(no subject)
I'll skip all the boring mundane stuff today, with brings me up to 7:00 PM.
I went to a Buddhist temple service tonight. It was very pretty, with all kinds of wonderful gold decorations that I'm sure were all very symbolic... but due to my lack of fluency in Japanese, well, I can't say the service itself was too interesting. Still glad I had the experience though.
When we arrived, we took off our shoes and Yamazaki-san told a lady at a counter that I was a guest, and she gave me a loop of white beads with 2 strings with little balls on the ends coming out of one side, and 3 from the opposite side. Everyone else had brought their own loop of beads. We went and sat down, and Yamazaki-san showed me how wrap the beads around my middle fingers, and put my hands together.
Then there was lots and lots of monotone chanting. Imagine a whole church full of people chanting monotonously in Japanese instead of singing hymns. I learned the easiest and most frequent one... "Nan myoo ho ren ge kyoo" repeating. It has something to do with happiness. I had very little explained to me, you see.. I wish I could provide explanations, but yeah, I have no idea.
After almost half an hour of chanting, the monk(?) in the front who was leading the chanting went to a podium-thing and started I guess what would still be called a sermon. I tried to pay attention, but considering I didn't understand more than 15 words the whole time, it was difficult.
The service ended with a bit more chanting, and we went home for supper.
Sushi... yum. Done differently than I've seen before though. Everyone had their own little rolling mat thing. You would make your own roll of sushi, dip the whole thing in soy sauce, and eat it somewhat like a burrito or something. Very delicious!
I need more interesting things to do though. Boredom = homesickness. Don't get me wrong, Japan is awesome, but being stuck at the house with old people who know no English... That's hardly Japan at its most exciting.
I went to a Buddhist temple service tonight. It was very pretty, with all kinds of wonderful gold decorations that I'm sure were all very symbolic... but due to my lack of fluency in Japanese, well, I can't say the service itself was too interesting. Still glad I had the experience though.
When we arrived, we took off our shoes and Yamazaki-san told a lady at a counter that I was a guest, and she gave me a loop of white beads with 2 strings with little balls on the ends coming out of one side, and 3 from the opposite side. Everyone else had brought their own loop of beads. We went and sat down, and Yamazaki-san showed me how wrap the beads around my middle fingers, and put my hands together.
Then there was lots and lots of monotone chanting. Imagine a whole church full of people chanting monotonously in Japanese instead of singing hymns. I learned the easiest and most frequent one... "Nan myoo ho ren ge kyoo" repeating. It has something to do with happiness. I had very little explained to me, you see.. I wish I could provide explanations, but yeah, I have no idea.
After almost half an hour of chanting, the monk(?) in the front who was leading the chanting went to a podium-thing and started I guess what would still be called a sermon. I tried to pay attention, but considering I didn't understand more than 15 words the whole time, it was difficult.
The service ended with a bit more chanting, and we went home for supper.
Sushi... yum. Done differently than I've seen before though. Everyone had their own little rolling mat thing. You would make your own roll of sushi, dip the whole thing in soy sauce, and eat it somewhat like a burrito or something. Very delicious!
I need more interesting things to do though. Boredom = homesickness. Don't get me wrong, Japan is awesome, but being stuck at the house with old people who know no English... That's hardly Japan at its most exciting.