Yasukuni Shrine & The War Memorial Museum

On Friday Dan and I went to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine, which gained infamy for enshrining the wardead, often war criminals, from the days when Japan tried to build its empire in Asia, and during WWII. There was a lot of negative press when it was brought to light that some of Japan's prime ministers had been visiting the Shrine annually to pay their respects.

We were interested to see what all the fuss was about, and I'd never been there before, which is always a bonus when doing touristy things!

One of the guards tried to stop me taking a photo of the actual Shrine, and that's when I saw the No Photography sign. Oops! But I got this one photo.

From the grounds of the Shrine you can see the Hosei University Ichigaya campus, where a few Leeds students were placed. I actually originally wanted to go to Hosei, because of the central location, but from what I've heard I'm getting a much better education at ICU.

There's a War Memorial Museum (靖国遊就館, Yasukuni Yushukan) in the grounds of the Shrine, just to the right of the main road. Dan and I didn't have any plans for the afternoon, so we decided to wander round the museum. And entry was very cheap for students (Y500), but a normal adult ticket was Y800.

After the moving experience of going around the Hiroshima War Memorial Museum in 2008, I was expecting something equally as good. Unfortunately, I found that a lot of the information was very biased, and a lot of the awful things that happened were glossed over, portrayed as necessary, or just not mentioned.

I was very disappointed with the museum. Even though they had a lot of interesting exhibits, the lack of balance in the information put a downer on the whole experience. I wouldn't recommend going there, unless you fancy going round and picking holes in everything!

Overall, it was an interesting afternoon at Yasukuni, and the Shrine area was very nice, but I wouldn't go to the Museum again.

Japanese Electronic Dictionary

The other day I bought an electronic dictionary (電子辞書, denshi jisho) in Akihabara, the discount electronics district of Tokyo.

I've needed one for years, because they are basically essential for Japanese study. But up to now I really haven't had the money for one, but after being told I'll receive the JASSO Scholarship for three months, I decided that now is the time to buy!

I went to the same stall in Akihabara that Katy bought her's from, because it was very cheap (Y14,800, which is a very good deal). I was a bit worried about buying from a stall instead of a shop, but Katy's has been fine, and it comes with a one-year guarantee. Which probably means it will die as soon the year is up, but we'll see.

The one I bought is a CASIO Ex-word Dataplus 4, and it's a 2008 model. You can write kanji into it using the stylus, and look up both Japanese and English. It also reads out words in both languages. It's so incredibly useful! Especially being able to just write in kanji that you don't know how to read, and it tells you the reading and meaning.

There was a choice of either an American English or a British English model, so of course I chose British!

Electronics dictionaries really are invaluable study tools, so if you don't already have one and are serious about studying Japanese, I really recommend buying one!

Setsubun - The Official Start to Spring

Today is the Setsubun festival (節分祭り, setsubun matsuri), which is the day when winter officially ends, and spring begins. Personally, I think 3rd February is a bit early to welcome spring, even in Japan! But who am I to argue with the lunar calendar...

Setsubun is known as the 'bean throwing festival', because at temples and shrines up and down Japan, famous/ important people throw little packets of beans into the crowd, and if you catch one then it's good luck. You're also meant to eat the same amount of beans as your age, so 20 in my case.

There's more information about Setsubun here.

Rob, Katy, Melanie, Andrea and I cycled from ICU to the nearby Jindai-ji temple (深大寺), which took about 20 minutes. The surrounding area we went through had a really nice feel to it, and parts of it actually felt a lot like Britain!

We had some time before the actual bean throwing, so we wandered around the grounds and bought some traditional food to snack on.

There's already some blossom coming out, even though it's still pretty cold. It's mainly plum blossom (梅, ume), but there's one cherry tree (桜, sakura) in ICU that's starting to bloom.

There was still some snow left on the roofs of buildings.

After about an hour, we headed up to the stage that was set up by the main temple building.

There wasn't much of a crowd, but it quickly filled up. There were three bean throwing events during the day, and we were at the last one, so lots of people probably went earlier in the day.



The first event was a comedy duo, a rather unfunny one though!


After that, there was a procession behind us, which was quite difficult to see.


