Rashomon thorugh the eyes of an Indian

Rashomon thorugh the eyes of an Indian:

Finally, I managed to watch the 1950s' Japanese movie Rashomon last month.

For a guy whose lived in Japan for 2+ years, and adimred their Skyscrappers, the Beerbots, the mobile technology, the game shows, etc..., Rashomon was a pleasant suprise.

Begin I continue further...just in case you haven't seen the movie yet, its a absolutely marvelous movie.

The movie just deals with one incident, a crime, and 4 different narrations of the crime from by people. The movie deals with idea 'Subjectivity of truth'

It has inspired so many movies in various languages including Virumaandi in my mother tounge Tamil.

It actually reminded me so much of life in present day Indian villages.

The court scene where the men squat and respond to questions in such a submissive manner, could very well be set in a village panchayat in India. (Katta panchayat).

Samurai Seppuku's core theme which puts Honor before death is analogous to many medieval warrior stories in Tamil literature.

The monk, robber, the lady could all be mistaken for some characters straight out of Indian village.

Anyway, it still amazes me that Akira Korosawa made such a movie way back in 1950!!!

Hoping to see more Akira Kurosawa movies soon :-)

P.S: The movie is available in youtube with english subtitles...legally!!!...have fun:-) and post your thoughts!!

A Typical Sumo day - A Gaijin in ryougoku

I finally (siigh siiigh) managed to go to Sumo stadium (Ryougoku) in Tokyo to see the September 2008 Sumo Tournament last week.
Twas a really wonderful experience.
It has even managed to awaken me from the blogless slumber of six months :-)

The Tickets:
Well before getting to the Sumo day, I had purchased my tickets a month in advance.
Thanks to the official website and the helpful Lawson convenience store employees*.

I entered the Ryougoku just in time for the Ring entering ceremony 'Makuchi dohyō-iri' (3:30 PM approx) which is the ring entering ceremony for the 'Elite Sumo' wrestlers.



And btw this was my diiiiiiistant view from my 'B-Arena' ticket seat.

Far Far away in Ryougoku

The Makuchi ring entering ceremony was immediately followed by 'Yokozuna dohyou iri'.
This was supposed to be the high point of the day, but all i got to see was the big butt of the Yokozuna.

Yokozuna Asashoryu performing 'dohyou iri,' flanked by two junior wrestlers.
Shots of his okii butt.




The matches began from 4:00 PM. A typical sumo lasts less than a minute and is preceded by brief rituals. More info here

The 150 Kilo sumo wrestler (giving me a complex ;-) by lifting his feet this hiiiigh, and stomping the ground) is picture below during one of the rituals.


The day ended with a 'Bow dance ceremony' (Yumitori-shiki).

All in all it was a good experience.

Some facts which I thought might interest you:

a) English commentary for Sumo matches is available inside the stadium.
I can already see you relieved and similing :-)
Make sure you purchase radio and earphones at the entrance.

b) The best matches of the day are near the end of the day. 6:00 PM roughly.
So plan your day accordingly.

c) Purchase Ring tickets if you want a very close view of the Sumo wrestlers/match.
Arena tickets give you a really good view (but not a close one). Refer the second picture in this blog; it was taken from my Arena B seat - without zoom.

d) Ring Tickets are costlier and also get sold out very fast. Esp on weekends.

e) A visit to Sumo is a must watch especially if you love Japan/Japanese culture.

f) Keep visiting my blog :-) (LOL). This has got nothing to do with Sumo, but you will find more stuff about Japan and may be a post about my favourite Sumo wrestler Ama in the near future. (LOL)

P.S:
My second post on Sumo will follow in a weeks time.

If only it would snow at 20°C!

Winter arrived and I was really happy it came. After all, this is my first ever winter in my life!.
Yeah rite, I spent the first 24 years of my life in a city where the lowest temperature in
'winter' , if you could call it that, is 24deg. (Thats 75Deg Fahrenheit for the metric challenged :-))
So I was happy and eagerly awaiting for my first snow!!.
Snow came not once, but more than 5 times and it was a really good experience.
It was a wonderful sight to see the cars and the grass covered entirely with snow. It was really awesome.
I even got it recorded in my new Hybrid camera.

