ऐतिहासिक दस्तावेज: जपानी पत्रं - १

मी आयुष्यात पहिला परदेश प्रवास केला तो जपानचा. दुसर्‍या एका आयुष्यात पहिलाच परदेशप्रवास करणार्‍या सहकार्‍याबरोबर, डोळ्यांमध्ये दुप्पट उत्सुकता आणि कुतुहल घेऊन. या पहिल्यावहिल्या प्रवासात आम्ही गरीब कंपनीचे गरीब प्रवासी होतो, आणि संपूर्ण जपानी अक्षरशत्रू होतो. तिथल्या ऑफिसमध्ये आमच्या मराठी बॉसला जपानी उत्तम बोलता येत होतं, आणि “रस्ता बिस्ता चुकलाच, तर पोलिसाला विचारा, त्यांना थोडंफार इंग्रजी येतं” असं आम्हाला ठासून सांगितलं गेलेलं होतं. एवढ्या भांडवलावर आम्हाला तीन महिने तोक्योमध्ये काढायचे होते. इंटरनेट अजून बाल्यावस्थेत होतं, आणि स्काईपचा जन्म व्हायचा होता. लॅपटॉप मिळणं हे अजून दूरचं स्वप्न होतं. जेमतेम आठवड्याला एखादा फोन घरी करायला परवडायचा. त्यात भारताच्या चार तास पुढे वेळ म्हणजे भारतातल्या भल्या पहाटे किंवा जपानच्या मध्यरात्री बूथवर जाऊन ही सगळी यातायात करायला लागायची. बरोबरचा एकुलता एक सहकारी तसा बर्‍यापैकी मित्र कॅटेगरीमधला होता, पण चोवीस तास फक्त एकमेकांनाच सहन करून आम्ही शेवटी एकमेकांचं तोंडही बघेनासे झालो. या संवादाच्या उपासमारीवर उतारा म्हणून मग मी चांगल्या लंब्याचौड्या इमेल्स पाठवायचे घरी सगळ्यांना. त्यातल्या काही गंमतीशीर मेला आज इतिहास संशोधन करतांना सापडल्यात. त्या इथे शेअर करायचा विचार आहे. मूळ मेला साहेबाच्या भाषेत आहेत. (हापिसातल्या जपानी कीबोर्डवर टाईपलेल्या ;) त्यातले तात्कालिक संदर्भ (कुणाला तरी घातलेल्या शिव्या, पत्राचं उत्तर पाठवाच म्हणून दमदाटी इ. इ.) गाळून बाकी तश्याच्या तश्या टाकतेय इथे.   

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Dear,

    Now about our excursions on day before yesterday...
    

In July and August, "Hanabi" or the summer festival is celebrated in Japan. There are huge fireworks displays on the occasion of Hanabi. Every Saturday and Sunday, Hanabi will be celebrated at some place. Day before yesterday, it was celebrated at Asakusa, on the Sumida river. M and I had gone for that. It was very crowded = somewhat like Ganesh festival in Pune - everywhere you could see people in traditional Japanese dresses. In spite of so much crowd, it was all well organized. The fireworks were to be on the riverside, and people could watch it from a square. People had come with food and drinks, and they had brought mats or newspapers to sit on. We all were sitting in the middle of the road. The fireworks were very beautiful - though the Hanabi in Asakusa is not the best in Tokyo, we were told that we should go for the Hanabi of Odeiba - that is the best. We tried in vain to take snaps. It was very hot, and everybody around us was drinking beer and eating. After some time there was so much crowd - the policeman standing behind me fell on me twice or thrice - people from behind were pushing him. Can you ever imagine an organized Diwali, where if not for the entire city, at least for a Gully there will be only one huge display of fireworks, and with so many safety precautions?

    It will be one month since we are in Tokyo. We didn't have much free time, but still we managed to go out on 5 - 6 days. Still there are so many places to be seen - we were never disappointed going at a place. It didn't happen even once that we went to a place and there was not much worth seeing. We have not gone to any place outside Tokyo as yet. I was wondering, suppose there is someone who has come to see Pune - or say Delhi or Bombay - how many places can we think these must be visited by him? And how many places there will be which we don't want a foreigner to ever see? We found Tokyo uniformly clean and orderly.
 

- Gouri