best laid plans.....

My first missed post yesterday hurt for two reasons. It made my self made goal to have a new post every day broken within the first week, and two, it delayed the Edo Tokyo Museum post another day (don't worry its coming in this post, finally!) However, I don't feel I should get blamed, the internet in my entire boarding house went down for over a day. I guess I could have gone to an internet cafe to get the job done, but I really didnt feel like paying to make a post that would have been rushed.

In order to regain faith in my growing readership, today's post will be longer than usual.

Did you know most Japanese people rarely use their cell phones to talk on? It is mainly used as an e-mailing device. My friend Yoko told me when she visited Canada she was shocked to see people on the streets talking in to their cell phones.

Last Saturday I visited the Edo Tokyo Museum. The actual building the museum is located in is incedible. It is a huge 4 or so story building lifted off the ground about 80 feet by 4 mammoth support legs. Jutting out from the middle is a huge red escalator you take up to the very top. It is probably the largest escalator I will ever be on, and had multiple sections where it would flatten out, then continue to rise.

Before we even stepped in to the museum we were awestruck. And, finally, heres the we. I present my 3 globetrotting buddies, Sanjiv, Karen and Andy, pictured left to right. I chose the artsy photo I took because I want this web journal to have some fucking class.

Underneath the museum in the huge pavillion, every wall was lined with umbrella holders. When you placed the umbrella in the holder a clamp latched around the handle and you took out a key, securing the umbrella. There were thousands of such holders. Considering that many Japanese people simply throw away and buy a new umbrella every time it rains, I am constantly amazed at the care they take for umbrellas at every business in Japan.

After finally reaching the top of the museum my class (this was for a class trip) was split in to groups of 6. Each group was assigned an English speaking interpreter to give a tour. My group was myself, Andy, Sanjiv, Karen, Mike, Dave and Terry. Dave jumped in to our group because all the other groups were full of herbs. Oh yeah, before I forget, new introductions:

Karen - From San Fransisco, Karen is by far the coolest female at my school. She has graduated college, majoring in graphic design, and is here to help her career by learning Japanese. She is very down to earth and thinks I have awesome taste in music, so I like her a lot.

Mike - Mike is an 'otaku' (obsessed fan of nerdery in Japanese), but manages to overcome it by being an extremely cool, smart and nice guy. He is always down to do stuff and enjoys looking at my Gundam models (I am also obsessed with nerdery.)

Terry - Dresses like an old school B-boy and one of the best at Japanese in our little group. He has many Japanese friends and has visited the country before. He enjoys karaoke. A lot.

Everyone up to speed? Good.

Our interpreter was by far the best. She was dressed in a traditional kimono and spoke the best english. She also spent extra time to say everything once in Japanese as well, to help us with our Japanese. Her name was Yumiko.

The museum contained many ordinary museum things, like scrolls, artifacts, etc. By far the coolest aspect, however, were the dozens of dioramas set up. Each one depicted a town or palace from the Edo period of Japanese history. This period was when the Shoguns ruled Japan from 1603 to 1867.

The Shoguns palace, pictured at right, was packaged with an awesome story, courtesy of Yumiko. Unfortunately I forgot the names and dates of those involved, but it is still an amazing story, even if I fuck up a few details (so please don't email me telling me I fucked up, if i do.) One lord was visiting the Shogun's palace and a second kept mocking him. The first tried to keep his cool, but felt his honor had been pushed too far by the taunting insults, after they happened many times. Drawing his sword he attacked the insulter, but was stopped before any harm came to either. However, because he drew a sword in the Shogun's palace he was ordered to commit seppuku (ritual suicide) to maintain his honor. He did so willingly. His samurai, 47 in number, were left masterless ronin. These ronin plotted to avenge their masters death and one night stormed the palace. They killed the lord responsible for the taunts, as well as all his men. Succeeding in their mission, they had the popularity and support of the public behind them and could have escaped punishment. However, without their master and with no further missions in life, all 47 commited seppuku on the lawn of the Shogun's palace (in the section pictured above.)

They commited suicide rather than live with out purpose, you've really gotta admire that. Yumiko then commented how strange it was to her that Western culture demonizes suicide, when it is often the show of ultimate dedication to a cause. She just couldn't comprehend how people who were willing to do anything for their ideals, would stop short of death, when it is the final show of commitment. Her facial expressions and voice showed her own belief in those statements.

The tour lasted about another 30 minutes, but that story, along with Yumiko's reaction to a few US students being disgusted by suicide, was by far one of the best moments I've had so far.

However, I did get some more pictures of some cool dioramas, so here's some photos of my favorite, a busy Edo period sea port (check out the people in the back to get an idea of just how huge these set ups were): (Left to right): Sanjiv, Terry, Mike, Karen, Karl, Andy, Dave, Yumiko

I picked up some sweet Hokusai (Japanse artist who does the one wave painting you all know) postcards on the way out. If you get one in about a week it means you are special.

Tomorrow I go to a Japanse movie theatre for the first time with Nao. We're seeing some stupid chick flick with Cameron Diaz, so I better at least get some crazy Japanese stuff to report out of it, or maybe a few kisses.

Gundam club starts next week!
~karl arthur