Its more than two months since I returned home. It has been perhaps the slowest two months in a very long time. Even more so because the previous four months were really eventful. Everyday in Japan was eventful, one way or the other.
However, there have been certain interesting events I have to mention. First and foremost, the arrival of Faisal(sister's son) has been a very happy moment for the entire family. Especially to see him learn new things and see changes in his size and behaviour is really fun.
Next important event is we moved to a new home in JP nagar. Its a big change since we lived in T block since the last 21 years atleast. I remember Kulsum was born and around the same time we came to our T block home(I was 5 years old then). Now Kulsum is in her final year Engineering.
The new home is very good. My dad has put in lots of effort time and money into it. I must say it is a dream home but still all of us miss the old home very much. Especially the T block neighbourhood was the best we could have asked for.
As they say every good thing comes to an end and every end is a new beginning. Life has begun afresh in our new home and looking forward for some developments on the professional front as well. After absolutely no work since reporting in the Bangalore office and getting a couple of interesting offers I am in a fix what to do. I have been thinking a lot about moving on and starting afresh. It definitely is not an easy decission to take.
Its time I consider all possible aspects and outcomes and take a decission with ofcourse help of God Inshallah things should work. I am sure all things will have stabilised before I update my blog next time. Bye till then
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
What am I upto?
I am still trying to figure out "What am I really upto?". I returned to India on 31st May and since then not a lot has happened professionally. I have even hibernated from posting on my blog . On the personal front however things have been good.
On reaching India somethings have looked awesome but I miss some experiences. The best things in India are family and food. The home food and eating out has made me pretty fat the happiness can be seen through the tires around my waist. Just started jogging last week to get healthier. However, Ive been missing the train rides from Atsugi to Tokyo and within Tokyo in the metro. Everytime I pass through MG road, I think when will I travel on "Namma Metro". Even the drive through Hosur road is pretty painful. But I do see hope in the near future as the flyover work is progressing pretty well. One thing is for sure, grass is always greener on the other side. I missed India in Japan and now I remember those days in Japan.
There has hardly been any work in office. The HR guys are trying to allocate some new project to me but as of now nothing seams to be coming. This is the time I have to invest in learning. Since I returned to India the most interesting thing has been meeting my family. Especially the latest member Faisal. He was born on 2nd June. My sister became a mum and I became an uncle.
Frankly speaking, its kind of an offseason on the professional front. Till some new project comes along I have to try to catch up with friends. For now its just an entry in the blog to say "I am still around".
On reaching India somethings have looked awesome but I miss some experiences. The best things in India are family and food. The home food and eating out has made me pretty fat the happiness can be seen through the tires around my waist. Just started jogging last week to get healthier. However, Ive been missing the train rides from Atsugi to Tokyo and within Tokyo in the metro. Everytime I pass through MG road, I think when will I travel on "Namma Metro". Even the drive through Hosur road is pretty painful. But I do see hope in the near future as the flyover work is progressing pretty well. One thing is for sure, grass is always greener on the other side. I missed India in Japan and now I remember those days in Japan.
There has hardly been any work in office. The HR guys are trying to allocate some new project to me but as of now nothing seams to be coming. This is the time I have to invest in learning. Since I returned to India the most interesting thing has been meeting my family. Especially the latest member Faisal. He was born on 2nd June. My sister became a mum and I became an uncle.
Frankly speaking, its kind of an offseason on the professional front. Till some new project comes along I have to try to catch up with friends. For now its just an entry in the blog to say "I am still around".
Monday, May 5, 2008
My Golden week
Last week was my best one in Japan. It is called the golden week and almost all the offices in japan are closed. A string of national holidays span through this entire week like the children's day, constitution day etc. To make it even better, development of our project is complete and our team is relatively relaxed. Rajasree and Deepak are back home in India. Siddhartha and I had 10 days in our hands to make the most of the occassion.
