The Yasukuni War Museum speaks volumes about Japanese culture.  In many ways it is an explanation of the Second World War from Japan’s perspective. There are also a lot of exhibits from pre-WW2 that are fascinating, but the museum still comes off in places as an excuse. There is an emphasis on the fact the Europeans had empires that were growing aggressively into Japan’s backyard. It’s a fair point as you rarely think of events from the other point-of-view. But as you go round there is an uneasy feeling that this account of events is unbalanced - the Rape of Nanking is dealt with as an aside (enemy combatants dressed as civilians), much is made of allied aggression and Japanese ineptitude is usually offered as an explanation for military defeats. Errors in planning, leadership and execution come across as inept, shameful and catastrophic. The glorification of suicide, in particular, left me in a sombre mood on leaving. The impressive main exhibition hall contains a plane, boat, rocket glider and, by far the grimmest, torpedo. All manned, each a refined design of suicide in the delivery death.

Then there is this nationalist march that passed us protesting in support of whaling. We were also in town while the CITES negotiations on imposing a ban on trading blue fin tuna fell through. I confess to ordering a plate of Blue Fin Tuna sashimi to try to understand what all the fuss is about. A fatty mouthful in my opinion. Delicious or not, cross-border trade needs to be banned.

Japanese culture has been well preserved by these attitudes and is unique because the Japanese take such fierce pride in it. I find this weird, interesting and a little disturbing. This city is playful and amazing. This city is dark and brooding.