Here I am - contemplating over one of those magnificient glacier's of Asuza in Nagano-ken. Reaching here took 11hours by foot and overnight's stay in Yariga-dake.
The best times in my life was reaching this place by foot, unaided by proper equipment for mountain climbing - the risk was thrilling (though sometimes fear crawled through and crippled my nerves in certain heights - I need to admit it).
This photo is just a sample of the whole trip. Trip began from Kamikochi and went wonderfully well over the long obon holidays. Lovely and addictive in short - the Japan Alps. 

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Two days on a stretch – I have had the Japanese police check my ID for the first time in Japan. Yesterday and day-before yesterday! I was asked for an ID card day-before-yesterday in Kamata station. Yesterday, yet another pair of policemen near Shimomaruko station again asked me for ID card.This was my first experience in Japan when the police have requested for my identification. But I never expected that my first experience will continue two times on consecutive days!

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Back to Sakura now. Something happened over the blog that I was unable to add more photos over in my last posting.
Sakura seems to have been very short this year. It has already started pouring heavily now and I guess the cherry blossoms will be struggling enough to keep their blossomed ones together.
Ebin - that should have been pancakes what you had the other day.
Now - here are a few more photos of food that we had a look the other day.

One is some kinda omlette with creepe, another is a barbeque, and of course, you can see all the octopus for yourself.



I just guess those above food items are all traditional Japanese.

What I have to do now is to probably make up mind to eat some of these - would anything ever change this vegetarian?

After all the shops and food, there was also good piece of entertainment. I have taken a few snaps of what I could. Here is one. I still can hear the beat of the manual drums and the vocals - something like "ah -ha rapp pa, hey rappa..." - spent some 15min just watching this. It was real good. I liked it.

More surprise: Here are some sample photos of the Bonsai collection that was on sale. Can you see those oranges and maple tree in pots?





And finally - the two travellers who escaped from Hirama and Yako to Yasukuni shrine. Here they are - Ebin and myself.

And with that - let me complete Sakura in Japan. More spring is to come! Wait for it...

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It's time for Sakura (cherry blossoms) in Japan. ANd what have I been doing? Got started with full josh from Hirama - and reached final destination in an hour - Kudanshita Indian Embassy in Japan. They promized all the South Indian Food that I was longing to have - that includes Masala Dosa too.
Only with a difference - by the time we got there - it seems the food was over. All that I could do was take some coupons, hop around the different stalls for over 15mins and finally - tired of looking around for some good food - returned the coupons to the stall. He gracefully accepted the coupons as if he knew that this was going to happen. At least, I got the complete refund. Alas! We shouldn't have chosen April 1st for this kind of thing, maybe.
With my infalliable thoughts that such things are bound to happen, I had taken enough lunch so that I would not feel exhausted when it was time to go around.
Then we strolled along the completely crowded road for a while. After which, none of the members had an idea of what exactly was to be done next or where we were all headed to.
Finally, Ebin and me made up our minds to visit the Yasukuni shrine (of great fame now-a-days due to Koizumi-san visiting the temple with controversial thoughts to bringing peace with China). The shrine was by itself all wonderful to visit.
Above is a glimpse of the kind of crowd at Yasukuni shrine last weekend (1st April). Of course, even in the maddening crowd, I could feel comfortable enough provided with enough personal space.
Sakura trees were all over blossomed and I could see the romance blooming all around the place. Here is a still from one of those moments.

Whats so special about Sakura? As anywhere else on universe - it is the food! The most enjoyable aspect of Sakura is the drinks and the food. I always used to say that there is nothing that can make a (wo)man more happier than priving her/him with stomach full of food with all kindness.

There are so many shops setup around the shrine today. I guess festivals and carnivals are the same all around the workd - set up shops in tents and provide food and drinks to the crowd around (at any maddening price you can imagine to burn your pockets outright).

I remember those days when my father used to take me to Katteriammam thiruvhzha near Ooty. All the same scene recreated over here with enough glamor and hype about Sakura.

But yes - it was a good experience. I am not a lover of crowds, but I did like those few hours that we spent around the shrine. Constantly remembering about the Japanese culture et. al.

Here is Ebin - we are a good company to each other since we seem to have similar interests (travelling and nature of course - sometime later let me mention about our trip to Takao-san).

And now, let me come back to the Japanese food.

Below are some of the Japanese food that I had seen. A lot more, I haven't captured in my lens. Japanese food is closer to Indian food than that of the English is what I seem to understand from my experiences, though yet far from the spiciness of the Indian food.

I hope I will learn more about Japanese food as time goes by.

I dunno what that is. But Ebin had a try and told me that it was nothing but a donut filled with sweet beans. Its hard to imagine anything that does not either contain meat or fish in Japan for me.

I would upload more photos and continue with this story soon.

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So: I found yet another interesting book one again - the "Sourashtra trilingual dictionary".
This article I came across has put my mother tounge in a new light.
The less known Sourashtra has been published for the world to know about it.
I may be late to discover this - better late than never.
Now - I have to look for a place to buy this stuff.

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Yes – Today I enrolled myself in the Kawasaki library. Not knowing to read Japanese is a big mistake over here. Even when the librarian asked for the n-th time my ID card with my house address on it, I was showing my company ID card. I always got confused between my company ID card and my ARC card. I felt very bad about it. But the elderly gentleman was very kind to put up enough patience with me and speak in English too.
Anyway – I found a book by Erwin Schrodinger – “What is life?”. I guess this would be an interesting read for me after Carl Segan. Lets hope for the best!

