You don’t waste October sunshine

TOKYO MUSINGS

Inner Musings from Tokyo : October 2021

December 3, 2021 /

Welcome to the October post in the cold month of December…

October is a great month to celebrate the coming of autumn in Japan. With typhoon season largely over by the end of September, October offers some of Japan’s fairest and most comfortable weather and there are amazing spots to enjoy the beautiful nature such as hiking and viewing autumn leaves.

October was a little quieter month as there wasn’t any traveling, except going to Shibuya and Harajuku, the 2 most distinct popular areas in Tokyo for seeing or shall I say participating at the most famous Halloween celebration… Halloween in Japan is becoming bigger and bigger every year. From an economic perspective, it’s now apparently the second biggest event in Japan after Christmas. So, there are more Halloween events held in Japan during October, and is also a huge attraction to tourists.

As I got deeper into studying Japanese, I started enjoying the process of learning itself. A few months back Japanese as a new language looked seemingly very difficult and was thinking about whether would I be able to grasp a new language at this age, on the other hand, other languages came to me as a way forward while my growing-up years…Japanese, as a language being the first deliberate learning…

It was like, to my surprise, I got disciplined the foremost for something, which I got serious about lately and was happy that I started getting the knack how to interpret the Kanji’s, as Kanji forms the most of further learning process. 

Entering November, for the JLPT aspirants like me, it was a month left for the JLPT exam, and hence more and more time was getting dedicated to studying, due to which my creative and blogging activities had slowed a bit.

Let me recap a few interesting things about Japanese October…

So, beginning of October, I went to our Local “Hello Work” and got myself registered for part-time employment with my 28 hours work permit, which I have mentioned in our September blog. This 28 hour of work permit is the first step towards you being considered for employment, part-time though, but it a good to have stamping as soon as you arrive on a dependent visa.

“Hello Work” is a Public Employment Security Office, that provides detailed employment consultation and employment placement services according to individual circumstances.

You would be wondering, how a foreign national would be able to communicate with the public office in Japan to consult for employment opportunities without knowing the Japanese language. To facilitate this uncertainty, there are days every week where various language interpreters are available for assisting foreign nationals, but I thought of going on any day irrespective of the interpreter’s availability and to my efforts, I was able to communicate and consult the specialist in my till date learned Japanese and I thought, probably the conversation would have gone well as I was able to gather whatever I wanted to during that meeting, but there were times when we both had to put little effort in making each other understand – Oh, that’s a part of your learning…  

Even though I got registered at Hello Work and I thought to apply for some part-time opportunities, my wife suggested devoting time to studies. A daily commitment of 3 hours required on the lessons would have made 3 hours daily commute to work difficult. Hence, I decided to put all my energies into learning Japanese instead. Once the exams are over, I would again want to visit Hello Work to get some updates on the opportunities. If some opportunity is fixed, I will surely try to dedicate a separate post on it.

I feel, I am now developing a strong connection to Japan, as I see and indulge in the daily course of life here, and participate in Japanese culture closely. This month I earned a Certificate, completing the “Window into Japan” course by Japan Foundation.

About 10 lectures on Japanese culture from Japanese Experts in each of their fields in Japan, along with an excellent interpretation. This I enjoyed for 3 months, and I looked forward to each weekend for the session on different topics, and there is so much I learned in these sessions. I will try to dedicate a separate post on this soon.

End October, I was happy to receive my course completion certificate. I hope that Japan Foundation continues to offer such fantastic opportunities.

The pictures I post on this blog are things we as a family just see and experience while going about our regular rambles. We lead a quiet life, which is achievable we feel, even in the biggest city in the world – this is the beauty of being in Yokohama. It can be as crazy, or quiet, as you want it to be.

I will share some pictures from our daily life, from the city we love.

Came across an event for kids on one of the weekends, where they were indulged in making various hobby and vocational things and where there’s an event, we have lovely food stalls.
This time this was the drink for autumn from Starbucks and we usually have these special drinks at least once during the season. I remember this practice, if I call now, started since 2020, not to miss these seasonal flavors.
There were quite weekend days, where blue skies made us come out from our house to appreciate the beauty of these row houses very near to our place.
And another bright day of sunshine
Mrs. Roy Kapur and our son are selective eaters of meat and they only eat Chicken and fish, if there is no option of Yasai. This Gyoza we ordered for the very first time as we all love Gyoza and there was this only Vegan option that we could get it delivered home. This was very tasty and hopefully will become a frequent ordering item.
And this plant based burger was at another level, at a near-by MOS Burger. I also liked it, not being a fan of burgers though.
There were some rains to maneuver some days in the month, but the suburb looked something out of an anime movie.
And again it rained and we walked to another neighborhood of ours, leading ourselves to another beautiful residential area.
Stumbling upon a nice, The Golden Ramen restaurant on our way back.
Our son’s one of the favorite meals, very close to the place where he goes for his dance classes – This was a quite a hidden place on the 1st floor of a residential building – normally one would pass this place, but looking at the crowd waiting to get in, we tried it.
We hopped on this lovely looking train to get dropped for Halloween.
And then came the Halloween day and reached Harajuku, as our first stop.
For anyone coming to Harajuku, this street is a must visit, as this was a street where fashion in Tokyo was guided from.
And it was raining the whole day on 31st October, but probably spirits were not dampened. If you walk from Harajuku to Shibuya, you pass through this lovely Miyashita Park.
One of the most Instagrammable places in Harajuku – Tokyu Plaza.
This is how you are welcomed at Shibuya Crossing on a Halloween day, the busiest crossing in the world.
A music band performance that binds you for a moment from the glam.
The Team Marvel’s, Captain America and Spiderman also arrive in Shibuya to give curious fans a snap.
And some more Photo ops.
Some of the characters are dressed to impress.
Fans always have there way out for a snap with their favorite character.
And we like to go back to Elementary school, as life of elementary school is the best, at any juncture of our lives.
The coffee and ambience here at Harajuku station, didn’t make us leave back to home soon, only to spend some more bucks to eat some stuff here.
I hope you everyone is doing great – This was the real drink of Autumn that ended on 31st October.

Hi, I am Piyush Kapur, a corporate professional and a passionate beginner in the blogging world. Life Mantra : Sometimes we just have to let things go.

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