National Museum and General Thoughts on Japan

I visited the Japanese National Museum today, which I would have to say is similar, in size and scope, to the Smithsonian Museum(s). It seems like I have said this often, but this was a great experience. I posted two pictures, one was of a bow, arrows, and quiver used by samurai and the other is the face of a statue in the museum. I believe it is of a samurai.

Some of the questions asked were in regards to transportation. No, I have not seen any muscle cars or anything of that nature. In fact, many Japanese, at least those in Tokyo, use public transportation (subway), and ride bikes, scooters, mopeds, etc. It is not unusual to see a man in a suit riding a bike to or from work.

I do not see nearly the amount of cars as I would see in New York City. However, there are still plenty of cars. They just are not American cars. I have yet to see a Chevy, Ford, Dodge. All of the vehicles I have seen are compact cars. There are not many SUVs and I don't believe I have even seen a pickup.

The Japanese are very green and environmental conscious. All of the garbage cans that you see are divided into recyclable categories. I have a picture of one posted above.

Somebody had also asked a question about McDonalds. They do have McDonalds, although I haven't eaten there yet. I took this picture earlier today. The menu is similar, but they have different products. Potatoes and bacon are extremely popular in Japan, which may be a reason for this creation.

Another question was asked about English. Most of the Japanese that I have visited with speak very good Japanese. I know that this will change tomorrow when I travel to Minamisoma, though. In may ways Tokyo feels like a US city. People are very comfortable around Americans and speak well. Outside of Tokyo, though, things will be different. More people will not speak English and they may not be as comfortable around foreigners. I will keep you all updated.

A Night Out in Tokyo

Last night, we had an amazing time in Tokyo. We discovered a festival/parade and also had another traditional Japanese dinner, in which I ate (and enjoyed) a dish that I would never have even considered before I came here.

The fesitval was a parade from one smaller Shinto temple to the main Shinto temple in the area. The Japanese have many festivals per year and we sort of stumbled onto this one.

There was a lot of chanting, which we were allowed to observe in the first temple. Following that, a large group of Japanese people started down the streets with quite a bit of fanfare, chanting and beating drums in rythem. The beat was set by the blowing of whistles or by dinging bells. It was amazing to see hundreds of people doing this together. There were usually two distinct beats happening at the same time. In addition, some of the people in the parade were carrying large decorative poles and bouncing them up and down so that it looked like it was pulsing. The poles must have been very heavy, as they switched people every so often.

Each group of people wore different colors, and we were told that they each represented a neighborhood/community. There were 20 "floats" in all and while each was the same it was an amazing site to see. I did not see any other Americans there, so we feel very blessed to have seen it.

An earlier comment posted asked something to the effect of "what have you eaten so far that you wouldn't have even thought of before this trip?". While a few days ago, I would have said sashime, that seems fairly tame after last night. In fact, I have had sashime a few times since my first night here and I love it.

Last night we decided to try a Japanese delicacy called sakura. When we ordered it, even the Japanese waiter was a little surprised. It is raw horse meat. While I don't know if I would have it again, I have to admit that it tasted pretty good. From what I understand, it is illegal in the United States.

Pictures Added

I am on my free day, so I have decided to update quite a bit on the blog and add pictures. If you would like, please take the chance to review some of the old posts and check out pictures.

The picture on this post is one that I took of Tokyo Tower. It is a Japanese copy of the Eiffel Tower. I went to the top and it is an amazing site. You can see pretty much all of Japan from the top.

What is Wrong with the Japanese Diet?

As I had mentioned previously, I was going to blog about the Japanese Diet. If anybody figured it out, we are not talking about what they eat, but rather their system of government. The equivalent of the US legislative branch is called the Diet. The picture in this post is me in front of the Japanese Diet building here in Tokyo.

