I love the salmon pink colour of the sunset in India. It is good to spend a time with family drinking chai (milk tea) every morning and evening. In India, time flows slowly than other countries like Japan. I came from Japan. I married an Indian and live in India. I live together with my husband's family. My husband and I run 2 hotels in Bodhgaya. We also run free school for poor children. I would like to introduce my amazing life in India.
The students who took the JLPT test on December 2016 received their results at the end of January 2017.
Chanesh and Niraj passed N3 level, and Vikash passed N5 level!
Chanesh and Niraj came to see me early in the morning when the results were declared.
I was wondering why they were smiling.
I asked them "Maybe the result of JLPT would be declared till 10 am today, so would you like to check it?"
Then, "We've got the result! It was 10 am in Japanese time when the result was declared. Thank you, madam!" they said and touched my feet as an expression of traditional Indian gratitude.
Other students couldn't pass the test.
One of them, Rahul couldn't pass the test due to lack of only one point, even though it was the first time for him.
Everyone has started studying for the test in July.
I'll try my best so that more students can pass the test next time.
Around noon on 2nd Dec., students of Japanese language class departed to Delhi from Gaya to take the exam of JLPT(Japanese language test).
There were 2 students for N3 level, 2 for N4 level and 6 for N5 level.
2 teachers were also with them to take the exam.
The train in which the students and teachers sat departed around 2 pm from Gaya and reached New Delhi in early morning on the next day.
This time, three of my children also decided to take the JLPT exam.
They are Japanese, so they don't have to take it but they wanted to measure their own abilities on Japanese fluency.
My elder son took the exam for N2 level, elder daughter took for N4, and second son took N5.
My children and I departed from Gaya by another train around 10:30pm on 2nd Dec.
It is winter in north India from December to January.
Trains tend to be late because of heavy white fog in that season.
Our train was expected to arrive around 10am in the morning on the next day, but it arrived at around 7pm.
<3rd Dec.>
It is usual for trains to be late in winter, so there are some extra food stocks in the trains.
The extra menu which are provided when a train is late are very simple, like rice, beans soup and pickles.
The simple food was tasty this time, maybe because the cook was good skilled.
It was 9 hours late, so we had been sitting for about 23 hours on the train.
After reaching New Delhi station, we rode Metro(subway) to our home.
I usually take taxi from New Delhi station because I always bring a lot of luggage.
But this time I rode on a train of Metro with a baby and a lot of luggage because I didn't have much money to hire a taxi.
I think some people know this news that India government suddenly banned old 500 and 1000 Rs. notes, so people rushed to bank to exchange them into new notes but there had been less new notes in banks.
The students and teachers would have stayed at a hotel near New Delhi station in our plan, but since we didn't have any money, so I decided to let all of them stay at my house!
My children and I arrived home at around 9 pm.
The train the students rode hadn't arrived at Delhi yet.
They finally arrived at New Delhi station around 11 pm.
The expected time of riding the train was 16 hours, but it was more than 32 hours ride.
They caught the last train of Metro and reached my home.
They ate plenty of chicken curry which my sister in law prepared for them.
We spread mattresses and blankets on the floor of the living room and they squeezed to sleep all together.
<4th Dec.>
They had to reach the venue for the JLPT exam before 8 am next morning, so they woke up around 5 am to get ready.
They slept for only 4 hours.
They took Metro to the venue.
the exam took place in some schools, which were separated by the levels.
The JLPT exam started at 9 am and ended at 12 noon.
After that, they went for shopping and directly reached New Delhi station around 7 pm.
The train for Gaya should have departed around 10 pm at the night, but because of the foggy weather the train was late and it departed at 6 am in the next morning.
They had slept on the platform whole night while waiting for the train.
<5th Dec.>
My children and I couldn't get tickets for the train, so we flew from New Delhi to Patna (took about one and half hour) instead, and rode a car to Bodhgaya from Patna.
The road was jammed by trucks, and it took 6 hours to get to Bodhgaya, though it usually takes 3 hours. We arrived at Bodhgaya in the midnight.
<6th Dec.>
The students and the teachers arrived at Gaya station at 5 am in the morning.
It took over 23 hours for them to return.
Well, the results of the exam will be out after 3 months.
I wish they will get rewards for their efforts...!
Kalachakra prayer was held by the 14th Dalai Lama in Bodhgaya from 2nd to 14th January 2017.
It was the 34th Kalachakra prayer by him.
It was held in January 1974, December 1985, January 2003, January 2012, and this January 2017 at Bodhgaya.
Every winter, many Tibetan refugees come to Bodhgaya for pilgrimage, and especially when Dalai Lama holds prayers.
You won't be able to believe that it is India when you look at the people because majority of people during kalachakra are Tibetans.
Dalai Lama's followers also come from all over the world like America, European countries etc.
American actor Richard Gere comes every time, and he attended it, this time too.
Bihar state government banned entering of vehicles into the center of Bodhgaya from morning to 11 pm, and has been providing tents and facilities for a few ten thousand Tibetans in order to make them stay in Bodhgaya comfortably without any problem.
It has affected a lot of local business especially hotel and guest house owners.
One of my friend who runs a guest house in the middle of Bodhgaya said that his guesthouse (20 rooms) had only one guest in that season.
Not only these hotels and guesthouses, many new hotels and guesthouses that were rushed to be built before welcoming this Kalachakra prayer have also been disappointed with empty rooms.
Besides the service of providing tents and facilities to Tibetan refugees, severe limitation of exchange of foreign currency into rupees and fixed withdrawing amount caused by the demonetisation executed by Indian government has also affected local businesses since November last year.
These factors have led to the cancellation of more than half of the bookings by foreign travelers who had planned to come to Bodhgaya for the Kalachakra prayer before last November.
This Kalachakra ceremony was supposed to be held in January 2016, but it was postponed due to some reasons.
Local people thought that this ceremony would be a great business opportunity but they were shocked to see the reality of empty rooms in local guest houses.
Our Mahamaya group has a hotel near Mahabodhi temple and Kalachakra maidan, and also it is located adjacent to HH Dalai Lama's Tibetan temple next to Srilanka temple, So we have many guests as usual.
We opened an open restaurant in Mahamaya Palace hotel which is near Sujata Kuti in December, and opened a fast food shop in Mahamaya hotel in front of Mahambodhi temple on 3rd January.
Our fast food shop has become very popular for providing Momos (Tibetan dim sum) in main menu.
I personally think that it is very great of India and Bihar state to provide best service and hospitality to Tibetan refugees as international VIP guests in the point of view of international relations.
But...local people feel that India and Bihar should think about local people's life a little more...
The Kalachakra (Sanskrit कालचक्र Kālacakra, Tibetan: དུས་ཀྱི་འཁོར་ལོ།, Wylie: dus kyi 'khor lo; Mongolian: Цогт Цагийн Хүрдэн Tsogt Tsagiin Hurden; Chinese: 時輪) is a term used in Vajrayana Buddhism that means wheel of time or "time-cycles".
"Kālacakra" is usually used to refer to a very complex teaching and practice in Tibetan Buddhism. Although the teaching is very advanced and esoteric, there is a tradition of offering it to large public audiences.
