This entry was posted on 2001-04-11
Tokyo
First off, happy happy happy birthday to Sensei! Try to guess her age! I bet you'll be wrong!
Today was a pretty damn interesting day. However I managed to lose my address book, which majorly pisses me off. Luckily I already sent all of my postcards. . . Oh, and tonight I came to the conclusion that Roppongi (where a lot of foreigners hang out) just isn't for me.
The day started off with a walk through the Imperial Palace gardens. I was planning on going to Kamakura, but I overslept. Oh well, maybe another day. Or perhaps I'll just skip Kamakura. I've been to Nara several times and from what I know of the two places, they are quite similar.
The gardens were beautiful. I enjoyed sitting under the sakura trees with the flowers falling onto my hair and bag. That's one memory that I'll cherish for the rest of my life.
The park was very peaceful. There were no screaming children, no loud tourists. While I was sitting in the park, I began to feel very melancholy. I regret that I didn't live and study in Tokyo when I did my study abroad. I had the opportunity to attend Waseda University for a year, but I passed it up for lame Kansai Gaidai. At the time when I was choosing my study abroad, people told me not to base myself in Tokyo. Tokyo, they said, is just like any other big city. If I wanted to have a real Japanese experience, the Kansai area was better. If I could do it all over again, I wouldn't have taken their advice. Tokyo is an aspect of the real Japan. People here don't speak English. And the shopping and the food are not the same as in the US. There's plenty of Japanese culture here. I should've gone to Waseda. I hate Osaka (though I do love Kyoto) -- it's just a huge city of concrete with people who speak a different dialect (I did pick up some Osaka-ben, though). Osaka and Tokyo are so different. Most people who I've talked to love either one or the other, but not both. Osaka lovers claim that the people in the city are more friendly, fun, and down to Earth. They love Osaka's nightlife, food, and dialect. Tokyo lovers love their city because it's greener and cleaner than Osaka. They love it for its nightlife (which is different than Osaka's), and sense of power. I definitely feel the love toward Tokyo. But I wouldn't go as far to say that I'm a Kanto (Tokyo/Yokohama/Chiba area) girl. I did live in Kansai (Kyoto/Osaka/Nara/Kobe area); I do not hate Kansai-ben, and I love Kyoto. I would happily tell everyone that I am a Kansai girl if Osaka would just magically disappear.
But I do regret my decision to study at Kansai Gaidai over Waseda. Waseda is a better school (not that it really matters for study abroad, but you do get a smarter group of Japanese students at Waseda). I think I would've been much happier at Waseda than at Gaidai. But I can't turn back time. And now I know when I study abroad in graduate school, I should go somewhere in or around Tokyo.
An adorable geriatric Japanese couple passed me and distracted me from my thoughts. I love elderly Japanese couples. They seem to really enjoy each other's company. They are both usually retired so they have a lot of time to spend together getting reacquainted with one another. You often find elderly Japanese couples traveling (both domestic and international) together.
After contemplating the differences between Kanto and Kansai, I headed to Yasukuni Shrine, the most controversial in all of Japan. This shrine is dedicated to all of those Japanese who died during WWII. Some of Japan's most notorious war criminals are enshrined there. Protests from neighboring Asian nations (the countries that Japan was so brutal to during the war) often take place at this shrine. Another frequent site are the long black busses which belong to various right-wing groups and blast nationalistic propaganda from huge megaphones mounted on top.
Of course since it's controversial, I wanted to see it. Now, I do not agree with war criminals being enshrined. But at the same time, by paying a visit, I was in no way showing my support. In fact, I didn't pray at all there. I didn't buy any fortunes, amulets, or omiyage. I just visited.
Most people believe that although controversial, that the shrine is beautiful. I disagree. Compared to some of the shrines that I've seen in Kyoto, Miyajima, and Kakunodate, Yasukuni was quite ugly. Maybe I was just too angry that major human rights violators are enshrined there to see its beauty. I really don't think that it was anything special.
As soon as I walked out of the shrine back on to the street, that is when I saw the propaganda. On every lamp post, there were signs in English and Japanese that said "Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the US must repent to Jesus Christ." Now, although I am American, I in no way support my country's decision to drop nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (for more on that, please see my travel section of my personal website.). But the signs really confused me. If true nationalists had hung them up, why would they ever use Christianity to make their point? True Japanese nationalists despise Christianity.
A few blocks down, parked by the curb, was one of those above mentioned black busses. I hadn't seen one of them since I was in Miyazaki-shi for my fall holiday during my study abroad. Being the freak that I am, I decided to discretely take a photograph. Well, I was noticed. One of the men jumped off the bus. I swear, for a moment, I thought he was going to beat me up, but he turned out to be a very "friendly" nationalist. He posed for a picture (smiling and giving the peace sign) next to the bus. Afterward, he wanted to take a photo with me next to the bus. I refused, knowing very well that it might be used for propaganda. The men on the bus were laughing at me. They probably thought that I was clueless and did not know what the purpose of the bus was. I walked away laughing back. Little did they know that I knew damn well what the bus said and that I had scored a little victory by taking not one, but two pictures.
I got further away from the nationalistic propaganda and back near the station. To my delight (And remember, I usually dislike children. But this was different) a group of Japanese elementary schoolgirls were entering the station. The picture would have been perfect. Between 25 and 35, identically dressed, Japanese five and six year olds, all wearing their yellow hats and carrying their yellow book bags (The yellow is so that they don't get hit by cars. Seriously.) But I didn't want to freak them out by taking a picture, so I just watched them walk past me. Soooooo cute!
My next stop was to an office where I needed to get some information for my research. I won't bore you with details (it was pretty unexciting), but I got terribly lost and asked some policemen where the building was. It was really cool, because the building was on a tiny street, impossible to find. The policeman himself had no clue where the street was. So after looking at his map for about 10 minutes, he figured it would be easier to walk me to the building. He was really friendly and we had an interesting chat along the way. When we arrived at the building, I thanked him profusely.
After a stop back to the place I am staying (to confirm my Kyoto reservations), I headed off to Roppongi. I can see why I've never been there before. It's not my type of place. Every foreigner who wants to go out and get some Japanese lovin' hangs out there. English is more common than Japanese. It's full of expensive American and European restaurants, sleazy clubs, and English speaking hostess bars. I hopped back on the train after about five minutes.
I was planning on exploring Shibuya by night tonight, but all the sudden I came down with a terrible headache and started to feel feverish. The last thing I want is to get sick in Japan. So I decided to call it a night.
Oyasuminasai (good night).