広島 (Hiroshima)

I am creating a separate blog for Hiroshima for the final class project and will put a link for that blog when it's ready.

東京一回 (Tokyo 1st Time)

On Tuesday, May 17th for the Politics of Peace class we got to go to Tokyo. We had to meet up outside for the taxis at 6:15am to take us to Maibara Station (米原駅) to take the Shinkansen (新幹線). That was an fun experience, it goes somewhere near 200 mph so it's fast, but it was a very smooth ride you could hardly tell that it was moving unless you looked out a window. I ended up sitting next to Katie and for the trip me mostly just talked and looked out the window at all the passing scenery.

We arrived at Shinagawa station (品川駅) around 9:15am. We had an appointment to keep at 10am so we were a little pushed for time. Since Shinagawa is one of the major stations on the JR Yamanote Line (JR 山手線) it was very busy and very hectic. Luckily, the Japanese rail system is very efficient so we were able to find which way to we needed to be headed. After we got off the train, we then had to head for the Ministries of Foreign Affairs for our meeting. We found the building within a few minutes of the appointment time and were escorted to the meeting room.

There we met with the Deputy Minister of North America and the Deputy Minister of Northeast Asia and discussed the current relations of Japan/America and Japan/China/Korea. It was a very informative meeting. When each Deputy Minister came in when went around introducing ourselves. I decided to do it in Japanese. They were very impressed with my Japanese but it was actually due to the fact that I have introduced myself so many times before back home at State for class that I have intonation and all memorized.

After the meeting we went to lunch at one of the restaurants in a nearby building where everyone but the two vegetarians of the group had gotten tonkatsu and curry on rice. While we were waiting to enter the restaurant, myself and another guy in the trip, Yutang, got to figure out what trains we needed to take to get to Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社). It was fun figuring out the different lines to take and it made me feel like I was home, in a figurative sense. Actual home doesn't have a subway system, but I have always enjoyed city life and just feel comfortable whenever I am in a big city. I would love to live in a city like Tokyo some day, but anyway back to Yasukuni.

After about 20 minutes or so we finally got to Yasukuni. It states with a huge gate that is meant to help purify those who walk through it

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Then after you pass through the gate there are quite a few statues and lanterns on either side of the path showing the way to the main part of the shrine. It was actually quite a let down because even though the shrine is huge there isn't a lot to see ant the guards won't let foreigners take any pictures of the shrine. The shrine did have a museum though that showed the history of Japan and the shrine. It was very interesting but once again, no pictures. Then we went to the gift shop and then it started to down pour so I had to buy an umbrella at the gift shop and it was really tiny! I manged to stay dry but my bag got wet. Luckily nothing got damaged.

So after this it was off to our final destination for the trip, Shibuya!

The best thing to compare Shibuya (渋谷) to is New York's Times Square. There are constantly people scurrying about and there are giant screens with ads for music playing. It is also famous for Shibuya 109 which is a giant 9 story shopping mall at the main intersection of Shibuya. We broke off at the station to each do our own thing first splitting up into two groups. The group I was with ended up going to visit the Hachiko Statue. This is a statue of the dog who kept waiting for his master to return even after his master had passed away.

Afterwards we went to check out Shibuya 109. It is really pricey and is an all woman's clothing building. So that wasn't the best part of the trip but whatever. After that we spent a while trying to find a store called Baby the Stars Shine Bright for Tori but it we weren't having any luck. Also, it is really hard to find a wi-fi signal in Japan.

Afterward a while Erika and myslef split off to try and find land marks from her favorite game, The World Ends with You (素晴らしきこの世界). We found several like the graffiti wall where *spolier alert* the main character was killed and the park you can not get to in the game and also can not get to in real life because there is a fence surrounding it, and a tiki face statue.

