When you go to Ei Hei Ji's website, they explain that if you want to visit for the three night four day (sanzen) program, you need to fill out an application with the following information (and then they list it). I had included all of that information in my original fax so I figured that when I opened the application that Ei Hei Ji had sent me in their email, it would be the same thing (gender, address, requested dates, etc).
It turns out that it was, for the most part, except for one part: Motive to stay at EiHeiJi
When I read this part, my first thought was, "Do I tell them they were the temple at the end of the chapter in Lonely Planet?"
And then I thought, "No. That may be truthful but it is not wise."
But then I thought about my motive for staying at Ei Hei Ji. I wasn't going there because they were the temple at the end of the chapter. I wasn't going there to look at monks and see how they lived. I was going there because I could pactice there. I was going there because they had a program in which I could sit and learn about how they do things at their temple. I actually wanted to meditate there and was grateful for this opportunity to do this while on my trip.
So I wrote: To
meditate, to study the self, to participate in the forms of the temple
And then I thought for a bit and it occurred to me: I want to support the temple. I want to do what I can to thank them for providing this place for us. I want to do soji, not just to do soji, but to kind of give back what they're offering to me.
So I added: and to
support any work being done at the temple (to be of use to the temple).
And then I sent it, as an attachment to my email, and now I just wait.
Monday, May 27, 2013
Getting email from Japan
About a week after I actually called Japan, I got a little worried. I was pretty sure that my fax had gone through but was surprised that no one had responded. Also, I knew that I was going to be meeting with the woman who lived in Kyoto and wanted to know before I talked with her whether or not I was going to visit Ei Hei Ji. Plus, I had planned on visiting the Japanese Tourist Bureau to figure out whether or not to get a Japan Rail Pass and knowing whether or not I was going to Ei Hei Ji would factor in to the price of things. So, on Thursday afternoon, I called Ei Hei Ji again.
"Hello, do you speak English?"
"Hai!" they responded.
"I want to visit the temple?" I said.
And then they said something else in Japanese and put me on hold... and then hung up.
"Huh," I thought. "I wonder why we got disconnected," and then I called back.
"Hello, do you speak English?" I asked.
"No," they answered.
Hey.... I thought. I'm pretty sure that there is only ONE guy who answers the phone at the temple and I'm pretty sure it's you and I'm pretty sure that you just said NO so you actually DO speak English so...
But instead I just said, "Is there someone there who speaks English that I could talk to?"
And then he put me on hold again and then someone else answered in Japanese.
"Do you speak English?"
"Hai!"
"I want to visit the temple?"
"For one night?"
"No, the sanzen program- three nights four days? I sent a fax."
"Oh, yes, we got your fax. The guy will call you."
"Yes!" I thought. "It's the same guy I talked to before. They actually got my fax."
And then I hesitated.
I had wondered before I called this time whether or not I should ask if I could actually come. It felt kind of pushy but at the same time, it was what I needed to know. And I also knew that they probably already knew whether or not I could come so me being pushy wasn't going to change their decision; it was up to them, not me.
"Um, do you know if I can come?" I asked.
"Well, we have no program the first week of June," he explained.
I had said in my fax that I would prefer to come at the beginning or the end of my trip but that I would arrange my trip to fit whatever dates they had available.
"I can come anytime in June," I explained. "I am in Japan for the whole month of June."
"Oh," he said. "Okay, I will tell the guy. You will wait. He will contact you."
"Yes," I said excitedly. "I will wait. I am happy that you got my fax. Thank you very much."
"Okay, the guy will contact you."
"Thank you," I said again, and hung up.
It was progress, they had gotten my fax, they knew me, and they knew I was avilable the whole month of June. I had to let it go at that.
The next Tuesday afternoon, I opened my school email to see:
From Ei Hei Ji
in the message line of my inbox.
I was so excited!
I opened the email to see a sweet letter from "the guy" at Ei Hei Ji. In it, he apologized for taking so long to get back to me. He explained that they don't get their schedule until a month before it happens so they had only gotten it this week. He told me which dates I could visit for the four day program, compared them with the dates in my fax, and then asked me to pick alternate dates for a one day stay if I couldn't make the four day one. He also sent me the application for both the one and four day program so that, no matter what, I had everything I needed to visit Ei Hei Ji.
