Daily Diary (August 30th and 31st)

Wednesday, August 30th

Wednesday morning we left NYC around 10am and boarded the metro to Shinjuku Station. Upon our arrival at Shinjuku, Miki showed us various resources we could utilize at the station if we ever were lost, wanted to book a train to other parts of Japan, or needed to find witch metro line to catch. We then headed out to the Edo Tokyo Museum. We were given two and a half hours to explore the museum and eat before we needed to meet back at the front to discuss our 'Mapping the City' assignments from the day before.

When we entered the exhibit hall of the museum, we all were shocked by the mere size of the exhibit. Some people picked up English audio tours and some people opted to just read the English captions that accompanied the exhibit. Walking through the Edo part of the museum was as close to walking through Edo itself that someone can get. We got to see how the ordinary person in Edo lived and worked through both interactive and reading-based exhibits.

After making it through the museum and eating lunch, we met on the terrace for class discussion. Everyone got a chance to share their experiences in the various neighborhoods we were assigned to visit. Then we left for the night to enjoy some free time.

Thursday, August 31st

Today we had lecture at Waseda University with Matthew Sussman (Japan-US Fubirght Commission). He walked us through understanding what Fulbright was, the history of Japan-US Fulbright, and led a discussion on how to create peace in the world. After an interesting discussion and lecture we left as a group for a traditional Japanese tea ceremony. Before the ceremony we had a chance to explore the neighborhood and get a bite to eat.

At the traditional Japanese house we were instructed to take off our shoes before entering. They split us into two groups because the tea room was to small for us all to attend the same ceremony. We were lucky enough that not only the tea master and her students performed the ceremony, but also the tea master's two five-year old granddaughters. After the ceremony we went our separate ways for an evening of free time.

Additionally, Yu-Won and I won the day with this picture.