Well, Golden Week is good and gone by now but I managed to do something on the last day (May 5th/Cinco de Mayo/Children's Day). With Andra and her two friends, we had a full day of being complete tourists.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038001&id=1230390045&l=4b514798df
The first spot we found was a shrine we hadn't intended to go to, but it was nice anyway. We happened to catch a wedding. I found it a little odd that it was so open like that, because there were so many random people not associated with the wedding around (like us). But I guess that it's custom? I'll have to ask someone or do a little more research on that.
After that, we decided to find the shrines on our to-do list. The first was Kanda Myojin, which we found by accident actually. I'm not really interested in Shinto whatsoever, but I love shrines. They're beautiful to me. This will be super cliche, but whenever I go visit them, it feels like I'm stepping into the past. It's pretty cool.
We got a little lost finding the station to take us to our next destination, Yasukuni Shrine but in the end, we managed to get there. One thing to know about Yasukuni Shrine, it's known for controversy. It is dedicated to Japanese soldiers who have died in combat. And from this point, I'm copying and pasting (and by copying and pasting, I mean, typing out...) from my guidebook because I'm too sick to think on my own about these things (yes, by the way, I've caught a cold from Cat. Yay.):
"Although the shrine dates back to 1869, in the years leading up to and during WWII, it was chosen as Tokyo's chief shrine of State Shinto. During this time, Yasukuni Shrine became the physical representation of the Japanese government's jingoistic policy. Needless to say, the Asian countries that suffered under the harsh grip of Imperial Japan are less than ecstatic when heads of state stop by and pay their respects.
....Despite a post-war constitutional commitment to the separation of religion and politics as well as a renunciation of militarism, 1979 14 class-A war criminals (as determined by the US-Ied International Military Tribunal for the Far East) including Hideki Tojo (infamous WWII general) were enshrined here amid worldwide protests....Leading Liberal Democratic Party politicians have made a habit of visiting the shrine on the anniversary of Japan's defeat in WWII (15 August)."
And then, to make things better, is the Yuushuukan - the museum (apparently, Japan's oldest museum dating back to 1882) located at the shrine. As you can imagine, it's a war museum, going through history and documenting battles, rebellions, conflicts, etc. between Japan and other countries and amongst itself. We weren't allowed to take any pictures. Of course. Japan always seems to know when I'd like to take pictures the most, because they'll tell me I can't do it. It's especially frustrating because I cannot recall all of the English explanations and that's what made things interesting. Seeing things from another point of view a.k.a. Japan's is very interesting. Unfortunately, once the Meiji Era starts, the West (mostly America) is looking pretty bad. One of my favorites (sarcastic) was about how "Japan was forced into attacking Pearl Harbor due to American and British foreign policy of the time." Oh, and also, "The US had no interest in bringing the war to an early end."
What? <- our reaction to this and many situations described in the museum.
Yeah. By the time we finished walking through all the exhibits, we were a little...shocked? Maybe that's too strong of a word. But something along those lines. We stayed at the museum of have a late lunch. Right as we were about to leave, a little old Japanese man turned to talk with us in English. He seemed very thrilled that we were in Japan, as American exchange students, studying Japanese, eating Japanese food and visiting the country's many sights. He told us how he had been to America (Hawaii and California) a few times on group tours. He was very sweet and eventually, let us go as his food was getting cold and we were obviously on our way out.
While in the exhibits, again, I felt more self conscious being an American (more than usual) and was almost uncomfortable. But leaving the exhibit, and sort of in a way, coming back to the present (I don't know how to not make that sound cheesy, sorry) and having the man talk with us, it made me feel much better. I'm glad that despite the violent past, we can still make peace with one another.
A little less profound, we found a garden with a koi pond. I noticed that we could feed them so I impulsively bought a box of koi food and then we all fed them. A Japanese man randomly came up to me and asked in English whether I was from India. His next guess was America. He then told me that the fish were called koi and we agreed on how beautiful they were...and then he left.
I'll miss moments like this when I go back to America.
Anyway, we finally made our way to Roppongi and sort of loitered around Roppongi Hills (shopping and entertainment center) until it was dark outside. Our next destination was Tokyo Tower, which is the best after dark. It. Was. Awesome.
We only went up to 150 meters because it was cheaper and there wasn't a 40 minute wait. It was all we really needed anyway. Oh, and for some reason, Tokyo Tower is brimming with Michael Jackson paraphernalia. When we came back down, the shops were playing Michael Jackson music. I couldn't stop dancing and lip syncing. I caught a woman smiling at me.
That was all the festivities we planned for that day and Andra and her friends were going back home on the night bus that evening. At some point, I'll have to visit them in Kansai. I want to go back! I want to go to Kyoto too.
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I meant to post that *points up*, within a few days of it happening, not a week later. >.> Oh well.
Currently, I'm stuffy, tired and coughing. Because Cat wasn't feeling well, she asked whether I'd come to the doctor's with her. So I did. The very same evening, my throat was sore. :(
No good deed goes unpunished, Elphaba would say (Wicked the musical reference, for those less savvy :P ) At least it's the weekend and I possibly have time to recover. I was just getting over being allergy ridden too...
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