Washington DC: Day 3

I noticed something while riding the train into DC this morning: people have different train manners here than in Japan. I'm used to riding a train where people don't sit next to you and where most people don't talk on their cell phones while on the train (though sometimes people do). I was pretty surprised when people sat down next to me without a problem and just sat. In Japan, that would have been rare. People there don't like sitting next to people they don't know, especially foreigners. I would make space for people and more often than not I would be ignored. It's funny. But here, people have no problem whatsoever to sitting down next to total strangers.

Another thing that shocked me was the lady sitting behind me was talking loudly on her phone. I wasn't used to this and thought it to be rather rude. Funny how you become accustomed to something.

A somewhat funny thing I noticed on the trains here are the handicapped sitting areas. They are benches near the door, but are blocked by vertical hand rails in the middle of walk way. I honestly think this is a major design flaw. There is no way a person in a wheel chair can get into that "handicapped" section. In Japan the area in the front of the train car is large and wheel chairs can get in easily. I think DC needs to reevaluate their subway car designs.

Again I arrived into town around 8:30 and had to thus kill time before the museum open. I walked around the Mall and wandered over to the Washington memorial. There was a line to get tickets so I hopped in. I met a nice elderly couple whom I chatted with until I got the tickets. The tickets are free, but they are timed, so you need to get there early so you can plan your day around your tickets. Mine were for 2:30.

Still having quite a bit of time on my hands, I decided to head over to the Lincoln Memorial. This memorial is also free and does not require any tickets. I did notice, however, that there were a lot more tourists out this morning. This didn't affect me much, but definitely detracted to the serenity of the previous morning.

The walk to Lincoln's Memorial would have been nicer if the reflection pool was open. There were large fences surrounding the pool which was completely drained with several construction vehicles in it. Apparently they are renovating it so as to add to the beauty and to keep it in good repair. I was disappointed though.

After looking through the Lincoln Memorial I went to the Vietnam War Memorial. That is something I wanted to see for a long time. I was hoping for a quiet viewing, but unfortunately there were scores of tourists there and most of them were noisy. A few were talking quietly and respectively to a veteran. Others (the majority) were loud, rude, and making a joke of the whole memorial. Some were even stepping on areas they were not supposed to. The parents of these idiots were even contributing to this behavior, encouraging even. It really screwed up my time there.

The Korean War Memorial was better. It was quiet and somber. I really felt that the memorial caught the essence of the War. The looks on the statues' faces reflected fear, anxiety, confusion and apprehension. It was a very sobering place.

After my jaunt around the memorials the museums were open so I headed over. Today was the American History Museum. This place was also huge. The centerpiece of this museum is the original star spangled banner. They also have pop culture artifacts such as Archie Bunker's chair and Kermit the Frog and many many others. It was so awesome. I wandered the halls for 3 hours and didn't see a quarter of the stuff there.

I needed food. My ticket for the Washington Memorial was for 2:30. I was not going to spend a small fortune at the food court (I'm not sure if there was one or not, but I assumed there was) so I went on the hunt for food. There were plenty of food carts lining the streets, but they were also highly overpriced. I ended up at the Ronald Regan International Center where on the basement floor is a food court. Think of a typical mall food court and you'll have the food court at the center. The only thing is that you have to go through a metal detector to get in.

I hurried through a lunch of Chinese and then went back to the Washington Memorial. It was actually pretty cool. When you look out the top windows you can also see pictures of Washington as it was long ago. It was very interesting to see the changes. Another highlight of the memorial is the elevator ride back to the bottom. While going down, you can see several of the stones sent by states and other countries. There are many different kinds of stones ranging from coral to jade. It was pretty neat, I just wish you could walk down the steps and leisurely look at the stones. But oh well.

Still having a little bit of time on my hands I went off to the Natural History Museum. Again, tons of stuff. They have so much. I can't believe how much they have, but they do. I didn't get to do much because I had to go to meet my friend, but it was neat. I actually got a little lost. That's how big the place is, I got lost.