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Oops I forgot to put the link to my video here:

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May 29, 2025 - Farewell Dinner

Today was another free day, but because me and my roommate was busying packing everything, not much really happen. We did go out to find a place for lunch, and to be honest with you, Kyoto is not built for tourism, like at all. I think we went to like 4 different restaurants, and all of them had like 8-12 people waiting in line. We did finally found a place that kind of sell everything except for noodles though. Everything tasted pretty good, except that I didn’t really like the cod roe much with the rolled egg. Anyway, we went to a vegan ice cream place after, and the rum flavored ice cream tasted so good! The other flavor had mascarpone in it and some other, but I didn’t remember so oh well. After this, I took a small nap before going to the farewell dinner at 17:00. There, we had a nice toast and talk together, and the meal was pretty nice too! The prime rib was very tender, so I’m glad that I was able to enjoy that meal. At the end of the dinner, Akane gave us all a very cute Daruma doll packs with snacks in it as a farewell gift, so thank you so much Akane! But yeah, that was the whole day. I have like another two weeks here so I’m not leaving just yet, but I’m glad to meet all my friends on this trip along with being able to experience this opportunity.

[thepanhhandle]

May 28th, 2025 - Osaka Time

Ok guys, Osaka time. Morning routines as usual, even though god forbids the earlier meeting time. Anyway, it’s kind of funny how I manage to start memorizing the train lines due to the lack of subways in Kyoto, but I digress. Anyway, we arrived at Osaka to go to Umeda Sky Building as the first order of business. Now, comparing to the Tokyo Skytree, this one is obviously lower, but I’m happier for the fact that there’s better view at the top of the Umeda Sky Building since it’s an open rooftop. There was also a nice cafe nearby so I got cheeseball? and takoyaki. Anyway, the next stop, the Osaka Castle, but just the outside not the inside. Yeahhhh we literally just went to look at the castle on the outside but never went inside. I think the Himeji castle was better though. Anyway, last stop, Dotonbori. We got to see the running man, so that was really cool. But yeah, it was a very chill day. To be honest, the aquarium in Osaka that we went to after this was the star of the whole day really. They had a variety of animals there ranging from fishes, birds, seals, and more. Anyway, I’m trying to rush through this, so for dinner, I ate a fugu course meal, and I must say, I liked the karaage the most. Anyway, that’s the whole day yaaaay!

Academic Reflection

Now, one thing I started to notice at the end of this trip is how modern looking Japanese buildings are. Like, even though Japan got bombed twice, a lot of their building looked like they were only built 20-25 years ago, but this is essentially what’s happening as described in “Character of Urban Japan” by Perez et al. So, unlike in the United States where we value durable buildings that can lasts for like a whole generation, buildings in Japan are meant to last like 2-3 decades. However, this makes sense as Japan is on the Ring of Fire, so they constantly experience earthquakes and occasionally tsunami. Not only that, they mostly have access to woods to build (before the wide availability of concrete from trading of course), so those buildings are susceptible to burning anyway. I mean, if their castles just crumble from random fire, don’t expect much from smaller buildings. So because of all the reasons above, it makes sense on why Japan have more modern looking buildings, and why their people do not like older buildings.

[thepanhhandle]

May 27th, 2025 - Spawns from Hell

Today was a Nara day trip, so that means a long train ride to Nara after my morning routine and meeting. Anyway, we arrived there, and because it’s Nara, there are a lot of deers! And although they look cute and all, they are literally demons. If you buy the god forsaken snacks, they will chase you until the end of the Earth. And if you are trying to feed them, they don’t wait their damn turns, and this results in you getting bite real fast. And if you decide to show your fear, they will know, and they will viciously hunt you down until you drop down all those snacks. There were some that just laid down and were very cute though. But still, those deers are vicious. Also, there were poops everywhere, so watch your steps. Sometime, you can’t even avoid them. Anyway, we went to a shrine and a temple in Nara (Nara is just not known for deers funnily enough). So, for the shrine, its name is Kasuga Taisha. It’s a standard shrine, except for the fact that it has hundreds of stone lanterns along with the 1000 years old tree. They even modified the nearby building to adapt to the tree growing, so that’s pretty cool. For the temple, its name is Todaiji. Similarly to the temple in Kamakura, this temple has the big Buddha except it’s a lot bigger I think. There are also like 4 other statues around it, so the building itself is massive. I was not able to climb through the “nostril”, so I guess I’m not healthy 😔. But yeah, that was the whole day. I’ll be honest, it’s Nara, so there is really not much else here.

