The departure

You walk into a country that is as foreign to you as those chocolates that your Dad's friends would bestow on you generously when you were a but a kid. You don't know the language - a dialect that is lost to you. Everything is fascinating - the people, the clothes, the food.

And then one day it becomes yours. You begin to understand the nuances of what should be said in an elevator with neighbours. Food, once exotic is dare I say, common, like dal. You even begin to learn to live with the earthquakes - something that shattered your world has again become a thing of day to day living. You love it for it is your home.

I am leaving my home tomorrow to make another one. The transition is difficult but exciting all the same. New people, new experiences and same lust for what life is going to bring stays with me.

My 9 months in Tokyo, Japan have taught me this. Any place can be called a home as long as you are with someone who you love and care for. We are going to celebrate our anniversary in a new country, I can't wait to begin the journey. :)

The life of a flyjin in Tokyo

Flyjin, yes the latest, newest word to hit the Japanese vocabulary. Flyjin, yes ladies and gentlemen, essentially refers to foreigners called gaijins here who fled when disaster struck Japan on Mar 11. I am of course a flyjin and more than happy to be termed one! There is no shame or guilt in running from something when you are truly panicking for what is your life. I don't know if that is an inherent cultural trait or something that most people would do, immaterial of which culture they belong to.

People are not asking the tough questions like what would Japanese people have done if they were stuck in India and disaster struck. Would they have hung around and calmly gone on with their lives (as most Mumbaikars do post floods that ravage the city every year) or caught the first flight back to their home? I don't see why there should be scorn or disgust or anger at the way flyjins have behaved or continue to behave for that matter. Do note that I haven't faced any of these reactions from any of the Japanese people I know atleast.

I dislike the imposition of one's cultural values on the other, it does not reflect very well on the mind set of a people. I would believe that its a matter of personal choice and one should be allowed to exercise it.

On the Saturday after the earthquake struck, we went looking for torches and flashlights - all sold out! I step out of the house and there is a shortage of mineral water everyday. I mean, come on, if people are not panic buying, what the heck else is happening. Luckily, we haven't been affected by any of the power cuts happening so god bless on that. Toilet paper, milk, cereal, bread have been running out in certain parts of Tokyo. I know of someone who stays not 20 minutes away from us and didn't get Meiji milk for almost 4 days continuously.

I use mineral water for drinking and cooking. I am not sure how long I should be doing this and maybe I am paranoid despite what the govt says. I think I am entitled to that, coming from such a long and rich tradition of not really trusting your own govt :)

I would like to believe that life is normal. But with a nuclear reactor crippled and gasping for its last breath, some x hundred kms from us, I am not even sure what normal means anymore.

A Photo Essay on Tsukiji

So I did a small walk around Tsukiji and here is what I found:

Owls in the strangest places.

Peds hanging out in public

Green Green bicycles

Pretty pretty drain covers

Tall skyscraper like residential complexes

Flowers blooming along the sidewalk

And a bridge that soared into the blue blue sky

What an enjoyable afternoon that was! :D

The Sumo Series

I posted this on Flickr too and well I gotta tell you sumo was something else!!

Colourful flags outside the arena

We got there pretty early around 11.30ish in the morning and got bored. Without knowing the significance of the rituals that precedes each bout, you tend to be completely lost. This gave me an opportunity to read up on Wikipedia and also on the tournament website too.

And in between I kept yelling for all the underdogs in the bouts which was fun. Then began the actual shebang roughly around 2.30 pm with the higher rung rishikis (wrestlers) entering the ring.


Followed by about 14 bouts of which I only managed to get a clean shot of this one! Trust me this was difficult to achieve given the distance b/w where we were seated and the ring, my camera zoom lens and people walking around!

And then the Makuuchi rikishi entered. These guys are the higher ups in the division and the crowd started shouting out their names and cheering them on.

And then came the heavy duty Yokozuna whose numero uno and right on top of the ladder. This is a gentleman called Hakuho. Given his size, he sat on his haunches and moved himself with extreme agility I might add about 5 feet forward and the crowd went ballistic!

