Meiji Shrine (明治神宮, pronounced Meiji Jinguu)

Last week I went to the Meiji Shrine in Yoyogi Park, which is basically my back yard. The photos can be found in the Photo Gallery Link on the right.

A Brief History
The Meiji Period (明治時代), also known as the Meiji Restoration, lasted from 1868-1912, which represents Japan's modernization from the previous 265-year Tokugawa Shogunate and, thus, emergence as a world power.

In 1867, Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned from his position and relinquished all power to Emperor Meiji, the latter of whom then recently assumed his role with the death of the previous Emperor Koumei.  (By the way, the Western Roman Empire “fell” in a similar matter, when the then ironically named Emperor Romulus was told in 476 AD that his services were no longer needed and, thus, free to leave).  In any case, shortly after Yoshinobu resigned, the Boshin War began, people died, the Emperor wins and formally declares his right to rule.  The subsequent Meiji Restoration puts industrialization in high gear and cleans up the mess of the Daimyo geographical rule and the Shogunate military rule.  If I may draw parallels to the West again, think of the move from mercantilism and the petty bourgeoisie to industrialization, which occurred in England, for example, in the mid-1800s.  The premise is that de jure political participation was accessible by the society at large and that political rule no longer resided solely in the hands of the previous shogunate.On July 30, 1912, the Emperor Meiji died, which gave way to the Taishou Period (1912-1926), the Shouwa Period (1926-1989), and the present Heisei Period (1989-Present).  I will cover these later on my blog in the future. Anyway, the Emperor died; the people want to pay their respects; you get a shrine. Officially, the Meiji Shrine is a Shinto shrine dedicated to the spirits of Emperor Meiji and Empress Shouken.

While I was snooping around the temple, I caught a glimpse of a Shinto wedding procession.  The associated pictures are in the "Meiji Shrine" folder in the Photo Gallery as well.

Initial Musings

Simply put, Tokyo is an amazing city, seemingly endless and reasonably busy at all times. However, I am most impressed with its citizens who have greeted me with the highest degree of civility and cordiality.

I typically spend the better part of my mornings at a local Starbuck's that shares an entrance with the neighboring office building. Thus, at any point in time there is an almost constant flow of either customers or businesspeople through the door, all of whom the Starbuck's employees will duly and indiscriminately greet with either an “irasshaimase!” (“welcome, please come in!”) or an “ohayou gozaimasu!” (“good morning!”) upon arrival and an “arigatou gozaimasu!” (“thank you very much!”) upon departure. Every employee to every entrant. Remarkably, the energy with which the exclamations are dealt is the same at 2PM as it is at 8AM.

Politeness seems to represent big business in, at least, Tokyo, if not Japan at large. The government and local businesses employ armies of people to do seemingly menial tasks, the magnificence of which eludes most Americans, particularly senior executives who have downsized similar jobs in the U.S. decades ago. A local department store that I frequent has not only a store greeter but also floor greeters who do precisely that and nothing else. Eleven floors, each with a greeter. Make no mistake; these are not the half-assed greetings that you might receive at, say, Wal-Mart. It is not uncommon to take two steps off of the escalator and be greeted promptly and emphatically by an adorable little Japanese woman who is immeasurably happy that you have decided to visit the third floor.

Perhaps the most illustrative anecdote that I can provide occurred last Friday, when I was trying to find the post office to mail my JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) application (on the deadline, of course). I gathered what I thought was the correct address for the post office from Google the night before. After walking around what I thought was the correct address for about 20 minutes, I stopped a police officer to get better directions. He promptly took me up the block to his office to get his map, detailed the necessary directions for me, and even employed the help of a passerby to assure that his directions were, in fact, correct. I did as instructed (his directions were correct), only to walk into, I think, a culinary school. I somewhat rhetorically asked the woman behind the counter if it was a post office. She assured me that it was not and proceeded to give me the necessary directions. When it was evident that I did not understand (streets in Tokyo are quite confusing), she got up from her seat, put her shoes on, and escorted me the three blocks to the post office's front door.

I am taking it in while I have it because I will miss it when I am gone.

Welcome to Japan

Orbis terrarum liber est, et illi qui non commeant modo unam paginam legunt.                                                                                                -St. Augustine

 Finally, this site is up and running.  Within you will find my journal archive in which I will recount various musings and anecdotes as they happen, a cumulative photo gallery, and cultural notes drawn both from study and direct observation.  I have translated this page into, at present, four other languages:  Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, and French.  There are a few people that I know who are native speakers of these languages, but I have done it primarily as a pretext to practice my language skills.  If you think you can translate any of the pages better or if you have noticed egregious grammatical errors (there are bound to be a few), I welcome any salient suggestions.