And then he put a PS
Issho Fujita called me to make sure your letter was forwarded to me. Please say hello to him for me.
I shoulda known....
So, everything was taken care of all along. I was just a little too early so they couldn't really answer me- no reason to respond when you don't have an answer.
And I hadn't heard from Issho Fujita because I didn't need to. He had taken care of getting my information to Ei Hei Ji, that was all that needed to be done.
And now it was done. Well, almost, I still had to fill out the application...
"Hello, do you speak English?"
"Hai!" they responded.
"I want to visit the temple?" I said.
And then they said something else in Japanese and put me on hold... and then hung up.
"Huh," I thought. "I wonder why we got disconnected," and then I called back.
"Hello, do you speak English?" I asked.
"No," they answered.
Hey.... I thought. I'm pretty sure that there is only ONE guy who answers the phone at the temple and I'm pretty sure it's you and I'm pretty sure that you just said NO so you actually DO speak English so...
But instead I just said, "Is there someone there who speaks English that I could talk to?"
And then he put me on hold again and then someone else answered in Japanese.
"Do you speak English?"
"Hai!"
"I want to visit the temple?"
"For one night?"
"No, the sanzen program- three nights four days? I sent a fax."
"Oh, yes, we got your fax. The guy will call you."
"Yes!" I thought. "It's the same guy I talked to before. They actually got my fax."
And then I hesitated.
I had wondered before I called this time whether or not I should ask if I could actually come. It felt kind of pushy but at the same time, it was what I needed to know. And I also knew that they probably already knew whether or not I could come so me being pushy wasn't going to change their decision; it was up to them, not me.
"Um, do you know if I can come?" I asked.
"Well, we have no program the first week of June," he explained.
I had said in my fax that I would prefer to come at the beginning or the end of my trip but that I would arrange my trip to fit whatever dates they had available.
"I can come anytime in June," I explained. "I am in Japan for the whole month of June."
"Oh," he said. "Okay, I will tell the guy. You will wait. He will contact you."
"Yes," I said excitedly. "I will wait. I am happy that you got my fax. Thank you very much."
"Okay, the guy will contact you."
"Thank you," I said again, and hung up.
It was progress, they had gotten my fax, they knew me, and they knew I was avilable the whole month of June. I had to let it go at that.
The next Tuesday afternoon, I opened my school email to see:
From Ei Hei Ji
in the message line of my inbox.
I was so excited!
I opened the email to see a sweet letter from "the guy" at Ei Hei Ji. In it, he apologized for taking so long to get back to me. He explained that they don't get their schedule until a month before it happens so they had only gotten it this week. He told me which dates I could visit for the four day program, compared them with the dates in my fax, and then asked me to pick alternate dates for a one day stay if I couldn't make the four day one. He also sent me the application for both the one and four day program so that, no matter what, I had everything I needed to visit Ei Hei Ji.
And then he put a PS
Issho Fujita called me to make sure your letter was forwarded to me. Please say hello to him for me.
I shoulda known....
So, everything was taken care of all along. I was just a little too early so they couldn't really answer me- no reason to respond when you don't have an answer.
And I hadn't heard from Issho Fujita because I didn't need to. He had taken care of getting my information to Ei Hei Ji, that was all that needed to be done.
And now it was done. Well, almost, I still had to fill out the application...
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Calling Japan
The more I talked about the fact that I was going to Japan for 30 days, and had no plans, the more people offered to help me. I also started realizing that I could do some things on my own to figure out my accommodations in Japan and to figure out what was going on in the temple. It occurred to me that one of my former students actually lived in Tokyo, and that his mom could probably call the temple on my behalf. Meanwhile, a friend of mine asked if it would help to know that her sister currently lived in Japan and wanted to be a travel agent. "Yes that would definitely be helpful," I replied. But then, the silliest thing happened. I was at my friend's house for her birthday party. Her room mate was gone for the night but as I was looking at her refrigerator, I saw pictures, of her room mate and her family, in Japan. I also saw the poster that my friend made for her room mate, in celebration of her getting either her Visa or her Greencard or her citizenship...