Academic Reflection

So, in a lot of stories, Buddha tend to be big, powerful, and all encompassing similarly to how it’s described in “Japanese Esoteric Buddhism” by Tamura and Vairocana. Because of that, it’s hard to imagine what Buddha would be like due to his all encompassing ability. So, in order to depict Buddha, Japan decided to just have big statues to show his aspects. Now, this is unusual when comparing to other temples in neighboring countries, but because people wanted to just show off the wealth especially feudal time, why not build big statues! So yeah, Todaiji really showed the concept of this.

But going back to the tree, you know how old this damn tree when this tree exists in the painting “Kasuga Gongen Genki Picture Scroll 1309.” And mind you, this is after a few decades after the tree has already existed. It’s also funny because it seems like other trees were burnt down like how literally every other things in Japan.

[thepanhhandle]

May 26th, 2025 - Universal Studio in Japan

Since today was a free day and we are like 40 minutes away from Osaka, me and my roommate decided to go to Universal! So instead of the usual breakfast at konbini, we just had lunch at the Shin-Osaka station instead. Why did we have lunch at that station instead of Osaka? Because we thought we could take the Expo Liner, but we got lost so we went to Osaka instead. So the first thing we saw was the city walk, and I must say, it is a lot smaller than the one in Orlando. Now, this was kind of obvious since the land grant for the park is a lot less compared to the one in Orlando, and you are going to see the effect of that more so in the themed areas in the park. So, first order of business, The Hollywood Dream ride. I would say, this is probably a good start for anyone new to rollercoaster. It has a ramp up and down, but the down part isn’t too intense which means you shouldn’t be able to be passed out. After this ride, we went to the Harry Potter themed area, and of course, I had to get the Butterbeer. It tasted as good as I remember, so I was pleased with that. What I was not pleased is the way they let people on the Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. Apparently, they just let all the express people go in until there’s none left, so this just created a huge backlog of people riding normally where sometimes, it can be like a 15-20 minutes of just standing still. The ride itself is the same one from the Resort in Orlando, so unless if you have never went on that ride, don’t do it. Next up, the Flying Dinosaur, and this is a must ride. Even though I’m a squeamish person myself, this was a thrill. I’m not going to spoil it too much, but it felt like you were flying. Now after this, we bought some merch where I became toad, and after this, we got to the Super Nintendo World. I must say, it was so cute. We didn’t get to do the Donkey Kong ride because there was a malfunction, but the Mario Kart ride was pretty cool. Also, I got a picture with Toad himself! It was so cute, and I wish I was there a bit longer. Anyway, we went on the last ride for today, the Saw. I will say, it was a pretty cool ride for its wait time, but that boat conductor better get paid a lot for her performance. Again, no spoiler, but I had a really fun day.

[thepanhhandle]

May 25th, 2025 - Kiyomizudera and Uncanny Valley

Another temple for today, and you know what that means, more Goshuin. As usual, morning routines, so that means nothing special there. Afterward, we took the subway and just walked our way there to the Kiyomizudera Temple. However, I did not remember the trip to the temple was that bad because I was around that area before, but it’s probably because we took the bus there on our free day. Anyway, we arrived at the temple where we tried to lift that damn steel staff. None of us did it, so I guess no one will be getting their wishes 😔. Anyway, we went in and finally, we saw the black statue. Now, I can see why it can be seemed very racist, but I’m not going to go deep into it. You can look at the picture for yourself. Anyway, the temple was really cool for the fact that it’s so high up in the air. We also went to the 3 water spouts for either longevity, business success, or a good love life. Now, I chose the middle one, but I hope for longevity. But yeah, that was the whole temple. Now, we did go and see an android Kannon bodhisattva, and I just sat, holy uncanny valley. I know she’s trying to spread her teaching, but she creeped me out. But after this, we went to Gion to see the Meiko dance. I must say, their restraint movements and still faces made them very alluring, so I can see why people are attracted to this form of art. Now this was not on the itinerary, but we went to other shrines nearby and the Samurai and Ninja museum. Otherwise, that’s really much it for the day. I just binged anime at night, so if I would say to myself, it was a good day.

