Laid-back Friday

Today I decided to just lay low and not get stressed out. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. I didn't see the point in trying to do a lot today. I guess I acted very American today, even down to my choice of food. Let me explain...

I decided to not eat Japanese breakfast today for two reasons: one, I need a break from rice (that bloated feeling is not fun) and two, my hand is starting to cramp up from using chopsticks. It's making me crazy. Besides, there is a restaurant on the top floor of the hotel (on the 40th floor) that has a fine view of Tokyo all around the room (circular room with continuous windows). Someone else told me that Fuji is visible from the restaurant, but it was much too foggy this morning to see anything. I ate my very weird take on American breakfast, which included seafood chowder for some reason as well as two preparations of bacon, and then went shopping for postcards.

At 9:30 this morning, I had the amazing opportunity to listen to a first- and second-generation survivor of the bombings at Hiroshima. I know that my blog has been rather light, which shouldn't come as a surprise, but I would definitely be doing these two people a massive disservice if I did not approach this with a fair degree of seriousness. For two hours I sat silently and in awe as they told of their experiences. What surprised me most was that they felt no ill will toward the United States. Rather, they felt anger at the bomb. Isn't that interesting? One even said that had the US not done it, it only would have been a matter of time before Japan developed her own atomic weapon and used it. I am telling you, it was a heartbreaking session, and one that made you feel quite badly. No matter what your opinions are concerning the use of the atomic bomb (and there are serious academic discussions that constantly debate sides), one cannot deny that its effects were massive and of serious consequence, no matter who they were used on. I wonder if we would have been so forgiving? I am amazed at how close our relationship is with Japan today, even with bombings done against each other by both parties. I have heard many people here in Japan refer to the US as a strong friend and ally, and as the world leader among countries today. Our market has directly impacted the Japanese market, and I sit here in Japan watching the dollar fall against the yen bit by bit from day to day. Our countries, once such strong enemies, have overcome so much to be as close as we are today. I see this manifested in the JFMF program itself, a program through which the Japanese government invites and truly pampers the teachers of its once greatest enemy to come into their country and learn about their culture. That bombing was 63 years ago...look at how far we have come! True, yes, we did do a lot to help Japan rebuild after the war, and maybe this program is done in part to help repay that, but my goodness! Could we, would we, be able to do the same if our roles had been reversed? It's an interesting question, I think. I know I have kind of rambled on about this, but has been something I have thought about a lot today.

We broke for lunch after that. I had some pumpkin and sweet potato soup today, which was quite tasty (Mom, we need to make some of this kind of soup...I think you would like it). For some reason, they aren't serving us Japanese food for lunch. A bit disappointing, but I suppose I will get over it! After we lunch we had a good break. I kind of milled around for a bit and then settled in for the next session, which was on kabuki theater, complete with a performance of kabuki dance accompanied by two kabuki singers and a shamisen player (the shamisen is a stringed instument). It was pretty cool, and I really did enjoy it. You might find it weird. I'll get the videos posted as soon as I can!

We then had our prefectural city-group meetings. For the next hour, I did get a little stressed. It seems as if everyone was trying to get things done at the same time, and it turned into a giant cluster of doom. The worst news was that we would only have 5 rooms with internet access in Sanyo Onoda. We seriously played paper-rock-scissors to determine who would get a room with internet. I managed to win a room, but am still not sure how as the judging was pretty arbitrary. The only thing to complain about is that the internet rooms are smoking rooms, but I am not complaining too loudly because there were plenty of people who wanted internet but who will not be able to use it in their rooms. I offered to share because that is what nice people do.

After that, I met up with a small group to go to Harajuku. It's quite a happening place, let me tell you. I went to Oriental Bazaar, a huge store that sold all matters of things Japanese, including some fabulous kimono that sported equally fabulous prices. I was a little tired of being in a large group (no offense to anyone in the group, but I was starting to feel like part of a herd), so Judy from Philly and I split off. We decided we needed comfort food for dinner, but with a twist, so we went for pizza. Judy doesn't eat meat on her pizza so we had a mushroom and tomato pizza that was tasty, and then a potato pizza. Sounds weird, but was quite good. We then headed to the 100-yen store. It is exactly like our dollar stores at home. I bought some origami paper among other things that I probably didn't need, but bought anyway! We then decided that we needed dessert, so we bought some crepes. That's right, we were Americans eating French food in Japan. It seemed right at the time. I got back to the room around 9:30pm, and have been working on e-mails and this blog since then. I have an early day out tomorrow morning, so I will be crawling into bed soon. You more than likely will not hear from me tomorrow. My internet time expires around 4:00pm, and I don't expect to get back from Kamakura before 6:00. I don't want to buy another day's time because we are leaving Sunday morning to go to our host cities. I'll be able to write then.

By the way, it would be nice to have some e-mails or some blog comments to read. Quit slacking, people.