Vacation Time, Part 1
One of the missions of the JET Programme (I really hope they don’t mind me throwing their name around like I do) is to foster international exchange. In this spirit, I decided to take a vacation, which, like breakfast, height, and students who don’t constantly question my marital status, is virtually unknown in Japan. I basically took the time off, because I’m in the home stretch of my time here, and the stress is piling on. Job hunting, getting rejected for jobs, wrapping up my affairs here, and other odds and ends really pile up. The only positive aspect of the previous two weeks was that I finished Elementary School. Forever. I’ll never so much as even walk past one again.
Actually, I ended up doing an extra lesson. I wanted to take last Monday off, but the elementary school couldn’t change the date. So I came to work. And because it was Monday, I went to my last elementary school visit. Turns out that, because they couldn’t change the date, they just cancelled my lesson that day. They just didn’t tell me or my school. And then they acted offended that I messed up their schedule. But not so offended that they took me up on my offer to just leave and let classes happen as usual. But then, after my history at Elementary School, I should have expected no less. At least it’s over.
So let’s begin the vacation story.
(Piano Intro)
Just a city boy,
born and raised in South Detroit.
He took the midnight train
goin’ aaaaaannnnnyyyyyyyywhere.
Really, I was neither born nor raised in South Detroit. And it wasn’t a “midnight train goin’ anywhere,” but the 23:05 overnight bus to Tokyo. My life is such a lie. I’d been wanting to get back to 東京 since I first came to Japan. It’s a bustling, dymanic, and engaging city that I missed the first time around, being jetlagged and a typhoon happening and all. Plus, I didn’t know any Japanese.
Now, however, I’m a lot better at not knowing any Japanese, so I felt that a trip was appropriate. A simple two day trip turned into an adventure filled with surprises, armed robbery, mysterious strangers, international intrigue, and full frontal nudity.
Ok, maybe not.
I still had fun, even though the weather was about 300 degrees with 259% humidity. Given time constraints, I had to follow something that people call a “schedule” or “itenerary.” Not really my style, but sometimes you don’t like what you gotta do.
My bus dropped me off in the famous Shinjuku district of Tokyo, about a block away from the hotel I stayed at for my orientation. Here is where it all started one year ago.
This is the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Pretty swank. JET really hooked us up. This picture shows how close I can afford to stand to the front door.
From Shinjuku, I headed east to Kudanshita, the site of both the Imperial Palace and Yasukuni Shrine. I didn’t do much at the Palace or the Gardens, mostly because the heat was way out of line, and I didn’t know how to enter. Maybe I couldn’t. So I decided to head for the air conditioned comfort of the Yasukuni Shrine Museum. Yasukuni is the shrine that honors those who have died in war for Japan, from the beginning of the nation. However, due to Japan’s post-war constitution, which denounces wars of empire, and the fact that the spirits of Japan’s WWII dead are honored there (executed war criminals included), many Asian governments protest any visits by members of the Japanese government. So I chose to see what the fuss was about.
To say that the history presented was biased would be an understatement. Apparently, Japan was the only country that suffered in WWII. I wish that my Japanese was at the level that I could have read the info in Japanese instead of the English summary. Anyway, the information presented argued the case that Japan invaded Asia to defend the southeast and east Asian countries from invasion from Russia, and to protest western influence and defense of China (defense from the Japanese invasion, kinda circular reasoning). The most interesting piece focused on the battle of Nankking, whose aftermath resulted in mass civilian slaughter, rape, and looting by the Japanese soldiers. According to the exhibit, “After the Chinese forces surrendered, the Japanese army encircled the city, and the residents inside were allowed to live in peace.” In no part of the museum was Japan responsible for anything that happened in WWII, except for acts of altruism.
But what about Pearl Harbor? Apparently that was a preemptive attack, as the US was planning to attack Japan anyway, as evidenced by the embargos the US placed on trade with Japan. It’s strange, but their arguments reminded me a lot of the reasons for invading Iraq a few years ago.
