Marriage celebration
Japanese restaurant (Harima 播磨) and Lord Shiva temple at Mudukuthere
Most of the days in November I spent at my homeland - India, to attend a special celebration - my sis marriage. Thanks to my prof, I could get a fairly long vacation of nearly a month. As expected everybody at home were jubilant, busy in various preparations and eagerly awaiting for the event. I landed home a week before the actual celebration. Though I expected last minute tasks to be handed over to me, thanks to my dad, brother and rest of them that I didn't have to do anything other than taking photos or videos of pre-marital ceremonies, accompanying them to shopping and inviting my friends. As for me, the pre-marital ceremonies were itself hectic with lots of interesting rituals (Shastra ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ) happening at home. Some of them include dressing the bride each day in a new saree followed by ritual blessings from married women, bangle wear ಶಾಸ್ತ್ರ, coconut leaf-roofed marquee (ಮದುವೆ ಚಪ್ಪರ) in front of home, applying henna (ಗೋರಂಟಿ) on hands and foot and so on. Those are some of the most enjoying and memorable moments as everybody in the family and friends come together and celebrate in unison.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
The Indian marriage usually comprises of marriage and reception. The marriage is the actual event in which the pair dress in traditional wear and experience ceremonial rituals like tying the wedding knot (Thaali ತಾಳಿ), exchange of garlands, blessings from the attendees and many others. The customs however differ according to caste, religion, and the location. During reception, the groom dress in suit, the bride in glamarous saree and they greet the guests accompanied by series of photo-sessions. In addition two events are associated with dinner or lunch. The event though appears long and tiring for the marrying individuals, is nevertheless worth to cherish once in a life time.
Apart from marriage ceremony, I could make time to visit some of my relatives near and far. I also happen to go for the first time to a Japanese restaurant in Bangalore along with my siblings and cousins. Overall, the vacation was eventful except that I dearly missed going out with my old friends.
Saturday, December 22, 2007
Halloween ghosts and Halloween kids
In the last week of October, the yearly Halloween party was organized in a special Halloween train (the local Echizen train) at Fukui. The party is special since the entire train is converted into a disco floor for all sorts of halloween ghosts dancing to loud hip-hop music. The train travels in the evening from Fukui main station to a final stop at Katsuyama and returns back after a short break constituting a rocking ~3 hr journey.
Aerial view of Shirakawa-go town and Close-up of Gassho zukuri houses
My eco study group and Japanese paper (Washi) in the making
Its been a long time since the last post. In the last week of September, I and few of my friends had joined for the Eco study tour visiting various interesting places in neighbouring Gifu, Toyama and Ishikawa prefectures. It was my first time to participate in the event and I could enjoy it very well. Our first visit was to Shirakawa-go town in Gifu prefecture which is popular for ancient houses called Gassho zukuri . Together with that of Gokayama in Toyama prefecture they are designated as World heritage site by UNESCO. The walk to Gassho zukuri houses guided by local school children was good fun. The event was a 2-day trip during which we had hiking, group discussions, making japanese paper and so on. Overall the event was splendidly organized and kudos to Hokuriku JASSO group for their elegant effort.
Saturday, December 15, 2007
The Beautiful "Taal" volcano and Mall of Asia
Tricycle rikshaw and Our Group
This November I happen to visit Philippines, my first entry to the country of my beloved. Though I had landed in Manila airport in January as a part of transit, this was my first visit inside the country. I was fortunate that the timing of visit was appropriate. My friend Kath, from Manila had just gone a week back to her home and was expecting my visit. My first impression of the country as I got out of the airport was "feel-at-home", since I found similarities to India. The baggage delivery area, the conduct of customs staff and the airport exit area were reminiscent of those in India.
On exit, I was very much pleased to see my friend and her family. I was glad to note the sense of cordiality from all their family members which made me feel-at-home once again. After the introductory greetings, we headed to their house. En route my friend showed the various popular streets, places, malls and also highlighted about the sightseeing trips for the next 2 days.
During my stay, I visited the famous 'Taal' volcano, the smallest active volcano in the world. It is nearly 50km from mainland Manila and has some spectacular views from nearby hilly regions. Though we couldn't reach near to it, the scenery from the far was good enough to capture vivid photographs.
