Political tensions have been high among some of my classmates, and after the morning classes they all ran over to the computer lab to watch the results come in live. I, on the other hand, went to The Blarney Stone in Osaka.
The bartender was nice to me and gave me "chips" (fries!) with my lunch. I sat and enjoyed the results coming in on CNN International. Unfortunately there was no "MSNBC International" but I got to laugh at the CNN hologram and cheer when one of the commentators demonstrated how difficult it was for McCain to win half an hour before California came in.
0.5 seconds before CNN called the election
1.5 seconds after
I was interviewed by the NHK at the Blarney Stone and I think I appeared on the local news. Unfortunately, due to the wake going on 20 feet away in my dormitory/hostel, I was unable to watch the local news and capture the video. So, just imagine there is a YouTube video of the local news in the space below.
If that was not sufficient consolation, please enjoy this extremely shaky, dark amateur video of the moment itself. I don't know who made this but I found it on YouTube. I am somewhat visible in the bottom left corner from 0:27-0:33.
Everyone past a certain age remembers where they were when they heard Kennedy was shot, but sometimes those "flashbulb" memories can be less than reliable. Well, it seems like everyone my age will have amateur video of themselves from when we heard Obama was elected. Thank goodness for this indisputable documentation.
I went back home and forgot to write a paper. I guess I have not yet explained why there was a wake going on in my bedroom. The owner of the most famous flower shop in Kyoto had died, and her family had long-established connections to Koushouji... even though the family was Nichiren Buddhist (a supposedly exclusivist sect). Koushouji is a small temple and there was nowhere else to hold the funeral than the tiny Buddha Hall which we had been occupying as a bedroom. The enormous Founder's Hall, of course, would be an inappropriate place for a funeral. Why the Buddha Hall, which supposedly houses the sect's object of faith, was unused and being rented out for these other purposes is an interesting question which I might get to another day-- in any case, we had to vacate to the old meeting hall. Brian-sensei had offered to accompany any student who wanted to extend condolences at the wake, but I was the only one who took him up on it. So, I became the "student representative" instead of one of the students. The site coordinator and Christal-sensei also came with me.
Because she owned a flower shop there were flowers at every display. The memorial itself was a startling thing to behold. The left and right wall were covered in flowers of many different colors, and there were roughly 200 white roses all lined up in perfect order in front of a picture of the deceased. It took me a little bit before I realized this was the same room that I used to sleep in! All the walls were covered in white and a Nichiren daimoku was hanging from the back. I did not take a picture of the memorial because I feel it would be disrespectful. I offered incense in the same way I did before the Buddha images in Zen temples, and the family of the deceased gave me a box of green tea as a thank-you for my offering (!).
Okay, I have not yet gotten to Tenrikyo, but I think that is enough for today. My paper is late now.