"Oh yeah," I thought. "My friend's room mate is actually from Japan. She speaks Japanese fluently. I could actually just sit next to her while she called Japan, and asked the people at the temple what was going on with my application."
I felt like an idiot, going through all these other avenues- find someone who speaks Japanese, email my former student's mother in Tokyo, contact my friend's sister in Japan- when there was someone, right there, living with my friend, who could easily help me.
I called her the next weekend. She was very kind but she had an important question to ask me, "Have you tried calling the temple yourself?"
"Uh....no?" I said.
"Well, if I were you, and I were going to stay somewhere for four days and there might be dharma talks, I think it would be helpful to know the level of English that the people speak before you decide whether or not you want to stay there."
In my head I thought, "But it's a silent retreat so it doesn't really matter," but what I really meant was, "Darnit, I wanted you to do this for me. I wanted someone else to call. Now I have to do it myself."
"I'm happy to call on your behalf," she explained, "But it makes more sense for you to find out if they can communicate with you before you go."
And it did, and she was right, and so I thanked her... and then I had to call Japan.
I looked in the Lonely Planet guide and found the number. But when I called it, it didn't work. So then I called my brother to ask him how to call Japan, but he didn't answer. So then I typed How-to-call-Japan into Google and followed the directions and then...
I got a message. It explained the application process for the three night four day stay at the temple, and then it hung up.
So then I called the main number, and someone answered, in Japanese!
"Do you speak English?" I asked.
"Hai!" they answered, and I knew that this meant "Yes" because it's what the susho says during the shuso ceremony.
"I want to stay, at the temple?" I said.
And then he said something else in Japanese and then the hold music came on. It was old-school hold music, kind of synthesized like a keyboard, not MUZAK. Then someone else came on and said something in Japanese.
Again I asked, "Do you speak English?"
"Hai!" he replied.
And again I said, "I want to stay, at the temple."
"For one night?" he asked.
"No," I explained. "For four days, the sanzen program?"
"Oh," he said."The guys who speak really good English are not here right now."
"Oh," I said.
"You send fax," he said.
"I did," I said.
"I check machine," he said.
"I sent the fax in March," I explained.
"Oh," he said.
"Should I send the fax again?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "You send fax again. Then some guy will contact you, okay?"
"Okay," I said. "I send fax again."
And I got the fax number from him again and then I ran down to the fax place from where I had sent the original fax and I was pretty sure that we got it right this time.
Mostly though, I laughed at myself. It had been three months at this point. I had applied for this program in March and now it was May and it had never occurred to me to actually call Japan and ask them what was going on with my application. I had put my entire trip on hold, waiting for this one thing to come through, when all I had to do was call and ask.
But now, it was done. Someone in Japan was aware that I was trying to visit them and all I had to do was wait to hear back, from that guy, who was going to contact me.
"Oh yeah," I thought. "My friend's room mate is actually from Japan. She speaks Japanese fluently. I could actually just sit next to her while she called Japan, and asked the people at the temple what was going on with my application."
I felt like an idiot, going through all these other avenues- find someone who speaks Japanese, email my former student's mother in Tokyo, contact my friend's sister in Japan- when there was someone, right there, living with my friend, who could easily help me.
I called her the next weekend. She was very kind but she had an important question to ask me, "Have you tried calling the temple yourself?"
"Uh....no?" I said.
"Well, if I were you, and I were going to stay somewhere for four days and there might be dharma talks, I think it would be helpful to know the level of English that the people speak before you decide whether or not you want to stay there."
In my head I thought, "But it's a silent retreat so it doesn't really matter," but what I really meant was, "Darnit, I wanted you to do this for me. I wanted someone else to call. Now I have to do it myself."
"I'm happy to call on your behalf," she explained, "But it makes more sense for you to find out if they can communicate with you before you go."
And it did, and she was right, and so I thanked her... and then I had to call Japan.
