Tuesday May 12

This morning we had a lecture about the Japanese government and the political system. It was very interesting because Japan used to have a system where multiple representatives could be elected from the same district. So if there were six spots they could all be filled by candidates from the same party or a variety of parties. Japan has had the same ruling part from 1955 to 2009 in power called the Liberal Democratic Party. However this party is made up of about five factions which means they do not all have the same beliefs. This system was prone to corruption and was changed to create more districts so that each one would only select one representative. I also learned that students graduation from the university would rather go into government positions such as the ministry of finance than the private sector even though the pay is horrible. The reason behind this is that after 10 years of working they are responsible for drafting bills for the legislation. They like this power over the benefits of money.

For lunch went to a Hawaiian place. We ate in their loft which had four foot high ceilings and you had to sit on the floor. I had Mahi Mahi burger which was very good and the place also had Spam fried rice.

In the afternoon we went to the shrine of Yasukuni which is a war memorial shrine (pictured). This is a very controversial place because it is said to be the resting place of over two million souls of soldiers that have died in Japanese wars from the late 1800's through today but the names of war criminals from WWII and other wars are included in the dead. Some Japanese people do not feel comfortable with this and do not like the shrine. They cannot "take out" the souls because they believe that once it is "placed" in the shrine it is there forever. The shrine is not run by the government but by a private organization and there were many nationalists vans near the shrine. These people have loud speakers on their vans and go through the streets speaking about their nationalistic views. I felt very weird at the shrine. I believe that a lot of us were uncomfortable with the place. It was very quiet and many people would come through to say a prayer. One Japanese student felt uncomfortable there and another was somewhat emotional. If a Japanese Prime Minister goes to the shrine they are criticized by Korea and China because of the atrocities that some of the dead committed. There was also a war museum with the history of wars from the 1800's through WWII. I read about how the Japanese felt about the war and got a sense that they blamed us for the embargo that were placed on them. I never realized how spread out their army was and how much of Asia they were trying to take over when they attacked the U.S. There was also a kamikaze plane and submarine torpedo in the museum. It was a very memorable place and I felt it was beneficial going there.

At night we had sushi and went to Shabuya at night which was awesome. It was basically like New York Times Square but with more people. The train closes at 12:00 at night even though bars can be open until 5:00 am. I find it odd for a city of this size.