Yasukuni Shrine

Last Tuesday, 15 August 2006 was the day Japan formally surrendered during World War II. It was also the Feast of the Assumption. Given that I had to go to Church during that day and discovering that Yasukuni Shrine was just one station away from Yotsuya, I decided to hit two birds with one stone and visit the "controversial" shrine on a "controversial" day.

For one thing, security was tight. I went through the back entrance and noticed a LOT of plains clothes security details. (Either that, or they were just civilians standing around the shrine using their MP3 players). When I entered the shrine, there was the token protest from Koreans and Chinese, with a few veterans dressing up in their uniforms. What was overwhelming was the HUGE stream of people. Wow! I waited at the back for about 15-30 minutes with the press in the hopes of catching a glimpse of politicians visiting the shrine. Koizumi, unfortunately visited the shrine very early, so I wasn't able to catch him. I wanted to buy some stuff from the shrine, but felt a bit guilty if I bought anything! :(

After the Shrine, I went to Church and then decided to treat myself to lunch. Hanna recommended a Thai restaurant nearby, so I ate Tom Yum! My meal included a bowl of fried rice which to me helped get rid of the spicy-sour taste in my mouth after. But overall it was a nice experience.

Sunday, I finally bought a lot of stuff for myself, namely running stuff, since I decided to jog everyday during the summer. I bought most of my stuff at Uniqlo (I love this store) in Nakano. After which I treated myself to Hokkien Fried Rice from Mister Donut (Hopefully you notice the irony). After the hearty meal, I went to Mandrake and bought myself Mister Ajikko manga (which I am currently into)

Finally, Ker Wee, Nami and I finally decided to try a "spicy" curry house in Kunitachi. According to our floor leader, one out of five Japanese customers actually get sick because they can't take the spiciness of the curry. Unfortunately, when we were ordering, the owner stated that the roux was beef-based so Nami had to satisfy herself with dry curry (which looked like paella). I ordered Zai Curry (don't really know what it means), but it did have chunks of beef in it (although there was also beef curry in the menu). The serving was HUGE!!! Luckily I jogged earlier on, so I was soo hungry. The spiciness was tolerable, but probably because of the sheer size of the serving, I began to sweat like crazy. Haha!