All in all, it got me thinking. Of course the museum would be biased, the US is one of the few countries that actually and willingly airs its dirty laundry for all the world to see. For example, when I was in Spain, there was a German man skiing for Spain in the winter Olympics, and the whole country had their hopes pinned on him for the gold medal. But then he got expelled from the games because of a positive drug test. The next day, no one had ever heard of him. Trying not to focus on the bad is natural, but this museum would be like a museum of American History saying that the Trail of Tears or slavery never happened, and blaming the American Indians and Black Americans for lying and trying to make the US look bad. Especially if the Trail of Tears or slavery had happened about 60 years ago, well within a lifetime. Probably the most disturbing part of the entire museum was the frequent reference to the Japanese soldiers and civilians who had “given their lives for the race.” Kinda scary.
So now that the mood is light and happy, I’ll show you pictures of the next place I went, near the Harajuku district, the site of all the fashion in Tokyo. I went to see this.
This is the site of the Tokyo Olympics that happened sometime in the 1960s. This is the second Olympic site I’ve been to, Mexico City being the first. To commemorate the occasion, the bridge leading to the site was decorated with murals depicting different Olympic events.
Next on the train line was Shibuya, the site of the world’s most used intersection. It was in the film “Lost in Translation, and wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. But it was surrounded with large television screens, advertising movies, albums, cars, and other things that people buy when they’re advertised.
Try and read the Engrish on the guy in the lower left. That’s pretty typical.
At that point, it started raining, my feet started hurting, and I became tired. So I found a capsule for an afternoon nap, with the intentions of getting up at about 2 to go to the early morning fish market.
And that didn’t happen. I’ll try to hit one in Osaka.
I had to leave the next afternoon, so I spent that morning at Ueno park, which is not only the biggest park in Japan, but also has the biggest zoo.
Together at last.
At this point, I was ready to rent one, and someone to push me around. It’s Japan, and I’m foreign, so it probably would have happened.
So what did I see at the zoo? Lots of animals. Nothing too surprising.
This is just a strange apartment building I was able to see from the zoo.
I took the bullet train back, and got home at about 6:30. But the vacation adventures weren’t quite over yet.
Actually, I ended up doing an extra lesson. I wanted to take last Monday off, but the elementary school couldn’t change the date. So I came to work. And because it was Monday, I went to my last elementary school visit. Turns out that, because they couldn’t change the date, they just cancelled my lesson that day. They just didn’t tell me or my school. And then they acted offended that I messed up their schedule. But not so offended that they took me up on my offer to just leave and let classes happen as usual. But then, after my history at Elementary School, I should have expected no less. At least it’s over.
So let’s begin the vacation story.
(Piano Intro)
Just a city boy,
born and raised in South Detroit.
He took the midnight train
goin’ aaaaaannnnnyyyyyyyywhere.
Really, I was neither born nor raised in South Detroit. And it wasn’t a “midnight train goin’ anywhere,” but the 23:05 overnight bus to Tokyo. My life is such a lie. I’d been wanting to get back to 東京 since I first came to Japan. It’s a bustling, dymanic, and engaging city that I missed the first time around, being jetlagged and a typhoon happening and all. Plus, I didn’t know any Japanese.
Now, however, I’m a lot better at not knowing any Japanese, so I felt that a trip was appropriate. A simple two day trip turned into an adventure filled with surprises, armed robbery, mysterious strangers, international intrigue, and full frontal nudity.
Ok, maybe not.
I still had fun, even though the weather was about 300 degrees with 259% humidity. Given time constraints, I had to follow something that people call a “schedule” or “itenerary.” Not really my style, but sometimes you don’t like what you gotta do.
My bus dropped me off in the famous Shinjuku district of Tokyo, about a block away from the hotel I stayed at for my orientation. Here is where it all started one year ago.
