A cool dream come true..

From the first time I saw the song "Aawara Bhawrein .." of Sapne, the wish for playing in snow had been in my mind. But, never thought I would really be able to..

In Japan, the new year week is celebrated as Golden week.. yezzz one week vacation. Adding up the weekends, a total of jolly 9 days ;) [Well.. am penning this down a bit late!]
When I look back, the schedule seems awful. Daily, I was sleeping till 12.30 or 1.00 till someone else called me up and tell the plan of the day. Then it would be a rush to get ready and then masthiiii.....
Being a female, I thought shopping could never let my spirits down. But, by the end of the vacation, we had covered almost all the malls in the area and I was getting tired of shopping.

Le’me come to the main day.. The only day when I woke up in the morning ;) At 9.00, we set off for a long journey to Hatchikita. I was having a window seat.. As we passed half way, the rain suddenly transformed to snow fall... Tiny white droplets falling from the sky! The white-capped houses and snow bordered roads were all part of my first glance of snow.

Our Target at a distance

See the roads covered in snow

Snow clad homes

The trees with Ice leaves

When we reached Hatchikita, the snow was thick. Earlier, the house-roofs had put on caps.. But here, the whole houses and the parked cars were fully enveloped by snow. Trees were all having branches made of snow :)
The mountains were all snow-clad. We changed to ski dress ‘n boots. Those are damn good ones.. Really protected us from freezing. We reached uphill through the rope way. The view from there is just magnificent. We were encircled by Snow Mountains and the path downwards is also full of snow. We played snow-ball for a long time.. Yeah.. made snow man also . When I used to read Calvin n Archie making snow creatures, I knew it would be soooo fun.. and now it was my turn :)We tried skiing and fell down a record number of times in just 15 minutes. Couple of my friends mastered the knack of skiing very soon. The snow fall was becoming heavy. Could get a handful of fresh snow, direct from heaven in less than 5 minutes. Obviously it tasted good .. ;)

The Team

They skii down the mount!!

When the snow-flakes fall.. it is so calm.. No rush at all.. seems like it has all the time in the world to decide where to fall. Itz really different from raindrops. The snowflakes float in air for a long time in a certain state of peace. U'll love watching the snowfall. Especially if you are lying on snow. It brings a peace of mind and drives the haste out of our thoughts. I felt like there is no need to worry about time and space. Just float by yourself..
Snow is really beautiful.. It seems like whiteness stretched to infinity..I admire nature's tricks that water when frozen will be so different.

A really cool experience which I will remember all through my life!!

Bizarre Dreams

I am a person infamous among my friends for having craziest of the dreams and nightmares. And the funny part is I remember most of them. I have read somewhere that usually all people have dreams in sleep. Its just that all of us won’t recollect it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream

One of my classmates even suggested me to keep a diary of dream so that we can all read it together later and have a fun time. Earlier, I used to have 4-5 dreams in a single sleep. But these days, dreams are less.. Thank God! Some dreams really drive me crazy.

Today I woke up in a pretty confused state.

I was heading through a street to some famous temple in Japan. Suddenly the street becomes all crowded with people speaking Tamil and all are dressed in silk clothes. They were all in a festive mood. Somebody told me that a stage is being inaugurated in the temple and some traditional dance will be held onstage. I also moved on with the crowd. Suddenly, I saw lots of people weeping. When I looked into the compound of a house, I saw a beautiful middle-aged woman dressed in 9 yards saree(Tamil Pudavai). She was sitting on a chair and people were pouring water over head. Lots of others were sitting and crying. I did not stop there. Then somebody told that this lady has two kids.. a 3 year old and a newborn and that her husband was one of the victims of today morning's Mumbai tragedy. I didn’t get answer when I asked what tragedy happened in Mumbai. That faceless person had disappeared.Then3 ambulances drove in and they laid 3 dead-bodies on the ground. Somebody told them to move it up to the new stage. I didn’t see the faces of the dead. I could hear the cries of loss and I was feeling some sort of ache in my heart …A chill of death. I could feel the air filled with agony. I desperately wanted to get out of that whole place. I looked at the time and it showed 6.301,whatever it meant!! I saw a wooden door and ran to it. It was difficult running against the crowd. I somehow got out and then I was on my way to my apartment.I met my classmates on they said they were on the way to my place. They had motor-bikes and rushed past me. I was pushing my bicycle upon a stone-laid uphill… why ??

My alarm beeped before I reached anywhere ...and was relieved of more troubles.

The day in office was going pretty fine. In the afternoon, my colleague had a phone call and I saw him leaving the office with a tearful face. Later, another person told me that my colleague’s father passed away. The same dreadful feeling as in the dream was cast upon me.

Oh God, Let the soul rest in peace !!

Sandheeshein aathee hain ..

