Nagoya: 13.06.2005
Nagoya is 350 km south-west of Tokyo and is primarily an industrial port city. TMC’s main plant is located here.
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We landed at 7.30 am after a far better flight and better sleep. It is easy to make out how systematic and efficient the country is even at immigration, customs and baggage claim. The whole process would have taken less than 10 mins!
.Our tour guide was waiting outside and it took us some time to change money. We pushed off in a bus at 8.45 am. As our hotel rooms would not be ready till 1.00 pm, we were about to do some sight-seeing in Nagoya first.
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The weather was cooler than at Muscat, but still a bit too sunny for comfortable sight-seeing. The airport is around 40-min drive from the city. Our guide Ms Kiku gave some commentary on the city history and layout, which we dozed through.
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Our Hotel Westin is located beside two tourist attractions, the Noh Theatre and the Nagoya Castle. The Noh, or musical drama, is performed in a 63-seater theatre. The stage, made of cypress wood, is very beautiful and quite fragrant.......
Nagoya is 350 km south-west of Tokyo and is primarily an industrial port city. TMC’s main plant is located here.
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We landed at 7.30 am after a far better flight and better sleep. It is easy to make out how systematic and efficient the country is even at immigration, customs and baggage claim. The whole process would have taken less than 10 mins!
.Our tour guide was waiting outside and it took us some time to change money. We pushed off in a bus at 8.45 am. As our hotel rooms would not be ready till 1.00 pm, we were about to do some sight-seeing in Nagoya first.
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The weather was cooler than at Muscat, but still a bit too sunny for comfortable sight-seeing. The airport is around 40-min drive from the city. Our guide Ms Kiku gave some commentary on the city history and layout, which we dozed through.
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Our Hotel Westin is located beside two tourist attractions, the Noh Theatre and the Nagoya Castle. The Noh, or musical drama, is performed in a 63-seater theatre. The stage, made of cypress wood, is very beautiful and quite fragrant.......
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The Nagoya Castle is a veritable fort, the house of the Nagoya lords, three of whom also became emperors. The castle has now been converted into a museum housing the castle’s history as well as examples of medieval clothing, armour etc. The castle-roof is also mounted with two huge golden fishes (18 carat). Apparently their forms are borrowed from the Indian ‘makara’. Because of the Expo running in the city, they have been brought down and kept as exhibits. They can even be touched for a fee and great good fortune invited..
The Nagoya Castle is a veritable fort, the house of the Nagoya lords, three of whom also became emperors. The castle has now been converted into a museum housing the castle’s history as well as examples of medieval clothing, armour etc. The castle-roof is also mounted with two huge golden fishes (18 carat). Apparently their forms are borrowed from the Indian ‘makara’. Because of the Expo running in the city, they have been brought down and kept as exhibits. They can even be touched for a fee and great good fortune invited..
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.We were slightly tight on time as Kiku had booked an Indian restaurant 'Akbar' on our request at 11.30 am, which we reached on the dot. Naan, aloo-bhaji and daal had never tasted so delicious! Kiku gave us lots of advice as to how to reach this place. The Japanese by nature seem to be very helpful people and will go out of their way to ensure that you get what you want.
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After checking in at 1.00 pm, we simply went to our rooms and flopped into bed. At 4.20 pm, Raj, Ram and I wandered out for a while, and then caught a cab when we found that even after holding a map, we seemed to be lost in the small suburb-type streets with little traffic! Raj wanted some “active place”, so we cabbed to the JR main station (our lunch joint was close to this) and explored the underground shopping malls. Pastries, for example, were RO 5/- each. We changed tactics and entered a huge building full of electronic and computer goodies. All latest models, but prices were at least 1.5 times higher than the Gulf. Our place is still the cheapest one for branded stuff.......
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After checking in at 1.00 pm, we simply went to our rooms and flopped into bed. At 4.20 pm, Raj, Ram and I wandered out for a while, and then caught a cab when we found that even after holding a map, we seemed to be lost in the small suburb-type streets with little traffic! Raj wanted some “active place”, so we cabbed to the JR main station (our lunch joint was close to this) and explored the underground shopping malls. Pastries, for example, were RO 5/- each. We changed tactics and entered a huge building full of electronic and computer goodies. All latest models, but prices were at least 1.5 times higher than the Gulf. Our place is still the cheapest one for branded stuff.......