But here is the Sad part...

This almost freezing temperature is keeping me indoors in the comfort (read as 'artificially generated heat') of my apartment/Office.
And there is no fun to walk out side your apartment at 3:30 PM and see the sun going down. (What am I supposed to do the rest of my day??).
And the worst part is that I hate to dress up like an Eskimo every time I have to get out of my office/apartment.
(Sometimes even to go to a different building in my office!!)

The snow is good but the temperature is a drag.
And it seems there is no end in sight to winter at the moment!.

How great would be, if we had snow at a much warmer weather!!.
And for a change Chennai weather seems to be better.


P.S:
I did learn that in my 5th grade that it can snow only when its 0 deg. But how great would it be if it were otherwise!!

Rickshaw is from Japan!!!

Surprise, surprise!!!
Guess what this vehicle is called in Japanese?

Its called a - 'Rickshaw'.
Learn't that the word and the vehicle came from Japan.
Wiki says its a Japanese name. So I get to agree.

And we though only Suzuki, Nissan, Honda and Toyota came from Japan.

And guess what ...How much does it take to get a ride in this.....
8000 Yen for a 10 minute ride!! (Thats roughly Rs. 2700!!!!!)

Now you know its a picture of me standing beside it and NOT riding on it ;-)

Some Gyaan:
The word "rickshaw" originates from the Japanese word jinrikisha
(jin = human, riki = strength, sha = vehicle), which literally means "human-powered vehicle."

Click here in case you are wondering what a rickshaw looks like in India.

P.S:
Well, not much of any entry I guess, but anyway i was pleasantly surprised to learn this.
btw the guy in the picture is me :-), if you didnt get it yet.

Of Japanese Temples and Indian Palaces (and vice versa)

Coming from India you are not expected to be surprised by places of worship in other countries.
More so - being surprised about places of worship in Japan is not what I expected.
Japan was about Cars, latest gadgets, computer games, comics (manga ;-) - if you know what I mean) and the other Hi fi stuff. (Thats what my Indian Media told me).

What strikes you about Japanese Buddhist temples and the the numerous
Shrines is the grandeur, the amazing campuses surrounding it , the tradition which is still preserved and the amazing gardens.
Almost every temple has an atmosphere which is simply breathtaking,
be it the 50feet+ tall trees which line up the Hein shrine in Mt. Fuji
(a Temple built to appease the Volcano Mt. Fuji - I heard that the Gods were'nt impressed by the temple .. Mt Fuji had its biggest eruption almost immed after the temple was built in the 8th century and has never had that big an eruption till date;-)).

Or be it the amazing terrace gardens in Kiyomizudera temple o

Or the garden in Narita-san temple

Or the Kinkakuji (Golden Pavilion, Made :Largely of gold)

And well here is the twist...

The Japanese Palaces (The Nijo Castle - Home of Shoguns for E.g.) pale in comparison with the Japanese Temples
(and any comparison with the Indian Palaces, make the Japanese Palaces even more smaller in stature).
I dont mean it as an Insult, but to be honest it looks like the Japanese rulers had a very ordinary life (at least in terms of buildings) when compared to their Indian counter parts.

and come to think of it,

Its the exact opposite of what can be said about Indian Temples and the Indian Palaces.
Indian Palaces are biiiigg, luxurious, absolutely breathtaking but the Indian temples
(most of them, at least) start and end at almost at the same Place.

Come to think of it (again ;-)).

This probably speaks about the Indian and Japanese way of life.

While the Japanese Kings/Rulers were content building good palaces (good but not necessarily breathtaking), they just built and preserved amazing places of worship and others places for the common man.

The Indian rulers on the other hand built amazing palaces and other stuff for themselves but hardly did built anything for the conman man.
(Of course in a country as big as India, there are gonna be some exceptions to this rule, but then they remain that - 'exceptions!!').

and come to think of it....(ok,ok, for the last time!!).

Things haven't changed.

(Or has it..... Yes, it has says my mind ... the Kings have become Cabinet ministers and MP's now!!;-))

Now, thats a BIG change (sarcastically!!)