Day 5 - Tokyo
Amber's Phrase of the Day: Itadakimasu! which you say before you eat sort of like "we receive this food!"
Speaking of food, my story for today is about breakfast! Before I got over here I had no concept of what a Japanese breakfast was like, and assumed (correctly) that it doesn't include cereal or waffles. Each morning our hotel offers a free breakfast between 7:00 and 9:30. At the very beginning of the buffet line is a tray set up with the food in all of the right compartments on the tray (think school system lunch trays). As you walk down the line, you are first confronted by a super large bowl of shredded salad type stuff. After referring to the sample tray, you put the in the upper left corner, and add some dressing. The next station is hard boiled eggs, which you must put in the upper right corner of the tray. Then comes the center area, mini hotdogs!! (they call them sausages, but their really little hot dogs). A bit of ketchup, and it's on to fill the bottom of your tray. The largest section (bottom left) holds your starches, which on any given morning will be some sort of rolls and danishes. I usually pick a white break roll and a chocolate chip danish type thing. Finally you leave the buffet line and head to the "wet" stations, where you can get your bowl of soup (lower right hand spot on tray), coffee, juice and utensils.
While I completely understand and appreciate the model tray, I have to wonder if it's really necessary. I already have rebelled against the Japanese sense of convention, and swapped the hot dogs and hard boiled eggs section. There was a delightful thrill of indecency, and I really did half expect one of the attendants to snatch my tray away and show me the "right" way to do it. Sadly there was no breakfast police to come out with sirens blazing to apprehend the foolish American. (I still smile if I put things in different places than they're supposed to go.)
So today we started a bit later, and had the luxury of meeting at 10am in the lobby to make our way over to JUSEC. The morning speaker was Dr. Bruce Stronach, who is an American but the previous President of Yokohama City University and the newest Dean of Temple University in Japan. After listening to many Japanese describe their education system, it was slightly refreshing, and pretty astonishing, to hear an American just go after it with both guns blazing. In a single two hour period he managed to malign the K-12 system, the test system, call administrators, professors and ministry officials horrible, and basically say everything is FUBAR. Which I'm inclined to agree with to some extent, but not because they system is broken. More, the educational system isn't adaptable enough to keep up with the changing world, and unless there is a dramatic reform instituted Japan is not going to do well in the next 50 or so years. He had some really interesting insights into the lack of liberal arts education, and how that fails to prepare Japanese to think outside the box in industry.
After about an hour and a half of Dr. Stronach's diatribe, we moved to lunch down the street. And wow. We walked into the building and it was like entering an old style Japanese village. Their was bamboo on the walls, and at the bottom of the entrance stairs, everything became bamboo paneled. The floors were made to resemble bedrock, and there were little gardens and fountains throughout. Kind of like a Japanese Kahunaville, but without all the cartoony kitsch. And it's not an act either, the restaurants are really just like this. So down between paneled rooms we go around a corner and back to our own room. Off come the shoes and we duck beneath a sliding Japanese panel into our private table area. The table was at floor level, as were the little legless chairs, but to our relief there is a lowered area under the table for you to put your legs into. Silent Japanese women in kimono's brought bento boxes and tea to our spots, as well as water. I loved the Kimono's and plan to get a set before I leave.
The lunch was a traditional Japanese lunch with sushi, pickled vegetables, tempura, soup and a gelatin dish (this time chicken broth flavored). The atmosphere was almost like a spa, between trading your shoes in and the quietness of the staff. A trip to the bathroom revealed a new species of commode, this time coming with a heated air drying button. Like a hand dryer for your..... you get the picture. The wonders never cease with the bathrooms.
After lunch it was off to the University of Tokyo for an afternoon of informational sessions and a tour with students. We had two rather informative but boring lectures on Todai (nickname for UT) and also the higher education system. They were interesting, but also in a room with the lights off which was tough to handle with less sleep under my belt. Then there was a quick tour of campus and various green spaces. The Japanese sense of esthetic and harmony with nature is in everything they do, and their campus spaces include statues, fountains and ponds everywhere! As we walked we were able to talk with several international and Japanese students, and ended with a coffee session social where they could just come talk to any of us. I ended up spending some time with a German student who's brother just graduated from UR in brain and cognitive science (he even knew Meliora Hall!) and also graduated from RIT in Image Science (Seth's program). He was wonderfully open about America and Germany, and I hope if he ever comes to the States we'll be able to talk again.