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TMC was hosting a dinner for us in the Westin Hotel itself, from 7.00-9.00 pm. Four men and a lady from the Part Dept played host. General Manager level but very informal, including play-acting to demonstrate a point. We finished drinks and dinner by 7.45 pm and even our hosts were slightly taken aback, as they were planning for a long relaxed evening. “You all must be really tired,” they said and shooed us out of the hall.
.Tomorrow we are going to see the World Expo fair that is being held in Nagoya now. Will be a long and interesting day.
TMC was hosting a dinner for us in the Westin Hotel itself, from 7.00-9.00 pm. Four men and a lady from the Part Dept played host. General Manager level but very informal, including play-acting to demonstrate a point. We finished drinks and dinner by 7.45 pm and even our hosts were slightly taken aback, as they were planning for a long relaxed evening. “You all must be really tired,” they said and shooed us out of the hall.
.Tomorrow we are going to see the World Expo fair that is being held in Nagoya now. Will be a long and interesting day.
Nagoya: 14.06.2005
The word ‘Japan’ evokes a mental image of neatness, efficiency and discipline. It is fully justified; a fact I could feel not only in our casual wanderings in the city, but also during today’s visit to Expo 2005.
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‘The 2005 World Exposition, Aichi, Japan’, or Expo as it is briefly called, is a 6-month affair stretching from March 25 to September 25, 2005. Their target is 15 million visitors. Currently, they are receiving 20-30,000 visitors a day, which makes it way above the target. 99% of the visitors seem to be from Japan itself. Foreigners like us are extremely rare.
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In spite of this heavy traffic, their system of managing queues, moving along people and the prior planning for people-management are of a very high order. Of course, the visitors also fully co-operate, with no murmur about the long waits that sometimes happen when the ushers are creating space for comfort. Even a small example of a man standing beside the last man holding a placard saying “End of queue here” is a small detail that helps new arrivals. Hi-Tech checks like hand-held ticket scanners are also used, but they are a minor aspect in the mammoth organisational exercise. High efficiency with smiling strictness seems to be the Japanese style.
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A TMC bus ferried us to the venue, arriving around 9.30 am. Simply getting in (including airport-level security-checks) consumed around an hour. The entry tickets were already with us, together with tickets to the three ‘shows’ – at Toyota, Hitachi and the Japan Rail pavilions.......
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The shows were very good. There were huge queues for getting in, but, courtesy Toyota, we could avoid the queues. Toyota pavilion presented a Robot Band, i.e. robots playing musical instruments. TMC also presented their futuristic single-user cars through a dance presentation.
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The highlight of the Hitachi show was the interactive wildlife session. Seated with virtual-vision glasses and a hand sensor, we were right in the middle of a forest with rhinos charging into our seats (the seat jerks realistically) and crocs biting our head off (our head crunches realistically) and a giraffe snorting into our face (air-jets from our glasses hit our faces). It was very very interesting.......
The shows were very good. There were huge queues for getting in, but, courtesy Toyota, we could avoid the queues. Toyota pavilion presented a Robot Band, i.e. robots playing musical instruments. TMC also presented their futuristic single-user cars through a dance presentation.
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The highlight of the Hitachi show was the interactive wildlife session. Seated with virtual-vision glasses and a hand sensor, we were right in the middle of a forest with rhinos charging into our seats (the seat jerks realistically) and crocs biting our head off (our head crunches realistically) and a giraffe snorting into our face (air-jets from our glasses hit our faces). It was very very interesting.......
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The Japan Rail pavilion featured a 3-D film about the new MagLev (magnetic levitation) trains that can achieve speeds exceeding 400 km per hour. The wheels of the train lift off the rails and the total lack of friction enables it to achieve very high speeds..
The Japan Rail pavilion featured a 3-D film about the new MagLev (magnetic levitation) trains that can achieve speeds exceeding 400 km per hour. The wheels of the train lift off the rails and the total lack of friction enables it to achieve very high speeds..
