Friday

Walking around the neighborhood last night, I came upon a blowfish restaurant, complete with a street-side tank of the actual fish, which are pretty ugly. Supposedly these are poisonous unless especially prepared by an expert chef.


This morning began with a talk about Peace Education by a survivor of Hiroshima. Keijiro Matsushima was 16 years old and sitting in his math class at school when the bomb burst. He was on the side of the school away from the blast, survived, and left Hiroshima right away, walking to his home outside the city. Apparently he escaped the worst physical consequences but he saw the results of the bomb, both human and physical, as he left. There can't be too many survivors left. It was an honor to be able to meet and hear from Matsushima-san.

I skipped the group unch today to go to Akihabara, the electronics district, but it looked like parts of New York City to me. What was more interesting is that I was the only non-Japanese person on the subway, both coming and going. Of course, no one paid any attention to me, but that is typical of subway behavior. And I didn't realize until I was returning that I didn't know what an exit sign looked like (very little of the signage was in English). Fortunately, the character looked like an E turned on its side. I went by myself because no one wanted to go; so many of the participants are afraid to try the subway, but it is just like the subway anywhere else.

In the afternoon we had a presentation on Japanese music, theater, and dance, and then met with our group coordinators for our upcoming visits throughout Japan. Tomorrow I am going to Kyoto on the bullet train with a group of participants, leaving here at 5:00 am. The train leaves at 6:00 but only stops for 2 minutes!