Academic Reflection

Now, it is funny despite how Kannon is portrayed as the merciful god, in the story “Shintokumaru” by Sado, you can literally get killed for insulting Kannon. Like, although as uncanny as she is, the android Kannon was preaching for having no desire, but in a way, to kill someone for insulting you is, in a way, having a desire. But I just found that aspect really funny. Now, I’m curious about this story because this is a parallel toward how gods in Greek Mythology usually react to insults, so I wonder if Greek Mythology had something to do with Buddhism.

Now, it is interesting that Geisha we see today are largely symbolic compared to the time in the Meiji Restoration. Back then, to combat against the discourse that Geisha tend to be blurred with prostitutes, many brothels began to educate Geisha on how to be good housewives while encouraging them to do higher intellectual activities such as attending academic institutions, reading newspaper, etc. As a result, Geisha began to fell from the discourse, and eventually, excluded from the feminist movement as a whole. And so, Geisha survived through the restoration and remained as a form of art today. Oh, and also look at the sweets I had today. The matcha was so good 🙂‍↕️.

[thepanhhandle]

May 24th, 2025 - Big Castle

So classic Japan, cold and rainy for pretty much the whole day. It was also really windy! Anyway, morning went by as usual, and after that, we went on a 1.5 hours train ride to Himeji. But since the train had nice seats and relatively smooth, I took a small nap on the train so that was nice. Anyway, we arrived at Himeji where we went to go get lunch before the main attraction, the Meiji Castle. The castle itself is at least 6 stories tall while also being on top of a hill, so it felt very tall for the naked eye. The castle also consists of multiple walls and housing quarters designed to ward off invaders. Not only that, the roofing tiles that the castle used are fired at extremely high temperature to resist fire or extreme heat. And to further prevent fire, the castle employs plaster on the wall as an effort to prevent fire on the wooden structure. Furthermore, to hold up the structure of the castle, there were several long and thick beams that were cut from very old preserved trees, most of them are the entire building tall. This quality of wood also really show the collective effort of preserving trees as mentioned in one of our previous text. That’s pretty much the scope of the castle. On the side, there’s a garden that, sadly, it wasn’t in spring, so not much flowers were blooming. But all the green shrubs and trees, so that balanced off the slight disappointment a little bit. But yeah, that’s pretty much the whole day. To be honest, the trip was far away from the hotel, so I didn’t really do anything when we got back. Had a nice dinner, though, but it was a pretty nice day despite the rain.

Academic Reflection

So, talking about the walls, I noticed how it is layered just like how it said in “Castle Towns and Daimyo Authority” by McClain. Furthermore, if you keep walking toward to the center of the castle town, you can see the canals and moats designed to ward off invaders, which was also mentioned in the text. Now, fire was a big deal back then, so they tried several different methods on the castle. First, the roofing tiles. The tiles are fired at a degree of more than 1000 Celsius, which turns the tiles black. This makes the roofing tiles very fire resistant. Moreover, the walls are covered in white plaster, which to my knowledge, plaster is fire resistant. So with all these defenses, the castle was proved to be hard to be conquered by the offense, but it is not impossible.

Now, a quick note on the foundation of the castle itself. So like in the text “Shields of Stone” by Turnbull, the Japanese looked for a solid hill, then they use big stones from quarries to make the sloped wall to prevent attackers from climbing or mounting the castle. However, Japan lacks good quality stones, so to have a castle that big and high up really shows the wealth of the people who built it.

[thepanhhandle]

May 23rd, 2025 - 7 More Temples!

So, today was split into two parts. The first 2 temples were with the school, and the rest of the 4 were me and my roommate again. But, by this point, you’ll already know what we always do in the morning, so I’m just going to skip that. Now, first temple on the list Kinkakuji, the famous temple with the Golden Pavilion. And I must say, like moths to a flame. Human sees shiny, neuron activation. The building was cool, but my god the crowd. It was the worst I have seen to be honest, but I digress. But other than that main attraction, it was a pretty normal temple. And so, we go to our next one, Daitokuji. It was a really nice zen garden, in general. The garden was nicely designs, and the stones were placed to reflect important Buddhist practices and stories. But after this, we went to go get ramen for lunch, and had to revisited 4 shrines because we didn’t get the stamps. So, we ran back to get the four stamps. It was, again, very tiring, but we managed to do it. We even saw one of the biggest Guan Yin statue. Oh and I forgot after writing most of this, but we also went to Higashi Hongan-ji temple. I must say, the Higashi Hongan-ji temple was huge! Like, what do you do with all those space, and I’m not even talking about the other part of the temple that was a few walk down (it was closed). But after this, I went for unagi don as my dinner because I want to try that before I leave Kyoto. But overall, it was another fun day.

