Day 17: Back to School

Today we had a blessed sleep in - not needing to meet until 9:35am. So I enjoyed a blissful rest before gathering up a pile of pencils and USB drives as gifts for the students of Keio University.

Our first stop today was the Meiji Shrine. For the first time in a long time we were without a tour guide, so Kaoru showed us around - as an expert from visiting the shrine for the past few years. This shrine was built to honour the Meiji Emporer, who opened up the country to foreign traders in the late 1800s, early 1900s (the birth of Mitsui). He was a revolutionary Emperor who brought Western culture to Japan - a running theme for today. The shrine itself is actually huge, it extends back to near our hotel, yet we caught the train around it for a number of stops to get to the best side. It is surrounded by a park which includes a baseball field amongst other sporting areas. The shrine is simply immense.

Massive Wooden Tori Gate

The main Shrine itself

The Emperor was well known for eating Western food and wine and these barrels were donated to his shrine

Our next stop was Keiro University, which was founded in 1858 during the Meiji reforms. It was done in response to its founder, Fukuzawa Yukichi (who appears on the 10,000 Yen note) believing that Western standards of education should be adopted as the country opened its doors to the world. The campus itself is beautiful, although it does operate a little differently to an Australian University. Primarily, there are still bells in this University and periods. Classes are listed on TVs to inform students what classes are on where.

We first had lunch at the cafeteria, which was amazing. For 300 Yen ($3) I had a chicken breast, chips and roast pumpkin. That is a ridiculous price for the food! And the food was amazing. The actual eating hall was full of students and there was a surprising number of Western exchange students. Josh and Clint made friends with a group of French students. After lunch we had a tour of the beautiful campus grounds with a number of students who will be going on exchange to Australian Universities in February including UQ, ANU and UNSW. 

The campus itself is really beautiful, although much more compact than Newcastle's. There is a reasonably large quadrangle, but most buildings are more like small apartment blocks. There are a couple of heritage sites, including the first public speaking hall - which was made to reflect founder Fukuzawa Yukichi's fondness for making speeches and his belief that this was an important tradition from the West. (I happen to agree wholeheartedly.)

The original University Library - now used as a meeting hall

Bust of Fukuzawa Yukichi

The main stained glass window in the old Library - showing a goddess (Western Civilization)  meeting a samurai warrior (Japan). The latin underneath is the Keio Uni's motto and means: The Pen is Mightier than the Sword.

After our tour we joined in on a political science class where the Professor utilised the presence of us Australians as an opportunity to discuss the roles of Japan and Australia as "middle powers" particularly in regards to the rise of China as an economic, political and military superpower. There were two Australians per group, I was paired up with Clint. We had a fantastic time discussing the influence China has, particularly regarding the purchase of property and farming in Australia, migration, as well as the fear of the unknown behaviour of China, compared to a cultural understanding with the United States. I think we all learnt a lot. Steve said that he discovered a lot about Australia that he didn't know (Josh was his group partner and I believe Josh knows a lot about international relations.)

This evening was a free evening. The girls organised their own trip which later turned out to be the Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku. It received rave reviews from them so I intend to go tomorrow and see it. However, Steve and I went back to Akihabara to have a look at the night life. And it was like a completely different space. There were big crowds, lots of noise and plenty of shops vying for your attention. The craziest thing was that if you walked two meters away from the shopping area, it was like coming up for air - the area was so much quieter, less crowded - even less traffic. We dove head first in and I did a little bit of shopping (even successfully found some anime things I had been searching for for 17 days for a friend). We had McDonald's for dinner, like disappointing western tourists, but food was hard to find. 

Lights and Crowds everywhere!

Tomorrow we are visiting the Australian Embassy and if the weather remains good, going up the Sky Tree. Hopefully a lot more photos for tomorrow (and a great Robot Restaurant story!)