My holidays started on friday, since I had worked on weekends earlier. My golden week began with a visit to Tokyo. My jummah was in Tokyo Camii where I discovered an Egyptian restaurant, Obento in Yoyogi uehara. Most of the desi's,arabs,africans and turkish people around that place have lunch in Obento after their friday prayers. That place was so much like "Zak's" in Bangalore. Same Shawarma, Khubus, Filafel, Hummus etc. After the Egyptian lunch I did some window shopping in Akihabara. I wanted to discover the japanese electronics market. There was so much choice if I wanted to buy a product meant for the japanese market. But the international products are fewer in number. However, even then you will always be stuck with many so many choices. I could not make a decission what to and what not to buy. I decided to come later with Siddhartha to make a final choice.
On saturday I relaxed at home. Did some research on the net about the places to visit during the holidays. Even then too many choices. Its not easy to make a decission when you dont have any constraints. Initially I wanted to go to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara but according to japan-guide.com, there were some interesting choices closer to Tokyo region. Siddhartha and myself were still unsure about the decission to make. Only decission we made was to go to Akihabara on sunday for some electronics shopping.
Our sunday began pretty late, as usual. Around 11 we left to Tokyo. As my plan always in on reaching tokyo(I always reach Yoyogi uehara around zuhur time). I went for my zuhur prayer in Tokyo camii and wanted to take Siddhartha to try the Egyptian lunch. For our bad luck, the restaurant was closed on sunday. It was a bad beginning but still we decided to checkout Ginza before leaving to Akihabara. We reached Ginza around 1 30 PM. Siddhartha had high expectations of Ginza but dint find it all that impressive. Maybe, I had praised that part of Tokyo more than it deserved. We ate in an Indian vegetarian restaurant called Natraj. Its not easy to find a vegetarian restaurant anywhere in Japan. The food was good but a touch expensive(2500Y per head). After our lunch we left to Akihabara where we met my friend Arif who was himself doing some window shopping along with his friend. He helped us find Yodobashi, which is the best place to shop for electronic goods around the Akihabara station. We actually dint take much time in buying anything. I bought an ipod. Siddhartha also bought an mp3 player and some other gifts like wall hangings and T shirts. We left to Roppongi hills after our shopping, where we had a photo session as usual near the sky scrapers of Tokyo. I walked to Hiro'o for asar and mogrib prayers. After which we checked out the Roppongi hills in more detail. We dint go on top but saw the festive atmosphere created over there due to the golden week ofcourse. We returned home after that.
We continued our research on the net about the places to visit outside of the Tokyo region. We had considered a town called Nikko earlier but Arif sang praises about it when we met him in Akihabara. We decided on Nikko and tried to find out as much as possible through the internet. We decided to get there on the Tobu Nikko pass, which would make the trip more reasonable and hasslefree.
On tuesday, we left home around 7 in the morning. We took the Odakyu line till Yoyogi uehara station and from there changed lines and reached Asakusa station around 8 30. We reached there just in the nick of time to catch the train bound to Nikko. We took the pass and left on the express train around 9 15. We reached our destination in a bit more than two hours. The train ride was a very nice one. We could see the Japan we had not seen till then, full of farmers and paddy fields. On reaching Nikko, first thing we saw is a desi restaurant(Asian Garden) right in front of the station run by a Bangladeshi. We ate some prawn curry over there and they suggested us to stay in a Dormitory they have around Lake Chuzenji. After having lunch, Siddhartha and I took the bus till Nihisando. We saw the different temples and shrines over there. It was a beautful sight. The japanese architecture was for us to see there. However, what makes that place really beautiful is the greenery. We saw the real glow of nature after having seen the winter all these months. We saw the Sakura glow in Tokyo in the first two weeks of april but the glow was still to be seen in Nikko.
