me and even purchased for me most of the house-hold items. Since I am not good at selecting the things, I followed his selection. He booked the flight tickets and helped me recharge the PASMO card and the list of things goes on……. I know well that friendship can not be listed out on a piece of paper or blog. What is coming out here is just the plain thoughts from my mind, when I am trying to console myself.

Remus was my lunch partner too at McDonalds and KFC. We shared our thoughts, fears, ambitions, plans and future. We shared the knowledge and discussed things of common interest. For my kids, he was Remus uncle. They loved to play with him during his visits to our home.

A true friendship, which can not be expressed by words, is something we cherish, is something we keep close to our hearts always. The life with many physical departures of beloved friends keeps on going with out waiting for us to recover from the twinge. The time will heal………this is what Remus told at the airport and I agreed.

The life in Japan, away from the home country, with good friends like Remus, was smooth and prolific. The voids created by the physical separation may not be filled up easily. I considered myself rather strong willed and unshaken. At the final moments in front of the departure gate, I noticed my words tremble and vision smudge as the eyes started filling……..

The end of this post is without any conclusion as this is one of the melancholic pages of my life in Japan.

Thy spirit walks abroad and turns our swords in our own proper entrails

Suicide is a cry for help. When one feels that the door of the last hope is also closed, and there is nothing left with for them to live in this earth, they, being carried away with uncontrolled emotions may decide to say goodbye to this world. This is how almost all of the suicides happen in Japan too as in any other parts of the world. Academically, this explanation may be enough to start the answer to the related question. In the real world, individual life situations and complex mental processes changes from country to country.

When I read the report on CNN.com on March 2009, "Desperate Japanese head to 'suicide forest'", I related the phenomenon as part of the existing Japanese psyche. In fact, I was reading the book, Bushido at that time and was on an impression that the news appeared in CNN.com/asia is not a new social issue to be discussed with much importance this year only.

For sure, the ever increasing rate of suicide is a social issue in Japan, which needs to be thoroughly analyzed and prevented. Some people in every country may commit suicide and the social and personal reasons behind those acts of self killings changes according to the country. The last two years, we have enough reasons while reading the increased number of suicides.

I read somewhere in the middle of December 2009, that the suicide deaths in Japan has reached around 30198 by the end of November 2009 itself. That is pretty much a huge figure and a figure of concern for the social scientists. Since, 1997, the suicide deaths have crossed the border of 22,000 suicide deaths per year. Since then it has been continuing with a figure some thing around 30,000. It was horrible to hear that the death rate has crossed the 30,000 limit also.

I would like to recollect, some of my life experiences connected with the suicide in Japan. When I was waiting for the train in the morning to head towards the work place, I heard some strange announcements in Japanese language and on those days, the train comes too late, sometimes more than half an hour. Without knowing the actual reasons for the delay of trains, in order to reach the office I would choose to walk from the nearest exit of the station. As I could not understand the full meaning of the announcement in Japanese, some of my friends advised me to look into the display board where the message for the reason of delay will be displayed. If the kanji for personal accident is displayed, it might be a suicide case, and the train will be delayed more. Last year, I have walked at least 4 times as I have seen that message in the display board.

Every time I walk I used to remember the book ‘Bushido’ written by Inazo Nitobe-san. Suicide is institutionalized in Japan! Those institutionalized suicides known as Seppuku or Kappuku commonly called Hara-kiri were different from the ones happening now a days. Still the suicide rate in Japan is one of the highest in the world. For Japan, a country having almost everything to identify with a self pride, a country with the second strongest economy in the world, a country, which is a model to other nations on how to protect citizens rights, a country having a fairly good distribution of wealth system, suicide remains a scar, we need to agree.

I am not competitive at this stage to write analytical reasons behind this tendency of self killing. But one thing is sure that suicide is neither a matter of pride nor a way to escape from the personal defeats as observed in the Samurai period. In all countries, suicides happen, but when it happens more in a country like Japan, there may be reasons apart from merely economical as that mentioned in CNN.com/asia and it becomes a matter of concern.

It may not be the spirits walking around and turns the swords to their own proper entrails. There may be reasons that spread to the victim’s helplessness to deal with minute fluctuations in the external world that affect the internal world too. Education that focus on self manifestation, apart from simple school syllabus will help to a good extent to reinforce the positive life motivating elements in new generation. That will help to realize when the spirits start walking abroad and turns the sword to one’s own bowels.

Mount Naeba exploration on new year day

The snow, like white cotton balls continued falling down and piling up making our way difficult to go through. Though the car was provided with snow tyres, we were a bit skeptic to reach our destination by seeing the heavy snow fall all along the road to Mount Naeba.

The New year’s first day was memorable, not only in the mere meaning of just seeing a different place, but also by pushing a car to escape from the ice-trap where we spent around forty minutes and finally got help from the rescue team.

It was just the start of our exploration of Mount Naeba and we were on our way to the parking space in front of Prince Hotel Naeba. The journey was started at 7:00 AM from Higashi Ojima and we were happy with the hope that we can reach by 10:30AM at the destination and can enjoy the trip to Mount Kagura from Mount Naeba ski resorts.

All of us, lived most of our lives in tropical climate were thrilled to play with snow. We have seen snow fall in Tokyo, but not enough snow that we have seen in the websites of ski-resorts. The prime motivation to select a place like Mount Naeba was to make a different experience on the New Year’s Day itself. Change is the slogan in air now a days as we hear it from every corner. Let it be politics or personal life, change is a must to make the things lively.

Mount Naeba ski-resort is around 220km away from Tokyo. The day was clear when we started from Tokyo and on the way we could see Mount Fuji clearly. Mount Fuji is visible on a clear day from Tokyo also. As we were approaching to the mountain ranges near to Mount Naeba we could see the snow fall and on the middle of the way we stopped for a while to take snaps of the snow filled paddy fields and river.

Contrary to our expectations, on 1st January 2010, there was heavy snow fall and wind at the resorts. With our broken Japanese, when we approached the information counter, we were informed that the world’s longest dragondola, which is 5.5 kms from Naeba valleys to Tashiro area of Kagura ski resorts is closed due to heavy snow wind. It is dangerous to ride on the dragondola when there is a heavy wind. He informed that the ropeway operation is under red alert.

However, we could ride on the dragondola 2 which is around 1.7 kms from the slope of Mount Naeba to its peak. Fully clad with winter protection cloths, we could reach to the destination point of dragondola 2. That was an amazing and unforgettable experience to play with snow. The snow was piling up on branches of trees. They have already shed their leaves before the winter season. Now they got snow flowers!. The scene down to the valleys while we ride on the ropeway was impressive with bunches of snow sticking to the tree branches looked like trees with white flowers.

There were skiers coming down to the slope of the mountain playing with their children. At the top, we played with snow literally dipping ourselves inside the snow piles.

The resort and the surrounding areas of Prince Hotel Resorts are fully provided with all kinds of facilities to make the trip comfortable and strain-free, except the natural obstructions happen unpredictably.

It was around 5:30 PM when we decided to return back from the snow mountains. Restarting the car itself took another half an hour as the whole parking area was filled with snow and most of the cars were covered with ice. Everything looked white at the parking area. Struggling to restart the car, finally we could make our way to Tokyo with memories of an extraordinary experience.

Planning of the trip to Mount Naeba was much easier with the help of the website maintained by Prince Hotels & Resorts. We could make our plan well with the guidelines given in this website. Thanks to the website owner too for making this New Year celebration a memorable and impressive one. The link to the website is here; http://www.princehotels.co.jp/ski/naeba-e/index.html