Academic Reflection

Now it is ironic that in the text “The Temple of Golden Pavilion” by Nishima, our protagonist want to burn down the temple because of its beauty and grandeur that prevent him from finding another beautiful thing in life. If you think about it, Japan’s religion is largely dominated by the idea of rebirth or reincarnation in a way. So by burning down this building, there’s a great chance that it will be rebuilt, and this concept of rebuilding might make the next iteration of the Golden Pavilion even more beautiful. Furthermore, like modern standards, you could just lather something in gold and it will be beautiful for example this temple. Now, this is just my opinion, but judging the architecture of the temple itself, without the gold, it would just be another normal temple. So, it does go to show how important gold is to beauty and grandeur back in the day.

But talking about the Zen garden that we saw today, I must say, it looks a lot more impressive in person rather than the drawing depicted in “The Japanese Garden” by Goto. At the garden, you get to see the precise pattern drawn on the white gravels where each pattern describes where you are in the story of enlightenment. For each rock, you can see importance or hardship of each rock depending on the height of it, but regardless of the height, you can to navigate to each rock to attain enlightenment. And once you go through all of that, you get to the main area of the South Side Garden as described in the text. There, the wave of the gravel is more calm while having precise shapes to indicate that you have attained enlightenment. In a way, it is a story of the path of enlightenment as described in the text.

[thepanhhandle]

May 22nd, 2025 - Temples Hopping Mania

Ok free day!!! Anyway, first stop on the list Heian Shrine. Sadly, most of the building was under maintenance, so we didn’t get to see much. But, there was a really nice garden attached to it with lotus blooming in the pond, so it was very beautiful. The weather was quite nice also. After this, we went to Eikando Temple where it’s a more traditional temple. I must say, it’s a very calm temple with plenty of quarters. In each quarter, there were plenty of siding doors painted with exquisite imageries like cranes, pines, bonsais, and more. You are going to see this a lot by the way. After this, we went to go get lunch at a cafe, and it was ran by 3 old people and it was really cute. Anyway, we went to Nanzen-ji temple afterward, and it was a bit less interesting than Eikando. And now, the fun part, the random hike that my roommate took me on. Uhhhh, yeah we found the Himukai Dai shrine on the mountain, but my legs were dead 💀. Now, at this point, my mind was really hazy because I’m just so tired. But if I remember correctly, we went to Kodaiji temple before going to Yasaka shrine afterward, and to be honest, it was smaller than we thought. But yeah, we just went shrine hopping the whole day. It was really fun though because the whole hiking thing, even though it sucked, it was really nice to see the nature in Japan.

[thepanhhandle]

May 21st, 2025 - Le Monkeys and Please God with these Hills

So 6 am meeting time today because we wanted pictures 😀😀😀. But it’s ok because I wanted this. So um, 3 2 1, wake up, morning routines, breakfast from kombini, meeting, off we go! Had plenty of green tea today to keep me awake though. Anyway, first stop, Arishyama bamboo forest. Very beautiful and actually relatively cool because it was early in the morning. There was a maiden shrine in that forest also. But to be honest, kind of felt meh because I wished the bamboo forest was bigger. Anyway, I had another small snack, and this time, it’s a slice of cake… because it was still like 8:30 in the morning. But now, we get to see the monkeys, after climbing up about 200 meters 🥰. Mind you, I got like 4-5 hours of sleep before this. So we climbed, and I felt like I’m just going to give in because we wouldn’t stop for a rest along the way. It felt horrible, but we just keep pushing and hope for the best. Anyway, after like three quarter of our way through, we start seeing monkeys, and a few more uphills afterward, we are finally at the top. The view, again, was nice and we get to even feed the monkey. Anyway that was the main day with the group. Me and my roommate actually went out on a boating adventure then we went to the Nijo castle after this trip, where it rained on us when we were at the castle. But ay, the inside wall murals were painted with bonsai and pine trees very nicely which represent stability of the shogun at that time. But yeah, it was another fun day overall.

