Month: March 2019

We started out bright and early on Sunday with a visit to Yasukuni Shrine and Yushukan Museum… places fraught with controversy. An interesting place to start for those of the group for whom it was their first time to Japan.

For those whom may not know, Yasukuni Shrine is controversial because it enshrines all of the war dead who have fought and died for Japan and its emperor. That might not sound like a problem, until you realize that there’s a number of Class A war criminals counted in that number. It doesn’t help that many of Japan’s prime ministers have visited the shrine to pay their respects – in their capacity as private citizens, they say, but can a head of state ever truly be a private citizen? It’s a place that embodies many of the contradictions of Japan.

After a couple months of classes, we were to Asia! Altogether I spent about 33 hours traveling (7pm PDT time until 8pm Japan time… two days later). Airbus to plane to train to another train to plane to train to another train to hotel.

Mind you, it wasn’t all bad. There were three other students on my flight, and I’ve always found that a miserable experience is lessened if there’s someone to share it with. But the best part was our layover! I ended up having a 6-hour layover in Taiwan on the way to Japan. One of our number speaks Chinese and had been to Taipei before, so he was good enough to show us around for the brief 90-ish minutes we had to spend in the city.