Oops. Hisashiburi da ne...

So it's been a while since I last wrote... Japan's not a good country to have depression in, and apparently my immune system is pretty terrible and I've had a series of bugs, so I haven't really been out and about much.

Yesterday, for my intellectual and cultural history of postwar Japan class (which sounds so interesting but is so, so terrible... a 3-hour class Friday evening, where the professor has awful English and makes no sense. The Waseda SILS classes don't really live up to expectation for a school with such a good reputation...) we had a class field trip to the Yasukuni Shrine and Akihabara. The Yasukuni Shrine, of course, is the rather controversial Shinto shrine that former prime minister Koizumi visited and caused a great deal of uproar since it honors some class A war criminals from WWII (such as prime minister and general Tojo) as well as war heroes. It's seen a symbol of Japanese militarism and imperialism, and relations with China and Korea especially were quite tense while Koizumi was in office, as they suffered quite a bit under Japanese rule.

At the Yasukuni Shrine, we visited the Yushukan - a museum dedicated to Japan's wars and military history. The shrine wa build to commemorate those who died for their country, and for the foundation of a peaceful Japan (as Yasakuni means peaceful nation/country). So the Yasukuni shrine is dedicated to repect all of Japan's war dead, in the wars since 1853 (it was built in 1869, just after the Meiji Restoration), not just those of World War II. It does portray an image of Japan at the height of its power, and some of the controversy is also due to it glorifying its past and glossing over the atrocities it committed against other countries. Although I couldn't read much, because almost everything is written just in Japanese, some of the controversy with the Yushukan is that it venerates Japan's role in history and glosses over "incidents" such as the Rape of Nanjing, Manchukuo, and the occupation of Korea. It also tends to blame China and the US for dragging it into wars. The Times has an article about it.

Anyway. After that we went to Akihabara (or Akiba), the paradise for techies and otaku. It's where to go if you want to buy a camera, tv, anime and video game figurines, or go to a maid cafe. Quite different from the Yasukuni, it was fast-paced, neon lights, small spaces, crammed with what's popular now - Japan of today is a place obsessed with fads and what's trendy, even more than the US. We have to write an essay comparing the two. Following that there was a class nomikai (drinking party), although I skipped to drag my poor sniffling sick self home instead. Apparently at the drinking party, the professor pulled out hentai (porn) manga that he bought and passed it around to the student. .... uh. Oh, Japan. What would you be without pervy old men...

Today I went to the Studio Ghibli museum with a bunch of friends. Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki, the director, are fairly well-known in the US - animated movies such as Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, and others. A lot of them are very cute or well done, although some get too preachy for my tastes... But very creative worlds. The museum was like that: brilliant, creative design with quirky inventions, traditional animated films, and lots to pull out your inner kid. Hard to describe (and they're very strict about no taking pictures), but it was fun. I love looking at concept art.

Off to find some dinner and collapse for the night. Earthquake simulation and earthquake/fire safety instead of my Japanese language class on Monday, um... should be interesting. (As though I'm not afraid enough of earthquakes!)