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.There were innumerable food conveniences in the huge area (around 400 acres). We had been generously given 10 coupons of 500 Yen each (5000 Yen = 50 dollars). That’s quite a lot of money. However food is not cheap in Japan. We had a veg thali lunch with juice at a Sri Lankan food joint and it cost 1500 Yen. We blew a similar amount on a dinner of veg pizza slices and chips. For people eating non-veg the choice was very wide, with approved restaurants ranging from Asian to European. But most of our guys played safe and stuck to Indian or Sri Lankan!
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We also enjoyed a ride across the area in Toyota’s new development, viz Intelligent Multimode Transport System (or IMTS) vehicles. Three driverless buses followed each other at a steady speed along a bounded road..
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We also enjoyed a ride across the area in Toyota’s new development, viz Intelligent Multimode Transport System (or IMTS) vehicles. Three driverless buses followed each other at a steady speed along a bounded road..
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.The theme of Expo is futuristic and focussed on the environment. Most of the big corporate pavilions, led by Toyota, were highlighting this aspect in their pavilion design and presentations.
Nagoya: 15.06.2005
Today dawned cloudy. Yesterday it had been warm during the day; however, once the sun set, it had turned very pleasant.
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We were visiting the Toyota Commemorative Museum, one of the warehouses and a Toyota distributor ‘Gifu Kyohan’ (‘Gifu’ being the place and ‘Kyohan’ meaning distributor).
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Timeliness is a major God to the Japanese. Assembly at 9.20, departure at 9.30, reaching at 9.45, Director’s address at 9.50 (5 mins walking time to the auditorium) etc were followed to the letter. Even when going around a facility, if they felt they were getting delayed by too many questions, they would politely say: “We have a schedule. Questions later please …”. Toyota in fact is an epitome of timeliness and order..Toyota Commemorative Museum is the history of automobiles as well as that of Toyota themselves, displaying right from the start of the Toyoda family (please note difference in spelling) with weaving mills to the current 8.5 billion dollar automotive company. Full of video and working models, it needs a full day to do it justice.......
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The facility visits were also very good. Extremely clean and full of visual control tools. Very busy but silent, and no haste. They also have very high respect for the job that they do, however small it may seem. We had seen it at the Expo venue too – attendants repeating some instruction kept on doing the same with a smile and bows without a change in pace all throughout.
.We travelled through a bit of rural (or rather, suburban) Japan. The space between roads and houses is totally taken up by paddy cultivation. Space is at high premium, be it for living, parking, cultivating, and even dying I’m told!......
The facility visits were also very good. Extremely clean and full of visual control tools. Very busy but silent, and no haste. They also have very high respect for the job that they do, however small it may seem. We had seen it at the Expo venue too – attendants repeating some instruction kept on doing the same with a smile and bows without a change in pace all throughout.
.We travelled through a bit of rural (or rather, suburban) Japan. The space between roads and houses is totally taken up by paddy cultivation. Space is at high premium, be it for living, parking, cultivating, and even dying I’m told!......
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We were again taken out for dinner by TMC, to an Indian restaurant called ‘Maharaja’. Three tables had been booked for the 20 guests and 7 hosts. TMC is quite particular about load-balancing and at such evenings, they would ensure that some female staff members also attended. Tonight there were four young girls, who were imparted various branches of Indian knowledge with full vigour, varying from yoga to astrology to pickles to sarees to how to bring up children! I was at the ‘serious drinkers’ table where five people finished off two bottles of scotch, and no idle chit-chat, thank you. Food was very Indian and very good.
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However, our appetites are not always met so aptly whenever TMC arranges the lunch at some convenient restaurant or cafeteria, especially for vegetarians. Today’s lunch was corn-soup (good), salad (okay), boiled vegetables (well….), tofu paneer and some jelly topped with some cream (unbelievably tasteless and uneatable) and desserts of fruit and cake (good). Everything was presented beautifully, though. Our Muslim colleagues were troubled by lack of halal meat and were sticking to fish, till the Maharaja dinner, who had been told in advance about the halal issue and took care (at least they said so!). The luncheon cafeteria staff at TMC was very careful and did not even serve ice-cream to the veggies since it contained egg. We sat there licking our lips!
