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.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Thursday, June 03, 2010
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.
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.
Friday, May 14, 2010
It does happen in Japan - 9....
F**KED UP !! Pissed off !!
Though “Behne De” - an expert combo Karthik & AR Rahman’s work is running in the background, as I am keying in this post with great fervor, ‘Roja’ and ‘Mundhinam’ piled-up next one after the other in my assorted Media-player list, it doesn’t cool me. What’s the next best thing that I should do?
Ok. Let me re-live some of the happy moments in my life to check its soothing capability. Should I cherish the moment when I picked up a hat-trick in a local cricket tournament in my college and ended up with a 3-1-10-3 figure? Wouldn’t budge!!
Fine. Let me re-live the moment when I ended up beating a very tough opponent in table-tennis district-level tournament in his home-ground (or home-table rather ;)) in my higher secondary.
Or is it like I should go on for that moment when I was able to see hell lots of applauds, after I finished a stage performance (It was an English song, btw). Not so effective even now !
Or should I cherish the occasion when after seeing ‘Page Cannot be displayed’ on 50 occasions, my higher secondary final exam result popped up on the screen all of a sudden on the 51st, just to hint me that I have rocked with a mammoth total in the history of my school ? Cloud Nine ?? No. Still hot!! What next?
Singing, which I love doing, is also done. I already have sung “Usure Poguthey” twice along with the song in a loud voice (which is generally not welcomed by my cold-blooded adjacent room resident, and in a broader view, it isn’t good to do in Japan either).
Blog !!! – Fine. Doing it right now to quell this. Not sure though!
I must first apologise for the sharpness of words and vagueness of the content before blurting it out aloud.
Here I go : ‘F**K OFF’.
It might start similar to how Aravind Adiga did in “The White Tiger”. But, that was not my intention.
Heading straight to the summary, “You never know, when you are getting F**KED. There can be brats within reach, within a big circle surrounding you, who might be frigging you out and yet you do not notice that you are being f**ked. It happens just sometimes and happens soft, yet the pinch it gives is not easily effaceable. The time it lasts could be very less, but it hurts. ‘Just F**K OFF. It is so cheap of you’. It is happening, it is all happening with a very strange logic. The logic is the softer it is, the more it hurts. ‘Brat, it happens. The world is spoilt. But, one thing is certain. You do not deserve even a revenge, take care. All the best’.
PS:(Frigger) 'Hey frigger, I am very sure you would have read this. I understand that a wave of chillness would have slithered through you now after reading this. Even if it is for a second, that is satisfaction’.
(Others) Kindly, refrain from this one question : “Hey, what happened?” All other comments are welcome.:)
Though “Behne De” - an expert combo Karthik & AR Rahman’s work is running in the background, as I am keying in this post with great fervor, ‘Roja’ and ‘Mundhinam’ piled-up next one after the other in my assorted Media-player list, it doesn’t cool me. What’s the next best thing that I should do?
Ok. Let me re-live some of the happy moments in my life to check its soothing capability. Should I cherish the moment when I picked up a hat-trick in a local cricket tournament in my college and ended up with a 3-1-10-3 figure? Wouldn’t budge!!
Fine. Let me re-live the moment when I ended up beating a very tough opponent in table-tennis district-level tournament in his home-ground (or home-table rather ;)) in my higher secondary.
Or is it like I should go on for that moment when I was able to see hell lots of applauds, after I finished a stage performance (It was an English song, btw). Not so effective even now !
Or should I cherish the occasion when after seeing ‘Page Cannot be displayed’ on 50 occasions, my higher secondary final exam result popped up on the screen all of a sudden on the 51st, just to hint me that I have rocked with a mammoth total in the history of my school ? Cloud Nine ?? No. Still hot!! What next?
Singing, which I love doing, is also done. I already have sung “Usure Poguthey” twice along with the song in a loud voice (which is generally not welcomed by my cold-blooded adjacent room resident, and in a broader view, it isn’t good to do in Japan either).
Blog !!! – Fine. Doing it right now to quell this. Not sure though!
I must first apologise for the sharpness of words and vagueness of the content before blurting it out aloud.
Here I go : ‘F**K OFF’.
It might start similar to how Aravind Adiga did in “The White Tiger”. But, that was not my intention.
