pammu
ParthaS Joined: July 24th 2006
Logged in: February 10th 2012
Logged in: February 10th 2012
It is still some time till I reach a level where I can create a portrait in words.
So till then my camera and bit of me will do the talking
Travel Blog Posts
5th Station
Nothing makes for a better story than suffering. To describe one’s pain, to make the other feel and to revel in the glory of others’ pity is ecstatic. But joy is a totally different emotion. There is no empathy in it. To juxtapose one’s joy on the other is to rouse feelings on envy, and jealousy is not the perfect reading companion. My hesitance in writing about the 2nd Mt Fuji climb primarily comes out this dilemma . The first climb was one breathless grunt, starting in the evening with the cold already setting in, the rain catching up, slowly at first and then working itself into a full storm, then climbing in a daze, not sure where my limit would show up and then finally going though the climb in a trance and reaching the ... read more
Shinkansen
We came to see as much as we came to flee. We came ,not only because we wanted to, but because we had to. We were tourists and we were refugees, fleeing an invisible, inexplicable danger. We did not know whether we ran from fear or out of fear. And fear was all around and afflicted all. To be sane in this fear epidemic was insanity. People ran out of fear, they bought up food on shelves, drained battery supplies and emptied water racks so much that these had to be rationed People fled with their belongings and packed airports. They ran with what they could hold, some hoping to come back, others determined not to. And we came to Kyoto. The reason we went to Kyoto was that we could not go anywhere else. The ... read more
Matsumoto Castle
The only thing common between my blog and Kawabata’s famous novel(Yukiguni which translates to Snow Country) is the title. Kawabata’s novel was based in the region bordering Nigata and Gunma regions and my blog is about Nagano prefecture in the Northern Alps region of Japan. His was about an onsen town and snow came only in the latter part, while mine is about castles, temples and snow and also castles, temples in snow. Snow is a basic part of this blog because that is what I am chasing. My 6 year old son likes to play in the snow, and precipitation of this substance is pretty much limited in Tokyo. Last year it did not snow in Tokyo, but I took a holiday in Nikko Sunshine in the Gloom and caught a bit of it. So ... read more
Omotesando
Can one write a travel blog about the city one lives in? How do we define travel, what boundaries need to be crossed to term an excursion a travel. In a stationary state, would a changing of a season constitute a travel. The colours of a tree are different in spring and fall. A snow covered street in winter, is a blazing furnace in summer. Is passing through different states of mind a travel? ‘An immigrant is always an immigrant' says Lowji Daruwalla in John Irving’s ‘A Son of the Circus’. His purpose in making that statement is to discourage his son from leaving India. But that statement is probably my excuse for writing a travel blog about a city which has been my home for close to 3 years. When the mind lives in a ... read more
5th station at Kawaguchiko
A wise man climbs Mt Fuji once, a fool twice Mt Fuji is one of the few mountains to have a proverb about it and it is repeated in a self-deprecating manner by those who have climbed it more than once. Self-depracation is the humour of the humourless, and generally comes across as an attempt at lame conversation. To each country its obsession and to Japan it is climbing Mt Fuji quite like avoiding all sorts of strenuous physical activity in India(self-deprecation?). Almost everybody in Japan has tried it or at least thought of trying it . I first visited the 5th station(the base point for most climbers) 4 years back and the thought of climbing it all the way to the top first crossed my mind. But the opinions about the climb have varied in ... read more
Nikko Station
I have not written any blogs recently mainly because I have not gone anywhere. So after a long time and many messages from travelblog saying We want you back I am writing again. If you wonder at the strange title for the blog, my explanation is as follows. We live in depressing times. It’s a never ending stream of bad news showing neither any signs of slowing down nor changing its course. Factories are on a lay-off sprees, each competing with the other in the daily announcements. As someone recently said its doom and gloom everywhere To take a holiday in such times can either be stupidity or pure optimism. I would like to think that I suffer from the latter. However I had to identify a place which was economical but still gave the feeling ... read more
Indus Restaurant
It all started with a mail from an old colleague coming to know that I was working in Nagoya, he asked how Nagoya Castle was?And the fact that in spite of staying for 2 1/2 years in Nagoya I still haven't visited Nagoya castle hit me. Though I have visited many places in and around Nagoya, been to Kyoto a million times and have been to much farther and less accessible places, but I have not really got around to Nagoya Castle. There are reasons though. First of all Nagoya castle is hardly 40 years old!!! Its true, the original castle(500 years old) was destroyed in the final stages of the 2nd World War. The fact that most castles are built out of wood didn't help much and all that is left is the stone ... read more
Entering the Village
Nabananosato is a tongue twister which takes a couple of days of saying to perfect and a few more to figure out. The information available over the internet is sketchy at the best, and there are more photos than details. It is around 25 kms from Nagoya where I stay and takes around 31 minutes by bus. There is a train route also, taking the Kintetsu line from Nagoya Station, you need to get down at Kuawana Station and take a taxi or bus from there. But bus is the most convenient as it drops you exactly in front of the place and picks you up again from the same. The cost is 850 Yen per head and there are an average of 2 buses every hour. Since it is situated near the Nagashima Water resort ... read more
Parking lot at Nishi Takayama
What is this life if, full of care, We have no time to stand and stare I doubt if William Henry Davies ever visited Kamikouchi, but surely if I had met him here I would have shaken his hand and told him that I understood exactly how he felt. But I digress even before I begin. Kamikouchi is located in the Nagano prefecture around central Japan. It is around 30 kms from Matsumoto and around 200 kms from Nagoya where my journey began. Metitetsu Travels offers the Dragon Pack tours to Kamikouchi, with lunch and no lunch options. I did not have to choose as only the No Lunch option tickets were available by the time I booked with the rest of my group. To those few who are wondering why it is called Dragon Pack, ... read more
Empty Street
The Golden Week starts during the last week of April and goes on till early May. It starts from April 29 which is the greenery day and ends on May 5 which is the children’s day. Combined with weekends and kindly employers who give the remaining days of the week off it becomes a long set of holidays. The Japanese even have a word for it Renkyu, which means consecutive holidays. Earlier days people used to travel to their homes in the countryside, but with the progress of the Japanese economy record numbers travel abroad every year. So to make it easier for people to visit hometowns the holidays came consecutively giving enough time for people to spend with their families and travel back. However it is the best time to be in Japan. In between ... read more
