Goodbye Godzilla and Hello Kitty*

 *the title of this blog post is from an essay by Norihiro Kato, a professor at Waseda (the university where I just spent two weeks).

After my week in Akita Prefecture, I  have now completed my two weeks in Tokyo, and I am on the train from Tokyo Station to Narita Airport. I came to Japan with carryon only, but I am returning with a checked back, because I bought a lot of souvineers and presents. (by the way, here's a quick travel tip for people thinking of coming to Japan: Japan is not really set up for people to be bringing huge checked bags on subways and bullet trains. However, there is a very convenient service that you can use to quickly ship bags from anywhere in Japan to the airport for not very much money. You can also ship bags from the airport to your hotel. I set this shipping up at the 7-11 right accross from my professor dorm, and it cost around $15. I sent my big bag on Wednesday for a Friday flight).

I last posted on the return train from Yamanashi, and my final week in Tokyo was great. I got to see my old host sister Ryoko. There is a picture of her in high school in this post, and here is a picture of me with her and her daughter:

At the end of our lunch Ryoko pointed out to her daughter that she and I were about here daughter's age when we first met.

My last interview was with a Member of Parliament from Osaka. Since this week was the first week of the Osaka Expo, he had a huge doll of the Expo's mascot, which is named Myaku Myaku:

At my local grocery store I bought some white strawberries from Tochigi Prefecture. They were really good. 

On my last day, I decided to visit the famous and controversial Shinto Shrine to Japan's war dead, Yasukuni Shrine. I am glad that I finally went there, as I teach my students about it so it will be good to be able to refer to my own visit. One of the most remarked upon aspects of the shrine is the Yusukan museum of Japan's wars. Unfortunately you are not allowed to take pictures of most of the museum, but I thought this sign just before the "no pictures" policy started was funny:

It has been 22 days away from my family, and I am definitely looking forward to seeing them again!

Next year in Yamanashi Prefecture?

I am writing today from an express train between Kofu, a small city in Yamanashi Prefecture, and Shinjuku Station, the busiest train station in Tokyo (and I believe also the busiest in the world). 

I was in Yamanashi to visit my host family from the study abroad program that I did in college. I have kept in touch with this family and long time readers of the blog who also attended the 2004 Fishforbreakfast Wedding(tm)  might remember the woman in this picture from that wedding (she wore a kimono):

They took me to a few places to look at cherry blossoms. Here is one of the pictures, where you can see Mt. Fuji in the background.

I have also gotten some nice views of the cherry blossoms in Tokyo. This is by Waseda, the University where I am staying:

Here is a picture of me with some other old friends. The woman taking the picture, was pregnant with the man in the front right, at our wedding (that man is now a college student in Tokyo)

And here is a picture of me with Horst. Horst is spending a year as a visiting professor in Japan with his family. My father texted me while we were having dinner, and I had Horst call my dad from my phone. That really surprised my dad!

Here I am presenting on some of my research:

 

Sayonara Odate

 I am writing this on a train from Odate in northeast Akita Prefecture to Akita City in the west. In Akita City I will do a research interview, spend the night at a hotel called "Dormy", and then head to Tokyo tomorrow. 

My trip to Odate was incredibly useful, and I will have to spend a good amount of time looking over the data that I gathered. In addition to being the home of the famous dog Hachiko, as I mentioned in the last post, Odate also claims to be the birthplace of the dog breed "Akita." A sign in the Hachiko Museum says that the Akita breed was originally called the Odate breed. Dog images are EVERYWHERE in Odate.

Here are some photos from my time in Odate:

That is me with Mayor Ishida. At 27, he is the youngest mayor in all of Japan.

That is my hotel breakfast from yesterday. I ate some version of this every morning in Odate except this morning, as I had to leave before they started service.

That was the sign posted dramatically in the curry restaurant where I had lunch yesterday. It was one of their only decorations. The guy I was eating with asked if it was a famous expression, and I had to say no. I also realized that it is beyond the limits of my Japanese to translate it (maybe because I don't totally understand what it means in English?). 

That is the restaurant that I retreated to when I got tired of Japanese food. Alacran, Cheese and Dining.

That is the route of the train that I am on right now.