The visit to a water park resort was another interesting one where I could chill out in the various water sports such as swimming, boating and others. Of notable interest was "Beach wave" where in water waves similar to ocean waves were artificially generated. The water sports were thoroughly enjoyable.
I happen to visit some of the popular shopping malls in central Manila. The biggest of them, in fact the biggest in Philippines, was "Mall of Asia" which sprawled a huge area just near to the Manila airport.
More than the places that I visited, the kindness and the cordiality of my friend's family members and her friends were the ones that impressed me and will stay in my memories for long time to come. Thanks to Kath for the way it was organized!
Sunday, October 07, 2007
I just now explored the way to input kannada in my computer. Its simple and easy. Just follow the instructions given here. In order to install phonetic Kannada script one needs to download Indic input IME from www.bhashaindia.com Its amazing and works superbly.
ಗಣಕ ಯಂತ್ರದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಥಮ ಭಾರಿಗೆ ಕನ್ನಡವನ್ನು ಬರೆಯಲು ಈಗಷ್ಟೆ ಕಂಡುಹಿಡಿದೆ. ಮೇಲೆ ಆಂಗ್ಲಭಾಷೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಬರೆದಿರುವ ಹಾಗೆ ಗಣಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಸೊಫ್ಟ್ ವೇರ್ ಇನ್ಸ್ ಟಾಲ್ಲ್ ಮಾಡಿ.
Friday, October 05, 2007
My first Baseball batting and M-chan batting
The pitcher and Our Baseball Group
Recently, I had an opportunity to try playing baseball, a new sport in my repertoires of sports. To play baseball was a fascination that I eagerly awaited since I arrived in Japan. In fact, I knew little of the game before coming to Japan and always thought of it as a variant of cricket in this part of the world. In the initial days I never bothered to know it seriously until a friend from Cuba, another nation hugely popular in baseball apart from Japan and US, explained the rules of the game. Baseball, as a game is so popular in Japan as is cricket in India. Though the game tools are similar to cricket (bat&ball), the rules of the game are quite different. Unlike in cricket where the bat is flat, baseball bat is a cylindrical stick which is swung horizontally to a fully tossed ball. A batter should however, not only make contact to the ball but also has to hit in the right direction to score runs. Look here for more rules. My first experience of playing it was quite good. A baseball game was organized as a send-off event to one of our lab member. It was good fun as we had included even the kids of a member of the lab staff. I was glad to make the opening score for my team.
Friday, September 28, 2007
View of Downtown Manhattan and Ground Zero (site of former WTC twin towers)
Skyscraper and Statue of Liberty
I happen to visit New york city (NYC) for a couple of days on mid-september following the Joint Molecular Imaging Conference at Providence, Rhode Island in USA. I was really amazed with this city for more reasons than I imagined. My first experience at NYC started while riding the subway train from JFK to Penn station. As it was evening hours the train got filled up as it neared to NYC. It was short ride though since I had to move to Providence immediately without getting out of station. On the way back, I took my time in exploring NYC along with my friend K.th. Just after exiting the Penn station, I had a view of my first close-up look of a skyscraper (photo attached). Gosh! what a sight! After realizing that we are on 34th street, we decided to walk to the accomodation at 47th street. As it was already morning 10am, my worry of walking under the sun was effectively culled by the shadowy sky scrapers. According to the travel plans we visited central park in the first afternoon, later headed to American museum of natural history. The visit to central park brought me back to the familiar semblance of vegetation on this man-made spectacle of concrete jungle. Well, later I was not surprised to learn that even the central park is an artificial construction. The museum had some spectacular dinosaur fossils and a wide variety of zoological creatures that would interest any animal-lover, but not me! The evening exploration was Empire state building, where in crowd was so much that it took few hours to reach the top. Once on the summit, the night view of NYC was glorious and still fresh in mind. The city of skyscrapers glows in all its splendor. That was just awesome!!