Heading straight to the summary, “You never know, when you are getting F**KED. There can be brats within reach, within a big circle surrounding you, who might be frigging you out and yet you do not notice that you are being f**ked. It happens just sometimes and happens soft, yet the pinch it gives is not easily effaceable. The time it lasts could be very less, but it hurts. ‘Just F**K OFF. It is so cheap of you’. It is happening, it is all happening with a very strange logic. The logic is the softer it is, the more it hurts. ‘Brat, it happens. The world is spoilt. But, one thing is certain. You do not deserve even a revenge, take care. All the best’.
PS:(Frigger) 'Hey frigger, I am very sure you would have read this. I understand that a wave of chillness would have slithered through you now after reading this. Even if it is for a second, that is satisfaction’.
(Others) Kindly, refrain from this one question : “Hey, what happened?” All other comments are welcome.:)
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
It does happen in Japan - 8....
DARSHANS so far made.... - 3
14. Welcome party in Hamamatsu with Japanese colleagues - 2010/2/12:
This was in one of the posh hotels in Hamamatsu to welcome my foray into Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan after a successful completion of the language course in AOTS O'saka.
15. Belly Dance @ Kumar's Restaurant, Hamamatsu - 2010/2/20:
First time experience. It was a performance by an expert belly-dancer - Kazumi ;)
.jpg)
16. Holi @ Nakatajima Beach, Hamamatsu - 2010/2/28:
Inspite of Tsunami threat at the beach, the other day, Holi was celebrated with extreme vim and vigour.
17. Shima Peninsula - 2010/3/13:
The main highlights at Shima Peninsula were the EDO WONDERLAND - A theme park of the Samurai era and an awesome 40 minute ferry-ride through the seas of Shima.
18. Nikko - 2010/3/20 ~ 2010/3/22:
Located at about 150 km away from Tokyo, this place is one of the most visited during Autumn. The TOBU World Square - A small world inside an area of a few square metres, The Kegon Falls, The rope-way ride, Ryuuzu Falls, Arima Onsen, lot more beautiful natural sights, Cold winds, Greenery, Indian food and Onsen experience made this trip memorable.
19. Tokyo Drift - 2010/3/27:
The first round of this year's Drift, at Odaiba, Tokyo was admirably pulse-raising.
20. Nagoya - 2010/3/28:
Located at about 100 km from Hamamatsu, this is one of the largest cities in Japan famous for its PORT, Dolphin Show and Toyota Museum.
21. Skiing @ Yeti - 2010/4/4:
Located at about 4 hours from Hamamatsu, Yeti is the right place for first time Skiers. Catching the train in the last minute, Boarding the Yeti bound bus in the last second, less money in pocket, first-hand experience at Skiing, slipping atleaast a 100 times etc. made this day memorable.
22. Sakura Party @ Hamamatsu Castle - 2010/4/09:
Japanese Colleagues, Strange food, Sakura, of-course, Quiet Japanese girls blurting out and a lot of photos made the evening memorable at the Hamamatsu Castle.
23. Tamil New Year Celebrations @ Tokyo - 2010/4/10:
Felt like I was in Chennai. In the midst of a tamil speaking group, Meena, Prasanna, Manaada Mayilaada Group, Lollu sabha gang, tamil food, tamil fun etc, it was a totally nostalgic feel of School day/College day new year celebrations.
24. Sanaru Lake @ Takatsuka - 2010/4/11:
Located at about 15 minutes from place of residence, this lake is a typical mind-soothing location. Loved the peace, the silence in water, Sakura, relaxed cycling over here.
14. Welcome party in Hamamatsu with Japanese colleagues - 2010/2/12:
This was in one of the posh hotels in Hamamatsu to welcome my foray into Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan after a successful completion of the language course in AOTS O'saka.
15. Belly Dance @ Kumar's Restaurant, Hamamatsu - 2010/2/20:
First time experience. It was a performance by an expert belly-dancer - Kazumi ;)
.jpg)
16. Holi @ Nakatajima Beach, Hamamatsu - 2010/2/28:
Inspite of Tsunami threat at the beach, the other day, Holi was celebrated with extreme vim and vigour.
17. Shima Peninsula - 2010/3/13:
The main highlights at Shima Peninsula were the EDO WONDERLAND - A theme park of the Samurai era and an awesome 40 minute ferry-ride through the seas of Shima.
