"September tries its best to have us forget summer."

TOKYO MUSINGS

Inner Musings from Tokyo : September 2021

September is known for 2 things in Japan

1st the start of Typhoon season and 2nd the Silver Week holidays, a shorter version of Golden Week. Silver week holidays marks the beginning of Autumn ?

The key to seeing silver week is September’s Respect for the Aged Day and Autumnal Equinox Day.

The month was lazy and cozy as the temperature started getting cooler and days getting smaller.

For most weekends we were at home.

We had made some great elaborate plans for Shimoda for 4 nights; however, we canceled it the night before.

Mrs. Roy Kapur was busy with her project, we got a bit lazy to do the packing stuff and we also thought to save some money to spend it during November long weekends when Japan is painted with some deeper Autumn hues and probably during the annual December holidays.

My studies continued and I am busy mastering Japanese best of my capabilities.

Since there is nothing much on sightseeing this month, let me share on the Japanese language classes.

Mrs. Roy Kapur recommended me an online class to join and I joined the class and became a student again attending formal learning classes – It felt a little awkward initially with all my classmates just starting their careers and here I was after 20 years of working, learning a new language. I am attending one and half hours per day for the class and tell you in beginning, my brain used to refuse absorbing so much in a different language and felt so heavy that I used to get mentally tired very quickly…After training and draining my brain for a couple of weeks, it felt fine as I could understand and grasp the nuances. The level of Japanese that I am challenging now is mastering the working level of Japanese. As great it sounds, language learning is difficult – it’s vocabulary, its grammar, it’s mojis – letter (of alphabet) & character…and its pronunciation…but you have to continue…

Learning Japanese for the past few months has given a new meaning to my outlook, which I can feel within myself – Probably I am challenging something I had stopped for many years…

I will take everyone along soon with my learning journey so that learning continues…

Our Facebook page, Feel Inside Japan is now a community of 3K Japan lovers and it feels great and thankful to be connected with so many people around the world.

With all this going on, a small typhoon just touched and passed by Tokyo pouring heavily the whole day.

I am an equal lover of nice sunny weather and the rains. It felt so nice seeing the raindrops being flown away from their trajectory by strong winds (wind-driven rains) that I ventured out for a walk in the rain (our neighborhood is so full of nature that, couldn’t resist myself) …with the umbrella turning upside under influence of heavy wind and I again getting it back to normal. This hide and seek between wind and umbrella kept happening till I decided to return. While I was returning amidst this jugalbandi, I tried to stop myself from slipping, but eventually, I slipped on and hurt one of my knees badly, just to go and get myself bandaged after the rains had stopped…

There were a few interesting things we captured this month in Yokohama and Tokyo and shared our bit of Japan.

Have a Happy starting of Q3 – The October.

Riding under a September sun
Having a cup of coffee sitting at BAYS, sun still being there on another day
With such a lovely bus stop, you feel like coming out everyday
And the incentive you get is, a lunch with such healthy options – Fish, Mixed rice, Miso soup and healthy condiments
The more you explore the city, you find yourself more and more being inclusive in the city – There is a clearly demarcated path for cycling, walking, driving.
The intermittent rains shines the roads and driving or taking a ride is pleasurable – No one is in hurry to drive bumper to bumper…
After finishing work at immigration bureau, the convenience of public transport…
And it is going to rain again, another day
There’s a vending kiosk to give us an umbrella
It rained again and now you see a Police box – Koban, called in Japanese – These are there at every station for any help
And refreshed the neighborhood…
And people come out again under the clouds, to catch their trains to be back home, before the cloud bursts again in form of a Typhoon.
After a Typhoon, it is said that the weather is always clear, but now umbrellas for the sun…Did you know summer umbrellas category is completely different and I bought the summer umbrella for the very first time when I came to Japan.
How about a Yokohama Beer on a sunny day! – Saw this first time ever in the Kombini, Japanese convenience store – Bought few different varieties too for another sunny day…
And you get a Thank You note from Pizza Hut for ordering a Pizza…
Japanese Peaches were in season. I enjoy the fact that Japan has distinct seasonal fruits for particular months of the year. The size of the peach is to be measured for sure and for October it would be Kaki – The fruit of Autumn…Let’s wait for November to come…

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.