last full day in tokyo! craziness. i will miss japan a lot. but i know i will most definitely be back one day. plus i know what's ahead when i return to seattle.. including finding a new job (ugh) and planning rock boat (yay). and spending some time with G before he leaves for tahiti (jealous!) as i will miss him dearly. trying not to think about it.. anyway! got a decently early start and headed first to yasukuni-jinja, aka 'the shrine for establishing peace in the empire'. which, as you can probably tell by the title, is the most controversial shrine b/c it's dedicated to those who lost their lives in all of japan's wars since 1853. not too bad - except that it also includes war criminals. oops. we got there just as vendors were opening up and quickly noticed this massive group of people - all in business suits, except for the ladies in kimonos and really elaborate obis. not sure who they were or what they were there for, but it reiterated a point: if you want to blend in in japan, wear a black suit and carry a black briefcase. check.
next up was the yasukuni-jinja yushukan, the museum on the grounds. for a steep price of Y800 we got to go through how the japanese explain history. and at times it varied greatly from how i remember learning it. still it was interesting. the parts that stuck with me were the explanation of iwo jima (not that japan lost, but how much damage japan managed to inflict upon the us marine corps), the letter to FDR (from a japanese admiral warning FDR to never forget that woodrow wilson failed in the league of nations), and the explanations of how japan was only trying to keep peace in asia and retain its traditions (not that they were trying to enslave the koreans and chinese, but only trying to make them nations independent from western imperialism).
a bit brain fried after all that reading so headed to kitanomaru-koen, a nearby park. didn't see any martial arts at nihon budokan, but oh well. passed the museum of science (closed) and the imperial palace east garden (closed, of course). positive thoughts.. decided to head to shibuya to try to find a restaurant with cheap sushi recommended by LP. and then the positive thoughts went out the window. first of all - the masses of people. it finally wore me out and i couldn't take it. next was whitney's houtson's version of "i will always love you" being blasted on loud speakers in a loop format over and over throughout the entire shibuya area. gag me. finally, despite seemingly easy directions to the restaurant, we could not find the stupid building called seibo-A. asked several people and kept getting pointed in different directions.
i had a mini break down.
so i sat on a curb, gave jos the map, and pouted. fortunately jos stepped up and found us another sushi restaurant. it was delicious - had a tuna roll, salmon twice, shrimp, and white fin from flat fish (whatever that was). with food in my belly, i was happy again.
headed back towards the harajuku area to try to see some harajuku girls (for photo op) but were unsuccessful. found our way to kiddyland area to try to find a dumpling place but really weren't hungry so decided to wander a bit more and go to tokyo tower. again, another tourist trap, but sometimes i like tourist traps.
it was nice to see it at night, as it was quite pretty all lit up. paid Y800 to go to the main observation deck and opted not to pay an additional Y600 to go to the 'special' deck, which was 100m more up.
back out on the street, nabbed a photo with one of the nippon brothers (not sure if it was the younger or older one). finally back to the hostel for our final night stay in japan. sad!
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