Tokyo, 1.5 years later

 Hey Everyone,

My apologies for the very delayed post. I know I have been promising this post for a while, but here it is! However, first I want to do a quick overview of what I have been up to for the past couple of weeks, which explains the lateness of this entry. Since my preceding entry, I had a great New Year's in Singapore, and a wonderful Chinese New Year's in Malacca, Malaysia (which will soon get its own entry). I have also finished up a musical composition meant as a postlude to a Kurt Weill opera (Der Jasager), which is actually based off of a Japanese folk tale. The postlude I composed incorporates Japanese children's songs to give more of a Japanese tint to it in music and lyrics. Finally, the most time consuming aspect since my last entry has been the start of the school year. Even though I do not have a full teacher's load, it is still quite draining work, but has been a great experience. Of course, this will get much further mention in future entries.

Well, back to my thoughts about Tokyo. Of all of my previous travels covered in this blog, Tokyo is only the second place covered for a second time (I visited Poland again for a weekend while I was in Oxford.) However, my experience of Tokyo this time around was much better than my previous 4 days before the summer camp in Karuizawa a year and a half ago. Then, I was definitely a tourist and was primarily in Tokyo just to see some of the sights. This past trip was more about visiting ALC (American Language and Culture) members in Tokyo (as in South Korea and Kyoto), with whom I worked with last summer. Indeed, such local interaction is a tremendous addition to any trip, and allows for far greater insights and understanding.

While in Tokyo, I managed to visit the different universities of the ALC students. The first picture below is of the well-known Waseda University, followed by a picture of the beautiful Hitotsubashi University campus. Both universities are part of a series of great universities opened in Japan in the late 19th century as Japan began it's drive towards modernization to successfully become the first non-western country to 'develop.' Japan also has a very interesting 'issue' with its university aged students in that it has one of the lowest rates of university students who go to an American university. Although many credit this to Japan's cultural isolation or lack of English abilities, I think this is also in large part due to the enduring excellence of many of the top universities in Japan.

 

 

As one of the main points of the visits was the ALC members, the following picture is three members (two Japanese, one Korean who attends Waseda) with me. The picture is taken right outside the temple at Asakasa, one of the few remaining old temples in Tokyo, which I had actually visited when I was in Tokyo previously. However, this time, I had good guides to help show me around. I was then able to learn the proper etiquette to entering temples, which I quite enjoyed. After the temple, we all went to read our fortunes, and the picture is of the four of us who had bad fortunes (and hence the unhappy faces.)

  

Another big difference this time in Tokyo was that I was offered a day trip to Mt. Fuji, which I of course accepted without hesitation and it was definitely one of the best highlights of Japan. Although Japan is often quite cloudy, the day we had planned to go was apparently one of the top 5 clearest days of the year, and so Fuji was visible for most of the trip up to the mountain. The following picture is as we were approaching the mountain in the car. In particular, the sight of the winter snow cap was really spectacular, and is even more so considering I am back in sweltering Singapore.

  

In the shadow of Fuji was a Japanese resort town that was on a picturesque mountain lake. We took little swan paddle boats out onto the lake and were able get into the open water, see Mt. Fuji, and take this photo:

 

After eating, I then had my most special cultural moment in Japan: a visit to a hot springs from where I could see the sun set on Mt. Fuji. Although it had its awkwardness (namely the fact that Asian hot springs require complete nudity to protect the cleanliness of the water), it was a really cool experience, and we all got to see quite a nice sunset from the hot springs themselves.

Besides Mt. Fuji and the universities, I also managed to see many of the other famous sites around Tokyo, many of which I did not get the opportunity to see in my previous visit. The first picture is of the imperial palace, which was mostly rebuilt after the intense fire bombing of WWII. Although there were a couple of older buildings on the grounds of the imperial palace, most of the architecture was in a Japanese-inspired modernist style. To be honest, it didn't feel that 'imperial' to me, but I guess that may change over time as the buildings become more ancient. Also, every New Year's Day, the emperor and the royal family go out onto the very balcony pictured below and have a symbolic waving at the people.