The next day, we went downtown Manhattan to Ground Zero, the site of former Twin towers. While the construction work for new towers is thick and fast, it blows up my mind imagining the supremely tall structure (more than twice the height of two green roofed buildings in photo) being grounded. How cruel must be the heart of sinners? The next destination was to Statue of Liberty and Staten Island. Looking the downtown from those islands is absolutely brilliant. Post-lunch, we headed to midtown via MTA bus, getting a glimpse of fast-paced life in Manhattan. A visit to Rockefeller foundation was made later. The evening walk on Times square was the most memorable as the whole area glitters in huge neon light structures dazzling all the skyscrapers lining the street.
Having seen the man-made marvel city, I couldn't resist buying books about NYC growth and Twin tower tragedy. Besides the edifices, I marveled at the ethnic diversity of the city. People of all races reside, work and survive. It truly is a melting pot. It is a must-visit location for any traveller, but barely will it satisfy only with one visit!
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Its been a long time since I posted. The days were busy enough to keep me off from penning down. On August 11th I attended a fireworks festival in a nearby portal town called Mikuni. As every year this year too huge number of spectators (~200,000) had gathered for the brilliant fireworks spectacle. I, along with my international friends went by a crowded train, reaching there late evening. After a swift food shopping at the local tents, we groped for a suitable place and fortunately got one of the best views.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
Koshino Beach and Barbecue party at Kunimidake Camping site
Enjoying fireworks and Scenery on the way back
The season now in Japan is summer and this year it is unusually hot and humid. To enjoy the season in spite of sweltering heat is to get in to cooler locales, be it higher altitudes such as mountain-tops or down to water as into a sea. Fortunately, the University of Fukui organized 2-days camping trip on August 8&9th where in I had a chance to enjoy the cooler ambience of mountain top as well as sea. The initial visit was to a beach called Koshino, within Fukui, where in our group of around 40 international students including japanese friends had fun in swimming, ball-chase, suika-wari (Hitting a watermelon blind-folded) and so on. From the sea-shore, we headed high up a mountainous range to Kunimidake camping site. On the vast lawn over there, we enjoyed playing outdoor games such as soccer and volley ball. The evening camping was all the more fun with barbecue party, fireworks and some interesting group games. The camping cottages for night rest though well ventilated with a cool natural breeze blowing inside, had just tatami mats as our beds, much to the discomfort of some.
The next day we had a light breakfast and a free walk around the site after which we packed our bags to return to much familiar atmosphere of hot and sultry dry land.
Sunday, August 05, 2007
Fu-magazine cover and The cuisine page
Recently, I had a request from Fukui news paper (Fukui shimbun) agency to make an Indian curry dish. Come August, the japanese summer begins and for nearly one and half month the weather gets hot and humid. Interestingly, in this season the japanese favor spicy and hot flavors in contrast to their orthodox neutral flavored japanese delicacies. The logic behind this is eating hot and spicy food causes more sweating, which results in cooling the body. Anyway, I was surprised to get a call for introducing Indian spicy cuisine. The Indian dishes are generally conceived here as one of the most hot yet delicious. I am amazed about the popularity of Indian curries, so much so that when I introduce my country of origin, the obvious next question will be on Indian hot curries. Due to their much popularity, I was told by Fukui shimbun staff not to introduce curry but something else which still has hot spices as its constituents. After some deep thoughts, I planned to make a version of Alu parata having a mix of usual locally available spices like coriander, turmeric, chilli powder and cumin. Though my experience in making Alu parata is limited, to my surprise, on the D-day of my cuisine showcasing, the paratas turned out mouth-watering!!!
Sunday, July 22, 2007
Mandolin concert and Harp performer
I was fortunate to recieve passes for two concerts on successive days of last weekend. The first one was a big event held at Harmony hall in Fukui, where in musicians from Fukui and the neighbouring prefectures gathered for a Mandolin concert. It was my first visit to any such major concert and it was a unique experience to spend 3 hrs just listening to a musical feast.
The next day was a concert arranged at a japanese family home, where there were individual performers of harp, piano, flute and some vocals too. It was indeed my first musical weekend!!!