After the Temples and shrines we took the bus to lake Chuzenji and kept our bags and checked into the dormitory in Asian garden. It was a very cheap option(1500 Yen a night) and the dormitory was not very crowded. We took the bus to see Ryuzu falls after taking rest for about 30 minutes. Ryuzu falls was a very beautiful sight. We could see the water flow from somewhere with great force. One cant help just follow the water to see where it is coming from. We walked upstream and as we went the sight got more and more beautiful. We took pictures and walked through the woods. It was an amazing feeling where we could smell the nature and feel the winds blow. While the water kept flowing and made a very musical sound. I must say the 2 km walk upstream dint feel like hard work. It was just going with the flow. If I was to pick my best experience in this country, it would be this "walk in the woods". On reaching the top where we thought of taking a bus to return to our dormitory but the bus just left and the next bus was after one hour. We now decided to walk back downhill and hoped the bus would catch us while we are walking back. It turned out to be a 4 km walk back to our dorm. It was tiring but fun. Especially the cool wind and the natural surroundings made it feel so. We reached our dorm around 8 pm. We had our dinner which was an Indian style buffet. It was more Bengali style(sweet) and reminded me of my stay in Kolkata. We went to sleep after dinner. There we got into a very interisting conversation with a Dutch person of Iranian descent. What began as a friendly talk, turned into a political arguement. Siddhartha was smart enough to change the topic and get it all down to tourism in japan. We were too tired to continue talking and we went to sleep.
On wednesday we had plans to see more lakes and falls. Nikko is a place full of lakes, falls and hiking trails. We begn our journey with the Kagone falls very close to lake Chuzenji. It was another beautiful sight. We could see a rainbow formation very clearly. It was another postcard perfect picture. So far our trip was full of each sight more beautiful than the other. We then had a look at lake Chuzenji and thought of retuning near Nikko station after checking out some more spots on the way back. We took the bus bound to Nikko station and got down at Nishisando. Where we found directions guiding us towards Jakku falls. We had another 2 km long walk uphill to see the Jakku falls. It was a very tiring walk but at the end it was worth it. This waterfall was not a very big one. But a big advantage here was that we could get into the water. I had carried my swim wear expecting an oportunity to getting into water and this was it. Siddhartha was the first one to have courage to enter the water. Though I can swim long and Siddhartha is not to comfortable swiming long, I was scared to get into the falls. Both of us got into the water one by one. It was a very special experience. Especially the temperature of te water was so low but the dip in the cold water made us feel so relaxed that we forgot that we had walked uphill to get here. We walked back down and took the next bus towards the Tobu Nikko station.
On the way we got down near a very famous bridge just to have a look. We decided to walk to Tobu Nikko station from there and on the way we even found an internet/information centre, where we got to know more about this very interesting place. We then walked back to the station. We had our lunch in Asian garden. After we had our lunch, to my surprise I couldnot find my pass. That was most important to get across Nikko town. I searched for the pass going back to the information centre and other spots but couldnot find it. It dint feel nice but had to move on. We now decided to go to Kirifuri falls which was not that special but I realised on that trip that the Japanese system trusts their guests I mean though I had lost my pass that would take me aroubd Nikko and back to Asakusa. They dint make me pay even a yen extra.
After returning from Kirifuri falls we found Daiyagawa youth hostel to spend that night. The facilities here were nothing special compared to Asian garden in Chuzenji but it cost us 2700 Y(double of the cost in Asian Garden). Anyway it was an interesting stay. We met some Japanese and Canadian tourists. One of the Canadians was a good guitarist and singer. That night was a concert like experience.
We left the next morning to Tobu world. Tobu world has replica's of most important places in the world. Each replica is of 1/25th size of the original and identical to the original place. We saw the best places in Europe, Asia, Egypt and America. Took a lot of photo's. The best one being near our very own Taj mahal.
After viiting Tobu wonderworld we took the train back to Asakusa and from there back to Hon-Atsugi. It was a hassle free journey. Where we saw many places but never faced any hassle either for travel or stay. We were back home on thursday evening. That day we decided to have much needed rest. Through our trip, our days began in the early morning around 8 and ended around midnight. We never even went to office at sharp 9 unless when it was absolutely necessary.
My friday went pretty quite. Went to Ebina for jummah and rest of the day washed clothes and finished all my pending work. We had plans to go out again on sunday but it dint quite work out. My saturday and sunday mostly passed in Ebina masjid where there were some interesting programs. I got to meet many people. One most interesting person was brother Loui from Spain.
I returned home only to watch some stuff on youtube. I followed a bit of IPL but its not quite possible to do it with the enthusiasm we do it at home.