Following the open session it was off to the subway and the end of our day. However since it was only 4:00, several of us wanted to head down to the Imperial Palace compound, so we spilt up and took a different line to the center of Tokyo. After finding our way over to the right area I was really struck by the contrasts. There are traditional style Japanese walls surrounding the complex, juxtaposed against a totally modern skyline in the distance. I have one great picture of one of the gates, with a large glass skyscraper being built behind it. Talk about the meeting of east and west.
Walking around the area gives this interesting sense of sequestered serenity amidst an incredibly busy city. Unfortunately we were too late to enter the gardens, but you can walk along the walls and even catch glimpses of the Palace through a series of bridges. The sun had come out after a day of serious rain, and the temperature stayed around 70 to make it completely comfortable. In a city where land is at a premium, there are incredibly large grounds surrounding the palace, which act as a sound buffer from the rest of the world. After our pass through of the area we swung down past the Diet (Japanese Parliament) building, the prime minister's house, and caught a different subway line back to the hotel.
I'm having an interesting time photo journaling my trip as well. Each picture is an attempt at art in a world that is inherently artistic. That means my shots of beautiful architecture, sculpture and landscaping always seem to fall short, because the real thing is so detailed and precise. Even the food here is pretty, with such attention paid to placement, balance and color. It's not to say that in an earthquake prone area such as this there aren't a fair share of ugly concrete buildings, but more that when possible, life tries to imitate art instead of the other way around.
So now I sit here on the vending room floor, journaling, drinking an Asahi beer from the vending machine and doing laundry. I need to pack tonight to ship my luggage to Kyoto, and then we have another university visit and afternoon presentation tomorrow before leaving on Saturday. We've certainly gotten our money out of Tokyo so far, and it will be nice to move on to somewhere new. Then when we come back in 10 days we'll be ready to pick up our last few sights and shops before heading home! I'm looking forward to seeing a more traditional Japan outside of the capital, and also to get into some truly natural settings instead of the carefully constructed and controlled nature of the metro area.
Of course, as always, pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11497507@N08/sets/72157605569320038/
Speaking of food, my story for today is about breakfast! Before I got over here I had no concept of what a Japanese breakfast was like, and assumed (correctly) that it doesn't include cereal or waffles. Each morning our hotel offers a free breakfast between 7:00 and 9:30. At the very beginning of the buffet line is a tray set up with the food in all of the right compartments on the tray (think school system lunch trays). As you walk down the line, you are first confronted by a super large bowl of shredded salad type stuff. After referring to the sample tray, you put the in the upper left corner, and add some dressing. The next station is hard boiled eggs, which you must put in the upper right corner of the tray. Then comes the center area, mini hotdogs!! (they call them sausages, but their really little hot dogs). A bit of ketchup, and it's on to fill the bottom of your tray. The largest section (bottom left) holds your starches, which on any given morning will be some sort of rolls and danishes. I usually pick a white break roll and a chocolate chip danish type thing. Finally you leave the buffet line and head to the "wet" stations, where you can get your bowl of soup (lower right hand spot on tray), coffee, juice and utensils.
While I completely understand and appreciate the model tray, I have to wonder if it's really necessary. I already have rebelled against the Japanese sense of convention, and swapped the hot dogs and hard boiled eggs section. There was a delightful thrill of indecency, and I really did half expect one of the attendants to snatch my tray away and show me the "right" way to do it. Sadly there was no breakfast police to come out with sirens blazing to apprehend the foolish American. (I still smile if I put things in different places than they're supposed to go.)
So today we started a bit later, and had the luxury of meeting at 10am in the lobby to make our way over to JUSEC. The morning speaker was Dr. Bruce Stronach, who is an American but the previous President of Yokohama City University and the newest Dean of Temple University in Japan. After listening to many Japanese describe their education system, it was slightly refreshing, and pretty astonishing, to hear an American just go after it with both guns blazing. In a single two hour period he managed to malign the K-12 system, the test system, call administrators, professors and ministry officials horrible, and basically say everything is FUBAR. Which I'm inclined to agree with to some extent, but not because they system is broken. More, the educational system isn't adaptable enough to keep up with the changing world, and unless there is a dramatic reform instituted Japan is not going to do well in the next 50 or so years. He had some really interesting insights into the lack of liberal arts education, and how that fails to prepare Japanese to think outside the box in industry.