We were again taken out for dinner by TMC, to an Indian restaurant called ‘Maharaja’. Three tables had been booked for the 20 guests and 7 hosts. TMC is quite particular about load-balancing and at such evenings, they would ensure that some female staff members also attended. Tonight there were four young girls, who were imparted various branches of Indian knowledge with full vigour, varying from yoga to astrology to pickles to sarees to how to bring up children! I was at the ‘serious drinkers’ table where five people finished off two bottles of scotch, and no idle chit-chat, thank you. Food was very Indian and very good.
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However, our appetites are not always met so aptly whenever TMC arranges the lunch at some convenient restaurant or cafeteria, especially for vegetarians. Today’s lunch was corn-soup (good), salad (okay), boiled vegetables (well….), tofu paneer and some jelly topped with some cream (unbelievably tasteless and uneatable) and desserts of fruit and cake (good). Everything was presented beautifully, though. Our Muslim colleagues were troubled by lack of halal meat and were sticking to fish, till the Maharaja dinner, who had been told in advance about the halal issue and took care (at least they said so!). The luncheon cafeteria staff at TMC was very careful and did not even serve ice-cream to the veggies since it contained egg. We sat there licking our lips!
Nagoya: 16.06.2005
While still on the subject of lunches, we had another lunch organised by TMC at a hotel near their plant (which is around 1one hour from Nagoya city). It was a beautiful resort hotel, full of green lawns, lakes, water sports etc. The chef, in grave doubt when faced with all the variety of veg, halal etc, made everything veg. So we had onion soup (great), salad (okay, but the cherry-sized tomatoes were a novelty and very nice), egg-pant au-gratin (okay, but very solid), with rice (how to combine this?!). Some people ordered extra curd and managed.
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.Today we visited the Toyota Exhibition Centre in Toyota City, which is an hour away from Nagoya. All the latest and current models as well as prototypes were displayed and were described in detail by an English-speaking guide, supported by videos. Toyota’s set-ups and presentations are to be seen to be believed! We saw the latest hybrid cars like Prius (gasoline + electricity), which is already being marketed, The Fuel Cell car (hydrogen + electricity), which is sold very selectively as it is still very costly, and the N-Fine (fully Fuel Cells), which is still in the future.
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.We also paid a visit to their Tsutsumi Plant that manufactures Camry and Prius among others. Their assembly plant and spot-welding plants are open to guided tours by Toyota PRO personnel. They have built special overhead walkways inside the factory for just this purpose and have fixed spots where PA systems are installed for the guide to explain the surrounding operations. Total method in their madness! Their body-welding line in particular, with eight robotic arms working on a car every 30 secs, is really impressive.
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There was also a post-lunch classroom session on Toyota’s method of manufacturing and the quality systems that they practice.
.If we consider what we absorbed during yesterday and today, it may seem that Toyota is giving away too much information to competitors, who may also be visiting. But Toyota’s attitude seems to be: “Let them try!”. Their core philosophies, long-term vision, continuous improvements, short lead-times, manufacturing flexibilities, very fast product design, extensive product testing, are not things that can be copied from a displayed car or from a brief lecture on how a hybrid vehicle works. It has taken them 70 years to be an innovative production leader. In their own words, their strength is their work culture – and that cannot be copied.
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We have not seen other factories in Japan, but the Toyota factory is spotlessly clean. No sweepers in sight, though. Everyone maintains his own workplace. Nagoya and Japan in general are very clean places. No rubbish is visible. I do not know why people rave about Muscat and Singapore – they should see Nagoya. Somehow, the Japanese culture of work and living appeals to me very strongly: planned and standardised, but full of improvements. People follow rules, question them when they are not appropriate, but wait for them to change without breaking them.
.Tonight TMC hosted our farewell dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Food is such a funny affair here. Well, we climbed two stories up a spiral staircase (with conjectures as to who will roll down this spiral after bouts of scotch and as to whether imbibing a ‘screwdriver’ will neutralise this spiral motion!) and jostled into a small room converted to a banquet hall, with chairs along the sides. Four senior Toyota managers were already there as we arrived bang on time at 7.30 pm..
