A Gurdwara in Tokyo

“There is a Gurdwara in Tokyo.”
“Whoa!! Really?” Those were the first two words that came out of my mind when some one told me about this.

This happened few months back before I went to India. I was at Roppongi which is famous for its night life. It was 2 am (I don’t know whether to call it morning or night). For me, it was still evening. I was with friends, pub hopping. That’s when I met this Indian guy. We started talking and then he told me about this Gurdwara in Tokyo. Well! I hope you don’t expect me to be sober at 2 am in Roppongi. So, me smart me, wrote down the number on my palm.

Next morning when I woke up, I realized, it was a mistake.

After I came back from India, one day another guy pinged me on messenger. He saw me on Orkut, knew I am in Japan and since he was also in Japan, he pinged me. We had a long chat and after a few days he told me that he knew about the Gurdwara in Tokyo. I was happy to hear that and this time I did not make the same mistake. He told me that it opened once a month.

So, we went to the Gurdwara on the date he had mentioned. It was so good to see fellow Indians after a long time. The place was amazing. I was surprised to see a Japanese guy playing Tabla and a lot of Japanese women dressed in Indian suits and at the end of the program they served Langar too. The word is ‘Awesome’







Some definitions for those who are not from India:

Gurdwara: A holy worship place of Sikhs in India.
Tabla: a musical instrument that is played while Kirtan (which is like singing devotional hymns)
Langar: Langar is the term used in the Sikh religion for the free, vegetarian-only food served in a Gurdwara and eaten by everyone sitting as equals.

Gosh! This was difficult in English. For more details please use Google and if someone in Tokyo is interested to go there, you can mail me at apysays@gmail.com

Update:
How to go to Gurudwara if you are in Tokyo, Japan:
The Gurudwara opens once a month. The date is not fixed as its usually announced one month before. But mostly, it’s the “Sangrand” or the first sunday that falls after 'sangrand'.

The name of the station is Myogadani. You can use the following link to find the route to Myogadani from your station
http://www.jorudan.co.jp/english/norikae/e-norikeyin.html
Once you are there, you need to get out of the station towards the main road. You will see Mc Donalds across and turn left and walk along the main road.
After 2 minutes of walk, (at a Y junction) you will see an Indian Restaurant 'Namaskar' across the road (on the right hand side). You will have to cross the road and again start walking in the same direction. Turn right at the first turning after the restaurant and you will see 'Nishan sahib' (Bright orange flag of Gurudwara) at the entrance of a building. Enter the building and use the stairs to go to basement.
You are there.

Some important email ids and phone numbers:

Gurudwara Phn number : 0081-80-5693-5541
email: bskhalsa_jp@yahoo.com

Mr. M. S. Sahni: sahni@vaishalitravels.com (You can mail him for more details. His phone number is: 0081-90-3909-5434)

Update: You may refer to this blog for more details: http://www.sikhjapanese.blogspot.com/