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Today (12th March 2006) in my Japanese class I made a blunder workwhile of mentioning. The “/” and “ノ” seemed so confusing to me that I was going on reading the “/” in between the sentences as “no”. It was written “iran/batsuda” and I kept reading “Iran no Batsuda” and was wondering what it meant all the time. More than myself making the mistake, I pointed out to another guy to read this character as “no” – Oh! To my relief  - my sensei finally pointed out that I was making the most terrible mistake of my life! Thanks to this world! I just realized how even a little bit of Japanese is enough to confuse a person (gongaragachha).

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Yes – I am late over here to talk about what the world has already recited so many times. Da Vinci Code was definitely a great experience and worth the reading experience. A book that is more of history retold with the chaos surrounding the evidence to what the world believes to in as God. I read the book to the detail and didn’t want to miss a single word and expression what the author wanted to reveal. From Paris to London – a thrilling journey through the times and lives of people we remember – and the things they have left behind for us to wonder about… Could it bring about a revelation of the truth (at least that’s what we are made to believe!)?
This book has thrown me a to light in Symbology – a subject that has enough mystery and alternative theories in itself to keep us engaged in it.
Da Vinci always inspired me from my childhood. I remember when I was taught in school about Leonardo Da Vinci – the architect, artist, human anatomist, politician, leader and what not! I was always awestruck by his multifaceted character – though honestly I didn’t have a clue to how much his work could mean to a religion and a community itself till I read Da Vinci Code. I would take that as an introduction to Da Vinci for beginners.
Hats off to Dan Brown for covering my favorite subject so well. Dan, I have been comprehending every detail mentioned in the book myself by running enough searches on Google. Of course – how can I miss your website: http://www.danbrown.com/novels/davinci_code/reviews.html! Thanks for the fantastic ride through time.

Dear Leonardo Da Vinci – someday I will return to you.

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All I wanted to do was buy a bag and get back home as early as possible. I got out of Shimbashi station and walked towards Ginza. At least – that’s what I thought I did by following some Japanese map - My friend comments that it is very typical of me to lose ways (. Finally, after walking in some direction along an unknown road, I came to the conclusion that I have lost my way. Now stood two direction indicating boards – Atago 1 on the right and Nishishimbashi on the left. I choose Atago.
I went to Atago after walking somewhere near Tokyo tower. Going near Atago hills, I climbed the Atago tower stairs and went through the tree filled park to reach Atago Shrine and NHK museum.
I choose to enter the NHK Museum first. The NHK museum is actually a simple place. But it got my memories rushing... Unfortunately... I have the habit of feeling nostalgic - memories of Ooty and myself?
Starting from the carbon microphone used in the studio in 1925 to the latest HDTV broadcast... there were all kinds of exhibits and demos. Then I went into a studio, where they show how the newsreader reads news (some 50years ago) you can go and sit in front of the camera and read some Japanese stuff yourself... I did try to read it anyway. And I did look like a newsreader? Now that’s difficult to answer. Then there was a simulation of how a moving train is pasteurized inside a studio and I sat in the seat while there was a image of background moving... in a static train cabin setting.
After that – comes the major fun part. There was a free movie show @ 2pm (everyday, I think – u know information is encrypted in Japanese)!!
Unfortunately, they didn’t playback the recordings of me on train, reading news etc. (
When I went inside that theatre it was fully crowded with people – I mean it was fully occupied. Lot of Japanese Granny's and Grandpa's. I was the ONLY YOUNG person sitting in the entire room!
My friend comments that I should be going to other places in case I want to put an end to my solitary lifestyle – not where Granny’s and Grandpa’s are around… Then the movie started…Japanese, Japanese, and more Japanese… And It was not me (
A traditional solo comedy talk show was playing… even the Grandpa’s and Granny’s didn’t have a good laugh – OR that’s what I thought! But that was good... even though I didn't understand a single bit of information. After half hour - there was cartoon. Of course, as expected – more Japanese. I had to say "sugimasen" to get out of the hall... freedom at last!
What brought my memories back were:
1. Old Tape recorder (Not the cassete tape - the big SPOOL Tapes) – vacuum tube types
2. Gramaphone records
(I have both in my house... my mother wants to get rid of them - but I just love them)
Then comes something very interesting:
Radio has always fascinated me – one reason why I choose to take Communications as my major and not computer science in my engineering.
When I was entering the museum - I was thinking about how I failed several times to make a crystal radio set when i was in school and I saw a crystal radio there!
First time, I am seeing a crystal radio that was implemented and working and probably commercialized at some time in history! Started thinking all about my experiments at school and how many times I had to face embarrassment when someone came home and I kept fiddling with my non-workable crystal radio set when I should have been around socializing.
For those who do not know the special feature of a crystal radio set – It can playback the radio waves WITHOUT A BATTERY.
God Google can help a lot now-a-days on this, I think – but when I was in std. V, I had only one book  - that too copied in a tiny piece of paper when I went to a friend’s home.
After all this high teach – come I walked out and enjoyed spirituality in the Atago shrine (one striking aspect was the mention of memory of Mr.Mehta in one place in the shrine – Indians making India proud everywhere).

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