I looked in the Lonely Planet guide and found the number. But when I called it, it didn't work. So then I called my brother to ask him how to call Japan, but he didn't answer. So then I typed How-to-call-Japan into Google and followed the directions and then...
I got a message. It explained the application process for the three night four day stay at the temple, and then it hung up.
So then I called the main number, and someone answered, in Japanese!
"Do you speak English?" I asked.
"Hai!" they answered, and I knew that this meant "Yes" because it's what the susho says during the shuso ceremony.
"I want to stay, at the temple?" I said.
And then he said something else in Japanese and then the hold music came on. It was old-school hold music, kind of synthesized like a keyboard, not MUZAK. Then someone else came on and said something in Japanese.
Again I asked, "Do you speak English?"
"Hai!" he replied.
And again I said, "I want to stay, at the temple."
"For one night?" he asked.
"No," I explained. "For four days, the sanzen program?"
"Oh," he said."The guys who speak really good English are not here right now."
"Oh," I said.
"You send fax," he said.
"I did," I said.
"I check machine," he said.
"I sent the fax in March," I explained.
"Oh," he said.
"Should I send the fax again?" I asked.
"Yes," he said. "You send fax again. Then some guy will contact you, okay?"
"Okay," I said. "I send fax again."
And I got the fax number from him again and then I ran down to the fax place from where I had sent the original fax and I was pretty sure that we got it right this time.
Mostly though, I laughed at myself. It had been three months at this point. I had applied for this program in March and now it was May and it had never occurred to me to actually call Japan and ask them what was going on with my application. I had put my entire trip on hold, waiting for this one thing to come through, when all I had to do was call and ask.
But now, it was done. Someone in Japan was aware that I was trying to visit them and all I had to do was wait to hear back, from that guy, who was going to contact me.
When plans fall through
Every year I plan where I'm going to go in the summer. I always travel, and for the past few years, I have simply gone to whatever country my good friends (who are in the Foreign Service) have been stationed in: Amsterdam, Myanmar... This year, they were stationed in the same place so I wasn't sure where to go. Then I heard from my brother that my cousin was going to be stationed in Japan (she's in the Army to study Occupational Therapy).
"Cool," I thought. "What better excuse to visit Japan? Plus, I can just hop on over to Myanmar to visit my friends... and maybe I'll go to Laos since I didn't get to go there last year..."
I was worried about not getting a good price on tickets so I jumped onto my frequent flier account and booked a round trip flight to Tokyo for the month of June. This was in January.
In February I found out that my cousin was going to be stationed in Okinawa: an island off the coast of Japan. "Hmmm," I thought. "I wonder if staying with her will work all that well. I can't imagine I can run around Tokyo and head back to her island for the night." Then there was much discussion among my family members about my cousin's rank: was she an officer? would she be in the baracks? would she have her own apartment? Finally, I found Okinawa on the map. It really was an island. It really was far from, pretty much, all of Japan. Regardless of her accommodations, if I stayed with her, I would only see Okinawa.
"Okay," I thought. "I'm on my own in Japan. What should I do?"
So I did what I always do: I opened the Lonely Planet guide and looked around for the cool outdoorsy stuff that you can do in the country. What I found was that you could hike, from hut to hut, in the Japanese Alps. This made me very happy. This is pretty much my most favorite thing to when I travel (and I have done it in Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Austria...). I had no idea that Japan even had alps, let alone ones with huts in them where you could stay, for not so expensive, and meet people and oh! I excitedly turned to the chapter on the Japanese Alps and read the whole thing. At the end, the book mentioned that there was a temple, near the alps, where people could stay, for three nights and four days, and actually participate in the regular schedule of the monks who lived there. As I read on to the contact information I saw, in bold, Ei Hei Ji.
I laughed out loud.
Ei Hei Ji: Dogen's temple.
I have to admit that I don't fully understand who Dogen is, but I know enough to know that he's quoted, a lot, that he was around before Suzuki Roshi, and that, I think, he's the guy who either brought zen buddhism from China to Japan or is, at the very least, pretty important in the lineage of the zen center. Mostly though, he seems to be the guy who looks at things differently- who asks questions that make people wonder about their answers, and I think that's pretty cool. Also, I thought it was pretty cool that I could actually practice at a monastery while I was in Japan.