We kept on chatting while standing around, feeling a little awkward at neither being asked to sit, nor being offered drinks, in which case standing is okay. Murali and I decided that after seeing last dinner’s alcohol bill, they would have decided to put us on the wagon! Food started appearing and our hearts sank. Ice appeared on the tables and our spirits rose. Water and glasses appeared beside the ice-buckets and our hearts sank again. Juices also appeared and we gave up. But while serving, just audible over the growing murmur of discontent, the waiter said: “Have juice pliss, if no beer….”. And then beer appeared.
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In the meanwhile, since we had indicated that 8-9 people were vegetarians, they had made 20 veg spring rolls, which actually everyone had and it finished half-way through; so some people did not get and grumbled in Hindi. Such situations are very stressful for the Japanese. They did not even have raw materials for making more. Was the chicken halal? No answer. What is this ‘tile’ fish? Is it cleaned? Not sure. The prawns finished in record time, again upsetting the chef. They wanted a levelled production load (‘heijunka’), the secret of their just-in-time production system. One veg guy requested for fried rice, which was not on the menu. It was produced very quickly, but had egg and chunks of chicken in it, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the other people.
.After dinner, they served sake, which was a hit. But a person asking for sake was given water and another’s partially full sake glass was forcibly removed from his plate and replenished with a fresh glass of water and ice, deep bow accompanying. Finally, at 9.00 pm, after some 15 group photographs in different cameras, we closed with a vote of thanks to all the TMC staff for the personalised care and attention rendered to us all.
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There was also a post-lunch classroom session on Toyota’s method of manufacturing and the quality systems that they practice.
.If we consider what we absorbed during yesterday and today, it may seem that Toyota is giving away too much information to competitors, who may also be visiting. But Toyota’s attitude seems to be: “Let them try!”. Their core philosophies, long-term vision, continuous improvements, short lead-times, manufacturing flexibilities, very fast product design, extensive product testing, are not things that can be copied from a displayed car or from a brief lecture on how a hybrid vehicle works. It has taken them 70 years to be an innovative production leader. In their own words, their strength is their work culture – and that cannot be copied.
.
We have not seen other factories in Japan, but the Toyota factory is spotlessly clean. No sweepers in sight, though. Everyone maintains his own workplace. Nagoya and Japan in general are very clean places. No rubbish is visible. I do not know why people rave about Muscat and Singapore – they should see Nagoya. Somehow, the Japanese culture of work and living appeals to me very strongly: planned and standardised, but full of improvements. People follow rules, question them when they are not appropriate, but wait for them to change without breaking them.
.Tonight TMC hosted our farewell dinner at a Chinese restaurant. Food is such a funny affair here. Well, we climbed two stories up a spiral staircase (with conjectures as to who will roll down this spiral after bouts of scotch and as to whether imbibing a ‘screwdriver’ will neutralise this spiral motion!) and jostled into a small room converted to a banquet hall, with chairs along the sides. Four senior Toyota managers were already there as we arrived bang on time at 7.30 pm..
We kept on chatting while standing around, feeling a little awkward at neither being asked to sit, nor being offered drinks, in which case standing is okay. Murali and I decided that after seeing last dinner’s alcohol bill, they would have decided to put us on the wagon! Food started appearing and our hearts sank. Ice appeared on the tables and our spirits rose. Water and glasses appeared beside the ice-buckets and our hearts sank again. Juices also appeared and we gave up. But while serving, just audible over the growing murmur of discontent, the waiter said: “Have juice pliss, if no beer….”. And then beer appeared.
.
In the meanwhile, since we had indicated that 8-9 people were vegetarians, they had made 20 veg spring rolls, which actually everyone had and it finished half-way through; so some people did not get and grumbled in Hindi. Such situations are very stressful for the Japanese. They did not even have raw materials for making more. Was the chicken halal? No answer. What is this ‘tile’ fish? Is it cleaned? Not sure. The prawns finished in record time, again upsetting the chef. They wanted a levelled production load (‘heijunka’), the secret of their just-in-time production system. One veg guy requested for fried rice, which was not on the menu. It was produced very quickly, but had egg and chunks of chicken in it, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the other people.