And then their matches started too. Bouts typically last less than 30 seconds. There were interesting bouts - with the crowd cheering on the underdog on occasion and on occasion very clearly previous winners. Ah yes, this is where I got my pronounciation corrected - I was yelling out a wrestler's name incorrectly so the very nice ladies in the box ahead of us corrected me, waited for me to say it correctly and had such pleased smiles on their faces when I said it the right way! :D

Another story about the same wrestler comes to mind - Kotooshu is his name. If you see his photo on the Wikipedia page, notice the hair on his chest. Believe it or not, all souvenir shops sell a small sized doll of Kotooshu with hair on the chest area!! :):) Attention to detail man!!

Oh yes I was coming to the last bout which was the Yokozuna with a lower ranked opponent. The opponent didn't last 3 seconds which was a bit of an anti-climax to be honest! Like he literally ran for his life (in sumo terms) :)

I should add that I did OD on sumo. This won't be a repeat experience having seen so much of it!! But extremely recommended if you are ever in Japan and in time for a tournament too! As a cultural experience, this one is going to stay with you forever!

Tokyo my home (well sort of for now)

I am posting after a long time inspite of promising y'all Nikko autumn photos and being more regular with my posts too. Good intentions and all that!

First happy new year to everyone :) I had a super wicked holiday getting into New Year with tonnes of snow so much that I don't want to see snow for the rest of this year. However that wish is going to remain unfulfilled. Next holiday is to see a Snow Festival. :O I mean we didn't think too much did we? :)

I really liked this shot of Tokyo all in black and white hence this post happened. It feels like a city full of concrete and buildings. But Tokyo has managed to surprise me in the last 3 months that I have been here. You wander the streets and inevitably confront the old. There are shrines, old houses sitting very comfortably with the shiny new skyscraper. Green abounds - yes I promise you that.

Imagine this in the heart of the city! Can you even imagine such a scene in Bumbai? It was peaceful, so serene and there were people young and old walking around ever so happily! If Bumbai even decided that we needed something like this, my home would be very different.


Tokyo is clean. I don't miss the filth back home at all! I am sounding like a NRI snob, sorry about that, but oh man its lovely not be faced with paan and spit stains in Metro stations and yes no one is jostling you in the train either. Simple things but they do enhance the quality of life.

The culture is very different too. People give each other too much space sometimes I reckon. A small incident happened when I moved here first. An elderly gentleman riding a bicycle (yes everyone rides one here or so it feels) turned the corner of the road and well bam went right into the lamp post. I was standing there at the signal paralyzed by etiquette. There were two other people on the road - who err looked at him and well walked away. By the time the signal had turned green, he had recovered and was on his way. But I am told this is a minor case in a city where people are very helpful and this I have experienced myself without knowing any Japanese.

Oh yes first rule of living in Japan - you gotta know Japanese to survive with aam aadmi. Or else your interaction with the locals is next to nada. English teaching btw is the number one occupation of most gaijins (foreigners) here. But very hard to get into unless you are what they call a 'native' speaker. And err whilst my education from the time I was born has been in English, they would not consider me a 'native' speaker believe it or not!

Enough from me for now. Hopefully will be writing more frequently. I aim to also move this blog from here to Wordpress or even my own website sometime this year. It has now become my New Year resolution so touch wood for that. :)

A visit to Senso-ji shrine

A post long delayed. And this is a kind of a long post so bear with the photographs :)

I was going to Asakusa to buy tickets to go to Nikko and ended up spending a hour and something at Sensō-ji which is Tokyo's oldest temple and one of its most significant. Crowds were crazy there, it was the first time I was jostling with people apart from the one time in the Metro. Old & young Japanese, loads of tourists armed with DSLR's and shops selling all sorts of souvenirs, sweets. So much activity was on that one street called Nakamise-dori.

But first the walk to the temple itself was filled with awesome stuff to see

Notice the statue on the upper floor as if watching the passers by

This is a caricatured list of the various shops in the area - comp stomp (composition stolen from another photographer) :D

Quite the monster isn't he? Very drool worthy!