 

The next picture is of the Tokyo City Hall. It is a massive complex of very modern stone skyscrapers, and is just as clean as all of Tokyo seems to be. (Note: Tokyo's cleanliness didn't impress me as much as last time since I came from Singapore, and in my opinion, Tokyo is comparable to Singapore.) Tokyo's local government structure definitely surprised me a bit. What I had thought of as the main 'Tokyo' is only the 23 special wards of Tokyo (the main part of town), but all of the suburbs are also part of Tokyo. This is because Tokyo now refers to the whole prefecture (Japanese equivalent of a state) itself, as the function of the 'city of Tokyo' was abolished in 1943. So, although this is the 'city hall', it would be better described as the Tokyo prefecture government complex. As a quick comparison to Singapore, civil servants in Japan are definitely not respected at all. Almost all Japanese men who are talented enough to receive an offer for almost a lifelong position with a company do so immediately after university. Since private businesses monopolize the top talent, that only leaves less talent and respect for civil service and political jobs. Although many Japanese I talked with do like the Singapore idea of having more talented and respected civil servants, they regularly dismiss the jobs their civil servants and especially politicians have done. In particular, the Japanese were extremely frustrated with their government's response to the earthquake and tsunami less than a year ago. (Side note: although I wasn't sure what to expect in the aftermath of the earthquake, I only saw one thing that vaguely referenced it at all. In one metro station, a few of the lights were off with the sign explaining it was to save electricity. Also, while in Japan, there were a couple of 4.0+ earthquakes, of which I felt one.)

 

Next is a picture of me standing in front of the Japanese Diet, the Parliament of Japan. I actually went on a tour of the upper house of the Diet, however, it was all in Japanese, so I didn't understand very much of it. Well, really none of it. (Author's note: my Japanese definitely improved during my time in Japan, however, it was more for a few conversational phrases than any type of conversational understanding.) The upper house is fairly interesting in that it is popularly elected, but has barely any more power than the practically powerless British House of Lords. The building itself was built before WWII, with even some help from the Americans, especially with timber. The inside of the building is quite beautiful and grandiose (no pictures allowed) and even had a place for the emperor to observe sessions, but which hasn't been used (ever?)

Below is one of the more recent iconic features of Tokyo: Tokyo Tower. It was mainly modeled after the Eiffel Tower, and provides a really cool sight at nighttime when the red structure is lit up.

During my time in Tokyo, I was fortunate to have lodging provided every single night, and was able to see more of how people tend to live. In Tokyo, almost all the jobs and activities are in the special 23 wards, but most people commute from outside the special wards, resulting in some very long commutes on the train. Furthermore, there is a very strong work culture in Japan such that men arrive at work at 9 am and work often till 8 or 9 pm or even later. If they happen to get out much before 10 pm, the men will often then go out for drinks until 11 pm when they then return home. When considering some people live 2 or more hours away from work, Japan is a seriously sleep deprived country. Another result of this is that the evening rush hour is surprisingly around 11 pm at night (not to say it isn't crowded all day round too,  just especially crowded then.) Everyone wants to return home then, catching the last trains leave which depart around 12:30. This work culture also has a very profound effect on families, and ends up significantly separating the genders as it is not seen as proper for women to work so much or take away too much time from their families. However, for women just coming out of university, they can apply for different jobs that don't have such long hours, and have the expectation that women will eventually leave the workforce when they become pregnant.

Of course food was one of the main highlights of my time in Tokyo. The following picture is of me in Tsukiji (the fish market area) having a wonderful fresh bowl of shashimi the morning before my afternoon flight. (Note to self: in the future, don't plan to sight-see before a 2 pm flight). The food throughout Japan was quite enjoyable, and I was particularly lucky that I was often with people that could pick out special and excellent Japanese dishes for me.

Of course, a visit without seeing the parks is an incomplete visit, especially when there are fall colors all around. Although not quite as stunning as Kyoto, the parks were quite beautiful. The following picture is from Shinjuku park (Shinjukugyoenmae), which had several different types of gardens, including French (Versailles-esque) and English (open grass fields).

That's it from Japan! Soon, my entry about Taiwan will be forthcoming, and well as more about my time here in Singapore. Finally though, a last picture of me in Japan at the park that surrounds Meji Jingu shrine, wearing enough clothes to stay warm for the last time in probably a year before my time in Southeast Asia is up.

-Andrew