Day 2 - Touring

Well, day two was spent in a nice chartered bus touring the City of Tokyo. We went to the Diet building, which is similar to the Congress buildings in the U.S. There were all kinds of school groups there. Again, I will put in photos once I get that working :). One of the students, about 9 years old asked us if we ate sushi and one lady in our group said yes and they raised their eyebrows, gasped, laughed and clapped - a look of surprise and amusement...perhaps they believe Americans don't eat sushi?

Again, in all the buildings, it was very quiet. After the Diet we went to Akasaka for a traditional tempura lunch. We were told the Japanese usually eat their lunch in three minutes, so as teachers this wouldn't be anything new :). Akasak has a temple and shrine. Temples are Buddhist places of worship, while shrines are Shinto. At the temple, there was a large cauldron emitting nice smelling incense - you are to wave the smoke to your ailing parts of your body - a Buddhist religious ritual. As I was standing there, a male and two females came up, and the male took the smoke and rubbed his head, said something I couldn't understand, and the two women giggled. I laughed too as it was funny how he smiled and then it dawned on me...he was wishing for hair as he was bald...to confirm this, I took my hair and waved it; the females nodded yes. Ahh, the power of body language when you can't speak the native language.

On the path between the temple and shrine at Asakusa is a shopping area, again lots of crowds, but very quiet. You can certainly tell what groups are American, we are very loud in public compared to Japanese "standards". I found a nice paper goods store and purchased some things. In the U.S., when you buy something, it is just tossed into a bag and off you go. Here it is carefully wrapped; I would compare it to gift-wrapping presents back home. Can you imagine buying something from a store, and it was wrapped to make it look like a present?

At lunch, we ate on tatami floors and had to take our shoes off before entering the eating area. I had to move around quite a bit, as my legs would fall asleep from being crossed. Tempura was served with Green Tea, rice, radish, miso soup, and water. There were warm packets that when you opened it, there was a nice washcloth inside to clean yourself Before you eat. Students: you need to find out what a tatami floor, tempura and miso soup are and why there was a side of grated radish. Also, why the green tea? Yes, I ate with chopsticks...one teacher from Texas brought her own chopstick adaptor to help out. Find out what those are like :)

When we returned to the hotel we were treated to an English translation of Kyogen theater...yes students, you need to find out what Kyogen is by researching it on the internet and looking around Google groups (if I can get the video of Kyogen up and running). This was very entertaining and comical! Don Kenny is the master of translating original Kyogen into English, so you may want to look him up.

Finally, we had a welcome reception for dinner. The food was glorious! One thing I noted today is how ceremonious the Japanese are. In the U.S. welcome speeches are, for the most part, short. Here the "introduction" goes on, and on, and on....it is rude and offensive otherwise. This culture is very much aware of social ranking and it is expected that others honor the tradition of bowing the right way, addressing the person with the correct level of title (called honorific). So, being it was the real first full day in Tokyo, we had to be patient. After the toast, everyone says "kampai". Then you could eat...the welcome took approximately 1 hour :). I mingled with other teachers and Japanese nationals for about 15 minutes and just had to get to bed because the next morning I was getting up at 3 a.m. to go see the Tsukiji Fish Market!

Your Sensei,
KW

Phrase of the day:
Konbanwa. Westgard, Kerri des, no Minnesota