Yesterday, I got a letter from one of my dearest friends in India. Not an e-mail or a print-out! It was a simple hand-written letter, just like old times.
When I read it, I felt like she was talking to me. The fact that she had written it out gave a very personal feeling. I felt so happy and elated reading it ..
It was a very simple act by her, but really touched me a lot.
We usually chat and call up each other. So, the letter was really a surprise to me. She had written some of the daily life stuff like office matters and shopping and movies and some chalus(silly jokes) ..
The very fact that she thought of writing down the stuff really made me feel good :)

When I think about it again, these lines come to my mind ...

Sandese aate hain
Humein tadpaate hain
Tho chitthi aati hai
Tho poochhe jaati hai
Ke ghar kab aaoge
Ke ghar kab aaoge
Likho kab aaoge
Ki tum bin ye ghar soona soona hai

Kyoto - A dream place !!

The weekend before JLPT exams, we went to Kyoto. I wanted to write about this earlier. But cdn’t manage to extract some time for blogging.
Kyoto is the old capital of Japan and a city of immense historic significance. We set off from Sanda at 8.30 AM. Our first destination was Arashiyama - a district in the outskirts of Kyoto. We went to a park which is a borrowed scenery with mountains in the backdrop. They charge us an entry fee of 500 yen. We were a bit hesitant at first. Is it worth spending 500 yen for a walk around the park? But as soon as we entered the compound, we realized that the place was worth the price we paid. We witnessed autumn at its best !!
Next was TenRyu-Ji - Temple of the heavenly dragon. This zen temple is listed in the World heritage list as a historic monument of ancient Kyoto. The rock garden is pretty famous though we failed to decipher the meanings which the beautifully shaped/piled stones were conveying ;)
Autumn was in full swing. The trees had put on a beautiful show dressed in the wonderful display of colors. You tell any color and there were leaves with colors of that shade. Yellow, light red, bright red, dark red, orange, maroon, dark magenta, different shades of green and even there was a tree with purple leaves. The flushy green bamboo forest was strangely beautiful after the walk through the red garden.

From there we took the Sagano Romantic train to Kyoto. Our next point of interest was Golden Temple (Kinka Ku-ji).

If the sights in the daytime could be described as wonderful, the night view would make us go crazy. We visited Clear water temple (kiyomisudera) at night. It looked as if the trees were flaming. The leaves were the colors of burning amber. There was forest on one side. With the lighting on the yellow leaves, they were gleaming like gold. The night view of Kyoto from this height was really amazing.


In my childhood days, I have heard of and seen snaps of places where leaves are not only green. But since we don’t have autumn and this kind of beauty in India, honesty I never fully believed that such places existed. It was like a dream to me. I was just thrilled with the mere sight of the multi colored trees and the amazing temples. It was one of the most vibrant and memorable days in my life.

Shiken O Owattaa !! (Exam finished !!!)

Finally .. my Japanese exam is over!! As expected,it was tough. But no disappointments coz never expected more than this ;)
I would like to write a bit about this exam. Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) is a test conducted every year in Japan and outside Japan to evaluate and certify the language skills of non-native Japanese speakers. There are four different levels for the exams - 4,3,2,1. Level 4 is for beginners(the one I attempted) and Level 1 is the toughest, the one for experts.
Each test has three different sections.
Section One (Kanji and Vocabulary): This section requires the knowledge of Kanji characters, Hiragana and Katakana(Japanese letters) and Japanese words and meanings.
Section Two(Listening/Kikithori): This involves some conversations which will be played over the tape and questions will be asked related to thedialogues. We need to choose from the four answers which will be given orally.
Section Three(Reading &Grammar): The questions will be based on different particles and gramatical aspects and correct formation of the sentences.
This is a very helpful website for those who are preparing for JLPT. http://www.mlcjapanese.co.jp/Download.htm
For Level 4 exam, we need to study hiragana, katagana, 100 Kanji characters, 800 Japanese words and basic grammar. According to the examiners, we can pass the exam if we study Japanese for 150 hours. I started the studies just 1 month back and never managed to study for more than 1 - 1.5 hours a day. My main aim was not in passing the exam but getting familiarized with the language and for basically understanding the simple and common conversations/situation we come across in daily life. The general 80-20 rule suits here also. By studying for level 4 exam we will only be mastering 20% of this language. But we can understand almost 80% of the common usages and conversations.
One thing I appreciate is the Japanese accuracy, punctuality and perfection. I had a very casual approach to the exam. But read the instruction pamphlet yesterday. These people have such a professional approach and planning. Suddenly things seemed so serious and important!

Anyways, it was a good experience writing an exam after so long. The combine studies, feeling of flunking on the exam eve, exam tension, and finally facing the vilian question paper … all reminded me of good ol’ college days :)