Autumn Day

Before class today I went to the Yasukuni shrine which is right by Hosei campus. Yasukuni (ironically meaning peaceful country) is a shrine dedicated to those who died for Japanese war causes. Which means there are also class A war criminals enshrined in Yasukuni. This is a very controversial place in Japan. The current prime minister, Koizumi, often visits the shrine to pay respect to the dead causing an uproar from China and Korea. Every time Koizumi visits Yasukuni China and Korea always say that Japan is being insensitive to the war crimes comitted against their people and whatnot. Usually the japanese embassies in both countries (north korea gets mad too but they are always mad so it doesn't really count) get pelted by rocks and japanese good are boycotted for a moment. I'm not sure why Koizumi insists on causing this much uproar but he I just assume it's his conservative nature. Anyway, so this shrine is much different from any other shrine you visit in Japan. One big thing I noticed is that there are no explanations given in any foreign languages except on 2 plaques. Usually most shrines translate most things into english or chinese. The shrine is also right in the middle of Tokyo, so the stark contrast between heavily urbanized Japan and the natural tranquility of a shrine is well noticed.

After that I went to one class called International Business. It was surprisingly interesting for a business class. Luckily more than half of the people there were Japanese so the teacher had to define each business word he used. The teacher is also pretty funny. He's Japanese and speaks english pretty well. He also seemed to be very in love with america. When we introduced outselves instead of saying the normal "I'm a third year student..", he told us to tell what grade we were in freshman, junior senior levels. And pretty much every example he used was about america when it had to do with the western world.

After class Rachel and I ventured out to Akihabara, the electric town, to see about getting a computer and camera. Akihabara is one interesting place. It's basically a whole neighbourhood of nothing but electronic stores or arcades. They have pretty much anything you want. Which kind of wore me out since I'm not well at making decisions. But right before we left I decided on a nice little camera. (I'll start taking pictures later when I figure it out...) Rachel decided to wait on the computer purchase until she was sure that she knew what she was doing. As neither of us are electronic experts. As we were leaving into the station we saw this man in what seemed to be some sort of leather fetish wear. He was posing for pictures and handing out information about some type of store. Of course I got a picture. But the pictures aren't working on the blog today. Maybe tomorrow.

After Akihabara Rachel and I went over to Tokyo Dome. It's where some Tokyo team plays baseball and other big events happen. At Tokyo Dome there is a huge shopping centre and amusement park. Everything was so chic and hip. They had a water show where the fountain danced and played disney songs I think.

With walking everywhere that was a very full day. I think I have walked more in the past week than I ever did last year. No wonder japanese people are so healthy. All that rice and walking who knows how many kilometres a day. I would say I would continue the walking habit when I get back to Waco, but let's be honest. 80% of the reason no one walks in Waco is becuase you will get mugged. Oh, America. I'm sure I'll miss the high crime rate eventually.

To all those in the Gulf and beyond, thoughts and prayers are with you. Stay out of harm's way and stay safe.