After about an hour and a half of Dr. Stronach's diatribe, we moved to lunch down the street. And wow. We walked into the building and it was like entering an old style Japanese village. Their was bamboo on the walls, and at the bottom of the entrance stairs, everything became bamboo paneled. The floors were made to resemble bedrock, and there were little gardens and fountains throughout. Kind of like a Japanese Kahunaville, but without all the cartoony kitsch. And it's not an act either, the restaurants are really just like this. So down between paneled rooms we go around a corner and back to our own room. Off come the shoes and we duck beneath a sliding Japanese panel into our private table area. The table was at floor level, as were the little legless chairs, but to our relief there is a lowered area under the table for you to put your legs into. Silent Japanese women in kimono's brought bento boxes and tea to our spots, as well as water. I loved the Kimono's and plan to get a set before I leave.
The lunch was a traditional Japanese lunch with sushi, pickled vegetables, tempura, soup and a gelatin dish (this time chicken broth flavored). The atmosphere was almost like a spa, between trading your shoes in and the quietness of the staff. A trip to the bathroom revealed a new species of commode, this time coming with a heated air drying button. Like a hand dryer for your..... you get the picture. The wonders never cease with the bathrooms.
After lunch it was off to the University of Tokyo for an afternoon of informational sessions and a tour with students. We had two rather informative but boring lectures on Todai (nickname for UT) and also the higher education system. They were interesting, but also in a room with the lights off which was tough to handle with less sleep under my belt. Then there was a quick tour of campus and various green spaces. The Japanese sense of esthetic and harmony with nature is in everything they do, and their campus spaces include statues, fountains and ponds everywhere! As we walked we were able to talk with several international and Japanese students, and ended with a coffee session social where they could just come talk to any of us. I ended up spending some time with a German student who's brother just graduated from UR in brain and cognitive science (he even knew Meliora Hall!) and also graduated from RIT in Image Science (Seth's program). He was wonderfully open about America and Germany, and I hope if he ever comes to the States we'll be able to talk again.
Following the open session it was off to the subway and the end of our day. However since it was only 4:00, several of us wanted to head down to the Imperial Palace compound, so we spilt up and took a different line to the center of Tokyo. After finding our way over to the right area I was really struck by the contrasts. There are traditional style Japanese walls surrounding the complex, juxtaposed against a totally modern skyline in the distance. I have one great picture of one of the gates, with a large glass skyscraper being built behind it. Talk about the meeting of east and west.
Walking around the area gives this interesting sense of sequestered serenity amidst an incredibly busy city. Unfortunately we were too late to enter the gardens, but you can walk along the walls and even catch glimpses of the Palace through a series of bridges. The sun had come out after a day of serious rain, and the temperature stayed around 70 to make it completely comfortable. In a city where land is at a premium, there are incredibly large grounds surrounding the palace, which act as a sound buffer from the rest of the world. After our pass through of the area we swung down past the Diet (Japanese Parliament) building, the prime minister's house, and caught a different subway line back to the hotel.
I'm having an interesting time photo journaling my trip as well. Each picture is an attempt at art in a world that is inherently artistic. That means my shots of beautiful architecture, sculpture and landscaping always seem to fall short, because the real thing is so detailed and precise. Even the food here is pretty, with such attention paid to placement, balance and color. It's not to say that in an earthquake prone area such as this there aren't a fair share of ugly concrete buildings, but more that when possible, life tries to imitate art instead of the other way around.
So now I sit here on the vending room floor, journaling, drinking an Asahi beer from the vending machine and doing laundry. I need to pack tonight to ship my luggage to Kyoto, and then we have another university visit and afternoon presentation tomorrow before leaving on Saturday. We've certainly gotten our money out of Tokyo so far, and it will be nice to move on to somewhere new. Then when we come back in 10 days we'll be ready to pick up our last few sights and shops before heading home! I'm looking forward to seeing a more traditional Japan outside of the capital, and also to get into some truly natural settings instead of the carefully constructed and controlled nature of the metro area.
Of course, as always, pictures are here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11497507@N08/sets/72157605569320038/