On monday I again set out to Tokyo, alone this time. I wanted to have a nice time before I got back to work. As usual after zuhur prayers in Yoyogi camii I had a very good Egyptian lunch in Obento. Then I left to Akihabara to buy a digital camera. I bought a new Olympus micro but not before having checked each shop in Akihabara for a good international model. Atlast, I found a good deal in Yodobashi where I exchanged the points earned on earlier purchase. It turned out to be a very good deal. I managed a 30% discount. Im yet to use my new camera though. On my way back as usual evening and Isha prayers in Tokyo camii yoyogi uehara and had a very good Egyptian dinner in Obento before taking Odakyu line to return home.
Overall a very long and interesting Golden week and a blog that is more like a novel. I found it really tough to recall all events while writing it. I know most of those who read might not have the patience to read it to the end. Anyway, I hope to have more of these golden weeks in many more interesting locations in time to come. Lets say ameen to that.
My holidays started on friday, since I had worked on weekends earlier. My golden week began with a visit to Tokyo. My jummah was in Tokyo Camii where I discovered an Egyptian restaurant, Obento in Yoyogi uehara. Most of the desi's,arabs,africans and turkish people around that place have lunch in Obento after their friday prayers. That place was so much like "Zak's" in Bangalore. Same Shawarma, Khubus, Filafel, Hummus etc. After the Egyptian lunch I did some window shopping in Akihabara. I wanted to discover the japanese electronics market. There was so much choice if I wanted to buy a product meant for the japanese market. But the international products are fewer in number. However, even then you will always be stuck with many so many choices. I could not make a decission what to and what not to buy. I decided to come later with Siddhartha to make a final choice.
On saturday I relaxed at home. Did some research on the net about the places to visit during the holidays. Even then too many choices. Its not easy to make a decission when you dont have any constraints. Initially I wanted to go to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara but according to japan-guide.com, there were some interesting choices closer to Tokyo region. Siddhartha and myself were still unsure about the decission to make. Only decission we made was to go to Akihabara on sunday for some electronics shopping.
Our sunday began pretty late, as usual. Around 11 we left to Tokyo. As my plan always in on reaching tokyo(I always reach Yoyogi uehara around zuhur time). I went for my zuhur prayer in Tokyo camii and wanted to take Siddhartha to try the Egyptian lunch. For our bad luck, the restaurant was closed on sunday. It was a bad beginning but still we decided to checkout Ginza before leaving to Akihabara. We reached Ginza around 1 30 PM. Siddhartha had high expectations of Ginza but dint find it all that impressive. Maybe, I had praised that part of Tokyo more than it deserved. We ate in an Indian vegetarian restaurant called Natraj. Its not easy to find a vegetarian restaurant anywhere in Japan. The food was good but a touch expensive(2500Y per head). After our lunch we left to Akihabara where we met my friend Arif who was himself doing some window shopping along with his friend. He helped us find Yodobashi, which is the best place to shop for electronic goods around the Akihabara station. We actually dint take much time in buying anything. I bought an ipod. Siddhartha also bought an mp3 player and some other gifts like wall hangings and T shirts. We left to Roppongi hills after our shopping, where we had a photo session as usual near the sky scrapers of Tokyo. I walked to Hiro'o for asar and mogrib prayers. After which we checked out the Roppongi hills in more detail. We dint go on top but saw the festive atmosphere created over there due to the golden week ofcourse. We returned home after that.
We continued our research on the net about the places to visit outside of the Tokyo region. We had considered a town called Nikko earlier but Arif sang praises about it when we met him in Akihabara. We decided on Nikko and tried to find out as much as possible through the internet. We decided to get there on the Tobu Nikko pass, which would make the trip more reasonable and hasslefree.
On tuesday, we left home around 7 in the morning. We took the Odakyu line till Yoyogi uehara station and from there changed lines and reached Asakusa station around 8 30. We reached there just in the nick of time to catch the train bound to Nikko. We took the pass and left on the express train around 9 15. We reached our destination in a bit more than two hours. The train ride was a very nice one. We could see the Japan we had not seen till then, full of farmers and paddy fields. On reaching Nikko, first thing we saw is a desi restaurant(Asian Garden) right in front of the station run by a Bangladeshi. We ate some prawn curry over there and they suggested us to stay in a Dormitory they have around Lake Chuzenji. After having lunch, Siddhartha and I took the bus till Nihisando. We saw the different temples and shrines over there. It was a beautful sight. The japanese architecture was for us to see there. However, what makes that place really beautiful is the greenery. We saw the real glow of nature after having seen the winter all these months. We saw the Sakura glow in Tokyo in the first two weeks of april but the glow was still to be seen in Nikko.