The system itself is actually quite similar to that in the United Kingdom. The Japan's House of Representative, or "lower house", has the power to select the Prime Minister. This would compare to the UK's House of Lords. The Prime Minister, who could be considered comparable to the US President, has the power to dissolve the House of Representatives at any time. While this is not particularly common, it is going to happen in the next couple of weeks. They say the Prime Minister could call for a new election before the end of November, at the latest.

The Japanese people are extremely anxious and frustrated by the perceived problems in the educational system as well as the obvious problems in the economy.

We spoke with Representative Yuji Tsushima, who was very candid about many things. He used to hold a position similar to our Secretary of the Treasury and has strong concerns about the global economy. He stated that the idea of the economic bailout in the US came from a similar plan that he instituted in Japan. He is concerned that it has not strengthened the economy, as he was confident that it would.

Rep. Tsushima also discussed that his house is much stronger than the House of Counselors, or "upper house", and they are not as comparable to the US Senate and House. The lower house selects the Prime Minister and sets the budget.

Rep. Tsushima talked for a few hours and I could write on his comments for just as long. However, I will leave this post with the listing of Rep. Tsushima's major issues with the Japanese people. They are not in any particular order.

Do these sound familiar?

1) Budget Deficit
2) Political Turmoil
3) Concern over the Long-Term Plan for the Japanese Social Security System
4) Likely Change in Political Establishment
5) Concern for Perception of the Educational System
6) Failing Economy

Economic Comparison - Japan and US

The question was asked in an earlier comment if the Japanese economy was doing as poorly as the American economy right now. The answer is that there are many direct links between the failing economy of the US and Japan. The lows of the American economyu have been mirrored each step of the way. Record lows on the stock market are matched here in Japan.

Overall, however, the American dollar is getting weaker every day. When I first came here the exchange rate was 100.05 to 1. If you remember that 100 Yen is equivalent to $1. Essentially it was an even exchange. Two weeks before I left, the ratio was 105:1. When I exchanged for Yen two days ago, it was 95:1 and it is now somewhere around 93:1.

The pictures that I have posted are examples of Japanese Yen. To keep it simple, take the decimal on any bill/coin and move it two spaces to the left. So, a 100 Yen coin is worth $1.00. A 10000 Yen bill is worth $100.00.

I really enjoy seeing the currency for other countries. It is much more colorful than ours.

Great Comments!

Wow! Thank you for all of the great questions. I just woke up (around 6:00 am) and I will try and answer as many of your questions as I can.

Food
The food is extremely expensive here in Japan in some cases, but in others it is very cheap. Sushi, for example, is fairly expensive depending on where you get it. At the fish market, you can get a sushi breakfast which will cost you about $25. We were also told that in some restaurants, if there are not prices on the menus that means it could cost you around $30,000 Yen ($300). The other side is soba (noodles) you can get noodles for very cheap and they are also very good. Just like in America, it depends on what you want to eat.

I had sushi at the Consul General's house for the first time. I thought it was the best Japanese dish I have had thus far. There I also had unagi (eel), which was also extremely good. I would order that again too. On the flip side, when we were out with Habe-san, I ate what would be similar to a sardine that was grilled. I did not like that at all, but Habe-san finished the remainder for me!

It is defintely a different feeling eating the sashimi, which is the raw fish. Some of the fish was better than others. I liked the tuna, but I didn't care for the salmon. There was another type of fish called hamachi that was the best, in my opinion.

One thing that is misleading about the prices of food, and anything else in Japan, is that there is no tipping. Taxes and tipping are both built into the cost of the food/item that you are purchasing. I like that a lot. It is much easier.

Temperature
The temperature has been pretty muggy since we have been here. When the sun is out it gets fairly warm. I will be traveling to Minamisoma in the Fukushima prefecture in a few days. That is north of Tokyo and thus will be a little cooler. They say in Fukushima it will be between 52 and 62 degrees the entire stay, unless it rains.

Politics
While we were doing of briefing in San Francisco, Dr. Satterwhite, the head of the program told us that in a poll conducted the Japanese have actually rated as more interested in our political election than Americans.

