*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!
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