Yesterday, I attended the annual festival commemorating the port opening of Yokohama. 6,000 fireworks were released over the course of an hour and 10 minutes, which made for a pretty good show. My school hosted a party for its students, which was particularly convenient, since our school overlooks the part of the Yokohama harbor where the fireworks were set off. Snacks and drinks were plentiful, and it was a pretty good time overall, even if my teacher spent some of the party correcting my speech for tomorrow, LOL.Today is Ocean Day, a recently introduced Japanese national holiday to celebrate the ocean. The day marks the return of Emperor Meiji from a boat trip to Hokkaido in 1876. It's a pretty uneventful holiday, all in all.
I went on a class field trip to the National Diet building yesterday (the Japanese equivalent of Congress) and toured the Upper House (the House of Councillors). The Diet isn't currently in session, so it was something of your typical historical/national building tour, but it was definitely interesting to see where all of the action (or inaction) of the Japanese government happens. I frequently see the chambers of the Upper and Lower Houses in newspapers and on the TV. I was tempted to buy a set of Japanese sweets imprinted with Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda's face. But I managed to restrain myself.One interesting fact: Everything in the National Diet building is constructed of Japanese materials except:1. The stained glass2. The doorknobs (which were made in the U.S.)3. The mail chute system (also made in the U.S.)And here's me pretending to be a genki Diet member:
