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On January 22nd, 1999 the top brass of ISS Pvt. Ltd.
officialy informed me that I have been posted out to Sendai City in Japan for
official duty. I was to leave India on the 24th of January. I was given a briefing about
Japan and its climate. I being a typical Malayalee, has never been to any place out
side India and has never seen Snow in my life. It was winter in Sendai, and so I made sure
that my kit bag contained all the neccessary warm clothes, gloves etc.
Two months had gone, it was time for me to return. On 21st of March, at 11:10pm I was to leave Sendai. On 21st evening, I made a rush to the Cocos Restaurant which was my favourite dining place. I bade the staff good bye, and boarded the bus. At 12:30 the next morning, the pilot of Singapore Airlines flew me out of Japan. Here is a small list of people who helped me in having a good time in Japan.
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After one month of
hard work, I had a chance for an outing. I planned to goto Matsushima
a sea resort quite close to Sendai. By that time three of my colleagues had joined me, and
so we as a team marched off to Matsushima. The train journey itself was remarkable since,
the trains were too small when compared to Indian trains. No huge coaches and no scary
diesel engines. Matsushima is a sea side place, which has gots lots of islands around it.
Visting each and every Island was not possible, so we all roamed around the place and
visited quite a few Buddhist shrines en-route. All was calm and cool upto the afternoon.
After that heavy winds blew, and all of us had to make a hasty retreat. 
The next plan of mine was to visit
some of my friends at Maharishi Vedic Institute at Kuroiso . I
decided to go to the place using only Local trains. Japanese trains are expected to run on
time, but not the day when I wanted to travel! Heavy winds made the trains go very slowly,
and my first train came 20 minutes late. I made sure that my seat was quite close to the
driver's. Since the wind was heavy the train was not going at more than 20kmph. The driver
had a set of Caution orders placed next to him. My connections trains were all on
time, so I missed the whole lot. A bit of dancing and using sign language in front of the
JR staff, got me a new list of train timings, and finally I reached Kuroiso at 5:30pm
nearly 4 hours late. The institute was built in a typical Japanese village, with lots of
farms and trees. The place was calm and cool. The next day I returned to Sendai, again by
train. It had snowed heavily, and the sceneries were just beautiful. I had only seen such
scenery in Christmas cards. 
A week with hectic work
followed, but soon another week end came up. Time for another outing and this time it was Yemadera, a hill close to Sendai, with lots of shrines and temples on
it. We were informed that we will have to climb 1050 steps to reach the top. On reaching
Yemadera we immideatly decided to charge up the hill. Climbing the hill was not a tough
game. People who have been to Sabari Mala will find the
climb childs play. So I visited all the shrines and temples and within 2 hours I was back
on the plain grounds. The next day I visited the ruins of the Sendai
Castle once the strong hold of Date Masamune, the founder of Sendai. This castle, I
thought was smashed by the US bombers, during WW2. But no, the ruining of the castle was
done by Japanese themselves during the Meiji Restoration. The US Bombers too
contributed in ruining the castle, but that was at a later date. 