Places I want to visit in Japan

Going through some of my (more than 100) unfinished blog posts, I found this list of sites I potentially wanted to see on my annual New Year visit to Japan. Oddly enough it is dated July 16, about a week before I move to Thailand. At the time I had no idea that 10 months later I would be living in Tokyo. Anyway, here is the list (places I have visited or at least passed by since then are crossed out).

Bank of Japan
Nintendo/Sega/SquareEnix/Sony Factory
Frog Bridge (I want to see waste in action, or is that waste inaction?)
Kantei
Japan Post/Japan Post Corporation offices
National Diet Library
LDP HQ
DPJ HQ
Soka Gakkai HQ
Tenri City
Aleph HQ
Agon-shu HQ
Tezuka Osamu Museum
Yasukuni Shrine
Budokan
Christ’s burial ground
Okinawa
Political campaigns
Diet in session
State assembly/city councils
Inuyama
Anywhere hitchhiking

Places I already visited:
Diet Building
Todai
Roppongi Hills
A Kampo no yado

12 thoughts on “Places I want to visit in Japan”

  2. Upper House:
    You can get free tours of the Upper House on weekdays or every other Sunday, regardless of whether the Diet is in session.
    Details: http://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/taiken/bochou/kengaku.htm

    You can also observe any plenary session or committee meeting if you register up to 30 minutes ahead of time. First come first serve.
    Details: http://www.sangiin.go.jp/japanese/taiken/bochou/bochou.htm

    Lower House:
    No tours.

    They used to have similar rules as the upper house for observers, but they stopped “because of the terrorist attacks in the US.” WTF? Do they not know they meet in the same building as the Upper House? Anyway, you need an MP’s invitation to observe the plenary session, and the committee chairman’s permission to observe a committee meeting. Lame.
    Details: http://www.shugiin.go.jp/itdb_annai.nsf/html/statics/tetuzuki/bouchou.htm

  3. So, Adam, I think it should be obvious that your next goal is to somehow acquire an MP’s invitation. I believe the campaign should involve a series of bad Hollywood comedy style hijinks.

  5. You and Roy have also been to a spot where few gaijin could enter with me as the guide,I believe.

    Inuyama? Why Inuyama?

    And add Iwojima on the list.Great place.

  6. I certainly have not forgotten!

    I wanted to visit Inuyama to interview Anthony Bianchi, the English teacher turned naturalized politician (and an occasional reader of this blog, if only of the entries that are specifically about him). About two years ago he ran for mayor and lost but not before receiving a respectable number of votes.

    There is an Iwo Jima memorial in the town where my mom lives so I almost feel like there’s no reason to visit the actual place.

  7. If you are interested in Aleph and Soka Gakkai, I can recommend the Kofuku no Kagaku office in Gotanda. You should also try and visit their quite remarkable building in Shirogane:

    http://blog.goo.ne.jp/tonton64/e/c3e14acd480ced52897e450346bdacda

    As another blogger wrote (can’t find the link) it looks like the kind of design a manga artist might come up with if they were trying to conjure up a sense of European majesty.

  8. I say you, me and Joe hitchhike up to Aomori to see Christ’s birthplace. Even if we don’t make it, you can cross one item off your list.

  9. Kofuku no Kagaku has some interesting buildings. There’s a newer one close to Sengakuji which I used to pass all the time when I was living there. Looks like one of those funky modern synagogues you see in the US.

    I agree that a hitchhike to Aomori would be fun. If we’re feeling less ambitious, I think the 鉄道の日 passes are good for the next couple of weeks, so we could take the local train up the Japan Sea coast….

    Ever seen this guide?

  10. I’d be up for that trip- although I don’t think a group of 4 guys (or even 3 for that matter) are going to make it very far hitch-hiking.

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