The Japanese are going through some political turmoil right now also, but I will touch on that more in a future post.

Variety of Food
You can get everything from a hamburger to sushi here. On our way back from our sessions yesterday, we saw a Subway and McDonalds. I want to eat at one of them just to compare.

English
Many Japanese speak English, at least in Tokyo. Tokyo is the leader of education in Japan. They are currently moving to mandate that English is taught at the elementary level. It is currently taught at Junior High and High School. I have not met a Japanese person thus far that doesn't speak English. This will likely change when I get to Minamisoma, though.

Picture of the Room
I was actually going to post many pictures of my room. There are many things that are common in the US, but things that are different too. I will make sure to remember to post pictures later.

Rules and Regulations in Schools
The majority of schools have dress codes, but (Surprise!) the kids hate it. There are a few schools, very high performing as I was told yesterday, that no longer have dress codes. I will post pictures of an example of the uniforms when I get one.

The hours of going to school are shorter in Japan, but as I listed in a previous post, the school year is longer. If you make an apple-to-apple comparison the Japanese go to school a week or two longer than we do.

Garden
There is a beautiful Japanese garden in the courtyard of the hotel. I will also try and take pictures and post them as soon as I can.

Plane Ride
The plane ride was difficult because we were sitting for so long. It was a big plan, although I can't remember the type off the top of my head. The seats, however, were not made for tall people. It was uncomfortable after a couple of hours. Once we reached a cruising altitude (38,000 feet) I was able to walk and stand around. We watched four movies, although I didn't care for three of them and tried to sleep or read.

I need to get down to breakfast, so I had better go. Thanks again for the questions and I will try and sneak back up during a break to post some pictures.

Experience in Tokyo

Hello,

I am happy that I could finally find some time to blog. Things have been extremely busy thus far. Also, I logged in to blog earlier and my blog defaulted to Japanese, which made things a little difficult to navigate. Now that I have the language back to English, it will be a lot easier.

Our flight was around 15 hours with the 1 hour we waited on the tarmac before take off. Obviously, it got to be a very long time to sit in a chair. Immediately upon our arrival we were bused from Narita Airport to our hotel in Tokyo. It is an amazing building. I attached the link below
http://www.newotani.co.jp/en/group/company/tokyo.html

We had around 10 minutes to bring our luggage to our rooms before we had our first responsibilities. We met our former Fulbright Scholars and discussed the current state of Japan. My small group met with Mr. Habe. When we address him here in Japan we refer to him as Habe-san (Hah bay-sahn) to show proper respect. We had a tremendous time with Habe-san as he took as to an authentic Japanese restuarant and ate with us. He thought it was very funny that I could not use chopsticks and he taught me the "proper way". I wouldn't say I am a master, but I am getting better.

With Habe-san, we had a chance to dine on numerous Japanese dishes. For the most part, it was delicious. Sashime is a perfect example of a dish I had on my first night that I would never had even considered had I not come to Tokyo. Sashime is very fresh raw fresh that is sliced into pieces 1 inch thick and serve with Wasabi and a radish-type vegetable called a daikon. Our plate had pieces of tuna, salmon, and a few other varieties of fish. While I wasn't so sure about them, it was very good and something that I would eat again. **UPDATE** The picture added above is the sashime.

At 4:00 am the next morning, I woke up to get ready for the Tsukiji Fish Market. It was an amazing experience to see these fish auctioned off. We were lucky enough to be able to enter the tuna auction. This was only recently opened back up to They put on quite a show. On our way back, we got to experience the Tokyo subway system. It was an intricate system that is similar, in many ways, to the Washington D.C system. **UPDATE** The other pictures above are from the Fish Market. They are of the tuna laying out and being auctioned off.

I will try and blog more on my day today (it is 11:00 pm here in Tokyo) when I wake up or this afternoon. I will also download my pictures and add some more comments.

I will also touch on why the Japanese Diet is so unpopular right now. If anybody has a clue, post it in the commets. *Clue - why is Diet a proper noun?