.After dinner, they served sake, which was a hit. But a person asking for sake was given water and another’s partially full sake glass was forcibly removed from his plate and replenished with a fresh glass of water and ice, deep bow accompanying. Finally, at 9.00 pm, after some 15 group photographs in different cameras, we closed with a vote of thanks to all the TMC staff for the personalised care and attention rendered to us all.
Kyoto: 17.06.2005
Today’s highlight was our visit to Kyoto, erstwhile capital of Japan in medieval times. Kyoto is 135 km from Nagoya, which the Bullet Train covered in 35 mins flat, at an average speed of around 220 kmph. The train actually looks like a bullet, with the front end slightly distorted like the beak of a platypus, and is gleaming white in colour. The interior is midway between a KLM flight and Shatabdi express. Fittings are very high-class. The speed does not signify anything in a closed cabin with excellent suspension, but it was a first-time thrill. The experimental Maglev train, as mentioned earlier, will be twice as fast.......
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Kyoto is a small and cute town, but technically and infrastructurally as advanced as the rest of this unique country. It has, however, preserved a lot of old houses, palaces, forts and shrines and the old-world atmosphere remains. When going around the sights, we could see groups of children from junior school to senior school parading around with their teachers. Field trips to Kyoto are part of their school syllabus.
The tour guide rattled off a stretch of medieval history. However, what could be made out clearly is that there had been a tussle between the Emperor and the Shogun (samurai general) and for a period of 750 years, the Shogun had gained ascendancy, keeping the Emperor only as a figurehead. In the last 250 years ending with WWII, the Emperor again gained mastery. After the war, emperorship has remained only in name and the Premier runs the country.
We started off with the Golden Pavilion, where one of the Shoguns had led his retired life (at the age of 37). The lake there holds a beautiful temple, plated with gold leaves and topped by a golden phoenix. The gardens are also very peaceful and there is a remote tea-house where the Shogun would slake his thirst.
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[Facts: The Shogun Yoshimitsu was the third Shogun of the Ashikaga dynasty and abdicated his throne in 1094. The temple is called Rokuon-ji temple.]
With followed this with a visit to the Nijo Castle, which is right inside the city. Earlier, castles used to be atop a hill for better defence, but as the warlords gradually became more involved in local administrative affairs, the castles came down to the plains and the towns grew around them, although they were still well-fortified by strong walls and moats.The Nijo Castle was built in the beginning of the 17th century by Ieyusu Tokugawa, the founder of the Tokugawa (3rd) Shogunate. There was also a five-story inner castle that was struck by lightening and burned down, never to be rebuilt. However, the outer gardens and palaces survived and were used by the Shogun for living and holding court.......
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With a large number of big rooms, the palace is a single-story wooden (cypress) structure. All the chamber floors have simple tatami mats and are practically devoid of furniture. In reality also, the simplicity of the Shogun’s life was quite extreme. In some of the main chambers, like the receiving room and the living room, models of human figures have been placed to reproduce the seating arrangement of various officials etc. The walls carry very old drawings, in some places restored, and the outer walls are wooden lattice-work fitted with rice-paper for good lighting.A unique feature of the Nijo Castle is the Uguisu-Bari or Nightingale Floor. From the entrance to the Ninomaru Palace to the Grand Chambers, the floor-boards are designed to squeak, so that no one can unknowingly creep up to the Shogun! There are metallic clamps and nails fitted beneath each floor-board and with twenty of us walking along, the musical squeaks and tweets sounded like a forest full of nightingales!
With a large number of big rooms, the palace is a single-story wooden (cypress) structure. All the chamber floors have simple tatami mats and are practically devoid of furniture. In reality also, the simplicity of the Shogun’s life was quite extreme. In some of the main chambers, like the receiving room and the living room, models of human figures have been placed to reproduce the seating arrangement of various officials etc. The walls carry very old drawings, in some places restored, and the outer walls are wooden lattice-work fitted with rice-paper for good lighting.A unique feature of the Nijo Castle is the Uguisu-Bari or Nightingale Floor. From the entrance to the Ninomaru Palace to the Grand Chambers, the floor-boards are designed to squeak, so that no one can unknowingly creep up to the Shogun! There are metallic clamps and nails fitted beneath each floor-board and with twenty of us walking along, the musical squeaks and tweets sounded like a forest full of nightingales!
