Ritsumeikan 2014

I have been collaborating on a project about Japanese elections with a scholar at a university in Kyoto called Ritsumeikan.  Earlier this year we got a grant from Ritsumeikan to bring me to Japan to do some field research for this project (the grant will also pay for Michiya, my research partner, to come to the United States to present our research, which we hope to do in Chicago in March).  While in Kyoto, I also did a 40 minute lecture in Japanese to 50 of Michiya's students and colleagues.  This was terrifying, but I think it went pretty well.

The trip lasted 11 days, which was a long time to be away from Kate and the kids, but I had not been to Japan since 2009, and it was nice to be back.

Here is a picture of me with Michiya and his family:

Here is a picture of Michiya and I posing with my old friend Daisuke, who works for the central government (I actually spent my first two days in Japan on this trip staying with Daisuke's great family):

Michiya and I did a few interviews on the trip.  Here is a picture of us with the head of the Kyoto Branch of the Democratic Party of Japan, who we had just interviewed:

Although there are no pictures of this, Michiya and I both had a new experience on this trip.  A member of the Japanese Diet (the Parliament) from the Japan Restoration Party invited us out for drinks; we went to an "Irish Pub" near the hotel where we were staying.  The Diet Member was a very interesting guy to talk to; in particular, we got to hear a lot about his recent official trip to North Korea.

Here is the daily breakfast from my hotel in Kyoto:

And here is the daily breakfast from my hotel in Tokyo:

And here is an "eki bento" a train station lunch, that I ate on the bullet train from Tokyo to Kyoto:

I like the name of this cafe:

I think they meant to name this restaurant Herbs...

Here are all of the pictures that I took in Japan.