| Date & Weather | 6/11/02 (Tue), Sunny | Check Out | - |
| Milage & Route | 70 Miles (Washington D.C.) | Check In | - |
| Motel | Motel 6 | ||
| American Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Franklin Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy are famous presidents in Japan, I think. However, compared with them, the third president, Thomas Jefferson is not familiar to Japanese. Through the last 9 days, I've sometimes heard his name and learned his  great accomplishments, such as Louisiana Purchase in 1803 and his sponsorship
of the Lewis and Clark Expedition from 1804 to 1806. In addition to them,
visiting Jefferson Memorial today let me know another important task. That
is, he was a main author of the Declaration of Independence. Moreover,
according to a brochure there he took efforts to separate politics from
religion and kept peace with French and England. So now, I'm sure why he
was commemorated as Thomas Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. Next time,
I want to be back here in April because I can see Japanese Cherry Trees
from this Memorial. Smithsonian Institution Before starting this journey I had not been so interested in the Smithsonian Institution. To be honest  , I didn't know what are exhibited there. To the contrary, I didn't even
know that some museums consist of the Smithsonian Institution. However,
through this journey so far I come to be interested in American history.
So, I planned to go to "National Museum of American History"
and "National Air and Space Museum" which is strongly recommend
going to. This was absolutely right because both were the best museum I've
ever been. Every material in the museum interested and amazed me. For example,
there were moon rock, first write brothers' airplane, Lindberg's airplane
which succeeded in flying over Atlantic ocean first time, Apollo 11 command
module, old computers such as IBM 360 and TRS-80 I've learned in some classes,
oldest washing machine, oldest sewing machine, oldest cars, Edison's bulb
light, etc. In addition, I could watch the speech of Kennedy and IBM's
CEO. Moreover, some movies, which summarize the background of some specific
incidents in history, were also interesting. So, I'm sure only one day
is too short to enjoy them. If I fully enjoyed them, it would take two
days. If I visited other 8 museum including zoo, it would take at least
one week. At any rate, I want to stay here more days next time.Washington D.C. As an old woman in St. Louis said, traffic in D.C. was awful. It was almost same as  Osaka which is famous for heavy traffic jam and bad traffic manner in
Japan. Another thing I learned about D.C. was it is a good excursion place
for children. I could see them anyplace from morning to night. I'm sure
it is the best place to study many things about U.S.A. because there are
many museums, some memorials related to former presidents, and of course
white house. |
|||