It does happen in Japan - 1

Kansai Kenshu' Center - AOTS O'saka....


On our way to the Kansai Kenshu’ Center [KKC, O’SAKA, which, as I previously mentioned, was slotted for our stay, dining & Japanese language & lifestyle training for the first 45 days] from Kansai International Airport, O’saka, I was more curious in reading the people and admiring the country than in concentrating on the route to the destination. We took some two electric trains to our destination (totally clueless as to what were all the places that were en-route, how much the ticket costed) blindly following our Suzuki Colleague. The name of the places were either written in Japanese or even in-case if they are in English, the train would rush past before you could actually congregate the letters and read the name of the place. So, I decided not to strain myself.

The route to the destination was so beautiful to sight-see. Every house that crossed us en-route had a car standing glossy on its gates. Big-houses & bungalows had two or more. My eyes felt so odd to see the roads so clean & straight, cars so glossy, no cows or donkeys en-route, no frequent blowing of horns, religious adherence to traffic signals, no chit-chats with each other inside the train, almost nil dark faces (except us, of-course), beautiful girls all around (of-course similar looking), similar-looking men, less cars with Suzuki badge & of course rear-wipers in all vehicles.

Religious adherence to traffic signal needs a special mention. The following instance was quite rampant here. I am in the 8th floor of my building, watching this. The road is a narrow road where not many vehicles would you be able to see at any point of time. There is a pedestrian crossing across this road. There comes a car speeding along this narrow road at around 80 miles an hour. The pedestrian crossing signal goes green (which means, it is a red-signal for the car). No one crossed the road. There are no other cars that went across or on the other side of this road. This is the only car (or traffic, on a larger scale) to have got involved into this whole incidence. But, this car, to all our surprise, stopped and waited for about a minute for the green signal to turn on, so religiously. Huh! Awesome!

On getting down from the second electric train (in a station called Sugimotocho), we had to a take a 15-minute walk to KKC. AOTS, Kansai Kenshu’ Centre (O’saka) is located in a not so busy place called Abiko (here in O’saka). It is a glossy nine-storey building (Average building height in Japan ;)) having a very beautiful entrance. The automatic sensor gates opened to welcome us all in. Beautiful receptionists in smart attire, who were expecting our arrival anytime, greeted us with their smiles. The reception area was extremely clean and organised. We were made to do some formalities and were informed about the rules of the Centre and were handed-over the room keys.



Presently, I am in the 8th floor of the building in Room No. 826. It is a beautiful private room, not so big, but is convenient enough for a single person. A TV (where you have only Japanese Channels), a table, a rotating chair, a phone, a reading lamp, a bed lamp, a mirror, few electric sockets, a neat wash-room, a fluffy bed, a water-jug, hell lot of shelves, dust-bins, Air-conditioner, LAN socket, LAN cable, a small balcony etc making it all convenient to reside.



The food is served on the first-floor of the building (Ground-floor equivalent in India). You get dishes getting catered of all varieties here. Veg, Non-veg, Egg, Fruits, Tea, Coffee, Juices & what-not. Food is served thrice a day. Like, I noticed in quite a few places, this building too, has got quite a lot of vending machines (Lay-man technology in Japan) having various options from Cold juices to hot coffee to cater your any-time needs. All facilities right from laundry to calling card buying machines to Internet-room are available. KKC has got a big gymnasium/court where you can play any game of your choice, from Basket-ball to Shuttle to Table-tennis to Volley-ball. There is an awesome dedicated party-room with rocking acoustics, karaoke and thudding speakers all-around the room, which could be used on reservation basis.

People from various countries (mostly Asian), who have come to Japan for various training reasons, have been put-up here for the Japanese language & life-style training till End-January 2010. Japanese classes & life-style training are ON is full swing and are all interesting. The way we are being taught Japanese in an organised manner is all admirable. The humorous way in which our tutor handles the class is also interesting. The funny part is, it feels like I am back to school. We have home-works and tests daily and our performance in the Japanese language is being keenly monitored. On some days, we would have lectures on Japanese life-style where in some Japanese expert would be delivering his know-how in Japanese and an English interpreter will be having tough-times in interpreting that to us.
It has all been going smooth till now. More analysis on Japan, its exploration & its people in the subsequent ones. ;)