Trip to Otsu!

First I want to apologize for the quality pictures, I forgot my camera, but I was able to remember my cell phone.

One of my forgetful moments...I've been having a lot of those lately...anyways trip to Otsu, Shiga Prefecture's capital!

I didn't really know what to expect when it we arrived in Otsu, Otsu is the capital of the Shiga Prefecture and also it has the Shiga University there. There is also a Shiga University in Hikone, but it is split in between majors. The one in Hikone is for Economics and the other location( in Otsu) is for Education. The two colleges are differentiated by Shiga-Dai and Shiga-ken, Shiga-ken is where my Politics class takes place.

Continuing on, here is the agenda for that day:

12:15pm Meet at Hikone station
12:25pm Leave from Hikone station
1:03pm Arrive at Otsu station, Walk to Shiga Prefecture Government Building
1:15pm-2:15pm Shiga Assemble Visit
2:30pm-3:30pm Otsu Court Visit, Walk back to Otsu station
3:45pm(4:10pm) Leave Otsu station
4:37pm (4:48pm) Arrive at Hikone station

When we arrived at the Government building the group ( Including the director of JCMU, and one of the Hikone workers from the Hikone government building came with us) was seated in a semi large conference room with comfortable chairs, red carpet, portraits of the former governors/ mayor of Shiga before it came to what it is today. We were then given a speech by one of the head director of the government building, while the director of JCMU translated for us. Of course I listened to the director speak, but then again I was amazed at the JCMU Director being able to translate from almost word from word. It made me think about my Japanese skills and how I need to work harder if I want to be able to achieve my dream career.

Two flags represent Japan and the Shiga Prefecture

The front of the government building

 These are some of the other pictures I took while at the assembly building. Being there and listening to the JCMU director and the speech that was in Japanese, once again made me think about my dream career. I know that this will be one or the only time I will set foot in a Japanese government building before I'm able to work up to my career.  Also something that the JCMU director mentioned is that he likes older buildings because they have an air of history within them. He also said that you can tell when a building is old and also the fact a lot of decisions have been made in that building, it gives you the feeling that you're in an important place and you're there to do business.

I hope that I will be able to more places with history (American & Japanese) so that I can use that feeling to improve on my Japanese and also my mindset.

The next place that we visited was the Otsu Court.

At the Otsu court we were able to see a court room and learn a little bit more about the Judicial system in Otsu, and maybe a little bit about Japan. Here at the court we discovered that Japan still has the Death Sentence, I was really surprised that they would still have that as a sentencing seeing how majority of the United States have banned the Death Sentence (Or I would like to think it is banned...in some places...). We also found out that the death sentence hasn't been used in a very long time, I don't know if that makes me feel better or not, but then again Japan does not have tolerance for screw ups.

I wasn't able to take any pictures here due to reasons we weren't sure of.


After our visits I felt revived if that makes sense. I was feeling a little discouraged before then, but afterwards I felt a little better. The question is, was I actually able to keep my head up high and stumble through the future classes and Japanese tests.

Maybe?