"It'll be like a little mini- sesshin," I thought and went on my merry way of filling out the application to stay at Ei Hei Ji. This was March.
For my birthday, my sister sent me the Lonely Planet guide to Hiking in Japan. I eagerly brought it with me to my birthday dinner with a friend and read it while she was stuck in traffic coming from Marin. I opened to the part with the huts and looked at the chart showing when you could go: July to September. I read more closely. "Most trails are covered with snow until late June and huts often don't open until the season is in full swing in July."
"Darnit," I thought. "I can't go hiking in Japan, at least not in the area where I wanted to." I looked at the other hikes but they were mostly day hikes and none of them had the hut-to-hut thing like the ones in the alps.
When my friend showed up, I shared my disappointment with her.
"If I were in Japan," she said, "I'd visit the temples."
"Really?" I asked. "I don't associate Japan with temples."
"Oh they're beautiful," she said.
"Huh," I thought. "I guess I could do that, but it doesn't really interest me."
And then I had sesshin. And then it was April, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. I had this pending plan at the temple, but I didn't know how to solidify it. Should I fax them again, or would that make me the pushy American? Did they even get my fax, or did they get it and reject my application? Plus, because there were only certain days that they did the sanzen program, I didn't really want to make any plans until I heard back from them. It was the one thing I for sure wanted to do in Japan and I was willing to make the rest of my plans around whichever date they gave me but in the mean time, I had to keep my dates open for whatever dates they gave me.
"If I could just get someone who spoke Japanese to call them and find out the status of my application," I thought. But then I wondered, "Can you even call the temple?"
Meanwhile, my friend texted me, and said that she might be in Japan- in May, or June.
"No way that would be so fun!" I thought. "Plus, we could share accommodations and it wouldn't be so expensive." And since she was a zen practitioner too, I held off for a bit so that when I asked about the temple stay, I could ask for both of us.
But then that plan fell through too and I started to get worried.
"There's gotta be someone at the zen center with connections to Ei Hei Ji," I thought.
That very weekend was the weekend of, I think, Suzuki Roshi's wife's birthday and there was going to be a livestream or a podcast or something so I figured now would be a good time to look for a connection. At lunch that day, as I gave my $10 to Shundo (who was helping out in the kitchen) I asked, "Is there anyone here who speaks Japanese? I'm trying to get Ei Hei Ji."
He looked around the room and said, "Well, there's Issho..." and we saw Issho Fujita serving himself salad and I told him my story.
He asked me to give him my information and explained that he was leaving in three days.
"Okay," I said and ran home to find the original fax that I had sent. I made a copy of it, wrote a letter to Issho, and put it up on the communications board at the zen center. I haven't seen Issho since.
And then it was May. At that point, I started talking. I started telling people that I was going to Japan, for thirty days. The more I talked to them, the more people offered to help me. I had three different people refer me to the same person who was currently living in Kyoto. At the same time, I started to realize that I was going to Japan and that I had no plans. At first, I felt fine, but then, I started to make plans. I realized that I needed to find some accommodations so I went on line. What I found, is that it's very expensive to stay in Japan. A moderately priced hotel is $100 and the next level down was those weird capsule hotels and I didn't want to stay in them. I also realized that if I couldn't stay with my cousin, and I couldn't stay at the temple, I would have to stay, and pay for my accommodations, the entire time I was in Japan. That was 30 days, at around $100 a day minimum, and that was just for accommodations.
"Oh no," I thought. "I don't have $3000. This traveling to Japan with no plan isn't really feasible anymore."
But then I emailed the woman whom everyone recommended who lived in Kyoto and she recommeded some places to stay in Kyoto. She also referred me to pictures she had taken in Kyoto and it looked beautiful there. Then she recommended some hikes ouside Kyoto and some smaller temples that I could visit.
"Well," I thought. "I may not be able to hike from hut to hut but I can see some pretty places. And maybe the accommodations are pricey in pretty places and so I'll have to pay there but maybe in the big cities I can find some cheap places to stay."
