Culture
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Dinner with Maiko: Part-1
The highlight of our Japan trip was dinning with Maiko( trainee geishas). Maiko are young Japanese girls who are highly trained in Japanese art, culture and traditions. In olden days, Maiko would only serve green tea but gradually they began performing music, songs and dances for the customers only at high-class Japanese restaurants. Initially Maiko’s were to be seen
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Todai-ji temple, Nara
Nara is smaller than Kyoto, and unfortunately it was raining the day we went to Nara. So we decided to just visit the main spots. Todai-ji temple is one of Japan’s most famous and historically significant temples and a landmark of Nara. The massive building houses one of Japan’s largest bronze statues of Buddha. Several smaller Buddhist statues and models of
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Japan countryside
Since we were on our bikes, going from one temple to the other in Kyoto, we decided to take a slight detour to see Japanese countryside. It was as beautiful as the high tech urban Japan. This place wasn’t mentioned in the guide book of Japan, and had it not been for our wonderful friends Kiyotaro and Shiho,we wouldn’t have been
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Golden Temple
The Golden Pavilion Temple, in Kyoto Japan, which is also known as Kinkaku-ji in Japanese, was built in 1397 . This temple has three stories.The upper two stories are covered with a pure gold sheet. The main purpose of the temple is to store the remains of the Buddha’s ashes. The entire temple is covered by a
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Japanese gardens
I am in awe of Japanese gardens. I think I have written about these gardens previously too, but like I said, I am in ‘awe’ and so I am going to write some more…. Japanese gardens are very traditional gardens and are highly abstract and stylized. The gardens of the Emperors and nobles were designed for recreation
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Biking in Tokyo…
The weekend I arrived in Japan, cherry blossoms were going to be in their full bloom mode in Tokyo. I was very jet-lagged but didn’t want to miss this another opportunity of seeing cherry blossoms of Tokyo. There were a lot of spots in Tokyo which were worth seeing and, as our Japanese friends suggested, we rented a bicycle.
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We have a lot be grateful for!
Today, in class my friend asked me “Why Indians celebrate Diwali?”as she saw some pictures on my facebook wall. I happily shared the story of return of Lord Ram to Ayodhya and being crowned as the king, after completion of exile etc. Not wanting to miss the opportunity, I too asked her about Thanksgiving to
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Close to art, Close to God!
Last weekend I was at the Jain Temple in Milpitas celebrating its 12th anniversary. I got an opportunity to volunteer for ‘aangi’ ceremony which means decorating the marble idol of God. I instantly agreed as it was something do with art and I was excited to learn something new. Normally the idols are worshipped as
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Wonderland on New Year’s Eve
On New Year’s Eve, we decided to visit the Global Winter Wonderland. This was organised at Great America Parking lot in Santa Clara.Global Winter Wonderland displayed around 40 illuminated structures, nearly 50ft tall and 100 ft long. These structures consisted of some of the world’s most iconic landmakrs, themes, traditions. The larger-than-life illuminated lanterns were
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Merry Christmas!!
When I was a little girl, I would wake up early in the morning on Christmas Eve to open up the stocking.This is one of my very favorite Christmas memory to this date! I would feel the jolt of excitement in my stomach when I would see my stocking stuffed and overflowing.Santa had come! Overjoyed