18. Nikko - 2010/3/20 ~ 2010/3/22:
Located at about 150 km away from Tokyo, this place is one of the most visited during Autumn. The TOBU World Square - A small world inside an area of a few square metres, The Kegon Falls, The rope-way ride, Ryuuzu Falls, Arima Onsen, lot more beautiful natural sights, Cold winds, Greenery, Indian food and Onsen experience made this trip memorable.
19. Tokyo Drift - 2010/3/27:
The first round of this year's Drift, at Odaiba, Tokyo was admirably pulse-raising.
20. Nagoya - 2010/3/28:
Located at about 100 km from Hamamatsu, this is one of the largest cities in Japan famous for its PORT, Dolphin Show and Toyota Museum.
21. Skiing @ Yeti - 2010/4/4:
Located at about 4 hours from Hamamatsu, Yeti is the right place for first time Skiers. Catching the train in the last minute, Boarding the Yeti bound bus in the last second, less money in pocket, first-hand experience at Skiing, slipping atleaast a 100 times etc. made this day memorable.
22. Sakura Party @ Hamamatsu Castle - 2010/4/09:
Japanese Colleagues, Strange food, Sakura, of-course, Quiet Japanese girls blurting out and a lot of photos made the evening memorable at the Hamamatsu Castle.
23. Tamil New Year Celebrations @ Tokyo - 2010/4/10:
Felt like I was in Chennai. In the midst of a tamil speaking group, Meena, Prasanna, Manaada Mayilaada Group, Lollu sabha gang, tamil food, tamil fun etc, it was a totally nostalgic feel of School day/College day new year celebrations.
24. Sanaru Lake @ Takatsuka - 2010/4/11:
Located at about 15 minutes from place of residence, this lake is a typical mind-soothing location. Loved the peace, the silence in water, Sakura, relaxed cycling over here.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
It does happen in Japan - 7....
McDonald's Episode.....
1. Russet Burbank, Pentland Dell & Shepody
2. McCain’s
3. Non-hydrogenated blend of sun-flower and rapeseed oil.
Life’s inquisitive geeks would have forged a relation between the three by now. And for the rest, this is something about one of your favourite mouth-watering dishes called the McDonald’s French fries.
“Russet Burbank, Pentland Dell & Shepody are the type of potatoes used for the making of French-fries, McCain’s is the outlet that makes and supplies French-fries to McD. Non-hydrogenated blend of sun-flower oil and rapeseed oil is the oil used in the making of French-fries.”
“Except for some kind of an inquisitive general knowledge, it doesn’t matter. After all, it is all potatoes fried in oil. But, see the magnitude of profit, McDonald’s is generating by this one simple dish. Tremendous. The McDonald’s share of profit earned through French-fries is way above the share earned through hamburgers. Howsoever it may be, it is delicious. Wow. I am loving it.” (pchewk pchewk pchewk), I was enjoying the taste of French-fries sitting alone on a corner table of Takatsuka McD with eyes half-closed and with some weird thoughts on French-fries’ history and lot more. Even more enticing was the fact that the French-fries (L) size is in for an offer-price of just 150¥ instead of a whopping 290¥ just for the month of March (Reason, though not sure, probably could be that McD should have earned a lump sum amount of money and now might have been experimenting the influence on the sales figures by bringing down the price by about 50%).
“Sou iu koto desu ka? Wakarimashita. Ja, mata (Is it so? Oh. Ok fine. See you later)” uttered a voice so typical of a Japanese girl. I, getting used to the words and the voice over the last 3.5 months, continued concentrating on my French-fries (L-version) with eyes still half closed.
With the quantity of the French-fries on the plate dwindling with every bite, I, making my eyes clear by expanding the retina, started to raise from my seat (with a few pieces still left on the plate) when my eyes met somebody who immediately reached my dream-book of ”Top 10 girls in life whom I have seen with my naked eyes, whose faces, I admire” and who was sitting alone in a table, just infront of me. I settled back on my seat again to consume the last few pieces of French-fries that was left (Was that the reason?) on my plate, this time with much less speed of consumption and busy eyes.
With every organ in her face being perfectly positioned and aligned in symmetry, the LHS of her face forming an un-erring mirror image of the RHS of her face, with a terrific little smile, (she, infact, was doing that to me. As I have already mentioned, one can hardly see Japanese girls being shy and reserved), a dimple on both her cheeks, brown eyes, symmetrically combed hair, a typical Japanese out-fit, with everything being good about her, I was sitting totally defeated for a while when I noted her waving her hand at me. With an impinging sense of shock, instead of waving her back, I delved into the reasons for why was she waving. Japanese girls, as I have already made a mention, never turn their heads away on seeing foreigners, instead they approach them, at times and talk to them. (these girls are probably equipped with kung-fu skills for their self-defence right from their school days, in case of any mis-happening that they might confront). This could have been one of the reasons and the major one could have been that since I was admiring her without taking my eyes away, she must have done that to deviate my attention.