Keimo School kids and Taiko (Japanese drums) performance
On July 7th, I attended a Friendship festival organized in a nearby school. Around 30 foreign nationals were invited as guests to spend time with the elementary and primary school children. The event was truly one of the delightful ones. We were made to play various games (tug of war, ball-in-the basket, janken and quiz with the little kids. It was a great fun to answer their quirky but smart questions. I was amazed at the preparation that they have undergone for this event as each little kid knew their responsibilities to conduct very well. There were also many entertaining performances on stage. I am sure all the foreign guests went back home with unforgettable memories of good fun. A big thanks to the organizers.
A Shinto ritual and Soba
Soba making and Kyudou (Japanese archery)
In the last week of June, I had an opportunity to participate in a 1-day trip in and around Fukui city. The event was organized by Phoenix association of global exchange for japanese and foreign residents of Fukui. I was fortunate to get the chance at last minute as I was in waiting list during registration. The trip began with a visit to the nearby Asuwayama mountain, where there was a special ritual of Shinto tradition. According to the priest, the ceremony is held every 6-months to drive the evil forces and clear oneself from the sins that had accumulated in the past. It was an interesting ritual where in one has to wave a bunch of grass reciting a japanese poem. All the foreigners and locals were allowed to have a slice of shinto ritual practice.
Following that, the next stop was at Miyama Choju Soba making center on the highway to Ono city. This was my third time to make soba, so I had minimal trouble in making one. Nevertheless, the soba guides were of great help too. Though there are several varities of soba, the one we had for our lunch was Oroshi-soba.
The most interesting part of the tour was visiting a Kyudou (Japanese archery) center, in fact the major reason for which I had registered in the tour! Though the demonstrators performed in absolute brilliance (hitting the target of diameter 50 cm, as far as 28m), our group of novice who were given a target of 1m diameter and as close as 10m proved futile as most of our arrows could barely hit it. My six trials yielded only two hits:( Nevertheless, it was the most interesting event of the day.
The final visit was to a tea house in a local park where each one of us could get a chance to savor Japanese tea ceremony.
Monday, July 09, 2007
My poster and Award Certificate handover
Certificate and Present
On June 28th and 29th, there was Japanese Society for Molecular Imaging (JSMI 2007)conference held here in Fukui in which I had submitted my current research work as poster presentation. It was a national level meeting organized every year and this year was its 2nd meeting. I had a surprising moment when I was awarded in three of the best posters of the event. I was much delighted to recieve the award from Dr. Fujibayashi, the president of the society, who is also my chief supervisor. My sincere thanks to you Sir.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Just last night, I had a surprise visitor on my car- Spiderman. Spiders are so common in this season that it is rare not to spot one on a day. Interestingly, the spiders over here are so vigorous that they build large webs (>10-fold larger than the above) in no time interconnecting the trees lining the sidewalks. It is not uncommon to strike its web while passing on sidewalks especially at nights while cycling back home. Even a overnight rested bicycle can be seen entangled in the web on next morning! A day's parking of my car near to my center had a Spiderman conquering the antenna. I decided to give the Spiderman a ride with its web intact. On reaching my home (a ride of 2-3 min), I had a look at the guest on my car top.
I was surprised to find it still hanging strong on the antenna but had lost its web. Wish I could capture the movie of its fight (flight) against air!
Multinational Cuisine and My contribution (Chicken Biriyani)
Our multinational group and party begins
Last Sunday was a birthday of one of my dorm friend (N.ya-san) and we all dormmates celebrated the event with a delightful dinner. As japanese guests, I had invited T.shima-sans (two distinct families with same family name-T.shima). After the party, the usual post-dinner chats began. The majority of discussions centered around cultural habits of individual countries. Such a topic involving diverse countries can never seem to end and we had to call off reluctantly when somebody pointed at the time reaching 11pm.
Friday, June 08, 2007
Kuzuryu festival and Traditional dance
Yaki tori and Fireworks
Last sunday there was a festival on the banks of Kuzuryu river very close to university campus. This festival is an annual event held on early June and is a one day event. It is celebrated by most people of Matsuoka and probably is the only time when one can see such a big assemblage over here. It includes performances on the boat, parade, dancing, singing and finally finishing off with brilliant fireworks. Some of the food available in the outlets were mouth-watering and I couldn't resist buying twice!
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