Then there was some fantastic traditional drumming on the stage.




After the drumming performances, the famous actors and singers, and important people filed onto stage. Of course we had no idea who any of them were, but some of them seemed to be quite a big deal, judging by the audience's reaction.

Then they all started to throw the bags of beans into the crowd.


Sorry for the quality of this video, I was manhandled by an old woman who fought her way past me to pick up a bag that had fallen to the ground!



I caught two bags myself, and Rob caught about four! So Rob and I gave a bag each to Melanie and Andrea, who hadn't been able to catch any.

It was a lot of fun, and hopefully I'll be lucky after catching two bags! (Although they were giving out bags at the exit to people who hadn't caught any, so everyone gets a bit of the luck!)

That evening Rob and I sat in my room and ate 20 beans each for good luck. They were already roasted, so they were fine to eat as they were. You can also buy them in shops. Roll on Spring!

It's Snowing!

Well, it's the first day of February, and it's brought snow to Tokyo!

Winter in Tokyo is very dry, and it gets around three to four days of snow a year, usually in late January and February, so here it is!

I took some photos from my balcony.

I don't think the snow will last long, because it's meant to turn to sleet, and then rain overnight, so it might all melt by the time I get up. That will make the bike ride into Uni much easier, but not nearly as pretty!

I'm Going To China!

I just booked my flights to China for the school holiday! I'm so excited about going! I'm planning to stay with some friends who are studying in Shanghai on their year abroad from Leeds Uni.

I'm going to be there for 12 days in March so I plan to go to Shanghai and Beijing. I can't believe I'm actually going to go!!

I need to get a tourist visa to visit China, so I'll go to the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo in the next week or so and sort that out.

The flights cost £380, which I thought was a bit expensive, but it looks like that price is about the cheapest it gets.

The only reason I can afford this trip is because I'm receiving the JASSO Scholarship from now until March. The first installment should come into my Japanese bank account on 5th February, and that's Y80,000 for January and an Y80,000 "settling-in" payment, which I get despite the fact that I settled in five months ago!

And it's probably the only opportunity I'll ever have to go to China and not to pay for accommodation, so I have to grab it while I can!

I can't wait!

Spring in January!

The last couple of days have been really weird after the consistency of the last month. The cool temperatures of 5C or so have been interrupted by a blast of warm wind, bringing the temperature up to 18C!

It has really felt like Japanese Spring, and some plum blossoms have even started appearing on the ICU campus. The rise in temperature also brought out some insects. A-chan was accosted by the first bee of the year at our Soul Lunch on Tuesday.

The weirdest thing about this warm spell, is that it really, no joke, feels like Summer in Britain. Because the sun is more intense on the more southerly latitude, even if the actual temperature isn't as high as Britain would be in August (although admittedly it's not far off, depressingly), the strength of the sun's rays do make it feel almost exactly the same.

Which is lovely! Because it's like Summer without the crazy Japanese humidity!

But all good things must come to an end I suppose. Tomorrow is forecast to be 8C again. Although even that is not January-weather! I'll never get used to warm climates...

Reply From Gaba

Well, it's only a few hours after my interview at Gaba, and I've just received an email from them.

I didn't get the job!!!!

It was actually a very nice email, but due to the problem with my student ID running out a month before my contract with Gaba would finish, and therefore cancelling my work permit at the end of June, they can't hire me.

Just that one month! And if ICU had let me, I would have applied for the work permit as soon I stepped off the plane! Well, maybe not literally... But there's no way I would have waited until December before applying!

Grghh, how annoying! Bureaucracy wins again!

So I'm back to square one with the job front. I'll have a look at the International Student Office noticeboard at ICU, because they often have job vacancies advertised that fit into students' schedules. And I'll also step up the pace in searching for private students.

I'm really lucky that I'm getting the JASSO Scholarship now. If I had no job and no scholarship, I'd probably have to cry! But my student loan installment just came in and we were told in the JASSO meeting earlier that we should get the first Y80,000 transfer to our Japanese bank accounts at the beginning of February.

I'm really annoyed about losing the job because of something that should have been so easily avoidable, but that's life I suppose. You can't win them all!