05/24/2023

Starting off strong with a yummy breakfast. I don’t ever eat breakfast in my daily schedule so having it built into our schedules during this trip was really nice and something that I appreciate lots!

Today we set out bright and early for a traditional zazen meditation session with a cool monk at a beautiful temple. I’m not exactly a religious person, but man do I love temples.

The architecture of traditional japanese temples is always so gorgeous, the lush greenery & gentle sounds of nature just instantly put me at ease. I felt so comfortable there.

During the first block of meditation (15 min), my right leg fell asleep about 5 minutes before the block was over, and I contemplated letting it fall asleep and not moving until the session was over but then I got insanely paranoid that I would permanently injure a nerve or something if I didn’t adjust my position, so I had to let go of my (self-perceived) perfect meditation posture.

I used to meditate often when I suffered from insomnia & heavier loads of stress, but I haven’t had the time lately and the session today helped spark my desire and motivation to meditate at home again. It was genuinely so peaceful and lovely….

The monk recommended us to experience the Whacking(tm) at least once, usually reserved for those who have trouble maintaining focus during sessions. I was hesitant at first since I thought I was doing well maintaining focus and keeping my mind clear, but upon the others’ recommendations, I asked for a whack during the second meditation block and I did not enjoy it as much as it was advertised.

When you’d like to request a whack, you’re meant to place your hands together in a praying motion, bow, and wait for the monk to then use his stick to whack both sides of your back (left and right), twice on each side. I was also informed by Toshi-san that other temples may do this unprompted if they catch the meditator asleep, so it was nice that this temple lets you request it!

After meditation, we headed to one of the locations we were at the previous day to witness and experience a traditional japanese tea ceremony (not full length). The hostess was kind and understanding, and taught us about just some of the nuances behind tea ceremony etiquette. When drinking from the bowl, you want the most decorative part of the bowl to face you, the person who will be holding the bowl, and you turn the bowl twice clockwise before drinking, so that your lips are not placed directly on the beauty of the bowl.

While I enjoy matcha, I am not great with bitter foods or drinks. But I offered myself to be the volunteer to drink the hostess’ dose of matcha due to my interest in the ceremony! Yes the matcha was bitter. I drank all of it out of respect and then proceeded to drink the dose of tea that I made myself shortly after. As someone who is extremely poor at downing any amount of liquid more than a cup (and as someone who is bad with bitter tastes), I think I had a real brave moment today.

We then headed to the Nishiki Market to grab some food, before I popped back to our hotel to rest for an hour or so. We were scheduled to go to Round1 for bowling at 6pm, so I headed back outside about 40 minutes prior to the meeting time.

Bowling happened. I believe some KCG students played with some of our students, but I had a very full team with Emma, Todd, Shannon and Kat. I forgot how awful I am with bowling, but they had a special vocaloid drinks menu so that was my coping mechanism for the night.

We headed out and arrived home at around 10pm, our feet feeling like lead from the past 2 days.