This is the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed at. Pretty swank. JET really hooked us up. This picture shows how close I can afford to stand to the front door.
From Shinjuku, I headed east to Kudanshita, the site of both the Imperial Palace and Yasukuni Shrine. I didn’t do much at the Palace or the Gardens, mostly because the heat was way out of line, and I didn’t know how to enter. Maybe I couldn’t. So I decided to head for the air conditioned comfort of the Yasukuni Shrine Museum. Yasukuni is the shrine that honors those who have died in war for Japan, from the beginning of the nation. However, due to Japan’s post-war constitution, which denounces wars of empire, and the fact that the spirits of Japan’s WWII dead are honored there (executed war criminals included), many Asian governments protest any visits by members of the Japanese government. So I chose to see what the fuss was about.
To say that the history presented was biased would be an understatement. Apparently, Japan was the only country that suffered in WWII. I wish that my Japanese was at the level that I could have read the info in Japanese instead of the English summary. Anyway, the information presented argued the case that Japan invaded Asia to defend the southeast and east Asian countries from invasion from Russia, and to protest western influence and defense of China (defense from the Japanese invasion, kinda circular reasoning). The most interesting piece focused on the battle of Nankking, whose aftermath resulted in mass civilian slaughter, rape, and looting by the Japanese soldiers. According to the exhibit, “After the Chinese forces surrendered, the Japanese army encircled the city, and the residents inside were allowed to live in peace.” In no part of the museum was Japan responsible for anything that happened in WWII, except for acts of altruism.
But what about Pearl Harbor? Apparently that was a preemptive attack, as the US was planning to attack Japan anyway, as evidenced by the embargos the US placed on trade with Japan. It’s strange, but their arguments reminded me a lot of the reasons for invading Iraq a few years ago.
All in all, it got me thinking. Of course the museum would be biased, the US is one of the few countries that actually and willingly airs its dirty laundry for all the world to see. For example, when I was in Spain, there was a German man skiing for Spain in the winter Olympics, and the whole country had their hopes pinned on him for the gold medal. But then he got expelled from the games because of a positive drug test. The next day, no one had ever heard of him. Trying not to focus on the bad is natural, but this museum would be like a museum of American History saying that the Trail of Tears or slavery never happened, and blaming the American Indians and Black Americans for lying and trying to make the US look bad. Especially if the Trail of Tears or slavery had happened about 60 years ago, well within a lifetime. Probably the most disturbing part of the entire museum was the frequent reference to the Japanese soldiers and civilians who had “given their lives for the race.” Kinda scary.
So now that the mood is light and happy, I’ll show you pictures of the next place I went, near the Harajuku district, the site of all the fashion in Tokyo. I went to see this.
This is the site of the Tokyo Olympics that happened sometime in the 1960s. This is the second Olympic site I’ve been to, Mexico City being the first. To commemorate the occasion, the bridge leading to the site was decorated with murals depicting different Olympic events.
Next on the train line was Shibuya, the site of the world’s most used intersection. It was in the film “Lost in Translation, and wasn’t as big as I thought it would be. But it was surrounded with large television screens, advertising movies, albums, cars, and other things that people buy when they’re advertised.
Try and read the Engrish on the guy in the lower left. That’s pretty typical.
At that point, it started raining, my feet started hurting, and I became tired. So I found a capsule for an afternoon nap, with the intentions of getting up at about 2 to go to the early morning fish market.
And that didn’t happen. I’ll try to hit one in Osaka.
I had to leave the next afternoon, so I spent that morning at Ueno park, which is not only the biggest park in Japan, but also has the biggest zoo.
Together at last.
At this point, I was ready to rent one, and someone to push me around. It’s Japan, and I’m foreign, so it probably would have happened.
So what did I see at the zoo? Lots of animals. Nothing too surprising.
This is just a strange apartment building I was able to see from the zoo.
I took the bullet train back, and got home at about 6:30. But the vacation adventures weren’t quite over yet.