Monday May 11

Today was our first day of lectures. We had a brief lecture from Professor Wallin and then a professor from Japan, Professor Dairokuno gave us a lecture about Japanese culture and an overview of their government and taxes. He explained that a major difference of our culture is that they keep their differences in interest to themselves and try not to offend others. They will not say no to one another but try to make a compromise or suggestion. I can sense this from talking with the Japanese students. They always seem to do things together and do not try to show any differences in opinion.

After the lecture we went to the Diet which is the building of the House of Representatives (pictured) and House of Councillors. It was very large and very beautiful. We ate lunch in the dining room where they served us curry chicken over rice. The inside had very ornate wood paneling on the walls and was made of stone. Vladimer Putin was somewhere in the building meeting with the Prime Ministers but we did not see him. We saw the House of Representatives and the Emperor's room which was not too big but it was said to have cost 10% of the total cost of the building. The carpet was silk and every piece of metal in the room was pure gold. We saw the garden that was full of trees that each prefecture (state in Japan) donated to the Diet. Overall the building was very impressive and quite large. I found it interesting that there were no metal detectors and no one searched our bags when we entered the building. Also the police here do not carry guns but either taser guns or most of them have sticks. There were more police today because of Putin's visit.

We went to the museum of the Parliament after the tour and saw a video on the history of the Japanese Parliament. It was in Japanese but I could understand most of it from the pictures. The museum was small but was interesting to see. There was a large bronze head of Abraham Lincoln that was a gift from the U.S. when the museum was opened.

Today was humid and hot, luckily we have A/C in our rooms but most of the buildings we visit do not have it.

For dinner we went with some of the Japanese students to a Tempura restaurant. I had shrimp and eel over rice with miso soup for $8. It was very delicious. Tomorrow we have a quiz on one of the books we had to read and we will be going to another shrine after our lecture we will be going to sumo on Wednesday.