Netherlands & Japan

During Tokugawa era about 350 years, Japan was completely national isolation but China and Netherlands.

Japanese Samurai studied the western medical science and others through Netherlands.  All these studies were called Dutch studies at that time.

Now, here am I in Amsterdam for business.

Where am I?

Since I could spend Sunday here, I did a little bit sightseeing.  I like the arts and I try to visit a museum in any new city wherever I go.

Van Gogh Museum

It was around 9am on Sunday.  I did not see anyone in the street but joggers.  Of course, I first visited the Van Gogh museum.  There were no sun flowers this time.  I saw many his self-portrait.  Was he narcissist?  I found one paint which I like it.  It is totally different image from what I had from his popular paintings.  It was "Evening".  Dark paint but there was the sun light which impressed me some dream.

I took Canal Tour for 1 hour to see Amsterdam from the rivers.

The few hours sightseeing is not, of course, enough but I just looked back how the Japanese Samurai were so hungry to learn sciences from this country at that time.

We always want to learn from a country over the horizon.

It is also important to take a lesson from the past（温故知新）; that is the history, not just to take something new without any question or scarifying your own culture and the custom.