Mr. Smith Goes To Nagata-cho

Yesterday on my way to pick up my passport and visa from the Indian Embassy, I had time to kill so I decided to go for a walk around the Diet building, Japan's seat of government. It was a pretty nice walk but everything was pretty much blocked off or guarded by cops, so walking up the steps of power or wandering around the grounds were a no-no, defeintly a sharp constrast to other places like New Zealands Parlament building in Wellington, where you can wander all over the place without being bothered for the most part, especially when you are using it as a cut through to get to the Fish and Chips shop a little quicker. There are guided tours, but I didn't have time and I will go and check one out as it would be interesting to have a look inside. I did find however one of the gift shops which also had the Koizumi rice crackers, and this time picked up a coffee mug with the face of every Japanese PM on it for only Y400.

In other news, I did get my visa, so I am off Sunday for India, it should be pretty interesting I think, especially since I may not get to cover anything as there are some protests scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, so I may be stuck in Kolkata.....well at least I can watch the cricket, I hope.

Speaking of protests there was one today at Yokota, I guess we can't make everyone happy. I am sure if they invited these same get the bases out of Japan types on the base for a slice at Anthony's or a Whopper at Burger King they'd put the megaphones down and come on in......