Today was a
busy, yet fun day. In a way it was our first full day in Japan. We started the
day by dressing up nicely and going to a government building in Japan. We met
another group of students that were on the trip as well. They were from Texas.
Then we heard some lectures about Japan.
The first
speaker lectured about U.S and Japan relations throughout the years. There are
many ups and downs throughout the years. Luckily, today the U.S and Japan have
strong ties.
The next lecture was called “Cool
Japan”. It focused on America’s interest in Japanese manga. It talked about how
manga needed to be slowly introduced to America because the differences in
cultures caused the U.S to reject it. In order for manga to sell in the States
they had to modify a few things. In a sense, they edited the manga in order to
make it more acceptable by American people. They had to add ratings to it
because in Japan there are no ratings. It is funny that a manga for children in
Japan is rated “Older teen” in America. This is because American’s are quicker
to find the violence and sexuality in the comics unacceptable. They also needed
to modify things like sound effects, characters smoking, dirty pictures, etc.
The lecture really portrayed how something that is completely normal in one
culture can be absolutely bizarre in another culture.
The last lecture we had was about
Japanese language. We practiced some of our greetings and we were shown a
really cool website. I left the sheet with the name of the site in someone
else’s backpack so later I will edit this post with the URL. The website was
made by the Japanese government. It is a free way for people from other
countries to learn about the Japanese language and culture. There are short
videos to watch, mangas to read, and games to play that help you learn
vocabulary. It was a really amazing site; better than any online language tool
I have ever seen before.
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| Tokyo National Museum |
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| Another Building at the Tokyo National Museum |
Next we were bused out to the Tokyo
National Museum. It is the largest and oldest museum in Japan. The museum was a
big walled in area with a bunch of buildings in it. There were also gardens and
a big pond in the area. This museum has the most items out of all the museums
in Japan. Each building was a different time era. My favorite building was a
big brown traditional building. In it were highlights of Japanese Arts. Some
buildings focused specifically on relics of Japan while other buildings had
stuff from all over Asia in it.
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| Fake food at Kappabashi Dogu Street |
Afterwards we went to Kappabashi
Dogu Street. In the early 1900’s people gathered here to sell tools and
hardware. Today this is Japan’s largest shopping street that sells kitchen
implements. There were tons of pretty bowls, plates, and dishes for super
cheap. The other thing they sell on this street is fake food that goes in the
window at restaurants. The food looks so realistic.
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| Liz and I at the temple |
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| Asakusa Kannon Temple |
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| Shops nearby |
The day was not over yet. We got in
the bus and headed to the Asakusa Kannon Temple. When you walk into the area
you see the Sensoji; which is a Buddhist temple. It was built in the 7th
century. It is a big red temple with gold accents. In order to make a wish at
the temple you climb up the temple stairs, throw a coins in a big box, then put
your hands together and bow. Near the temple you can get your fortune by shaking
a little box until a stick with your fortune on it comes out. Leading up to the
temple there is a street of stands. They are selling small items and local
snacks. One man let us try a pancake doll. It is a thick pancake in the shape
of doll or animal. Inside of it are beans. It was very good. During this time
it rained a bit.
To end our day we got dinner at a “Western”
style restaurant. It was a bakery/ restaurant called Baqet. We had a salad and
then were able to go up to the bread bar. The bakery had a ton of different
breads for you to sample. You could have as many different kinds of bread as
you wanted. Then our main course was chicken in a different kind of sauce. I
don’t know if I would exactly call the meal western, but it was different from
what we have had before.
Tomorrow we pack up our things and
head to Chiba prefecture.