Academic Reflection

So going through the hills leading up to the monkeys, I can say one thing, this place will be so prone to overpopulation that it will not be even funny. And like the text “Changes in Land Management in Arashiyama” by Fukamachi suggested, yes it is a problem. You see, the hill was indeed very nice and preserved as said in the text. Slight problem, due to the really rough terrain there which make long distance hunting, aka most apex predators, practically impossible. That means, certain animals, especially medium size one (deers and monkeys especially) are virtually uncontested. Pair that with the aid from human conservationists, and you get a storm brewing on the horizon for overpopulation. Now, this is funny because we did see a deer, a baby deer, and plenty of monkeys of course. So this just proves my point.

One thing to be also said, though, is that there was a maiden shrine in the forest as mentioned earlier. In the two other texts, the maiden shrine is often temporary construct, and on my trip, you can tell that it’s temporary from the log-made Tori gate. But yeah, pretty neat I must say.

[thepanhhandle]

May 20th, 2025 - Kyoto Castle and Museum Along with some Mangas

Ok speed running the morning. Wake up, morning routines, run to kombini, do the morning meeting, and off we gooo! Anyway, first main stop of today, the Kyoto Castle (and garden). Compared to the one to Tokyo, the Kyoto castle is a lot more like a castle and not a fortress, so the castle is a lot flatter. There was a tour guide for the whole castle, but to be honest, I didn’t understand anything he said. So next up, the International Manga Museum in Kyoto. It was a fun museum actually. It’s like a glorified library with mangas only that you can read, and their collection dated back to like 1890s, so it’s very old. They also have a cool performer that although his English wasn’t very well, his acting and comedic timing really made it for up. Anyway, we had a nice lunch nearby the museum, where after, we went to the Kyoto National Museum. Now, this museum didn’t allow photo except for one. But one thing really stood out for me, was once again, the Haniwa! There’s just something about them like seems so mysterious. Like the way they just hold certain objects, but we just don’t know the meaning behind it. They also always have a funny mouth. But the museum was really nice. However, the two of us took a detour from the main group to the nearby shrine by the National museum, and that was the hidden gem that we found. There was a 1000 small statues along with the great Kannon (Guan Yin) with 100 arms in the temple. It was magnificent but I’m sad that we couldn’t take a picture of it. But yeah, today was packed with a lot of stuffs so I’m glad.

Academic Reflection

One thing to say about “World of the Shining Prince” by Morris is that a lot of the Heian era literature are still reflects in the story in the mangas that I saw at the museum today. Many of the mangas (well, maybe not the bad one) are often complex and deal with the nature of humanity or a life of a person depending on their gender or occupation. Furthermore, the new mangas are often not a direct replicas of famous stories in Heian era, but rather a parallel or offshoot from the stories back then. You could just say that it’s been adapted to the modern tongue. But overall, it’s interesting to see how the mangas that the world read today often draw a parallel line to the texts written in Heian era, even though we may not recognize it the first time we went through the manga.

[thepanhhandle]

May 19th, 2025 - Fushimi-Inari Shrine

You know, I’m going to start seeing stairs in my nightmares. Anyway, first real day of Kyoto! Had a really nice sleep because the bed was nice, but it was kind of odd having to walk to our meeting place though. When the meeting was over, however, I had to run to the nearest 7/11 because we are going to hike, and I haven’t had breakfast yet at the time. And so, a quick few stations later, and we are now at the Fushimi-Inari shrine! And like every social media videos that talk about this shrine, yes, it is overcrowded as hell. Luckily though, we get to see like a business blessing ceremonial, so that was pretty cool. I will say, though, can people have a bit more situationally awareness because if no one is having their phone out to take pictures, that’s a sign for you not too also 🌚. There were even signs plastered all over the place too like what? Anyway, the hike. Not as bad as Mount Takao, but please I don’t want to see more stairs. And if there is, spread out the events evenly please 👹. So, after passing under a few hundred tori gates, we made it to the halfway point, and the view was fantastic as usual. Now from here, we are pretty much done with the day because there’s really nothing at the top of the mountain, so the professor didn’t force us to go to the top. So after taking our fair share of photos, we went down, and I had lunch at one of the local place. And because we are at this shrine, I had to get inari sushi. But yeah, the rest of the day was uneventful. We just went back to the hotel and rest for the rest of the day because hiking is a yikes in Japan 🙂‍↕️.