And then I saw the shrine.

Right in the middle at the bottom you can see the Kaminarimon or "Thunder Gate". This imposing Buddhist structure features a massive paper lantern dramatically painted in vivid red-and-black tones to suggest thunderclouds and lightning. (Source:Wikipedia)

A little detail from the lantern

Then comes the Hōzōmon or "Treasure House Gate" which provides the entrance to the inner complex.

Yes, one more lantern and there is a box which you can see, where people throw in money before entering the inner complex and yes they throw in the money...no one puts it gently as far as I could see :)....

On the ceiling in the Hall

Some other sights within the temple precincts

Gentleman praying respectfully before Buddha

Ema, wooden prayer plaques typically seen in a shrine

At the back, you can see the pagoda of Sensō-ji (also a comp stomp :D)

This place was way cool. I sat inside here and listened to a Buddhist monk chant his prayers!

This is amongst the very few hexagonal temples left in Japan. Liked the play of light here.

Here's a last shot of the temple in mid-afternoon light just as I was stepping out.

I walked around for a while here. It felt like there were mostly old people walking the streets and everything had gone old or decayed. Even went into a Traditional Arts Museum there - which had no English translation at all :)

Here are some interesting tidbits from the streets

An amusement park nearby

Extremely cute street art

In order from L-R - The building in construction is called Tokyo Sky Tree, Asahi Breweries right next to it and the Golden Flame (commonly referred to as the Golden Turd if you please :P) right next to it. At the bottom you can see a cool, futuristic looking ferry. This is an entertainment ferry with tables so you can go drinking and stare at Tokyo from a different angle.

Next up, Nikko with its awesome fall colours....

The Harajuku Art Walk

Lonely Planet recommended it. I thought to myself, 'Let's explore the city' and this was an absolutely brilliant experience. Very frustrating because of the language barrier and the LP map and directions were useless. Ended up relying on the IPhone Maps to go walking in different directions which was an extremely useful tool to have handy.

Harajuku is a district in Tokyo city. It is known for its outrageous shops selling all kinds of crazy things and the people who are very distinctive because they are mostly Goth. But the husband had advised me that the Goths come out only on Saturdays :) So my quota on Goths is very less but schoolgirls I saw plenty of - shopping away for mobile phone accessories, jackets, lingerie and what not things!

So I started off at Takeshita street where the arch to the street looked quite festive.

Aforesaid school girl checking out stuff at the shop. Check out the shop entrance!

Then came a mural of Harajuku Street before the actual street pops up

In Harajuku I kept getting lost and I was seeking this Design Fiesta Gallery which is a series of rental galleries. Yep like less than 100 sq.ft of space is what the artist gets to exhibit his work. The building was super cool...I could not stop taking photos.


LP says that it looks like a paint bomb exploded on this place. I really could not agree more!

One of the artist's works on display there - Emily B was her name

At the cafetaria

Right outside and this is on the steps believe it or not!!

So after this fab experience, I went trying to find a street called Ometo-sando and man this was one difficult proposition. Finally IPhone maps came to the rescue here. The street is full of big brands like Gucci and the like.


I was trying to find an experimental gallery which I think changed hands. (My LP copy is almost 2-3 years old) and gave up but found all these very interesting things along the street.

Outside a shop selling curios

This beckoned me to go downstairs but since I didn't know what the heck it was, I desisted

Kawaiiii no? (Cute in Japanese) And on a garage door!

Some more street walking led to these discoveries

Outside a clothes shop called Brooks Brothers which mind you had the English flag hanging out alongside the Japanese flag


Just outside a shrine near the Ito Hospital crossing

Loved the colours on the ad, don't you?

Then went looking for other galleries and a building called the Spiral Building. I am sorry to say the building ain't much to look at and I suddenly chanced upon it to be honest as I was lost again :) I bought really cute postcards from the shop though so quite happy about that.

The sun was going down down and my phone battery was going down too. So I did give up and headed home quite exhausted after an almost 4 hour long walk, one which involved being lost quite a bit :D