after our sushi breakfast this morning, we crashed a buddhist ceremony honoring shinran shonin, the founder of jodo shinshu buddhism, at the tsukiji hongwanji temple. the ceremony is an important occasion to "reaffirm gratitude to buddha, and to hear and receive the tembutsu teachings."having gotten a little less sleep than normal, the chanting of the monks eventually lulled us into a peaceful meditative state (otherwise known as sleep.) we gave an offering and excused ourselves after 30 minutes or so.
we then headed to the city of kawasaki, and to the nihon minka-en, an open air museum of minka: japanese folk houses, farm houses, and merchant houses. it's like going back in time to an 18th century japanese village. tucked away in one of the houses, we found a group of women and one man seated around a fire pit. it was a beautiful scene -- warm and welcoming. we joined them for a chat and laughed mostly at our struggle to have a normal conversation.
Reading you blog it sounds like you had way more adventues in just a few months than most people have in years in Japan (including most Japanese people)
ReplyDeleteAbout the Minkaen - this is my ***favorite museum*** in Japan. It was also a great inspiration and help to encourage my wife to move out of Tokyo. Although in the end we did not get our own 200 year old home, we are much closer to the life represented in the museum.
Did you happen to come play near Nagano? I realize it is too late now... perhaps sometime in New york?