She continued to smile at me and I continued to admire her face, when suddenly I was blinded off by a striking red colour T-shirt with a one-liner written on the back of it “Only idiots are greedy for more in life” sign on it. Huh! It was a guy. He sat infront of her on the same table, showing his back to me, placing down all the burgers, French-fries and coffee on it. I disposed off my plate and started to leave and noted that she was still smiling at me (Might be, she would have narrated my staring episode to the man in-front. No. She would not have. She never looked like one. And, the man too never attempted to look at me. She would not have). I opened the door, stepped outside to see who the other man was. He was no way resembling to this girl, so he must have been her boy-friend. But, he looked a typical idiot. The one-liner suited him the most.
I, unable to resist, opened the McD door again, stepped inside, went near her table. The man looked all shocked but the girl never looked shocked. “Kimi wa totemo kirei desu. Watashi wa kimi no kao ga sukii nan desu. (You look very beautiful. I like your face a lot)” – I uttered and stepped outside to see both their reactions. But, decided the note the man’s reaction first. The man stared at me like an owl staring at the prey. The girl smiled and waved her hand at me again. I was lost.
1. Russet Burbank, Pentland Dell & Shepody
2. McCain’s
3. Non-hydrogenated blend of sun-flower and rapeseed oil.
Life’s inquisitive geeks would have forged a relation between the three by now. And for the rest, this is something about one of your favourite mouth-watering dishes called the McDonald’s French fries.
“Russet Burbank, Pentland Dell & Shepody are the type of potatoes used for the making of French-fries, McCain’s is the outlet that makes and supplies French-fries to McD. Non-hydrogenated blend of sun-flower oil and rapeseed oil is the oil used in the making of French-fries.”
“Except for some kind of an inquisitive general knowledge, it doesn’t matter. After all, it is all potatoes fried in oil. But, see the magnitude of profit, McDonald’s is generating by this one simple dish. Tremendous. The McDonald’s share of profit earned through French-fries is way above the share earned through hamburgers. Howsoever it may be, it is delicious. Wow. I am loving it.” (pchewk pchewk pchewk), I was enjoying the taste of French-fries sitting alone on a corner table of Takatsuka McD with eyes half-closed and with some weird thoughts on French-fries’ history and lot more. Even more enticing was the fact that the French-fries (L) size is in for an offer-price of just 150¥ instead of a whopping 290¥ just for the month of March (Reason, though not sure, probably could be that McD should have earned a lump sum amount of money and now might have been experimenting the influence on the sales figures by bringing down the price by about 50%).
“Sou iu koto desu ka? Wakarimashita. Ja, mata (Is it so? Oh. Ok fine. See you later)” uttered a voice so typical of a Japanese girl. I, getting used to the words and the voice over the last 3.5 months, continued concentrating on my French-fries (L-version) with eyes still half closed.
With the quantity of the French-fries on the plate dwindling with every bite, I, making my eyes clear by expanding the retina, started to raise from my seat (with a few pieces still left on the plate) when my eyes met somebody who immediately reached my dream-book of ”Top 10 girls in life whom I have seen with my naked eyes, whose faces, I admire” and who was sitting alone in a table, just infront of me. I settled back on my seat again to consume the last few pieces of French-fries that was left (Was that the reason?) on my plate, this time with much less speed of consumption and busy eyes.
With every organ in her face being perfectly positioned and aligned in symmetry, the LHS of her face forming an un-erring mirror image of the RHS of her face, with a terrific little smile, (she, infact, was doing that to me. As I have already mentioned, one can hardly see Japanese girls being shy and reserved), a dimple on both her cheeks, brown eyes, symmetrically combed hair, a typical Japanese out-fit, with everything being good about her, I was sitting totally defeated for a while when I noted her waving her hand at me. With an impinging sense of shock, instead of waving her back, I delved into the reasons for why was she waving. Japanese girls, as I have already made a mention, never turn their heads away on seeing foreigners, instead they approach them, at times and talk to them. (these girls are probably equipped with kung-fu skills for their self-defence right from their school days, in case of any mis-happening that they might confront). This could have been one of the reasons and the major one could have been that since I was admiring her without taking my eyes away, she must have done that to deviate my attention.