After the Temples and shrines we took the bus to lake Chuzenji and kept our bags and checked into the dormitory in Asian garden. It was a very cheap option(1500 Yen a night) and the dormitory was not very crowded. We took the bus to see Ryuzu falls after taking rest for about 30 minutes. Ryuzu falls was a very beautiful sight. We could see the water flow from somewhere with great force. One cant help just follow the water to see where it is coming from. We walked upstream and as we went the sight got more and more beautiful. We took pictures and walked through the woods. It was an amazing feeling where we could smell the nature and feel the winds blow. While the water kept flowing and made a very musical sound. I must say the 2 km walk upstream dint feel like hard work. It was just going with the flow. If I was to pick my best experience in this country, it would be this "walk in the woods". On reaching the top where we thought of taking a bus to return to our dormitory but the bus just left and the next bus was after one hour. We now decided to walk back downhill and hoped the bus would catch us while we are walking back. It turned out to be a 4 km walk back to our dorm. It was tiring but fun. Especially the cool wind and the natural surroundings made it feel so. We reached our dorm around 8 pm. We had our dinner which was an Indian style buffet. It was more Bengali style(sweet) and reminded me of my stay in Kolkata. We went to sleep after dinner. There we got into a very interisting conversation with a Dutch person of Iranian descent. What began as a friendly talk, turned into a political arguement. Siddhartha was smart enough to change the topic and get it all down to tourism in japan. We were too tired to continue talking and we went to sleep.
On wednesday we had plans to see more lakes and falls. Nikko is a place full of lakes, falls and hiking trails. We begn our journey with the Kagone falls very close to lake Chuzenji. It was another beautiful sight. We could see a rainbow formation very clearly. It was another postcard perfect picture. So far our trip was full of each sight more beautiful than the other. We then had a look at lake Chuzenji and thought of retuning near Nikko station after checking out some more spots on the way back. We took the bus bound to Nikko station and got down at Nishisando. Where we found directions guiding us towards Jakku falls. We had another 2 km long walk uphill to see the Jakku falls. It was a very tiring walk but at the end it was worth it. This waterfall was not a very big one. But a big advantage here was that we could get into the water. I had carried my swim wear expecting an oportunity to getting into water and this was it. Siddhartha was the first one to have courage to enter the water. Though I can swim long and Siddhartha is not to comfortable swiming long, I was scared to get into the falls. Both of us got into the water one by one. It was a very special experience. Especially the temperature of te water was so low but the dip in the cold water made us feel so relaxed that we forgot that we had walked uphill to get here. We walked back down and took the next bus towards the Tobu Nikko station.
On the way we got down near a very famous bridge just to have a look. We decided to walk to Tobu Nikko station from there and on the way we even found an internet/information centre, where we got to know more about this very interesting place. We then walked back to the station. We had our lunch in Asian garden. After we had our lunch, to my surprise I couldnot find my pass. That was most important to get across Nikko town. I searched for the pass going back to the information centre and other spots but couldnot find it. It dint feel nice but had to move on. We now decided to go to Kirifuri falls which was not that special but I realised on that trip that the Japanese system trusts their guests I mean though I had lost my pass that would take me aroubd Nikko and back to Asakusa. They dint make me pay even a yen extra.
After returning from Kirifuri falls we found Daiyagawa youth hostel to spend that night. The facilities here were nothing special compared to Asian garden in Chuzenji but it cost us 2700 Y(double of the cost in Asian Garden). Anyway it was an interesting stay. We met some Japanese and Canadian tourists. One of the Canadians was a good guitarist and singer. That night was a concert like experience.
We left the next morning to Tobu world. Tobu world has replica's of most important places in the world. Each replica is of 1/25th size of the original and identical to the original place. We saw the best places in Europe, Asia, Egypt and America. Took a lot of photo's. The best one being near our very own Taj mahal.
