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May. 30th, 2003 10:35 amSo, started off today (Thur) mostly to plan with other foreign devils, tho different foreign devils to those I expected, but meh :) The owner of the New Koyo showed us the NEW New Yoko, which is currently under construction. It looks nice.. still no fricken elevators tho.. c'mon people, lugging suitcases up stairs isn't fun :P Oh well. Unlike the current New Koyo, this one will be catering mainly towards families and couples. The charge for the hotel appeared on my credit card.. from "Hoteru Niu Koyuo". Heh!
So the foreign devils and I got on the subway, after I helped them work out how to buy tickets, and chatted until our stops came up. My first port of call was The Imperial Eastern Garden. This was interesting, as for a public garden, it wasn't terribly well tended. So I'm nitpicking, but really.. the lawns were unmown and there were weeds in the garden. Back in the old days I'm sure the head gardener would have been commanded to commit sepukku were the gardens in this condition. I got the Engrish guide to the place, which was interesting.. apparently the current Imperial palace only dates back to 1960.. the old one was sort of destroyed in WW2.. oops, our bad on that.
Rant mode on.. so people blamed the americans for not preventing the people of Bahgdad from looting after they ousted the government... what happened here after WW2? Looting? I think not. Security concious would not be a phrase I would use to describe Tokyo's residents.. I've seen people using laptops on the subway, or walking around holding Y5000 notes or in Akihabara just leaving stalls full of components without supervision. So basically, I think the blame for looting can be squarely placed on the Iraqis, not the Americans :P Rant mode off.
Anyway, imperial palace was followed by the War Memorial.. however I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going, and came out the totally opposite side of the imperial palce grounds.. need I mention this is a pretty damn big area? 45 minutes later and I'm at the correct end of the grounds, and I look up and "oh, it's the british embassy.. hang on *look back at map* awww CRAP.." I had gone the wrong away AGAIN.. so another 30 minutes walking back to the road to the war memorial. Ok, 50 metre high iron gate thing, that would be them.
The war memorial isn't a memorial in the western sense.. part of it is also the national shrine for shintoism. I had a bit of a look around there, but it was pretty quiet and so then went to the museum part. I buy my ticket.. just as I turn around, who should walk in but.. oh.. 200 war veterans. Uh, yes, slightly uncomfortable there.. one whitey and about 200 people who are no doubt here remembering their times trying to kill whitey. Oops. But I went in anyway, as I said, we're all friends now.. but out of respect I tried to look inconspicuous as I walked around looking at the exhibits. Something about being a foot and a half taller than most of them, and in tshirt and shorts while most of them were in suits made this endevour a little difficult. The war memorial isn't just for WW2, it's for all wars Japan has been involved with and the history of a united Japanese military, including bits about Admiral Perry and what a bastard he was.
I knew this before I went in, but this visit reminded me.. in WW2, Japan put up quite a fight, and had they not been nuked twice in as many days, they may well have caused the allies a fair bit of embarassment. They may not have abided by the Geneva Convention, but that's up to them. War is not a gentleman's endevour, it's a last ditch effort to right a wrong, and in the end doesn't determine who's right, only who's left, as they say. The Japanese weren't right to invade half of south-east asia (actually a lot more than half), and incinerating two cities in the blink of an eye wasn't entirely good karma for the allies either, but everyone has his or her reasons, invading the Japanese mainland would have cost millions of lives on boths sides.. while dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki "only" killed about half a million. Interestingly, or not, the use of Atomic Weapons in the Pacific theatre is not covered at the war museum. As has been mentioned, the perspective of the WW2 displays are very different to what we learn in school about this. Ok, duh, they were on the other side ;) They had a store there too.. which sold some stuff with the Rising Sun flag on it. Scary.
After some time in this area, I went to my ole haunt, Akihabara :D I know, geeky, but I can't help it, it's in my nature. The $347 10GB ipod was sold.. who's reading my LJ and buying stuff?!?! :P Hehe. They did still have used 20GB ones for around $560.. but the new ones are more sexy :P New ipods are as follows, australian price in brackets, 10GB $515 ($547), 15GB $669 ($734) and 30GB $832 ($920). I really don't get why apple felt the need to drop the 20 in favour of a 15, and still keep the 10... ahh well. So anyway, at those prices I don't know if I'll buy one.. but maybe a 10GB one ;) Heheh.. glavin.
