Last Post from Japan

Well, it is finally here. I've been ready for this day for about a week now, and now that it is finally here, I am wondering if I got everything in that I wanted to do. In the days ahead, I will post about my final journey home, and will also reflect on what this whole trip was about. I think I will be very pleased with what I did. There were some definite negatives, but they have been so grossly outnumbered by positives that the negatives don't seem to matter that much. And in time, I know that I will forget those negatives and take the positives with me.

I got up very early today to go hit a couple shrines with Shannon. By early, I mean 5:00am. At breakfast I enjoyed some tasty treats for the last time. Miso soup may never taste as good as it did this morning, and why I can't find custard bread in the US is beyond me, but probably a good thing. It was strange to be on the subway so early. Rush hour was a few hours off yet, so it was peaceful.

I went to two major shrines in Tokyo that had been on my list for quite some time...pretty much dating back to when I first found out that I had been awarded this trip. The first was Yasukuni. Yasukuni is a Shrinto shrine dedicated to those who lost their lives fighting for the Emperor. I had been very interested in this shrine because of its museum, which I had hoped to see but it did not open until 9:00. My Chinese history professor told me in the spring that the Japanese clean up their history at this shrine, and leave out the really bad parts (want to read about an absolute atrocity in World History? Look up the Rape of Nanking - or Nanjing - which has been mentioned at a minimum in the Yasukuni Museum). The odd thing about this shrine, for me, was seeing the strings of cranes here that we saw similarly hung in Hiroshima. Peace cranes at a war museum. I am still trying to wrap my head around this one. I get the surface of it, but at the same time, this is a shrine that glorifies the military strength that Japan once possessed. It seems odd to have those cranes there.

The second shrine was the Meiji shrine, built to honor the Emperor Meiji, who introduced sweeping reforms across Japan and helped to modernize Japan and bring it into the 20th Century. It was extremely quiet, and extremely peaceful and beautiful. I didn't get a chance to do the museum, but that's okay. I think I will be okay! I found a little souvenir shop that finally had a geisha doll at the right price. Now I just need to find a place to pack that!

I have to wrap up packing, get my bags weighed, and start my checking out process. My plane leaves at 5:55pm Tokyo time, and I will get home tonight around 8:30pm Corydon time. And before you as, no, that does not mean I have a short flight. I will be on the plane to Chicago for 11-12 hours, and then from Chicago to Louisville for a little over an hour, with approximately a 3-hour layover in Chicago. Today is the day that time will stand still for me. It should be very interesting. I am EXHAUSTED, so I am sure I will get ample amounts of sleep on the plane. I am supposed to have a window seat, so that should help out a lot!

The next time you hear from me, I will be back home in the States! Woo hoo!!!