Thursday, October 5, 2006
Today was a very busy day, but a good day. I actually got to do some sightseeing, and it really felt like I was seeing some real parts of Japan. The FMF people took us out in a big group. 200 teachers...yes, it was a little bit crazy. Our first stop was the National Diet Building. This is kind of like our Capitol building in Washington D.C. It's where the two groups of government meet. This was an interesting visit, however, we didn't have a guided tour. We just walked through, so I felt it wasn't very informative.

Our next stop was the Asakusa part of Tokyo and a visit to the oldest Buddist temple in Tokyo, the Senso-ji temple. I really enjoyed this, for several reasons. One was because we didn't have to stay all together in one huge group. Two was because I found this much more interesting than the government building, and three was because we got to see many real Japanese people in their own environment. As I was walking toward the temple, I first had to pass under the Niten-mon Gate. The next thing I saw was the Asakusa shrine. Right after that came the temple. The temple was very large and there were many people there, both tourists and not. There were some Japanese people who were actually there to worship at the shrine. I was trying not to stare too much, but I was very interested in what they were doing. I also got my fortune at the temple. See the photoblog for a picture and some more details on what this entails.

I walked around outside the temple. There were many smaller statues and shrines all around the temple. Some were of Buddha, but some were not. I'm not too sure what the other statues were of. There were signs all around, but they were all in Japanese, so that wasn't very helpful to me.

In front of the temple was a place where incense was burning. I watched as many Japanese people would buy incense, light it, and then put the sticks in this big pot where they kept burning. The incense would waft up and people would actually move their arms to try and get the incense on them. I think was supposed to protect them.

After viewing the temple, I walked down a very long shopping area with many different stalls set up. So many things were being sold. I was disappointed that I didn't have more time to browse. I did see a kimono that could be bought for a dog. I got to stop at one store that sold beautiful Japanese paper products. I bought several things. There was so much to see. It was neat.

At the end of the shopping area was the restaurant where we were to have lunch. This was a traditional Japanese meal. We had to take off our shoes because we were walking on the tatami mats. We sat on cushions on the floor at low tables. The meal was tenpura. It was pretty good and I ate most of it. I even tried green tea, which was a first for me. It was okay. I didn't think it was the best thing I'd every drunk, but it wasn't terrible. I'm getting better with my chopsticks, and no, I didn't try the miso soup.

After this we went back to our hotel where we had sessions all afternoon. We head from two members of the Japanese House of Representatives. They spoke about current issues in the Japanese government. We then heard from an economics professor who spoke about current economic issues in Japan.

The plan for the evening was to go shopping. One other teacher (from Ohio) and I went to a district called Shinjukyo. To get there we took a taxi. The taxi was very clean and the driver had a switch that opened and closeed the doors. In Shinjukyo, everything is neon lights. It's like Times Square in New York City times ten! We went to a store called Tokyu Hands. This is a store like Wal-Mart or Target. It was seven floors and it was attached to a bigger and nicer department store. I bought several items there. After that, we ate dinner at a food court type of place in the department store complex (kind of like a mall). We were looking for the 100 yen store, but when we found it, we were most disappointed. It was just junk. To get back to our hotel, we took the subway. The subway station at Shinjukyu is also attached to the train station, so it was huge. Finally, we figured out which was to go to get the subway line that we needed. We bought our tickets, no problem, because the ticket machine could be displayed in English. The subway train that we rode on was not crowded, so we didn't get pushed on by the white gloved subway pusher. I did see him standing there, however. When we got off the subway train, I saw some other trains that were so crowded that they probably could have used the pusher-guy. After this evening, I felt really proud of myself because we had gone all the way to another area by oursleves and managed to make it back again unscathed. This was an accomplishment.

Interesting things about today:
1. There were schoolchildren waving to all of us while we were on our tour with the group.
2. At the shopping area in Asakusa, a man walked up to me and asked me in perfect English if I wanted him to take my picture. I couldn't believe how well he spoke English.
3. Many people in Tokyo seem to speak at least a little English. Some speak it VERY well.
4. When signs or other things are translated into a second language, it is always English.
5. At many of the stores when you pay, you put your money on a tray and then the change is returned on the same tray.