Tomorrow (Friday) is my last full day here! :( Tempers Fugit, as they say. I have nothing specific planned, but I really should go to a real Japanese food place, and I will also have a look at a traditional Japanese bath.. at least I won't see anyone I know :P Hehe.
So the foreign devils and I got on the subway, after I helped them work out how to buy tickets, and chatted until our stops came up. My first port of call was The Imperial Eastern Garden. This was interesting, as for a public garden, it wasn't terribly well tended. So I'm nitpicking, but really.. the lawns were unmown and there were weeds in the garden. Back in the old days I'm sure the head gardener would have been commanded to commit sepukku were the gardens in this condition. I got the Engrish guide to the place, which was interesting.. apparently the current Imperial palace only dates back to 1960.. the old one was sort of destroyed in WW2.. oops, our bad on that.
Rant mode on.. so people blamed the americans for not preventing the people of Bahgdad from looting after they ousted the government... what happened here after WW2? Looting? I think not. Security concious would not be a phrase I would use to describe Tokyo's residents.. I've seen people using laptops on the subway, or walking around holding Y5000 notes or in Akihabara just leaving stalls full of components without supervision. So basically, I think the blame for looting can be squarely placed on the Iraqis, not the Americans :P Rant mode off.
Anyway, imperial palace was followed by the War Memorial.. however I wasn't paying enough attention to where I was going, and came out the totally opposite side of the imperial palce grounds.. need I mention this is a pretty damn big area? 45 minutes later and I'm at the correct end of the grounds, and I look up and "oh, it's the british embassy.. hang on *look back at map* awww CRAP.." I had gone the wrong away AGAIN.. so another 30 minutes walking back to the road to the war memorial. Ok, 50 metre high iron gate thing, that would be them.
The war memorial isn't a memorial in the western sense.. part of it is also the national shrine for shintoism. I had a bit of a look around there, but it was pretty quiet and so then went to the museum part. I buy my ticket.. just as I turn around, who should walk in but.. oh.. 200 war veterans. Uh, yes, slightly uncomfortable there.. one whitey and about 200 people who are no doubt here remembering their times trying to kill whitey. Oops. But I went in anyway, as I said, we're all friends now.. but out of respect I tried to look inconspicuous as I walked around looking at the exhibits. Something about being a foot and a half taller than most of them, and in tshirt and shorts while most of them were in suits made this endevour a little difficult. The war memorial isn't just for WW2, it's for all wars Japan has been involved with and the history of a united Japanese military, including bits about Admiral Perry and what a bastard he was.
I knew this before I went in, but this visit reminded me.. in WW2, Japan put up quite a fight, and had they not been nuked twice in as many days, they may well have caused the allies a fair bit of embarassment. They may not have abided by the Geneva Convention, but that's up to them. War is not a gentleman's endevour, it's a last ditch effort to right a wrong, and in the end doesn't determine who's right, only who's left, as they say. The Japanese weren't right to invade half of south-east asia (actually a lot more than half), and incinerating two cities in the blink of an eye wasn't entirely good karma for the allies either, but everyone has his or her reasons, invading the Japanese mainland would have cost millions of lives on boths sides.. while dropping nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki "only" killed about half a million. Interestingly, or not, the use of Atomic Weapons in the Pacific theatre is not covered at the war museum. As has been mentioned, the perspective of the WW2 displays are very different to what we learn in school about this. Ok, duh, they were on the other side ;) They had a store there too.. which sold some stuff with the Rising Sun flag on it. Scary.
After some time in this area, I went to my ole haunt, Akihabara :D I know, geeky, but I can't help it, it's in my nature. The $347 10GB ipod was sold.. who's reading my LJ and buying stuff?!?! :P Hehe. They did still have used 20GB ones for around $560.. but the new ones are more sexy :P New ipods are as follows, australian price in brackets, 10GB $515 ($547), 15GB $669 ($734) and 30GB $832 ($920). I really don't get why apple felt the need to drop the 20 in favour of a 15, and still keep the 10... ahh well. So anyway, at those prices I don't know if I'll buy one.. but maybe a 10GB one ;) Heheh.. glavin.
Tomorrow (Friday) is my last full day here! :( Tempers Fugit, as they say. I have nothing specific planned, but I really should go to a real Japanese food place, and I will also have a look at a traditional Japanese bath.. at least I won't see anyone I know :P Hehe.
