The lecture today was about Japan's foreign policy. The professor spoke about how Japan became a pacifist country after WWII. It was written in their constitution that they are not allowed to have an army but they do have one of the largest military of any country but they call it a self defence force. They have tried to take on an international policy that will help them economically. During the oil crisis of the 70's they started to send aid to Arab countries and denounced the actions of Israel. They had a prime minister that was very favorable of the U.S. a few years ago but the more recent prime ministers do not want to rely on the U.S. as much. People's opinion have changed over the past five years and they think the relations between Japan and the U.S. have gotten worse.
In the afternoon we went to the Ueno park and Tokyo National History museum. The museum was filled with artifacts such as Buddha statues, samurai armor, pottery, paintings and writings. The museum compound was huge and had many buildings. Some people went to the zoo that was there but they were disappointed. We went to shop at a street near the museum that had many vendors and tourist type merchandise.
That night we went to visit Tokyo tower. It is 333 meters tall, looks like the Eiffel tower in France and is a communications tower. We went half way up to look at the city. The city was beautiful at night all lit up. It is going to obsolete soon as they are switching to digital signals and a new, taller tower is going to be built. After the tower some of us went exploring the city and found a cool little street that business people were at drinking after work. They are many small restaurants that cater to these people. It is weird to see people that are still in suits around midnight around the city and on the train.
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