After viiting Tobu wonderworld we took the train back to Asakusa and from there back to Hon-Atsugi. It was a hassle free journey. Where we saw many places but never faced any hassle either for travel or stay. We were back home on thursday evening. That day we decided to have much needed rest. Through our trip, our days began in the early morning around 8 and ended around midnight. We never even went to office at sharp 9 unless when it was absolutely necessary.
My friday went pretty quite. Went to Ebina for jummah and rest of the day washed clothes and finished all my pending work. We had plans to go out again on sunday but it dint quite work out. My saturday and sunday mostly passed in Ebina masjid where there were some interesting programs. I got to meet many people. One most interesting person was brother Loui from Spain.
I returned home only to watch some stuff on youtube. I followed a bit of IPL but its not quite possible to do it with the enthusiasm we do it at home.
On monday I again set out to Tokyo, alone this time. I wanted to have a nice time before I got back to work. As usual after zuhur prayers in Yoyogi camii I had a very good Egyptian lunch in Obento. Then I left to Akihabara to buy a digital camera. I bought a new Olympus micro but not before having checked each shop in Akihabara for a good international model. Atlast, I found a good deal in Yodobashi where I exchanged the points earned on earlier purchase. It turned out to be a very good deal. I managed a 30% discount. Im yet to use my new camera though. On my way back as usual evening and Isha prayers in Tokyo camii yoyogi uehara and had a very good Egyptian dinner in Obento before taking Odakyu line to return home.
Overall a very long and interesting Golden week and a blog that is more like a novel. I found it really tough to recall all events while writing it. I know most of those who read might not have the patience to read it to the end. Anyway, I hope to have more of these golden weeks in many more interesting locations in time to come. Lets say ameen to that.
Monday, April 21, 2008
Still around
Im still around I havent updated my blog in the last one month. Not because Im busy but I have done nothing special or new. Its been pretty monotonous of late. Go to office and do your work. On weekend I go around, typically to some spots within Hon atsugi or to Tokyo. Besides saturday nights are reserved to the deeni talk followed by dinner in Ebina masjid. It has been three months away from home and Ive started started missing India.
As far as my project goes, the development phase is done and the code is getting tested. We will have work only incase of any defect found or if the client wants some change to be implemented. One important member of our team, Rajasree left to India this morning. She will be back in 15 days till then Siddhartha and I have to even manage her part of the project. My current project is expected to finish by may end or june 1st week. Im not sure whats in store after that. However, I will be completely free through the next week. Its called the Golden week here. I plan to go see some new city in Japan. I hope Osaka, Kobe and Hiroshima. Siddhartha is unsure. Lets see if it works out.
For now I have nothing to update. There will be something interesting hopefully after the golden week. Till then its a slow but steady life at work.
As far as my project goes, the development phase is done and the code is getting tested. We will have work only incase of any defect found or if the client wants some change to be implemented. One important member of our team, Rajasree left to India this morning. She will be back in 15 days till then Siddhartha and I have to even manage her part of the project. My current project is expected to finish by may end or june 1st week. Im not sure whats in store after that. However, I will be completely free through the next week. Its called the Golden week here. I plan to go see some new city in Japan. I hope Osaka, Kobe and Hiroshima. Siddhartha is unsure. Lets see if it works out.
For now I have nothing to update. There will be something interesting hopefully after the golden week. Till then its a slow but steady life at work.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Another weekend finally
Getting a two day weekend is no longer a rule but a rare exception. Last week I had the privilege of having a holiday on sunday. My teammates decided to go out and checkout the natural beauty of Japan. On sunday morning Rajasree and Akhilesh were supposed to wait for Siddharth and me in the station at 10 but we were fast asleep even around 10 30. I woke up and went to see what Siddharth was doing, he had just woken up. Then we both spoke about getting ready at will and taking off. Right then I saw Akhilesh and Rajasree marching like they wanted to kill us. They were waiting at the station for the last one hour and we dint have a cell phone, that dint help. At last we reconciled and decided to go to Hakone at around 11 am.