She continued to smile at me and I continued to admire her face, when suddenly I was blinded off by a striking red colour T-shirt with a one-liner written on the back of it “Only idiots are greedy for more in life” sign on it. Huh! It was a guy. He sat infront of her on the same table, showing his back to me, placing down all the burgers, French-fries and coffee on it. I disposed off my plate and started to leave and noted that she was still smiling at me (Might be, she would have narrated my staring episode to the man in-front. No. She would not have. She never looked like one. And, the man too never attempted to look at me. She would not have). I opened the door, stepped outside to see who the other man was. He was no way resembling to this girl, so he must have been her boy-friend. But, he looked a typical idiot. The one-liner suited him the most.
I, unable to resist, opened the McD door again, stepped inside, went near her table. The man looked all shocked but the girl never looked shocked. “Kimi wa totemo kirei desu. Watashi wa kimi no kao ga sukii nan desu. (You look very beautiful. I like your face a lot)” – I uttered and stepped outside to see both their reactions. But, decided the note the man’s reaction first. The man stared at me like an owl staring at the prey. The girl smiled and waved her hand at me again. I was lost.
Saturday, February 20, 2010
It does happen in Japan - 6....
The Transition...
It is all a part of life and it is in-built in every homo-sapien to adapt to it, the adaptive capability could vary though. What is it that, I am rattling about? Yes. CHANGE. THE TRANSITION.
(Somehow, managed to give a start to this post in a way that is quite away from normal. The reason being, majority of the ‘homo-sapienic’ population, who write on CHANGE or TRANSITION, by default kicks off with “Nothing in this world is permanent except change” (different versions of it could be available, though. But, this would be their essence) because this particular adage would have been taught at a very early age, simple to remember, strikes your mind first when you think of CHANGE or TRANSITION. Huh! I guess, it took quite a few sentences to explain that I am not an ordinary person. Let’s talk sense.)
So, for people who are aware, I am glad that you are aware and for people who are unaware, here it goes. Right now, I am being put up at Takatsuka (Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka , Japan) which is where Suzuki Motor Corporation’s (SMC) head-quarters is located and which is where I have all the work to do for the next ten odd months. I have shifted to this place from an ALL WAS WELL, AOTS, Osaka on 27th Jan. 2010 (You are welcome to check that link out for ‘all was well’ justification.) It has been almost a month here in Hamamatsu and as all of you rightly guessed, I have got adapted to the new place.
The transition was quite tough though. The last day at AOTS, Osaka was really emotional (less for the reason that, I am parting off from lot of nice people, I came across and more for the reason that I am leaving a place that proved to be an ACE in terms of hospitality, facilities and the environment). En-route Hamamatsu from Osaka, in Shinkansen (Super-fast bullet train), we were engulfed with emotions (for AOTS) and excitement (that we are moving on to a totally different place). [Somehow, I managed to inform that I have travelled in Shinkansen. FYI, this trip was my fourth-time in Shinkansen].
Now, I am being put up on the fifth floor of the R&D building of SMC. Office is a 10 minute walk from my place of residence called the LEO PALACE EARU (Please do not get deceived by the name. It isn’t really palace like, infact, I do not have any clues as to why was this named a palace. But, however it is, it is called Leo palace Earu.) and hence very comfortable. I am staying single. It has got a decent amount of facilities. Although, right from self cooking, to getting groceries, fetching vegetables, to preparing a meal plan, to disposing garbage, to cleaning vessels, to washing clothes, to cleaning the room, wash-room and sink, to dry and press clothes (I might have missed out something) everything is SELF-MANAGED unlike my previous place, where it was…. Huh! Heaven. To be crisp, it is like running a family (obviously, ‘OFFICE'ing all day parallely).
But the good thing is, I have got adapted to the new place and have started liking it and have sculpted out some interest into this way of living. (That is what is required, ultimately. You know, being an Indian, actually helps. I am talking about the flexibility characteristics imbibed in them.)
It is all a part of life and it is in-built in every homo-sapien to adapt to it, the adaptive capability could vary though. What is it that, I am rattling about? Yes. CHANGE. THE TRANSITION.
