So yesterday, I had a busy day. After class, I went to the Yasakuni Shrine with some friends. It's actually only a 10-minute walk away from my school. I don't know if those of you reading this know what the Yasakuni Shrine is, but it's been in the media a lot. It's a Shinto Shrine that doubles as a memorial to the Japanese that have died during war, but there are also war criminals buried there that committed horrible atrocities in China and Korea during WWII. So everytime a Japanese Prime Minister visits Yasakuni, many Chinese and Korean people get upset, start complaining about the resurgence of Japanese militarism, boycotting Japanese products, burning Japanese flags. Basically, one visit to this shrine creates a big international controversy. Koizumi visited it just a couple of weeks ago and it was a really big deal. My host parents were really upset about it, because Koizumi doesn't really gain much by going there, but Japan loses a lot in terms of international and regional respectability. So yeah, yesterday I went there. It's a really nice place, there's the shrine and then a nice peaceful garden right in the middle of Tokyo. It's unfortunate that it has become so controversial. So if you're Chinese or Korean and you're reading this, don't be mad at me. I don't support Japanese militarism, I'm just intrigued by large, pretty shrines that can cause huge international controversies. Then last night, I went to do karaoke for the first time. It was really fun, I think I might become a little bit addicted to it. Everyone in our karoke room had a pretty bad voice, but it didn't matter, it was just really fun. You get this little box with a karaoke machine and lights and microphones, they deliver food and drinks to your room, it's pretty great. At first we couldn't find any English songs, but then we found them and I sang, Always Be My Baby, Wonderwall, and Goodbye to You. I really see the allure of the karaoke now and understand why Japanese people do it so much. Well, I really just wanted to talk about the Yasakuni Shrine a bit, I find the whole situation really interesting. If you're reading this and you're my Uncle Marshall, they had a lot of military type stuff at the shrine, but I haven't found any actual articles from WWII, if there's any particular ship or anything that you want, let me know. Well, time for homework, Peace people. P.S.-THE WHITE SOX ARE WORLD SERIES CHAMPIONS, HOW AWESOME IS THAT? STILL SUCKS TO BE A CUBS FAN ;-)