Journals Day 4

We Wake up today with a wake up call from the front desk. With its cheerful musical tones still ringing in my head, I rolled out of bed and pulled myself into the shower. After the bathing and cleansing, I deotorized and dawned my People 2 People Uniform and prepared to go to breakfast. There the same assortment of western food greated me and my peeps as we hurried to finish preping to meet with the government officials of Tokyo.

The Bus was boarded and headed off toward the Tokyo government building. Upon arrivalm we were ushered inside and given a quick explanation of the ensuing tour. Then the tour began with a short elevator ride to the third floor where we walked through a great hall toward a meeting hall. This is where quarterly meetings between the governor of Tokyo and others take place. From there, we returned to the first floor where we caught an elevator to the observation deck. From there, on a clear day, unlike today, all of Tokyo and surrounding landmarks like Mt. Fuji can be seen. Before we left, I was selected to give the government official a gift. They shook my hand and thanked us all deeply.

Leaving on cloud nine, The group and I headed off toward a traditional shopping area and given 45 minutes. While there, we searched for bathrooms and entertainment. We ended up at a video arcade. We immediatly recognized a few games like Time Crisis and Dance Dance Revolution, while other games like this drumming game caught our eyes. These games cost ¥200 each. That is about $2 dollars!! I shelled it out once but never again will I be drawn by the bright lights and sounds

After the shopping escapades, We retreated to Amaterusu Shrine in a suburb of Tokyo. There we were greeted by the head priest of the shrine and shown inside a large room with 8 tables each laid out with a small book in Japanese and a few sheets of paper describing the shrine where we were staying. The head priest then came and talked with us about shrines and what goes on at this shrine. He had to have a translater but that was okay. After he finished he had us all come up on stage in turn to try drumming out a beat on drums. As each group came up on the stage, more instruments were added. Eventually it sounded just like we were praying to the gods. After we all had our hand in the drums, the other workers at the shrine gave us a snack of dumplings and sushi with Coke, an orange drink, and a 7up type drink called mitsuya cider. As we finished, more people came in layied arts and crafts supplies and directed us in making 'Dead Leaf Art'. At this shrine, they take dead leaves and tissue paper with glue and make beautiful dishes and cup warmers. As we finished, we gave all of our shrine books to the head priest and prepared to leave. Before we left, I was instructed to present a gift to the head priest, translater, and 'craft lady'. I presented it again with pride and head held high. I felt so proud as we left and gathered our shrine books and boarded the bus to dinner.

For dinner, we were taken to a food court near our hotel and given 1000 yen. They had no food from Japan other than curry and that is Indian. I resolved myself to spaghetti, a coke, and a crepe with chocolate, bananas, and gelato. After eating, we could wander a bit return to the hotel. There we were briefed on tomorrow and told to go to bed.

Their government was alot like ours. This is probably because we set it up after WWII. The shops are similar as well but they each sell unique things to the area. Tokyo to me is a western city stuck in a foreign land. The amount of West inside the city is the only thing that causes me to feel that I have not arrived in Japan. To sum it up, If Japan was Tokyo, I could have visited San Francisco to get the feel of 'Chinatown'.