June 15-Sightseeing, Japanese Government and Economy

Did you know that the sun rises at about 4:30 a.m. in Japan? They don't have daylight saving time, so I guess that's one reason why.

This morning we had a chartered bus tour of Tokyo. First we went to the Diet Building, which is like our Capitol Building--that is, it's where the legislative body meets. There were several school groups there as well. We walked through and saw the room where the royal family goes and also the main chamber.

Next, we went to Asakusa Kannon, the Sensoji Temple, the oldest Buddhist Temple in Tokyo. The main hall, five-storied pagoda and Hozomon gate were destroyed in an air raid in 1945, but have been reconstructed. Upon seeing these beautiful structures, I finally really feel like I'm in Japan! This is the type of architecture that I have wanted to see.

In the temple is a counter at which you can put a 100-yen coin (about $1) into a slot and then shake a cylinder until a long stick comes out. Match the characters on the stick to one of the drawers, open it and take out your fortune. I did this, of course, and the fortune that I got was a bad one! It read "Bad Fortune"!! I couldn't bear to read all of the terrible things that would befall me, so I took it over to a rack of wires and tied it on one of them in order to negate the bad fortune. Naturally, I had to spend another 100 yen in order to improve my fate! This time, my paper said "Regular Fortune". It reads: "Though you always desire to make up your request immediately, even if it takes too long, don't worry about that. Just like step over many mountains, after so many hard work, you request will come out to fine. Treasures and wealth will be in your hand without any trouble." Huh? Oh well, it's better than "Bad Fortune"!

Near the entrance to the main hall are several booths at which you can buy good luck amulets, sticks on which you write your name and age and over which a Buddhist monk will pray the next day, and incense. You light the incense and put it in an incense burner. People stand around the incense and "wash" themselves in the smoke. If you have a physical pain, you're supposed to wave the smoke over that part of your body.

JFMF had arranged lunch for us at a local tempura restaurant, but after we saw Nakamise Dori, a street full of shops, Kim and I decided to forego lunch in favor of shopping! We got permission first, of course. We found all kinds of great stuff and I had fun seeing the "beckoning cats" which are everywhere!

This afternoon, our sessions were about the Japanese government and economy. The government session was a panel discussion with Yuji Tsushima and Wakako Hironaka, both Diet members and members of opposing parties. It was quite interesting!

Tonight it was raining, so I decided to have dinner at the sushi bar at the hotel (love that sushi!) with a couple others. The only thing I didn't like was the raw shrimp--I think that the shrimp needs to be cooked a bit; otherwise it's too mushy. After dinner, I wrote some postcards in my room and made it an early night. It's really been difficult to adjust to the time change--I find myself waking up several times a night.