Afterwards it was getting close to time to meet up with everyone at the station so the two of us decided to just hang around near the entrance but everytime we thought enought time had passed it had only been a couple of minutes! Eventually we went in to the station to sit down when a guard had tole us that we couldn't sit so we tried finding somewhere else to sit but ended up finding a bookstore in the station. After exploring that for a little bit we went back and met up with Katie, Ashley, Tori, Iyana and Desdemona. Some people where sitting on the floor and the same guard as before came up to us and told us we had to leave. Using broken Japanese we tried to explain to him that we were meeting friends here at 7:30. He understood but told us that we were not allowed to sit. It turns out that sitting and loitering makes you look homeless and the Japanese do not want actual homeless people to start gathering at the stations. So then the rest of the students showed up and we all just stood around waiting for Marc to arrive. We then had Katie called his phone and it turned out that he was at another station so Katie went to retrieve him. Once they both had returned we made our way back to the Yamanote Line and Shinagawa station ready to head back home after a long day. The only major thing that happened was we had to change Shinkansen trains on the way back. Then, we got off at Maibara and took a taxi getting back to JCMU at 11pm.

授業 (Class)

So not gonna lie, class is pretty easy. The professor has told us that we are all more than likely gonna receive 4.0s. It is fun though, we don't have classroom time that often just three times last week and half a day this week. Last week we were assigned one chapter from two of the books that we received for the class. We had to read each one chapter form one book each day and had to write a brief 1 page summary of what we read. I both of these in bullet points and got full marks for each (easy, right?). Then in class we got with the other people assigned to read the same chapters as us and teach the other students about our chapter.

The first day, Ashley, Tori, and I taught about the Meiji restoration and Japan's 1st Constitution. We came up with the idea to story board the chapter with each of us covering one of the three main sections of the chapter. We performed quite well, especially for coming up with the pictures on the spot and my saying that the Japanese Constitution brought Democracy to America (@_@). The next day I was with Katie and Veronica and we talked about the difference in views between the Japanese and Chinese and how this affects both of their stances when it comes to the Japanese Prime Minister visiting the Yasukuni Shirine. The Yasukuni shrine is an important place for the Japanese because this is where casualties from past wars are enshrined, but the part that makes it controversial is that the shrine also encases 14 Class A War Criminals and this is where they Chinese get angry because they thing that the Prime Minister is supporting what they had done. So to show this the three of us had a faux-trial with Veronica as the judge, Kaite as China and myself as Japan. the best way to sum up the difference in beliefs is this, "The Chinese leaders view the Prime Minister’s visits to the Yasukuni shrine as purely political, while the Japanese view it as solely a religious aspect, paying respects to the dead."

長い航続と楽しいこと (Long Flight and Fun Experiences)

Good advice: Do not stay up all night when you have to be at the airport at 7:30 in the morning. I spent my last night in America hanging out with friends and seeing Thor. It was fun and a good way to say bye to them.

Anyway, Saturday morning myself and two friends, Katie and Ashley, had a 10:15 flight to take me to O'hare so that I could catch a plane to Japan for my summer of studying abroad. I was really excited for the first flight because it meant I was actually going to Japan, and then I was also excited when we took off for the second flight for the same reasons and then the excitement ran off about 3-4 hours into the 12 hours. I kept on dozing off and would watch random videos, one of them being a medley of Korean pop music groups. It was very interesting to say the least. After getting off we had to go through customs and all that jazz, it wasn't too terribly difficult, and we got there before the huge line appeared, so it was quick. Then when we were checking for the last flight of the trip that gave us a 4 hour layover, and they bumped us to an earlier flight that was leaving in the morning.This turned out to be a good thing because we had to tackle one last thing before we got to hit the gloriousness that was a bed, the Japanese Railway system.

So we had to get from Nagoya station to Maibara station and this doesn't sound like it would be too hard but when you've been up for 36+ hours (hence the don't pull an all-nighter) and do not know the kanji for the stations that you need and have luggage, it becomes increasingly difficult. Also, there was no direct route to Hikone. We took the station from the airport to Nagoya. There we had to transfer lines entirely which involved leaving the building and going into another building and then figuring out where to buy tickets. We finally figured out where we needed to go and got on a train to Maibara. We didn't know that we had to get off and transfer trains at Oogaki. The train attendant did point which way to go and we accidentally left the station so we had to buy another ticket. Then we had to wait half an hour for the next train and finally we got on and then arrived at Maibara station after a 30 minute ride. After leaving the station we got a cab and had to wait while him and another taxi driver fit 3 suitcases into the cab. The taxi driver then took us to the Hotel View, where we got a room and not even 30 minutes there, we all crashed and fell a sleep for 12ish hours.