Fish Anyone? Day 3

*a bit behind, but will catch up-reminder, this is also written for students, so I leave out some details in order that they can find out :)*

On the third day I got up at 3 a.m. with no problem. Still working on U.S. time schedule :). I actually had somewhere to go...the fish market. No, I didn't have to buy fish, I just wanted to look at the fish! It is an actual place of work, that is incredibly busy. You have to watch out as you may get run over by the little trucks! It was quite the rush, and will be hard to describe the actualy feeling I had just watching and getting to different areas without getting killed...I am not joking there either.

Many restaurant owners comes to buy fish for sushi and other recipies here; there is a frozen tuna and fresh tuna auction that is just incredible to watch! There is an area we came across where the market "middle men" hang out, you could tell who they are as they wore blue hats. We approached one and I asked him in my limited Japanese where the tuna auction was. After he kindly told us, I properly presented to him my meshi - or business card.

In Japan, the business card is taken very seriously; it is seen as giving someone a bit of yourself, that is the best way I can put it. There is also a strong sense in this culture that things must balance eachother out. This is called "wa" or harmony. So when you present someone with a business card, for the most part that person will feel obliged to give something back in return...it may be right away or in the future. This prevents a disruption of the "wa".

So, after I gave this market middle man my business card (he spoke great English by the way), he looked at his watch and said "I will take you there". As we went, he told us we had some time, and he was going to give us a personal tour of some areas. Everywhere we went, he described the different fish/seafood and where it came from. We would have never known without him. I have posted photos of these sea creatures in the photos link, with a description of where it came from. Students: this fish market is a great place for the study of the Movement theme of geography!

After the exciting fish market, we stopped at a shrine dedicated to the Fishermen. Shrines have many items with special meanings. For example, when you walk into a shrine, you encounter two guarding statues. One of the statues has its mouth open, the other its mouth closed. This is to represent the sound "aahhhh" and "mmmmm" - in Japanese, these sounds translate into the meanings of beginning and end, or Alpha and Omega.

There is also a bell you ring to awaken the kami - shinto spirits that inhabit things in nature, like animals or rocks. Before you ring the bell, you toss in some money, ring the bell, and clap twice. It has been fun to watch people do this.

The rest of the day was spent learning about the government of Japan, which is called the Diet. We were honored to be visited by the first female member of the Lower House, Kuniko Inoguchi and the Senior member of the LDP, Yuji Tsushima. The LDP was the leading political party who just lost the majority of seats in the House of Councillors (upper house). Here is a link to the article talking about the historic loss of the LDP and its "one party rule" http://www.newsweek.com/id/43375 By the way, Yuji Tsushima is considered to be in the running for Prime Minister in the future. When these two walked in, we were told to make no noise, as it is incredibly rude to do otherwise. You could have heard a pin drop and many Japanese bowed very low. The lower you bow, the more honor you give someone who is considered to be in a higher position in life than you.

We also talked about the economy today. Takahir Miyao, a professor at the International Univeristy of Japan, spoke to us about Japan's economic role in Asia and the world. One topic was the world's view about who is number 2 in GDP (student's figure out what that means)...is it China or Japan. The western view is that China is second in GDP, but Mr. Miyao showed us another view of economics that had Japan as second in GDP. He talked to us about "burger economics" which can be found here: http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/03/11/pakko.pdf or here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burgernomics

Finally, at night some of us took the subway to Harajuku - a place where the kids hang out and wear very cool, stylish, and sometimes outrageous clothes and hairstyles. We again ate at a noodle bar and went to takesita street http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e3006.html . There are many shops that cater to the small sizes of people in Japan, as well as shoes and purse shops. It appears that metropolitan Japanese are fashion-conscience. Also, it is very common to see women in 4 inch high heels! My feet would hurt!

Please see my photos for more descriptions of my trip. Again, I mentioned the students to make a power point...all you have to do is right click on the images and do a "save as" paste to word and save as a jpeg - that should work. If not, ask your teacher. More to come...make sure to check the archives for past blogs!

Konbanwa....kw




Here is the official website for the Tsukiji Fish market http://www.tsukiji-market.or.jp/tukiji_e.htm

Video of fish market (movement theme)