Day 13: Kodokan, Sophia University

It's not like I ran out of things to do in Tokyo, but I did start to slow down.

One of the things on my list was to watch sumo or judo sparring. So, on Wednesday, Maria and I went to Kodokan. Kodokan is a judo academy founded by Kano Jigoro, who also founded judo. Sadly, there was no judo going on while we were there, so here's a shot of me in the empty training facility.

There was a museum, which we toured. Sadly, they wouldn't let us take any pictures. So here's a picture of Brooklyn in her carrier.

When we ate out in Japan, I tried really hard to only eat Japanese food, to try new things, and to not have things I could eat in the States. I cheated twice with my parents-once at McDonald's and once at Chinese Food. I had a burger and fries with Maria at a place near Kodokan. It reminded me of an episode of Arrested Development. For those of you unfamiliar with the show, I will just explain that the main character, Michael, finds himself in the British district of LA (called "Wee Britain"). He goes out with a woman to the only American-themed restaurant in the British district. It is called "Fat Americans."

The burger place wasn't that bad. They played Elvis songs, and there were American license plates on the walls. It's hard to tell from the picture, but I am pointing to a Texas license plate.

By this time, I was really beginning to miss it. And when I say it, I mean Texas. I was really beginning to miss Texas. I hope that makes everybody happy.

I had one more thing left to do on my list: visit a Japanese university. Fortunately, Sophia University was just around the corner from Shane's apartment.

Over the course of a month, I had made a semi-serious study of various university bookstores, in terms of their stock. I wish I had a sophisticated rating system, but here was the basic breakdown:

Texas Tech: Two stories. Decent apparel section. Lots of school supplies. Stocked on textbooks. Not a good selection of gift items. Poor selection of non-text books, which is extremely sad since the bookstore is owned by Barnes & Noble. This seems to indicate that, while it is important to Tech that its students get the books they need for classes, the school is more concerned that students attend football games than do extracurricular reading. Of course, it is Texas.

The University of Texas: I never actually saw the book part of UT's co-op. I'm sure it's there, so I will not disparage the quality of academia at UT by talking about how much easier it is to find tacky football memorabilia than it is to find the books. The apparel part is pretty amazing. Two whole floors. Again, it's Texas.

Brigham Young University: Before visiting UT, I thought BYU's Bookstore was the best. I still think it's pretty good. I now realize, however, that it is catering to a very different crowd. At UT, a big part of the bookstore's business comes from selling things people can wear to football games, slap on their car windows, wear around their necks, etc. Not only is it what their students are buying, but it is what their alumni are buying, as evidenced by the number of shirts Layne owns from UT, as well as other bizarre UT souvenirs like golf club covers. BYU also caters to their alumni, but BYU alumni, while they do buy apparel, are far more interested in things like fudge and art by Greg Olsen. So that's what you can buy at the BYU Bookstore. However, they sell a lot of other cool things that do not have a lot to do with attending BYU. For example, Melanee once sent me a rubber nose while I was on my mission, which she purchased at the BYU Bookstore.

Brigham Young University-Idaho: It felt like a more cramped version of the BYU Bookstore. The apparel section was very small, which, I guess, makes sense when you consider BYUI has no NCAA sports teams. I did, however, find a copy of The Phone Call on DVD that I was pretty excited about.

University of California, San Diego: I am actually a big fan of this bookstore, where I purchased an all-natural UCSD t-shirt (it seemed appropriate). It was at least three stories high, and had an amazing collection of all kinds of books. I purchased on one nonviolent parenting in their medical section, of all places.

So, how did Sophia University's bookstore rank against the American ones? Well, let's just say that, given how Japan typically outranks the US when it comes to education, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Sophia University (think the LSU of Japan) had a bookstore that mostly contained books. And I couldn't really tell, as everything was in Japanese, but it seemed to me like most of the books in the university bookstore were not fun books. No Snowmen at Night there.

Below, is a shot of their apparel section. You may not be able to tell in the picture, but it is really a large closet, with the accordion partition open. They had a few styles of shirts, but there was no dominant "school color" as far as I could tell. This is also the place where you can buy sporting equipment, and, if you have a club or an organization, this is where you would go to order their shirts. I know this because the people ahead of me in line were doing just that.

Just in case you're wondering, these boots cost $2500. Sometimes I think our nation's priorities are right where they should be.