Oh my god it's already been three weeks since Tokyo

I didn't realize it'd been so long since I'd made a post on here!! I opened the blog and was like, what!! The last time I posted was about Tokyo?? That feels like forever ago. So this might be a bit of a long one. No shame in just scrolling through and looking at the pictures I won't be offended.

Before getting to what I've been up to, I want to take a second for a little big-picture reflection. At the end of this week I'll be halfway through my time in Japan. When I first realized that, I felt kind of freaked out. Like, what have I even been doing?? But when I looked through my photos to choose which ones to share here, I realize that actually I've been doing a lot. Like a lot a lot. And in imagining going back home, I realize that this has already been an impactful experience. As when I went to Argentina and to Spain, I think most of the takeaways from being here will become clear in the weeks and months upon my return. For now, the goal is just to live.

On that note, I'll start with a field trip my Japan and China history class took to Himeji Castle, which is about 2 hours driving away from Kyoto. I got a little 100円 fortune, and it's actually been quite the guiding force these past few weeks.

"When you step out of your daily life of work and study, you'll have some great encounters. Enjoy it to the fullest without thinking too much."

Honestly a bit freaky how relevant this feels, but of course that's the whole point of these things. 

The castle itself was huge, and we were able to understand a lot more about it thanks to our tour guide (pictured with us here, far right). 

This Shachihoko (dragon/carp sea monster) is one of many around the castle. The castle is impressive in its various entrapments, barriers, and defenses against attack, though none of these were never actually put to the test. When we asked our guide what measures had been taken to ensure that the castle (made mostly of wood) wouldn't burn down, he told us it was believed these Shachihoko spirits would protect against fire. We were skeptical, but once we learned that Himeji (city) had been heavily bombed during WWII with the castle being one of the only surviving buildings, it was hard not to believe in some powers of the Shachihoko.

My next important endeavor came the very next day with the start of our Zazen Meditation course. Three days in a row we woke up very early (meeting at either 6:15am or 5:00am depending on the day) to head to Taizo-in or Ryoanji Temple. Matsuyama Sensei (above) is really wonderful and guided us in long meditations, along with teaching us some history (of Zazen and himself). He told us about walking from Tokyo to Kyoto at the end of his training (about 300 miles) with no money or food, living only on begging. As I mentioned in a previous post, training to be a Buddhist monk is pretty intense.

While the experience of our first three days of class was overall positive, the meditation itself felt quite difficult, especially on the second day. We visited Ryoanji Temple, one of the most famous temples in Kyoto. It was very special that we got to visit it before any other people were around, since it's normally teeming with tourist and visitors. Our meditation was in a dark room, which I found made it more difficult (as opposed to being surrounded by trees and rocks - since Zazen meditation is done with your eyes partially open). Even so, it was totally worth it to be able to experience the beautiful zen garden at Ryoanji and enter the tiny teahouse and back room that are not open to visitors. We felt very special!!

On our last day, we raked the zen garden (!!!), which is a moving meditation deeply valued in Japanese Buddhism. We also cleaned the floors (a la Spirited Away if you know what I'm talking about) which was honestly quite fun. Verycool experience!!

At the end of that week I took a little solo overnight trip to Ohara, which is north of Kyoto, about an hour and a half by train from campus. This was such a magical trip.

Ohara is very small with not much particular to do besides visit temples and walk around. 

I arrived in the evening, and took a walk after checking in to my ryokan (traditional-style inn). I felt like I could feel spirits around me, no joke.

Spirits here, for sure.

The sun sets a little after 5pm here so I had awhile to walk in the dark before my ryokan-included dinner. This was honestly one of the best meals I've had in Japan so far, which is sort of funny because it was a hot pot meal, and basically the exact same as the many many meals I've had at Shabu Shabu/Kuchu Shabu in Park City, where I spent probably half the birthdays of my life. But this was really incredible. I hadn't realized it when I booked the accommodation, but this ryokan was connected to a place where they make miso. (You can see the different colors of miso around the edge of my rice bowl - the different colors form from different lengths of fermentation.) I didn't even know miso came from soy beans until yesterday. Soy beans are crazy.

After dinner I went to the in-house onsen (actual onsen as opposed to public bath! The water in an onsen comes from a hot spring, whereas public baths are just normal water from wherever). It was very relaxing! Onsens and public baths are split by gender, and you go completely nude. There weren't that many people in there, but I thought it would feel weirder to just be naked with a bunch of random people than it did. It didn't really feel weird at all.

And this was my room! Apparently what I always thought a futon was is like, more than the actual futon part, which just refers to the cushion setup. Other random thing to note is that you take off your shoes at the front of the hotel, so everyone walks around in slippers or socks! I think slippers are probably preferred but sometimes I forgot to put them on so hopefully that was okay

(first ice cream of the day the next morning)

The next day I walked around Ohara, visited a couple temples, and got some miso paste and miso ice cream from the store connected to my ryokan. You put what I think is miso powder on the ice cream and it was truly incredible. This was actually my second ice cream of the day after a purple perilla (??) flavored one I took on my walkabout.

In sum, Ohara is one of my favorite places on earth.

 

Back from Ohara, I did a workshop for making traditional Japanese sweets (wagashi) with the Stanford cohort and our Japanese student counterparts. Pretty proud of my handiwork but I did not really enjoy the taste. Very very sweet. Like way too.

blogger formatting is the bane of my existence

We took a field trip to Nara (famous for the deer park where people pet and feed deer. We did go there and I thought it was quite weird). This is Janice and I at a huge temple complex called Horyuji. We also went to Todaiji which is a very famous temple that has a HUGE Buddha statue in it which was highly impressive.

Also in Nara I went to this beautiful garden called Isuien.

That night a bunch of us Stanford people went to the Kurama Fire Festival in Kurama (north of Kyoto)!

It was very cool and a little terrifying how large the fire got at somepoints with police yelling "danger danger." Luckily we made it out alive and in time to make it to マクドナルド for a McFlurry before they closed because we were all starving.

Alright I'm going to stop there for now because I can feel my eyes becoming weary and there's no reason to make this post longer I'll just make another one soon for the past week! Writing this really has made me feel like I've done a lot. I took a really chill day today and am still feeling like I could benefit from a bit more rest. Hope you all are taking care of yourselves and resting when you can/need it! Much love,

Sam

I realize i haven't signed off any other posts but here we are doing it this time okay byeeeeeeeeee