We had been picking up things here and there at souvenir shops, but lunch was organised on the top floor of a 3-story handicraft centre. As expected, there was some serious shopping done. I am sure the Japanese had never before been faced with so much collective bargaining! Their ‘Fixed price’ notices drew no respect from us at all.
We followed up lunch with a visit to a Shinto shrine. Shinto is the original religion of the Japanese, being nothing but nature-worship, with no human embodiments. But sometimes the shrine may carry an object of reverence, like a mirror or a sword. Even the people who have later adopted Buddhism as a religion still maintain their Shinto history and their houses may display dual shrines. As our guide said: “Japanese are 50% Buddhists and 100% Shintos!” Their religion is basically reflected in their rites and ceremonies. A new year, or a new infant may be celebrated by a visit to a Shinto shrine, whereas a death rite may be as per Buddhist rituals.
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The Heian Shrine was a very old Shinto shrine, with a mirror in the centre. The guide showed us how the ‘shrine entity’ is greeted – by two bows, two claps, then a bow with a namaskaar. Then a coin is thrown into a grate. This temple also has beautiful gardens. Most of the Japanese gardens are not the corporate landscaped variety, but more of the ‘nature walk’ type, with narrow lanes winding along quite thick foliage.
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Our next stop at the Hakusa Sonsou Enclave, which also holds a small museum of a famous painter called Hashimoto, was quite memorable as we were scheduled to partake in a Japanese ‘tea ceremony’. We took off our shoes and entered the tea room, located in a thatched hut. In deference to our Western upbringing, tables and chairs had been arranged, else it would have been ‘vajrasan’ for all of us. Our ‘tea hostess’ was traditionally dresses in a purple kimono, with appropriate facial make-up. Tea ceremony starts by partaking of some dry and wet sweets already served on the plates while the hostess prepared the green tea. The tea is made by mixing finely-ground unfermented tea-leaves in warm water and serving in small bowls. The tea leaves are not, therefore, filtered out, but drunk in the powdered form..
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The steps of the ceremony are as follows:
1. The hostess stands before you with a tea bowl and bows. You also bow.
2. The hostess places the bowl in front of you and bows, retiring. You bow again.
3. In case it is an attendant who has served the tea and the hostess is sitting at her table, you bow to her as well.
4. You also bow to the person sitting next to you who has not yet got his tea. This is to ask permission to start drinking before him.
5. If it is a decorated bowl, there may be a small face on the edge nearest you. Lift the bowl on to your left palm and with your right hand, rotate the bowl so that the face points away.
6. Drink the tea in 2-3 swigs (it is usually just warm, not hot). The last sip should be a proper SLURP, with an audible noise. This is a sign of appreciation.
7. Set the bowl down, tilt it away from you, rotate it slightly this way and that way and admire the workmanship and design.
8. Wipe the place where your lips have touched, with your fingers.
9. Rotate the bowl again so that the wiped place is away from you.
10. Bow and smile at the tea hostess.
We came away suitably impressed. They apparently charge quite a lot for these demonstrations (around $25 per head). People wondered whether masala tea in a dhaba can be marketed as successfully …..
We also visited a Buddhist shrine called the Kiyomizu Temple. Set atop a small hill (which we had to climb) it overlooks a panoramic view of Kyoto city. There are two unique features of the temple. Firstly, devotees believed that there was some merit in jumping down a 12 metre height in front of the main temple. If they survived, their wishes would be granted. Survival rate was 85%. Secondly, on a less violent note, there are three fountains spurting water side-by-side, signifying health, intelligence and wealth, which are recommended to be drunk..
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It seems to be a common practice to attach names and significance to natural events and make scenarios out of them. Brings fun into their lives, I guess.
After just a ‘little more’ shopping, we caught the Bullet Train back to Nagoya, detraining at 7.10 pm, on the dot. We wandered for some time at the station complex, Raj and I, finally completing our dinner at a nearby restaurant and returning to the hotel.
Our stay in Japan is practically over. Tomorrow morning we leave for KL, reaching in the evening. The morning day after we fly to Dubai and then Muscat, again reaching in the evening.
It was a very educative visit. The Japanese, surely, are a different people....
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