Krishna Kari
10-Jan-2005I am staying in japan since a year and would like to record my experiences here through this BLOG.
We (with my wife) came to Japan in Feb, 2004. Leaving my story, I would like share the story of Japan.
Japan, the first thing that comes to our mind is the one we learned in school, Japan, the land of rising sun. Yes indeed it it, in Japanese Japan is called "NIHON" which means the "root of sun". But I am sorry to tell that I have seen less sun here than in india. Its mostly due to the work and the weather. We landed in a city called Osaka and this is the city where I spent my days in Japan. It was cold night when we landed in Kansai International Airport, which was build on land that was created on sea. This information didnt surprise me as we all know that Japan is the most densly populated country and hence they have invented minatures like BONSAI and Laptops.
Well we have the printouts of the accomodation and seeing the printouts we thought that our trouble has started. As theres not a single alphabet which we could make out from that leave alone the meaning of it. Except a hand symbol pointing a finger towards a building. We were told to show that to the taxi driver and he will understand. Suddenly we felt we are handicapped, the languages which we know till now are useless. Its like losing an organ in our body. Any way thats just the begining and there are lot of surprises in store for us. After completing the immigration check we walked towards the information counter and showed the address where we have to go. And the lady at the counter told us the platform number where we can catch the bus. 90% of this conversation is through actions only. Then with our luggage we went towards the bus platform. Then we need to buy ticket, we were asking people standing there about the ticket and surprised that no body can understand the word ticket here. Then we removed the biggest weapon we carried with us, "A guide to basic Japanese conversation" and hurridely searched for the word "Ticket" and found out that its called as "kippu" and loudly uttered the word kippu. That made lot of sense to the people around and took me to the vending machine and explained me, (ofcourse through actions as i have suddenly become deaf) about how to use vending machine to buy the ticket. Later the bus came and we are in. Got the first glimpse of Japan in the Neon lights. After an hour or so we got down at Moriguchi station and took a taxi, showed him the map and he dropped us at the "Shanpia Moriguchi Mansion" . I was told the flat number, that the door will be open and key will be inside the refrigirator. Happy that things are well organized I took the lift and opened the flat door, surprised that the room is very small and the fridge is of the size of a shoe rack. I couldnt believe my eyes, started cursing my luck for taking up this japan offer and shocked at the way the japanese have miniatured things. Came down took the luggage and with swapna entered into the first day of japanese life.
The story continues.......................................................
posted by KrishnaKari @ 3:15 PM
