A Controversial Saturday, A Temple-Filled Sunday

T’is March in the Land of the Rising Sun. While March brings warmer weather, the start of cherry blossom season, and spring with it, it also means that I won’t ever want to go to class ever again once the weather starts to get nice. Today was case in point. If I had class today, I’m not sure I would’ve been able to go. It was sunny and 65 degrees the entire day. Couldn’t have asked for better than that! In fact, the whole winter here seemed almost non-existent. Sure, we had a few cold days here and there, but I don’t think it ever went below 25 at any one point. Now that I say that, of course, there’s going to be a cold snap for the entirety of March. I shouldn’t test fate.

Yesterday I went on the second of three field trips for my Japanese Culture class. For this one, we headed to Yasukuni Shrine the famous (and infamous) shrine where many Japanese war veterans are honored. The Shrine itself is a really cool building – painted a dark red with a bunch of neat designs and Buddhist figures all around. The controversial part lies in what exactly the shrine is commemorating. For those of you that don’t know, Yasukuni has been in the news a lot lately, mainly because the last Prime Minister, Koizumi, made it very public that he supported what Yasukuni stood for. The problem is that a few of the shrines are dedicated to known war criminals during World War II; people that took part in Chinese discrimination, slavery, etc. However, the shrine honors them as though they did a good dead for the country.

The more controversial part of Yasukuni isn’t even the shrine itself but the Yushukan Museum nearby. After we headed through a few exhibits of the museum, the problem was clear. All the descriptions of Japanese military history are widely skewed in favor of the Japanese. Especially for World War II. For instance, one of the plaques mentions how the war would have ended much sooner “if not for the United State’s persistent pressure” and that “though Japan was defeated, they inspired nations around the world to promote freedom,” etc. Also, the world “battle” was never used in connection with a Japanese attack on another country. For example, the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war was called “The Manchurian Incident”. Such euphemisms ran abound through all parts of the museum. My professor was clearly against the propaganda and mentioned that a lot of Japanese people did not agree with what was written in the museum. Nevertheless, the museum was fascinating and it was really interesting to see how the Japanese saw World War II. The only part that gave me the creeps was the exhibit on Pearl Harbor. It’s very weird to see what the Japanese thought of Pearl Harbor, mainly because the American sentiment about the attack is pretty uniform all around. It was sort of equivalent to going to a museum in Iraq or Afghanistan or someplace like that and seeing a display about how 9/11 was a triumph for the country, etc. Intense stuff.

On a more fun note, today I took a trip up to Yanaka in northern Tokyo for the afternoon. The only reason I found out about Yanaka was because I typed in “Tokyo Walking Tours” into Google and found a great site with 4 walking tours you can do around Japan. Yanaka is definitely the quietest, most residential area of Tokyo that I’ve been in so far. You can hardly believe that the packed streets of Shibuya are just a few miles away. Anyway, I took my walking guide and headed up for the afternoon.

I saw way too much stuff to describe it all here, so I’ll go through a few highlights. The first stop was Tennoji Temple, which was founded more than 500 years ago. The temple itself was pretty basic, though a few of the surrounded buildings were done in very traditional Japanese architecture that was neat. Also, in a theme that ran through all the temples I saw today, the landscaping was gorgeous, especially with some of the trees blooming flowers already. The main attraction of Tennoji was a giant seated bronze Buddha statue which dates from 1690. It was quite the impressive Buddha, I must say!

After Tennoji I walked through Yanaka Cemetery and visited a few other temples in the area. Next on the tour was the Asakura Choso Museum, the studio/house of a famous western-style Japanese sculptor named Asakura Fumio. Though unfamiliar with his work, I decided to check it out anyway because I hadn’t been in a Japanese style house yet and I figured it was worth the trip. After several footwear changes (of course, into slippers that would never fit me in a million years), I entered the house, which was really cool to see. All the rooms were Japanese style and had a bunch of his sculptures (which were quite good) all over the place. The best part about the house was the enormous Japanese courtyard smack dab in the middle complete with koi fish, a waterfall, and giant rocks (which supposedly symbolize the Five Confucian Virtues). I really want a pond in my house. The rooftop was also really cool because you were able to see the whole Yanaka area from above, which was nice because there were no skyscrapers in sight, just the roofs of hundreds Japanese-style houses. This is also where I somehow got in a picture with this Japanese woman who was, no joke, half my height. Unfortunately stupid me didn’t have them take a picture with my camera, but trust me, it was hilarious.

Then, I followed the tour down to a little pedestrian shopping street that was very old-fashioned and packed with tons of people enjoying the weather just like I was. Though tempting, I didn’t buy anything (though I think I’ll do some souvenir shopping there) except for sembei, those rice cakes I am obsessed with. The tour mentioned a place famous for them, so of course I indulged and bought a bunch that was covered in glazed sugar. Mmmm.

The walking tour wound down with a few more shrines, including one I happened upon just because I went the wrong way which ending up having this ENORMOUS golden sculpture of some Buddhist deity. Sometimes it’s good to get lost! My personal favorite part of the tour was the last place I went: Nezu Shrine. The best part wasn’t the shrine itself, but surrounding temple grounds. The setting couldn’t have been more perfect. There were cedar trees all around and the shrine was completely surrounded by azalea bushes (which must be unbelievable when they bloom in April – I’ve made it a point to go back there). There were also a bunch of ponds with waterfalls with fish and birds all around. Couldn’t have asked for a better atmosphere. The shrine itself was also very pretty (though now, most of the shrines I see seem to blend into one another). I sat on a bench near one of the ponds and just kind of hung out for a good half an hour or so. A great end to an eventful day!

Anyways, this week is a shortened week due to our “spring break” on Thursday and Friday. Wednesday night I head off to Nagoya and it looks like my friend Bernadette is going to join me. Should be fun! I might do another entry before then, but most likely will wait until I get back on Saturday. Hope all is well with everyone

Jaa mata ne!

P.S. Picture guide: Picture #1 - Buddha Statue at Tennoji, #2 - Garden inside the museum, #3 - Landscape around Nezu Shrine, #4 - Bridge/One of the Nezu Shrine buildings