We took the train to Odawara and reached there around 12 noon. From there we took another train on the Tozan line to Hakone-Yumoto. It was a nice ride. The train from Odawara to Yumoto reminded me of India(The train near Ooty on which Shahrukh danced) since it was not very fast and went through a less populated region. It was great to see nature at its best. This region was not like the Tokyo or Atsugi. It is primarily a tourist spot. Everybody comes here to see the Mount fuji, old volcanoes and hot springs. On reaching Yumoto we had a look around the station just in hope of finding a desi restaurant. But we were not that lucky. That region hardly has any foreigners. Foreigners are only tourists over there. We ate biscuits for lunch and left for a further trail.
We took the cable car till a station called Gora, where we got down and took lot of pictures. It was where the real beauty of Hakone begins. We took the ropeway from there, The ropaway stops at many spots before reaching lake Ashinko. Each stop has its own beauty. Especially the mountains emit smoke all the time. It reminds one of documentaries on national geographic channel about earthquakes. Its about the nature being extremely beautiful and devastating all at the same time.
The best part of this whole journey is the views we get to see from the train, cable car and the ropeway. This is something I saw for the first time in Japan ie. the laid back life. In Atsugi/Tokyo I saw people only rushing from home to office and back. The trains were full of people either listening to music or playing with their cellphones. In short as slaves of technology. The story was very different in Hakone.
Anyway, last stop of the ropeway was lake Ashinko which was again very beautiful and we were supposed to take a cruise from there but we were late by 10 minutes for the last cruise. We had coffee in a coffee shop on the bank of the lake. We saw some very beautiful pieces of art on the wall of the cafe. It looked the same girls photo's that were drawn everywhere but at different stages of her life. I asked the old lady who served us coffee, if its some famous personality of this country whose potraits are kept for display. Her reply was that it was her own pics when she was 12, 13, 14 etc. Now she looked close to 60. I smiled at myself and we left. Not before we thanked her in japanese and she replied to us saying "Shukriya".
We left from Lake Ashinko in a bus to Odawara station and from their we took a train back to Atsugi. We had our dinner in Bismillah and bid farewell to Akhilesh who was due to leave later that week. Overall it was great fun to see a new face of Japan before getting back to the grind on monday.
We took the train to Odawara and reached there around 12 noon. From there we took another train on the Tozan line to Hakone-Yumoto. It was a nice ride. The train from Odawara to Yumoto reminded me of India(The train near Ooty on which Shahrukh danced) since it was not very fast and went through a less populated region. It was great to see nature at its best. This region was not like the Tokyo or Atsugi. It is primarily a tourist spot. Everybody comes here to see the Mount fuji, old volcanoes and hot springs. On reaching Yumoto we had a look around the station just in hope of finding a desi restaurant. But we were not that lucky. That region hardly has any foreigners. Foreigners are only tourists over there. We ate biscuits for lunch and left for a further trail.
We took the cable car till a station called Gora, where we got down and took lot of pictures. It was where the real beauty of Hakone begins. We took the ropeway from there, The ropaway stops at many spots before reaching lake Ashinko. Each stop has its own beauty. Especially the mountains emit smoke all the time. It reminds one of documentaries on national geographic channel about earthquakes. Its about the nature being extremely beautiful and devastating all at the same time.
The best part of this whole journey is the views we get to see from the train, cable car and the ropeway. This is something I saw for the first time in Japan ie. the laid back life. In Atsugi/Tokyo I saw people only rushing from home to office and back. The trains were full of people either listening to music or playing with their cellphones. In short as slaves of technology. The story was very different in Hakone.
Anyway, last stop of the ropeway was lake Ashinko which was again very beautiful and we were supposed to take a cruise from there but we were late by 10 minutes for the last cruise. We had coffee in a coffee shop on the bank of the lake. We saw some very beautiful pieces of art on the wall of the cafe. It looked the same girls photo's that were drawn everywhere but at different stages of her life. I asked the old lady who served us coffee, if its some famous personality of this country whose potraits are kept for display. Her reply was that it was her own pics when she was 12, 13, 14 etc. Now she looked close to 60. I smiled at myself and we left. Not before we thanked her in japanese and she replied to us saying "Shukriya".
