Thursday 5/13: Religion Lecture and Shopping

Our cultural activity today was listening to a lecture on Japanese Religion, mostly Shintoism, by a professor from Hiroshima University. Thankfully the lecture was in English, otherwise I wouldnt have been able to follow anything. Religious jargon is confusing enough in English, Japanese wouldve killed me. His main points were about Shintoism worships anything that has the power to create or destroy life, and the combination of those things. He also talked about Zen Buddhism, and how Nothingness isnt scary, its a good thing. Also, Japanese religions tend to not go into the realms of abstract thoughts and stuff- the deepest it goes is a piece of giant rope symbolizing a snake. He also talked about even though most Japanese dont consider themselves religious, they have the view that every single activity, even secular or menial ones, are religious.

After the lecture, I had a lot of extra time until my bus came- about 45 minutes. I realized that there is a shopping mall right next to the station, so I went over there and looked around for a little while. I have to say, I am a fan of Japanese fashion for girls. For guys its way too girly, esp. the long and meticulously styled hair, but the norm for girls is flowy and girly and very pretty. Alas, I ran into two problems as I was walking around. First off, I am about 6 inches taller and a little wider than most japanese girls, so finding something that fit me might be hard. It looked like most of the shops only carried one size of everything... maybe i just wasnt looking hard enough, or they have extra ones in the back or something. Also, all the clothing I saw was ridiculously expensive. $40 for a hat? $120 for a tshirt? How do Japanese people manage to clothe themselves so fashionably all the time? However, I do hope to go back and buy some clothes next week.