(Somehow, managed to give a start to this post in a way that is quite away from normal. The reason being, majority of the ‘homo-sapienic’ population, who write on CHANGE or TRANSITION, by default kicks off with “Nothing in this world is permanent except change” (different versions of it could be available, though. But, this would be their essence) because this particular adage would have been taught at a very early age, simple to remember, strikes your mind first when you think of CHANGE or TRANSITION. Huh! I guess, it took quite a few sentences to explain that I am not an ordinary person. Let’s talk sense.)
So, for people who are aware, I am glad that you are aware and for people who are unaware, here it goes. Right now, I am being put up at Takatsuka (Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka , Japan) which is where Suzuki Motor Corporation’s (SMC) head-quarters is located and which is where I have all the work to do for the next ten odd months. I have shifted to this place from an ALL WAS WELL, AOTS, Osaka on 27th Jan. 2010 (You are welcome to check that link out for ‘all was well’ justification.) It has been almost a month here in Hamamatsu and as all of you rightly guessed, I have got adapted to the new place.
The transition was quite tough though. The last day at AOTS, Osaka was really emotional (less for the reason that, I am parting off from lot of nice people, I came across and more for the reason that I am leaving a place that proved to be an ACE in terms of hospitality, facilities and the environment). En-route Hamamatsu from Osaka, in Shinkansen (Super-fast bullet train), we were engulfed with emotions (for AOTS) and excitement (that we are moving on to a totally different place). [Somehow, I managed to inform that I have travelled in Shinkansen. FYI, this trip was my fourth-time in Shinkansen].
Now, I am being put up on the fifth floor of the R&D building of SMC. Office is a 10 minute walk from my place of residence called the LEO PALACE EARU (Please do not get deceived by the name. It isn’t really palace like, infact, I do not have any clues as to why was this named a palace. But, however it is, it is called Leo palace Earu.) and hence very comfortable. I am staying single. It has got a decent amount of facilities. Although, right from self cooking, to getting groceries, fetching vegetables, to preparing a meal plan, to disposing garbage, to cleaning vessels, to washing clothes, to cleaning the room, wash-room and sink, to dry and press clothes (I might have missed out something) everything is SELF-MANAGED unlike my previous place, where it was…. Huh! Heaven. To be crisp, it is like running a family (obviously, ‘OFFICE'ing all day parallely).
But the good thing is, I have got adapted to the new place and have started liking it and have sculpted out some interest into this way of living. (That is what is required, ultimately. You know, being an Indian, actually helps. I am talking about the flexibility characteristics imbibed in them.)
Friday, February 05, 2010
It does happen in Japan - 5....
Though, it did not really happen in Japan...
The title might not be worth it for the contents that are going to follow.
Though, this, ideally did not happen in Japan, I came across this wonderful article by Mr. L.R.Moorthy (Prof. IIMB) today (Very intriguing, though long). And today, I, obviously, am in no other place, but in Japan. So, the title suits to an extent.
Justified.
Go on...
"Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly".
The title might not be worth it for the contents that are going to follow.
Though, this, ideally did not happen in Japan, I came across this wonderful article by Mr. L.R.Moorthy (Prof. IIMB) today (Very intriguing, though long). And today, I, obviously, am in no other place, but in Japan. So, the title suits to an extent.
Justified.
Go on...
"Who sells the largest number of cameras in India?
Your guess is likely to be Sony, Canon or Nikon. Answer is none of the above. The winner is Nokia whose main line of business in India is not cameras but cell phones.
Reason being cameras bundled with cellphones are outselling stand alone cameras. Now, what prevents the cellphone from replacing the camera outright? Nothing at all. One can only hope the Sonys and Canons are taking note.
Try this. Who is the biggest in music business in India? You think it is HMV Sa-Re-Ga-Ma? Sorry. The answer is Airtel. By selling caller tunes (that play for 30 seconds) Airtel makes more than what music companies make by selling music albums (that run for hours).
Incidentally Airtel is not in music business. It is the mobile service provider with the largest subscriber base in India. That sort of competitor is difficult to detect, even more difficult to beat (by the time you have identified him he has already gone past you). But if you imagine that Nokia and Bharti (Airtel's parent) are breathing easy you can't be farther from truth.
Nokia confessed that they all but missed the smartphone bus. They admit that Apple's Iphone and Google's Android can make life difficult in future. But you never thought Google was a mobile company, did you? If these illustrations mean anything, there is a bigger game unfolding. It is not so much about mobile or music or camera or emails?
