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.