Academic Reflection

Now, what’s funny about the shrine that despite many priests saying that Inari is not a fox, there are plenty of kitsune fox statues around the shrine. Furthermore, like many of the Buddhist temples built in Japan, the Fushimi-Inari does have that aesthetic from other temple. This signifies that despite the forced separation between Shinto and Buddhism as indicated in the “The Fox and the Jewel” by Smyers, you can still this peculiar blending of the two religions. And because rice and fried tofu are very symbolic of Inari as indicated by also the text, you can see that Inari sushi is very popular around the shrine. And so, you get to see many of these symbolisms and blending that you got from the text through this shrine.

[thepanhhandle]

May 18th, 2025 - Shinkansen

Sooo, I don’t really have much to say today to be honest. Woke up, did my morning routine, join the morning meeting, and yeah off we go to the Shinkansen. We didn’t have to rush that day also because everyone was on time (kind of), so we were able to be there at the station a bit earlier. Anyway, we made it on the train, and to keep me from being hungry, I bought a bento box with a small sandwich to eat on the train. And if I remember correctly, I was writing part of this blog post on the train, but then quickly fell asleep afterward so I don’t remember anything. I will say this, however, my backpack was awfully heavy, and my shoulders were hurting. Even worse, we got there a bit too early so we had to wait like an hour for the check in, and my back and shoulders were like screaming at me. Finally, we got to check into our hotel after submitting our passports and did a passport gacha machine to give back to everybody (was kind of fun seeing how bad the quality image of everyone’s pictures). Now, I did go to a beer pub nearby while looking for dinner, and I met this Englishman that was sitting right beside me. He was a lawyer and he was a fun guy to talk to because we were sharing our experiences. I hope that he is enjoying the rest of his stay here in Japan, and maybe after taking my advice, he will go to Vietnam 🙂‍↕️. But yeah, that’s pretty much my day.

Academic Reflection

Now, it is said that Shinkansen is great at connecting different cities, and enabling fast and cheap transportation for many. However, like the text suggested, it can be very unpopular especially for smaller towns who have to deal with future construction of Shinkansen. This is because as Shinkansen is built to connect to bigger cities, businesses and people who are looking for better jobs will most likely move toward those cities. This, as the article suggested, will make bigger cities grow both in population and economic. However, the consequence of this is the decline of smaller towns. Due to smaller towns becoming less favorable as they are not connected to the network, there will be less younger people who will live there. And since older people are less likely to move, the town will get older and older, possibly making the town devoid of people. This phenomenon has already happened to some towns in Japan. You can also see an evident of this in a way while on the train, where some of the businesses you see in smaller town is just agriculture and never really any office works. I didn’t take pictures of this however, but there are some part of Japan just felt like it was slowly aging away. But yeah, as the text suggested, Shinkansen does promote the growth of bigger cities, but this often comes as a cost for smaller towns that were not connected to the network.

[thepanhhandle]

May 17th, 2025 - Kamakura Independent Trip

Today was a free day, and as usual, we slept in to recuperate from all of our previous trips in Tokyo. But like how everyone else starts their morning routine, I did practically the same thing, but I had lunch at an udon place instead. Overall, it was a pretty slow start, which I do not mind. Anyway, took the train ride to Kamakura, didn’t remember much on the train though because I slept on the way there. Now the fun part, the wind and the rain. So, the rain itself wasn’t bad. The bad was the strong wind blowing consistently against us. Luckily, my umbrella was strong enough to resist it, but my friends weren’t so lucky. But we made it to the Buddha statue where for me specifically and one other, we went inside the Buddha statue to explore the inner chamber and how it was built. After that, we main to the downtown area of Kamakura where three of us went to an owl exhibition. We got to pet them, and I must say, they are softer than Samoyed dogs and that is impressive. One also hooted! After this, we went to go make a custom belt for most of us. The experience was wonderful, and it was cool for us to choose our own leather and buckle. Finally, we went to the beach where we got blasted with strong wind. It’s a nice beach though, but I wished that it wasn’t raining and foggy. Anyway, that’s pretty much it for the whole day. I slept like a baby afterward because it was tiring going around.

