Let's talk about the latter place first, because I went there first. I set out for Shouzanji yesterday afternoon. It was quite far from Tokyo and it cost me $8 and an hour for the train ride alone. It was also a considerable walk but the fall colors were more prominent in this town than they ever are in central Tokyo and I was filled with happy memories of childhood-- or certain anime series...
Eventually I came to a point in the midst of the playgrounds and suburban houses where my frankly awful hand-drawn map was no longer useful. It was only then that I realized that my destination might have something to do with the enormous ten-story pagoda down the street from me.
The pagoda turned out to belong to a different but somehow related temple. After getting lost once, a police officer offered to show me the way. As we walked the sun set crisply in front of us. "It's a very pretty sunset, isn't it?" he said in Japanese. "What's the word for it in English?" For the life of me I cannot imagine an American cop being as friendly to a foreigner as this one was to me.
When I arrived at the temple, unfortunately, the monk at the door did not know much English and he told me to come back tomorrow. I walked back down the hill and went home emptyhanded.
Today was a little different. I woke up late with a bad sore throat and unfortunately did not arrive at the JBTA until 3PM, but I knew beforehand that there would be people there because this was the day the monthly newsletter was being sent out. The monks and laity were very friendly and gave me cake and pie while they called their leader, the Ven. Sumanasara, who apparently spent an hour driving to the temple to chat with me-- very embarassing as I had not prepared any questions! As a result I forgot to ask him some vital questions such as the vinaya rules at the JBTA but we had a very lively conversation. Sumanasara is definitely one of the most intelligent people I have met in Japan and I felt very privileged to talk one-on-one with him, and I still feel stupid that I rejected his offer for tea and additional conversation. Kyoto manners dictate that you must reject any offer for tea, but I have a feeling he was adhering to British/Sri Lankan manners, where it is rude to reject such an offer. Afterwards I once again spent an hour and a half heading to Shouzanji.
It was kind of late and I think I was rude to go in without prior arrangements. I encountered a mixture of Sri Lankans and Japanese in the dining room, and once again nobody spoke English, but I got some simple questions answered in Japanese such as when it was founded (35 years ago, but they only started doing meditation 6 years ago-- quite mysterious). The head monk then gave me a blessing of what he called omamori, but was actually a multicolored string that went around my wrist as is traditionally done on Vesak in Theravada countries (I forgot the word, sorry).
I was feeling quite under the weather by the time I got on the first of the three trains necessary to head home. Maybe I shouldn't have walked that half-hour in the cold! One thing you will not find at a conbini in Japan is medicine. Instead there is a display full of dorinku, which is somewhere between an energy drink and a poor attempt at medicine--they seem to have things like Vitamin C or ginkgo in them. In Kyoto I did not see much dorinku to go around, but here in Tokyo I see salarymen popping dorinku as if it were a job requirement. However, I don't really think my fever can be remedied with some gross-tasting caffeinated syrup. So, I purchased the Western equivalent to dorinku-- that is, vegetable juice and a banana. And now, hopefully, some sleep.
