Day 2: Let's go to Tokyo!

After getting settled in yesterday and finishing blogging, I crashed and slept from around 7:30 p.m. to 6 a.m. We had a great breakfast, I will take photos and share them with you tomorrow. We then had orientation to help us have a good time and keep us safe during our visit to Tokyo. Tokyo is one of the safest large cities in the world. So far, the Japanese people I have encountered have been extremely polite and more than willing to help. I am very safe and this program is very well organized. I am going to encourage more teachers to apply for it next year.

During orientation I learned something very interesting--70% of people in the United States do not have passports. I realize travel can be expensive and it is not everyone's interest or passion, but it can have a very important influence on world perspective. Travel not only helps us see the world, but it helps us see how the world sees us. Hopefully grassroots programs such as JFMF can help educate and continue to build important relations with other places such as Japan.

After orientation we went to the Diet. Huh? You mean you went on a diet don't you? Nope, we went to the National Diet of Japan--also known as the Japanese legislature. This is the sole law-making branch of the Japanese government. Japan used to be run by an emperor, but that changed as of May 3, 1947. Why? This was the end of World War II and the United States stopped Japans aggression by dropping 2 atomic bombs. The first one was dropped on Hiroshima, while the second one on Nagasaki. This lead to Japan's surrender and the creation of the National Diet (democracy). I am glad Japan is a democratic nation, but it is sad that the atomic bombs had to be dropped. This is exactly why we need to continue fostering positive relations with more countries. We want to build understanding and work together to avoid conflict.

The other pictures you see are from Asakusa. Please read about it to see all of the details. At the shops leading up to the shrine, I tried Tofu flavored ice cream and some type of warm fig newton type of food on a stick. Both were very delicious after our really good lunch consisting of cold fried fish, rice, soup, and green tea. Of course, we walked into the restaurant and went upstairs to eat. We were all going quite fast and forgot to take off our shoes. We were stopped very quickly and brought back to where we needed to take off our shoes. We then proceeded to eat. When I got to the shrine I received my fortune. It was 100 yen (1 dollar) to purchase it. I put the money in, shook a metal box, looked at the symbol on the stick that fell out, matched it up with a symbol on a drawer, and then found my fortune. It was "regular." Everything was good to go--I should make it back safely. One of the ladies bought three fortunes, all progressively worse. I won't be staying by her for the remainder of the trip. He he he. Enjoy the pictures below.