Independent Excursion: Academic Reflection

So, we found a text named “Tourism and Religion : From the Perspective of Comparative Civilization” by Ishimori Shuzo where it was interesting that many of the practices that were employed in the past are still being practiced today; the most important being the fundraising of the temple or shrine, or the formal name, kaicho. In the past, because Tokugawa like to keep a firm grip on virtually everything to maintain his shogunate, he decreased funding for shrines and temples, leading to temples and shrines to perform kaicho, or opening up parts of the place that were previously not shown to the public. They then charged these public displays a small fee which raised funds for the temples and shrines, and it is this practice that is still being carried out today. Furthermore, due to increase tourism, the temples and shrines now extend this practice to selling their own merchandise to raise money. As such, because of previous squeeze of funding from Tokugawa, temples and shrines did become more independent as they found out more ways to raise funds without relying too much on the government.

Now, these fundings would only work if the shrines or temples are popular for tourism. And that is connected to our next idea, meisho. The concept of meisho is just the idea of “famous places” where the places are well known and could be used for poetic devices or literary purposes. And as usual, if the place is of great importance, the place would most likely be kept for not only cultural purposes, but also tourism purposes. And this idea also applies to the Great Buddha Statue that we seen today. In fact, like many other buildings in Japan around the 1600s, the building that housed the statue got burned down. But luckily, the Buddha statue remained largely unaffected and was partially restored from the minor damages. This must means that like other religious attraction, the Great Buddha Statue must have been of cultural significance along with tourism significance for the local area. As such, this may have contributed to the reason why the statue is still here today.

One thing to note also is that the shrine may have indirectly contributed to the railway system Japan has today. This is because during the late 1800s, Japan tried to improve domestic and foreign tourism by making shrines and hot springs accessible for tourists. Because of that, they developed a railway system, connecting many shrines and hot springs together to boost the ease of access to these attractions. Places like Hakone were among the many places that were connected, and so too was Kamakura due to their famous Buddha statue. And so, by having a huge tourism attraction, Kamakura managed to stay connected with the rest of Japan while also raked in the many economic benefits that tourism has to offer.

[thepanhhandle]

May 16th, 2025 - TeamLab and BBQ

So today was a chill day after yesterdays fiasco. To start, we got ourselves into Odaiba to do the TeamLab thing first. The whole venue was described as, and I quote, “an immersive experience” that connects you to our planet. Anyway, it was a really cool experience consisted of 3 main sections: water, garden, and forest. My favorite one was water because it got really cool exhibits like the one with the projected koi compared to the other two sections. After this, we went to go barbecue together at the rooftop of a mall. The whole experience was pretty fun, but I’ll be honest, I felt bad for all the foods that we didn’t eat. We even tried to give some to the people beside us but there’s still a lot left. Anyway, Lance and Quinn manned the grill, and they did a pretty good job. But that was pretty much the most important parts. At the end of this whole trip, we get to see a life-size Gundam statue, and that ends the thing we did as a group today. Now, some of us did go to Karaoke afterward. Our singing was bad, but ay, we had fun and that’s all that matters.

Similarly to what the study described, you do get a feeling that it is more catered toward the Japanese with a balance of play, tourism, and live there. For tourism, there were plenty of tourist places that you can go like the mini Statue of Liberty and Gundam statue, although they are not as touristy as the one in Tokyo. But that is fine because you are striking a balance, not overly catered to one aspect. For play, there were parks around for parents to bring their children to relax and get their energy out. Not only that, there are also other places like Karaoke for more matured audience. But lastly, the live aspect. Considering how many saturated businesses especially global one are in Tokyo, this crowded out many options for many Japanese to live in Tokyo. Not only that, the options are most likely to be way out of budget for many standard salary workers, so the options will be further limited. Meanwhile, Odaiba is a lot cheaper due to more amount of space and less demand than Tokyo. Also, with better urban planning and incorporation, the city feels much more livable than Tokyo. Obviously, because of the aforementioned reasons, Odaiba feels a lot less active than Tokyo because it adheres to the schedule of workers and families a lot more. But if you are looking for a city that strikes a balance between the three while still maintaining that Japanese community feeling, Odaiba would fits this description.

