Friday, January 29, 2010

It does happen in Japan - 4

DARSHANS so far made.... - 2

10. Universal Studios Japan - 2010/1/10:
Built in a well-planned fashion, Universal Studios Japan (USJ), undoubtingly, is one of the huge-profit making theme parks across the world.








Filled with thrill and excitement with rides based on super-hit hollywood characters, keep aside the crowd that barges in everyday, this theme park attracts kids and adults alike.

11. Kyushu - 2010/1/13:
An island down-south Japan where in we were able to witness snow-fall. Bullet train called SHINKANSEN (max. speed 300 kmph) took us to this place covering 500 kms in abt 2 hrs. A beautiful place with sky-scrapers spread all-around. We were privileged to stay in a 5-star hotel for a day.





Kyushu is a large island in which we hopped at in a place called Kokura.

12. Miyajima Island - 2010/1/14:
Originally, "Itsukushima" is an island between the Southern end of Japan’s main island Honshu and Shikoku. It has a famous TORII erected deep into the grounds of the pacific sea. The speciality of this place is one can witness low-tides during the day-time and could find it possible to reach to the TORII. As and when dusk falls, high-tides start coming up and after a while, it'd become impossible to reach to that TORII. It'd be completely encircled with water.





That night, we wore a Japanese outfit and had a Japanese-style dinner.

13. Hiroshima - 2010/1/15:
Famous for THE SECOND WORLD WAR ATOMIC BOMBING, this place undoubtedly, was awesome and requires no big explanation.




Saturday, January 16, 2010

It does happen in Japan - 3

DARSHANS so far made.... - 1

I, for one, am not so global, a person to keep in mind festivals of all kinds happening across the world. Now, since I am in Japan and infact among a different cultured people out here, I, like every ordinary homo-sapien, had a natural tendency of forgetting festivals happening right back in India. Here is where Social Networking sites come in handy. It was until, I signed into Orkut, FB, Twitter, Gtalk etcetera, I had the least clues that one of my favourite festivals “PONGAL” (has got a different name in different states. But it is cutely summoned as ‘Pongal’ in TN.) is ON in full blast out there in India. As most of my pals thoroughly know, Pongal happens to be one of my favourite dishes and I generally reach CLOUD INFINITY while consuming it. Formalities first : Wish you all a very happy PONGAL.(belated though)
But this was not the motive of keying in this post. This post is more of a record that would serve me in future than of giving a good read for people who pass-by. Let me kick-off straight. It’s been more than a month since I stepped into Japan and have travelled and toured a lot in this 40 odd day span. Let me NOT cover all places visited till now in a single post itself. But, it is all going to be in the order of Chronology.


1.Osaka Disaster Prevention Center – 2009/12/09:
The reason why this was the first place of visit was, this place gave precautionary forewarnings that we might encounter during our stay in Japan. Here, we had a practical (simulated) feel of typhoons, fire accidents and earthquakes which are quite common here in Japan. Looked a decent, useful start, threatening though.

2.Osaka International House – 2009/12/10:
I had the least clues as to why this visit became our agenda the other day, but all I can say is this place acted as a helpdesk for foreigners who are in Japan for the first time.



3.Kaiyukan Aquarium, The Ferry Ride and The Tempozan Giant Ferris Wheel – 2009/12/13:
The first place planned and toured on our own with little Japanese know-how. The travel, I would say, was more of fun than the Aquarium itself. Not so adapted to the cold winds, we referred maps, purchased tickets on our own, changed LINES (in trains) on our own and reached the destination. All this looked magnanimous at the start (it looks so simple right now and Japanese has also improved by leaps). KAIYUKAN AQUARIUM is the world’s second largest aquarium in the world built under the pacific seas where in you get to see every sea creature that is possible on seas. It looked a well-planned place giving safety a priority.



The Giant Wheel near the Aquarium was the third-largest in the world, from the top of which, once could see a beautiful view of Osaka city. It was a relaxing 15 minute ride.



The Ferry ride on the pacific seas with Cold-winds blowing on your face is worth a go atleast once in your life-time.



4.Osaka Castle – 2009/12/20:
Called as ‘Osakajo’ (おおさかじょう) in Japan, this place is not the place for Youth. A typical Castle having 8 storeys taking you through the history the Emperor of Osaka in a thoroughly non-entertaining fashion (I felt this, more so for the reason that, it was all mostly in Japanese, than for the reason that it itself was). But, one thing worth mentioning is that this castle had a very good view from outside. It looked a typical historical building.



5.Osaka Musuem of History – 2009/12/20:
This happened to be a far better place to visit. Though not as famous as Osakajo is, this was a huge 10-storey thingy gradually taking you through the History of Osaka.



6.Umeda Sky Building – 2009/12/20:
This turned out to be the best venue for that particular day. This is one of the tallest buildings in the world having about 40 floors. On top of all of it, there is a floating garden (connected two 40-storey buildings) from where the view of O'saka city is plain awesome, given another fact that, it was christmas time. Though the winds were nasty enough to freeze our palms blowing at about 10 m/s at around 4 degrees, we had full fun out there.



7.Kyoto – 2009/12/30:
A typical place of heritage. Lots of temples one looking similar to the other (analogical to Japanese people’s similarity). A very calm city acting more as a tourist city than as a place of residence. FYI, Kyoto was one of the former capital cities of Japan and was one of the targets for the second world-war bombing.



