Yasukuni Shrine

Welcome to the most controversial shrine in Japan! Please go shoot yourself if you never heard of Yasukuni Shrine 靖国寺. The shrine that supposedly honours the war dead, and the shrine that most Japanese PMs would go and offer prayers just to disturb the Korean and Chinese government. No I am not either there to pray nor to burn it down.

I was more interested in the tranquil surroundings and the sakura. This shrine does not only contain those A-list war criminals of WW2, it also holds most of the remains of the great military men since the 1868 Meiji Restoration. So most of the man prominent in the military scene or who have contributed greatly to the military scene in Japan would be buried there. There is also a museum exhibiting their evolution to a modern military, from swords to gunopowder.

But ignoring all that , the sakura there is pretty nice. Too bad the pictures didn't come out as nice, but I would try to get some from my friend. The moat outside the shrine "Chidorigafuchi" 千鳥が淵　has supposedly the nicest night sakura in Tokyo, but too bad the lights were not on.... sobz

Some new interesting stuff in Japanese market. They have a Fridge, Tv, Dvd player all in one. So you can have cold beer while watching tv, and there's no need to run to the kitchen to get your beer! How cool is that. Their latest Honda Legend has Night Vision abilities, so you are able to see clear sihoulettes of bicycles and pedestrians even in zero light conditions

Anyway we discussed in class again about the Sino-Japanese problem. He claims that the Japanese people are not that ethnocentric (is there such a word?) ie, Japanese do not practice discrimination and don't see themselves superior to other races. He claims that Japanese are not as proud (both a good sense and bad sense) as the Chinese. The Japanese language has adopted a lot of foreign words, for example: camera = kamela and Personal Computer = Pasokon. But the Chinese are proud of their own language, they call it 相机 and 电脑.

From an educator's point of view, he also admits that Japan does whitewash their history a bit, but he says it's just a matter of how the events are narrated. He has doubts whether the Chinese government have blackwashed the Japanese.

While Japanese are usually not racists, they are "naive" towards the sensitivity of racial issues. For example:

A typical conversation between a Japanese and Foreigner (in this case, an Ang Moh) in a noodle restaurant.

AM (in Japanese): Do you have chopsticks?
J: Of course! Help yourself
AM: Thank You
J: Wow, you know how to use chopsticks?!
AM: Urm, yah?
J: And you speak good Japanese too!
AM: Urm yah?

I don't know if you guys find this weird. I can imagine what would happen in Singapore if this Ang Moh asks in Mandarin the first question in a hawker center

AM: 有筷子吗？
S: 有，拿



Yes, it should end there.... The Singaporean wouldn't say so much bullshit like the Japanese. Yes, the Japanese are trying to be friendly, but what's wrong with an Ang Moh speaking your language and using your utensils? I don't see my American and European dorm mates going " WOW, you can use the fork and knife! and your English is really good!"