[thepanhhandle]

May 15th, 2025 - Hills 😀

So uhhhh, I’m just going to put it this way, the view we got today was nice, but my god it sucked to get the view. So as usual, breakfast, meeting, took the train to the destination, same old ordeals. When we arrived at mount Takao, we had lunch there first where I got cold soba with tempura. Personally, I do like cold noodles a lot, so overall, it was a really nice lunch with Akane again. After that, there was this cool little fried triangle donut shop nearby so I went there too. Now, the climb. So, it was like 200 meters-ish climb (I think since we took the cable seat up), and after like 4 flights of stairs, everyone was pretty much suffering. We got 2 people with health issues, so they tapped out early on, but the rest were like dying going up along with me. Now, the view and scenery were fantastic, but it was a pretty rough experience. Now, I got the joy to go down an incorrect route and had to circle back, which was not fun at all. I made with my roommate eventually, but it still sucked. We met a pretty cool group of people though. They were in like their junior high or university era, and we just said hello to each other. But yeah mount Takao, good hiking trail, just way out of shape for me to be honest. Seriously, I don’t know how Akane managed to go up and run back down while still managed to not miss the bus. Very impressive. Anyway for dinner, I got oyakodon at a restaurant near the hotel, and that was also really good, so yay!

Academic Reflection

Now like the text said about how Japan is really good at managing forest, there were plenty of trees that looked like they have been there for ages. In fact, there are some that is so old in fact that there’s a story attached to it. And in a way, it is impressive that Japan took this forestry management seriously at an earlier time compared to most of the countries in the world. Usually, most countries don’t take up that responsibility at an earlier time, which often leads to barren wasteland or loss of important ecosystem. So, good on Japan for doing that at an earlier time and regularly maintaining the forest.

Now I really don’t know if the forest ever really had a wildfire, but what probably contribute to the longevity of the trees can also be partially explained by how the Japanese plant the seedlings. Like the text said, Japan had details of how to plant each different type of seedling, and this specification allow the most optimal growth for the tree. Now granted, since this specific plot of land probably exchanged hands many time before, it is impressive that each owner of this land just didn’t ruin the whole forest and actually maintained it. Furthermore, with land rights being passed around left and right, it is also impressive that Japan never got greedy with money to the point where they would destroy the whole forest. So, very good on them too on that. Anyway, here are some trees.

[thepanhhandle]

May 14th, 2025 - The Imperial Palace and Controversial Shrine

Behold, a grown man just wept and sighed for more stairs and hills. But anyway, we went to the Imperial Palace to examine the floor plan of the palace along with understanding how the palace worked to protect the emperor or the shogun. Sadly, unlike the White House in the U.S, you cannot enter the palace like a majority of the palace since most of it is private residence. But there was the Imperial Garden that the emperor built for us to enjoy. It was beautiful, but sadly, it is not the blooming season yet, so most of the time, you just see green. After this, we went to the Yasukuni Shrine, the controversial shrine where it gotten so bad that there is a sign that tells people to not protest here. I will go into details later on this. But that was the day with the whole group. After this, I went to lunch with Akane again (I really like the Hamburg), go to Shibuya to shop, and had gyozas for dinner there. Now at night, I went to a fancier bar named “Est!” The mood in there was very nice, and the bartender was very warm and welcoming. Apparently, he was the second generation and the bar is the second oldest in Tokyo (oldest one in Ginza). The drinks were as good as I expected, and overall I really had a fun time with the bartender and the locals in the bar. And yeah, that was my night.

Academic Reflection

So what I found most interesting at the castle is the way they protect their emperor compared to the Chinese. The Japanese, due to their high elevation, built their quarters and assigned the residence based on a positive correlation between the status of the resident and the elevation. So, even though the building might be in the center of the castle, if it is not high enough, it would still be considered for lower status people. Meanwhile, due to China generally flat landscape, their castles are designed such that the closer you are to the center, the more important or higher status you are.

It is also interesting that the shrine that commemorates dead soldiers has been shrouded in many controversies. Now, it is understandable from the text that the commemoration of the soldiers seems over exaggerated, and that it more so promotes Japanese militarism and bad deeds in the past. However, there are other structures that around that shrine that just simply pitied the deaths of those soldiers especially those that died to thirst and hunger. So in a way, it is a mix of bad and good commemoration. Although it is understandable that the promotion of this type militarism put a bad taste in countries like South Korea and China, but those countries also had a fair share of similar militarism or atrocities in the past, and even worse, some of the acts are being actively buried today. So, everyone is involved in the bad acts one way or another. But anyway, here’s the pictures.