We left from Lake Ashinko in a bus to Odawara station and from their we took a train back to Atsugi. We had our dinner in Bismillah and bid farewell to Akhilesh who was due to leave later that week. Overall it was great fun to see a new face of Japan before getting back to the grind on monday.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Weekend atlast (last weekend)
It was a very long week. Each day of the week was very long. I think his is when you feel best about taking a break. I finished lots of unfinished business. The most imporant one being a much needed haircut. It was the first time in the last month since I left India.A desi gentleman, I met in the srilankan grocery guided me to a salon where he spoke to the hairdresser in japanese about how I like my hair to be cut. A salon is not the best place to experiment with a new language.
Next adventure of saturday afternoon was cooking chicken curry. To my surprise it turned out to be really nice. Almost like what Im used to eating at home. All thanks to the readymade masala mum had packed.Saturday evening was at the ebina masjid. It was a big gathering there as usual. Many new desi/paki faces. I made a new friend. His name is Faizan and even he belongs to Bangalore.
After dinner in the masjid we drove away to Yokohama about 30 minutes from Ebina. It was a casual drive. Even I tried my hand at driving on the Japanese roads. I was not that comfortable as I have only an Indian license, so dint drive on the main road.We were back in Ebina before fajr. Then, I returned home and hit the bed.
In the evening I had plans to go to Tokyo for some electronics market, which dint work out as I was catching up on my sleep. Went to Tokyo around late evening. Did my mogrib prayers in Yoyogi Uehara "Tokyo camii". It is one of the oldest mosques in Japan. Managed by turkish expats. It was a good experience.Then, I had a walk till yoyogi park. A jazz concert was on. Some of the Japanese audience of that concert guided me to the closest railway station and I returned home around 9 PM.Overall it was a much needed break and an eventful weekend. Not much to write, but the experiences were fun. For now its back to work.
Sayonaraa
Next adventure of saturday afternoon was cooking chicken curry. To my surprise it turned out to be really nice. Almost like what Im used to eating at home. All thanks to the readymade masala mum had packed.Saturday evening was at the ebina masjid. It was a big gathering there as usual. Many new desi/paki faces. I made a new friend. His name is Faizan and even he belongs to Bangalore.
After dinner in the masjid we drove away to Yokohama about 30 minutes from Ebina. It was a casual drive. Even I tried my hand at driving on the Japanese roads. I was not that comfortable as I have only an Indian license, so dint drive on the main road.We were back in Ebina before fajr. Then, I returned home and hit the bed.
In the evening I had plans to go to Tokyo for some electronics market, which dint work out as I was catching up on my sleep. Went to Tokyo around late evening. Did my mogrib prayers in Yoyogi Uehara "Tokyo camii". It is one of the oldest mosques in Japan. Managed by turkish expats. It was a good experience.Then, I had a walk till yoyogi park. A jazz concert was on. Some of the Japanese audience of that concert guided me to the closest railway station and I returned home around 9 PM.Overall it was a much needed break and an eventful weekend. Not much to write, but the experiences were fun. For now its back to work.
Sayonaraa
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Unfortunately I was not around
Feb 18th was indeed a very painful day for me and many people I know. Baba(my grandpa) passed away that day. He was a very strong and positive person. Every person in my family and extended family spread across the world has very good memories about him. He was a very knowledgable and took interest in helping everybody. We will always miss him.
I hoped I would meet him when I returned home, but thats how God willed. My sister mailed me the bad news when I was in middle of a very stressful situation at work. Thats when I felt most helpless. I wanted to be at home but couldnot help. Im in a place where not even a funeral stops the show. This was one day perhaps, I will always regret not having been in India.
Anyway, all I can do is pray for Baba's maghfirath and whoever reads my blog please join me.
I hoped I would meet him when I returned home, but thats how God willed. My sister mailed me the bad news when I was in middle of a very stressful situation at work. Thats when I felt most helpless. I wanted to be at home but couldnot help. Im in a place where not even a funeral stops the show. This was one day perhaps, I will always regret not having been in India.
Anyway, all I can do is pray for Baba's maghfirath and whoever reads my blog please join me.
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