Hey guys!
My last two posts got a lot of positive responses and even some feedback which makes me very happy and motivates me to keep writing! It is kinda frustrating if you write and write and write and ask for people’s opinion and no one ever writes anything. In my last blog I asked if you wanted to know more about the cockroach I had in my room. I had 53 visitors since my last blog and one of them said messaged me telling me to write more about the cockroach, two asked me what a cockroach is and the rest of didn’t have any opinion. No one said: No! Don’t tell us more. Which made the one person saying yes the majority because only yes and no were an option 😛 I even made a little statistic to make it easier to understand. Please see below!
So what can I tell you more about the cockroach? First of all it was so big that you could here it crawl through the room. It was dis-gus-ting. I screamed a few times when it headed right at me. I had no spray to kill it and not the balls to step on it. So I first tried to catch it in some tupperware (which later on I would have melted down and thrown away after touching a cockroach… obviously!) but I couldn’t go nearer than 3 feet to the cockroach.
I used my broom-like-dust-eliminator to shove it first out of the corner, out into the hallway, down the stairs and then out into the night. It took my like 30 minutes. And when it disappeared for a few minutes under my coach I couldn’t help but wonder: How long was this cockroach already inside my room? I guess I almost cried a little. (The cockroach by the way died outside in the rain… it is still lying there).
So here is my theory: Could the cockroach could have come in my Mexican friend’s suitcase? Maybe you are asking yourself why I am even considering it… the thing is that I sent the picture to a few Japanese and they all said that they had never seen a cockroach that big and that it actually was something different… Which makes me hope that they are right. So can anyone tell me if a cockroach could survive the trip in a suitcase from Mexico to Japan and stay undetected for roughly 4 days in my apartment (or my friend’s suitcase)? We all know these disgusting things I pretty hard to kill but this one died as soon as it got outside of my apartment. Maybe it was already starving? Hated Japanese air? I don’t know. Help me out and give me some hope that this was the first and last huge cockroach in my apartment! Here are some pictures by the way 😛
Where is the Imperial Palace?
Well, enough about the cockroach! My past weekend story continues! After my very long birthday I visited with my Mexican friend and my girlfriend the Imperial Palace in Tokyo! It is located on a very green Island in the middle of Tokyo. And in summer and spring there are many beautiful flowers all over that little island which can be visited for free I might add! Here are a few pictures which I took on the same day and from my office!
Imperial Palace from my Office
Bridge in direction to Yasukuni
My girlfriend fooling around
What’s left of The Imperial Palace
As you can see in the last picture, the few stones left on this place is what is left of the original Imperial Palace. Unfortunately it has been destroyed in World War II and has never been rebuilt thereafter. If you want to see a very impressive Japanese castle you will have to make a detour to Osaka. But there are many many castles all over Japan and I will make sure to visit a few more for you guys if you want me to! Just let me know!
We unfortunately could only spent less than an hour (I think) in the Imperial Garden because it closes very early and we got there kinda late. If you enter on the east side you can walk through it and leave on the west side and continue your tour to the famous Yasukuni Shrine!
Why are Prime Minister Abe and Yasukuni not best friends?
Fun fact before we start: The Yasukuni Shrine has the tallest bronze torii (鳥居) in all of Japan which is pretty impressive when you stand in front of it. If you don’t know what a torii is; here are some pictures for you!
It is about 25 meters tall and 34 meters wide and is the first gate you pass through when entering the Yasukuni Shrine from the north-east side (which is the main entrance if I am not mistaken).
So why is this temple such a big problem when it comes to relations with Korea and China? Japanese people if I understood something wrong please correct me anytime you want and I will update my blog. As far as I understood the temple holds all the souls of men and women who died in the service for the Japanese Empire (prior to 1951). Not only Japanese are enshrined here also Taiwanese and Koreans who fought for the Emperor (even though not always willingly). As for today there are 2,466,532 souls enshrined in Yasukuni. The problem is that also people who are seen as war criminals are enshrined there.
Even though many Japanese don’t want to see this, they did very cruel things back in World War II. If the Prime Minister were to go there and pray he would also thank/pray to the people the Chinese and Koreans consider to be some of the worst people ever to have walked on the face of the earth. It is a rather sad place but no one can deny the beauty and architecture of this place. If you should ever have the chance to visit the Shrine you should definitely go there, most of the writings are translated into English but taking a Japanese-speaking person with you who can translate some of the letters that are shown there might be a good experience. A very famous (and very very sad) letter of a soldier writing to his mother before he died is also there to be seen. It is a big chunk of Japanese culture and history which anyone who wants to know more about this country should visit and enjoy!
A monument for the children who died
I hope you enjoyed this post! There is one more coming about last weekend! I went to see the infamous Ghibli Museum! So keep posted if you want to know more about it and don’t forget to ask anything you would like to know about Japan. If you want some more details about what has been posted, just leave me a comment too.
Thanks for reading you guys! Two more points crossed off The List!
Jonathan
Unraveling the mysteries of life 