Tour to Japan under JENESYS - Nimisha S Pradeep shares her experiences

After the farewell party in Delhi airport given by the dignitaries of Japanese Embassy, we boarded the Japan Airlines .It was an eleven hours long flight journey.

We reached Japan on 4^th November  at 7:20 am ie;3:50 am according to Indian Standard Time(IST). Japan is three and a half hours ahead of IST. From the Narita International airport we were taken to Narita city hall for a brief introduction about the program. After this we met our coordinator Chihiro Ishimaro and interpreter Mizuzu mam. They took us to an Indian restaurant for lunch. Then we were taken to the Eon mall for shopping. In the evening we were taken to the Apa resort in Makhuari area of Chiba prefecture for the night stay. 

The next day we visited the Edo Tokyo museum where we learnt about how Japan woke up after the Second World War. From there we went to the Panasonic center. We saw many latest technologically developed equipments like the ecofriendly washing machines, TV’s, fridges etc. we returned to the hotel in the evening. The next morning we were taken to the Aichi prefecture, another big city in Japan. We went there in Shinkansen bullet train. We were very excited about this. These trains ran at a speed of 320km/hr. they stopped in a station for just one minute. In Aichi, we were first taken to the Kariya city hall where we had a small discussion with the mayor of Kariya on Indo- Japanese relations. That day we also had an opportunity to taste Sphageta, the Japanese noodles, Japanese roti with soya sauce, a soup and some sticky rice. 

The next day, we were taken to the Reimei High School .we presented a cultural program there. We were taken to different classrooms. I had to attend a Japanese class. Neither the sir nor the students knew English s we had to use all kinds of actions to make them understand. I was grouped to the English exchange club and cooking club of the school. In the English exchange club we played word building with Japanese students and in the cooking club we prepared pumpkin pie. It was very tasty. In the evening the host family came to fetch us and we went with them. I went to Mr.Tukodome’s family. His wife was from Philippines and so she knew little English. They had an eighteen years old daughter. We were asked to call them ottosan and okhasen which means father and mother in Japanese. We stayed with them for two days. They were very hospitable and friendly and treated us like their own children. They took us to different places like the Nogano No Sato, the illuminated garden, a Buddhist shrine, a Japanese coffee shop etc. we also had an opportunity to taste sushi, the traditional dish of Japan made out of rice, momos and Japanese green tea during our home stay. After the home stay program we went back to the hotel.

 On the last day of our stay in Japan, we were taken to the Toyota car manufacturing factory. We saw around 20-30 robots working in the welding process of car manufacturing process. Afterwards we were taken back to Tokyo in a bullet train. In the evening we had a reporting session and farewell dinner in the Narita city hall. We reached back in India on 11^th at 6:30 pm.

The main things that remain etched in my mind about Japan is the people of Japan .they are very polite, kind, helpful, punctual, sincere and cheerful. Even when they meet an unknown person they don’t forget to bow down and show their respect. They willingly render all kinds of services. Secondly, the country is very clean and people are very health conscious. Then comes the stringent traffic rules. We noticed that unlike in India, vehicles stop at red lights even at late nights though the traffic police was not present. All this makes Japan different from India.