What a pity, our last day in Japan and in Tokyo, and it is raining, all day long! We had to change our plans and started with the Yasukuni-shrine, the shrine for Establishing Peace in the Empire and dedicated to 2.4 million Japanese war-dead since 1853, the most controversial shrine in all Japan. The Japanese constitutional separation of religion and politics and the renunciation of militarism didn't stop a group of class-A war criminals being enshrined here in 1979; it also doesn't stop annual visits by politicians on the anniversary of Japan's defeat in WWII (15 August). The loudest protests are from Japan's Asean neighbours, who suffered most from Japanese aggression.
Today, most probably because of the rain, there were only a few visitors and no propaganda whatsoever was going on.
More confusing was the nearby Yushukan Museum with treasures from the Yasukuni-shrine and other items commemorating (and glorifying) Japanese war-dead, like a locomotive used in the Thai-Burma railway, during which construction amongst others some Dutch POW's, forced to work for the Japanese, lost their life....
Rain continued so we decided after a last Japanese lunch to get into a museum, the Crafts Gallery of The National Museum of Modern Art, where we enjoyed amongst others a temporary exhibition of European and Japanese Art Deco.
Still raining we shopped around the Tokyo main railway station to find a nice envelop to accompany our tip for our tour guide, who I just met with his eldest sun; his Japanese wife and 1-year old daughter came over as well from their home town Nagoya and I suppose that the 4 of them will show up tonight during our farewell dinner.
Still raining, so we had enough of it and decided to get back to the hotel via Ueno Park, where we enjoyed some amazing beautiful blooming bonsai azaleas.
This will be most probably my last travel report from Japan. Arjan is waiting for me to get into the hotel onsen before we get out for a.m. dinner. As said yesterday, we will leave tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. to fly back via Tokyo Narita airport to Paris and Amsterdam. You will get by then some more news and we will send you the links of our pictures as soon as possible!
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