It does happen in Japan - 11....

The Japanese Language - I am loving it.

First of all, kindly remember these key words specifically pertaining to this post alone.
Japanese – The Japanese language ; Jappus – The Japanese people.

Ok. Now, for those of you, who have the perception that Japanese is so hard a rock to take a bite, kindly chuck out that assumption off your head. Unquestionably, to me, no exception either, it looked a hard-rock at the start. But, it shall continue to look the same, unless you get into it and start realizing its so-called ‘amicability’.

Yes. Let me be frank enough. From the bottom of my heart, let me assure you, this language can be learnt in no time, at least the basics, if not the whole of it. Be it, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Hindi or even English for that matter, you would find various accents to a single language even within the same language speaking region. Frankly , these languages, except English though, cannot be taught to foreigners so easily by making books on basics of the language. (For your information, as far as Jappus are concerned, even English cannot be taught to them easily ;)) And, in case, if these languages are taught to foreigners, they are going to stand muddled since book concepts never match the one which we speak. For example, if you consider a Jappu being taught tamil. “Eppadi irukkirai?” (How are you?). He goes, lands in Chennai , ends up meeting an auto driver who questions him “Enna mama, eppadi keera, nalla keeriya?” (Hey man, how are you? Are you fine? The Chennai way ;)), this Jappu is not going to understand even a bit of it. But Japanese, on earth, is never ever like that. Entire Japan speak the same dialect, use the same accent and more surprisingly, speak the same accent described in Japanese books. Oh. Come on. Can any language get simpler than this? But . . . . . . . No, it’s not that simple. Why? The writing part actually sucks a little. Let me come to it in a while.

Japanese, basically, has got 3 types of characters. They are Hiragana (Basic Japanese Characters), Katakana (Characters used to describe foreign words) & Kanji (Chinese characters which are rampantly used here. These characters actually suck.) When asked a Jappu as to why Kanji is used a lot in Japan compared to Hiragana, they say, Kanji characters are easy to read as they, kind of, take the shape of the action being described by the word. He may be right and I could realize it too, when I happened to learn a few kanji characters. But, in general, to a foreigner’s eye, these characters suck. Hiragana & Katakana characters are frankly, pretty simple to learn, read & write.

Ok. As far as listening, understanding & conversing are concerned, Japanese could be easy. But, when it comes to reading & writing, it’s quite a task, especially at the start. Initially, every Japanese character looked like a geometrical figure to me, though, now it is all crystal clear. Yes. But one thing is, even now some Kanji characters looks like geometric figures to me.

As I already made a mention, Jappus’ accent of speaking Japanese is same throughout Japan. It is not only the accent that is same, but also the expression that they express while uttering a word. If you are about 3 to 4 months old in Japan, you should be in a position to decipher the top 20 frequently used words by any Jappu & the expression that they attach to it. It would all look funny to see, every Jappu speaking Japanese the same way, but that is how it is.

There are complaints, which even the Jappus would have eavesdropped, arguing that Jappus do not know proper english. To an extent, that could be true, but Jappus were the species who proved that language is not a barrier for technological advancement.
The funny part is, Jappus, when asked to learn English, do exactly the opposite. They make us learn Japanese. Because, they are into the perception that, ultimately, for a proper conversation to occur, all you need is a common language. So, let him learn my language, why should I learn his?

After all this, one thing I can assure you is, Japanese is an easy & interesting language. I am already loving it.

It does happen in Japan - 10....

Weather - A welcoming feature....

One major aspect from a lot of the welcoming features of Japan is Weather. Anybody would love Japan for its weather (except those men who love +55 ⁰ C & -20⁰ C). Especially, people like me, who hail from places like Gurgaon & Chennai which burn you bare for about 4 months with scorching heat, drench you wet for about 2 months with intense rains, would love every bit of Japan’s weather. In a nutshell, Japan is a country with moderate weather. This is how the Japanese term it. But, this is not exactly how it is. I would say, it is more inclined towards chill weather, may be because I am basically from a hot country. Ok. First things first.

Though Japan is a small country in terms of area, climate in Japan varies widely. Since Japan stretches approximately 20⁰ of latitude, from 25⁰N to 45⁰N, and approximately 23⁰ of longitude, from 122⁰E to 145⁰E (this is too much of geography !!), climate varies widely between regions. The climate is moderate towards the south of Japan and is chilly towards the north. To my fortune, Hamamatsu is in the south of Japan and hence things have become even more relaxed.

Basically, Japan experiences summer from June till August, autumn from September to November, winter from then till February and spring till May end. A distribution so well balanced. But this is more in case of Southern Japan. North experiences longer winters and hardly any summer. North experiences dense snow-fall during winters which makes living a bit cumbersome. Skiing gets into the schedule during these months. Skiing is possible till April end/Early May, the period during which Gurgaon shall be boiling eggs in open-air using natural heat. A mere phone-call to one of my colleagues in India last week who was informing me the current temperature in Gurgaon to be 47⁰C, made me sweat here.

Rains are from early June till July end. But this is just on paper, I presume for the reason that it rains atleast once in a week here in Hamamatsu. Rains in Japan are unusually high. Talking about rains, Yes, it does rain frequently in Japan. If you happen to be a tour-lover & love travelling, there is no reason, whatsoever, for you to get disappointed basically for 2 reasons. Weather forecast reports are pretty accurate here in Japan. Kindly keep a track of it and plan accordingly. Another big advantage is, even in-case of heavy lashing rains, it is a one-day problem and never gets carried over to the next day. The roads are so well banked & sewage system is so very efficient that you get to see completely dry, fresh roads, feel fresh air the immediate morning and you can easily afford to plan an outing for that day unlike in Gurgaon where 2 hours of rain on a Sunday evening will aid you reach office 2 hours late on every day of the following week till Saturday, leave alone an outing plan. It is totally out of scope.

Winds are an integral part of daily life in Japan. They are rampant and omnipresent across Japan. Possessing a capability of toppling an array of cycles on any normal day, winds do bother you, if you have not got used to it. Your cycle literally stops while riding, at times and you start feeling proud that you are able to sustain your balance for long at 0 kmph. Winds combined with rains sometimes make your day tough. India made umbrellas will never come in handy. They either fly-away or if you try to get hold of them tight, they open-up on the other side or their spokes break. So, in either-case, you would be fortunate enough to get wet. Talking more on rains, Japanese, I presume hate to get wet. One water-droplet from the sky on a fresh morning and you can see hundreds of umbrellas out on that day. The height of precaution could be this. The office canteen is about 5 steps from our R&D building and Japanese are never ready to cross this light-year distance without an umbrella.
One very comfortable feature in every building in Japan is, there are air-conditioners to insulate you while you are inside, irrespective of the temperature outside and hence jackets and sweaters are to be taken out only if there are plans to set out.

Tout-ensemble, anybody would love Japan’s weather.