8.Nara – 2009/12/31:
So, this was the place where I spent the last day of 2009. Nara – Mostly ‘Kyoto’ical when it comes to heritage, temples and calmness, this city had a very big Buddha temple. Called the Todaiji temple, this place attracted maximum visitors. FYI, Nara, too, was one of the former capital cities of Japan and was one of the targets for the second world-war bombing.



9.Kobe – 2010/1/1:
This was my hang-out on the first day of this year. As I am keying in this, the first thing that strikes my mind is its nasty cold winds. They were dangerous enough to completely make your palms inactive. Two pairs of gloves one over the other were not enough. But, still, we, the so-called homo sapiens clicked photos and enjoyed the place. Here, we had an opportunity to travel in Rope Car and Cable car. Near here, stands the world’s longest suspension bridge called the ‘Akashi Keikyo’ bridge. To our misfortune, we were unable to enter the bridge for it was closed for the day, though we had a close view of the bridge from a distance.



Let me keep away, some more interesting places that I visited, for now. Check out in the subsequent ones.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

It does happen in Japan - 2

The 11th HOUR trend....


I, sometimes feel that, it is inured in my damn blood to do things at the 11th hour, 59th minute or whatever you define it as. Or, perhaps, it is something like man gets the vim, (RIN, WHEEL, ARIEL ! !), vigor, the energy, the dynamism only when he performs his actions at the 11th hour.

Oops!! HAPPY NEW YEAR, by the way. Have a rocking 2010 ahead. 

Though the 11th hour hastening up of things is prone to a lot of errors, it is said that sometimes these 11th hour doing of things turn out to be the most efficient. It is something analogical to a person who never participates in running race, assuming that he is not that fast and happens to be chased by a barking dog and this guy running his full breath (may be at 24 kmph) to evade its bite, somehow evades it, then sitting relaxed and introspecting himself, his running capabilities, then taking part in the next running competition and winning it…..!!

I have got the least clue as to why did I start keying in this post. And have got the least of ideas as to how the above justification will serve a good analogy. But, yes let me continue. So, right from school days, to college days, to work, even now here in Japan – my evergreen trend of ‘last minute thingy’ continues and survey (performed by my mind itself) says that this trend is said to continue till my last breath.
Our Japanese language and lifestyle training is in for a new-year off for a week. To keep us all engaged and to be in touch with the language, we were handed-over with a bunch of assignments to be completed over this week assuming that if they had given 7X assignments, ‘the honorable WE’ would be completing X assignments a day in a relaxed fashion reaching the target on the 7th day. But, this is a Japanese way of looking at things. (Very mathematical isn’t it. I, for one, am not a lobbyist for mathematics, but somehow feel that mathematical justifications are easier to comprehend the magnitude). I am not Japanese by blood. 5 days up. 2 more to go. 0X assignments completed.  And tomorrow our Dining is in for a weekly off (which happens on every Sunday), which means HIBERNATION. We hibernate the whole day by sleeping. That’s life.  So, it all boils down to the last-day. Yay! Yay! Trend is still ever-green.

There is a pretty relaxed rule here in AOTS, KKC, O’saka that we must return back to the center before 12 in the night max. after which the gates would be closed (STRICT. Mind you. This is JAPAN). Looked like this is far relaxed and would never happen. It was a Monday (2009/12/28) evening. New-year off’s 0th day (which means FULL VIGOR). We made a last-minute decision to go on to a place called NAMBA (about 40 minutes, from KKC) to watch AVATAR 3D. Details given by my friend: 1. TOHO Cinemas. 2. 8:30 PM show. 3. English (with Japanese sub-titles). 4. 3D. 5. Ticket fare : Not sure. 6. Duration: 1.5 hours. I had already read the review in IMDB and in lot other sources. But, I had not seen the duration of the movie. We started after dinner. Reached. Ticket fare was 1500 YEN. The 8:30 PM show started at 9 PM. (Totally a Non-Japanese way. No WHY clues!!). Movie kicked-off. We were all so engrossed into it. The movie had a great ending (James Cameron has rocked again). All our eyes went on to our respective watches on our hands to see the ‘half-past 10 sign’ on it. Oops!! Its half-past 11. “Why the hell is my watch showing the current time in New South Wales?” I enquired my friend. He confirmed that it really is 11:30 PM here in O’saka and the film was a 150 minute thingy and not a 90 minute one. We had about 28 odd minutes to reach the so-called 40 minute-long KKC or sleep in 2 deg. C outside KKC premises till 6 AM the next day. “Come on man, you are highly revered among people here. Every move of yours is being watched by the company. Reaching late would fetch you lot of embarrassing instances. Come on man…. Run.” I was pondering myself. I, for one, for the past 25 days, had followed all traffic signals so religiously. Today was an exception. Jumping most of the red-lights, shouldering a lot of by-standers and running without uttering a SUMIMASEN (Sorry, in Japanese), boarding a sub-way train whose doors almost closed, we managed to reach KKC at 11:59:30 PM. Hurray!
I was expecting some strict faces from receptionists for barging in like this. But it was like “Eiga wa Do’ deshita ka? Totemo omoshirokatta desu ne. (How was the movie? It was very interesting right? )” We nodded with fast breaths and proceeded to our rooms. Life is like that. 