Tokyo
Sunday – Our last morning in Kyoto commenced with a trip to
the Fushimi Inari shrine. On the outskirts of Kyoto, a wooded hillside hosts 4km
of trails that are covered by traditional torii
gates (exquisitely painted in Princeton orange and black). The trails are
dotted with small cemeteries and shrines and I wish we had a few hours to get
lost among the trails, but alas, we had to catch our train to Tokyo.
One bullet train later, we arrived in Tokyo and met up with
the group in time for our welcome dinner. My words could not do justice to the
8 course feast we enjoyed, suffice it to say that it included lots of fish,
pickled veggies, a plethora of alcohol, and many mystery foods. And we were on
the 42nd story of the building, enjoying the Tokyo skyline. Too tired
to go out, we tucked in to rest up for Monday’s full day.
Monday – I apologize for the journal nature of this article
but there is simply too much that happened for me to fully unpack it right now.
The day started at 5AM with a trip to the Tsukiji fish market. Although we
missed the fame tuna auction (that requires a 3AM wake up), we narrowly missed
being crushed by whizzing motorized tricycles laden with squid, tuna, and eel,
and then feasted on a sushi breakfast. Sushi could only be fresher if the fish
were still alive. Our next activity was a visit to the Meiji Jingu shrine in
the center of Tokyo, built in 1920 in honor of the Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken. Our Shinto monk guides gave a great overview lecture of
Shintoism (my basic takeaway – it seems to be more of a culture and a way of
living than religion as understood in a Judeo-Christian-Islamic culture) and
then we observed a sample Shinto prayer service.
After the shrine we met with Representative Yasuhisa
Shiozaki, the former Chief Cabinet Secretary, which is equivalent to being the
vice president. He answered questions about Abenomics, Japanese social policy
(need to support women in the workforce), and how the American Navy’s shift
towards the pacific affects Japan’s role in region. Good thing HKS students
only ask easy questions, haha!
For lunch we headed to the 3rd tallest bulding in
Tokyo, Roppongi Hills, for yet another feast (life is tough!) and then visiting
the 56th floor viewing deck for a birds-eye view of the world’s largest city (source). Our last official meeting of the day was with
Yoshimasa Hayashi, the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, and
he’s also the former minister of Defense and minister of Finance. Since this
type of resume could never occur in present-day USA, I asked him a question
about having top roles in various ministries and how long it takes him to get
up to speed on the details of the new job(s). According to Jessie, my question
sounded like, “How are you possibly qualified to hold three different cabinet
posts?” but I like to think I had slightly more tact.
The evening was spent at a reception for the HKS-Japan
Alumni group that helped underwrite some of the cost of the trip. There are
currently 14-15 HKS alums who are members of the Japanese Diet, which seems huge to me. There was good food, the
best sake, and Asahi beer aplenty. Good times and hardcore networking was
enjoyed by all.
Additional Thoughts:
The size of Tokyo is overwhelming. Similar to the feeling of
Beijing or Istanbul, the city stretches as far as the eye can see in every
direction. It is also disconcerting because there are skyscrapers throughout
the city and not just in a single area. For a quick visual, check out the
subway map
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