The "Mahabharat" (the great Indian epic battle) is about "what is tomorrow's personal digital device"? Will it be a souped up mobile or a palmtop with a telephone? All these are little wars that add up to that big battle. Hiding behind all these wars is a gem of a question – "who is my competitor?"
Once in a while, to intrigue my students I toss a question at them. It says "What Apple did to Sony, Sony did to Kodak, explain?" The smart ones get the answer almost immediately. Sony defined its market as audio (music from the walkman). They never expected an IT company like Apple to encroach into their audio domain. Come to think of it, is it really surprising? Apple as a computer maker has both audio and video capabilities. So what made Sony think he won't compete on pure audio? "Elementary Watson". So also Kodak defined its business as film cameras, Sony defines its businesses as "digital."
In digital camera the two markets perfectly meshed. Kodak was torn between going digital and sacrificing money on camera film or staying with films and getting left behind in digital technology. Left undecided it lost in both. It had to. It did not ask the question "who is my competitor for tomorrow?" The same was true for IBM whose mainframe revenue prevented it from seeing the PC. The same was true of Bill Gates who declared "internet is a fad!" and then turned around to bundle the browser with windows to bury Netscape. The point is not who is today's competitor. Today's competitor is obvious. Tomorrow's is not.
In 2008, who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India? Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian airlines? Maybe, but there are better answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession. Senior IT executives in India and abroad were compelled by their head quarters to use videoconferencing to shrink travel budget. So much so, that the mad scramble for American visas from Indian techies was nowhere in sight in 2008. (India has a quota of something like 65,000 visas to the U.S. They were going a-begging. Blame it on recession!). So far so good. But to think that the airlines will be back in business post recession is something I would not bet on. In short term yes. In long term a resounding no. Remember, if there is one place where Newton's law of gravity is applicable besides physics it is in electronic hardware. Between 1977 and 1991 the prices of the now dead VCR (parent of Blue-Ray disc player) crashed to one-third of its original level in India. PC's price dropped from hundreds of thousands of rupees to tens of thousands. If this trend repeats then telepresence prices will also crash. Imagine the fate of airlines then. As it is not many are making money. Then it will surely be RIP!
India has two passions. Films and cricket. The two markets were distinctly different. So were the icons. The cricket gods were Sachin and Sehwag. The filmi gods were the Khans (Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and the other Khans who followed suit). That was, when cricket was fundamentally test cricket or at best 50 over cricket. Then came IPL and the two markets collapsed into one. IPL brought cricket down to 20 overs. Suddenly an IPL match was reduced to the length of a 3 hour movie. Cricket became film's competitor. On the eve of IPL matches movie halls ran empty. Desperate multiplex owners requisitioned the rights for screening IPL matches at movie halls to hang on to the audience. If IPL were to become the mainstay of cricket, as it is likely to be, films have to sequence their releases so as not clash with IPL matches. As far as the audience is concerned both are what in India are called 3 hour "tamasha" (entertainment). Cricket season might push films out of the market.
Look at the products that vanished from India in the last 20 years. When did you last see a black and white movie? When did you last use a fountain pen? When did you last type on a typewriter? The answer for all the above is "I don't remember!" For some time there was a mild substitute for the typewriter called electronic typewriter that had limited memory. Then came the computer and mowed them all. Today most technologically challenged guys like me use the computer as an upgraded typewriter. Typewriters per se are nowhere to be seen.
One last illustration. 20 years back what were Indians using to wake them up in the morning? The answer is "alarm clock." The alarm clock was a monster made of mechanical springs. It had to be physically keyed every day to keep it running. It made so much noise by way of alarm, that it woke you up and the rest of the colony. Then came quartz clocks which were sleeker. They were much more gentle though still quaintly called "alarms." What do we use today for waking up in the morning? Cellphone! An entire industry of clocks disappeared without warning thanks to cell phones. Big watch companies like Titan were the losers. You never know in which bush your competitor is hiding!
On a lighter vein, who are the competitors for authors? Joke spewing machines? (Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, himself a Pole, tagged a Polish joke telling machine to a telephone much to the mirth of Silicon Valley). Or will the competition be story telling robots? Future is scary! The boss of an IT company once said something interesting about the animal called competition. He said "Have breakfast …or…. be breakfast"! That sums it up rather neatly".
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.
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.
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.
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.
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