So I looked around in Tokyo and I found a youth hostel with a private room for only $35 and that made me feel a whole lot better. Meanwhile, I opened the Lonely Planet guide to the section on Kyoto and started figuring out the things I could do there. I still kept hope for Ei Hei Ji in the back of my mind but was willing to let it go if I had to.
"Cool," I thought. "What better excuse to visit Japan? Plus, I can just hop on over to Myanmar to visit my friends... and maybe I'll go to Laos since I didn't get to go there last year..."
I was worried about not getting a good price on tickets so I jumped onto my frequent flier account and booked a round trip flight to Tokyo for the month of June. This was in January.
In February I found out that my cousin was going to be stationed in Okinawa: an island off the coast of Japan. "Hmmm," I thought. "I wonder if staying with her will work all that well. I can't imagine I can run around Tokyo and head back to her island for the night." Then there was much discussion among my family members about my cousin's rank: was she an officer? would she be in the baracks? would she have her own apartment? Finally, I found Okinawa on the map. It really was an island. It really was far from, pretty much, all of Japan. Regardless of her accommodations, if I stayed with her, I would only see Okinawa.
"Okay," I thought. "I'm on my own in Japan. What should I do?"
So I did what I always do: I opened the Lonely Planet guide and looked around for the cool outdoorsy stuff that you can do in the country. What I found was that you could hike, from hut to hut, in the Japanese Alps. This made me very happy. This is pretty much my most favorite thing to when I travel (and I have done it in Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Austria...). I had no idea that Japan even had alps, let alone ones with huts in them where you could stay, for not so expensive, and meet people and oh! I excitedly turned to the chapter on the Japanese Alps and read the whole thing. At the end, the book mentioned that there was a temple, near the alps, where people could stay, for three nights and four days, and actually participate in the regular schedule of the monks who lived there. As I read on to the contact information I saw, in bold, Ei Hei Ji.
I laughed out loud.
Ei Hei Ji: Dogen's temple.
I have to admit that I don't fully understand who Dogen is, but I know enough to know that he's quoted, a lot, that he was around before Suzuki Roshi, and that, I think, he's the guy who either brought zen buddhism from China to Japan or is, at the very least, pretty important in the lineage of the zen center. Mostly though, he seems to be the guy who looks at things differently- who asks questions that make people wonder about their answers, and I think that's pretty cool. Also, I thought it was pretty cool that I could actually practice at a monastery while I was in Japan.
"It'll be like a little mini- sesshin," I thought and went on my merry way of filling out the application to stay at Ei Hei Ji. This was March.
For my birthday, my sister sent me the Lonely Planet guide to Hiking in Japan. I eagerly brought it with me to my birthday dinner with a friend and read it while she was stuck in traffic coming from Marin. I opened to the part with the huts and looked at the chart showing when you could go: July to September. I read more closely. "Most trails are covered with snow until late June and huts often don't open until the season is in full swing in July."
"Darnit," I thought. "I can't go hiking in Japan, at least not in the area where I wanted to." I looked at the other hikes but they were mostly day hikes and none of them had the hut-to-hut thing like the ones in the alps.
When my friend showed up, I shared my disappointment with her.
"If I were in Japan," she said, "I'd visit the temples."
"Really?" I asked. "I don't associate Japan with temples."
"Oh they're beautiful," she said.
"Huh," I thought. "I guess I could do that, but it doesn't really interest me."
And then I had sesshin. And then it was April, and I wasn't quite sure what to do. I had this pending plan at the temple, but I didn't know how to solidify it. Should I fax them again, or would that make me the pushy American? Did they even get my fax, or did they get it and reject my application? Plus, because there were only certain days that they did the sanzen program, I didn't really want to make any plans until I heard back from them. It was the one thing I for sure wanted to do in Japan and I was willing to make the rest of my plans around whichever date they gave me but in the mean time, I had to keep my dates open for whatever dates they gave me.
"If I could just get someone who spoke Japanese to call them and find out the status of my application," I thought. But then I wondered, "Can you even call the temple?"
Meanwhile, my friend texted me, and said that she might be in Japan- in May, or June.
"No way that would be so fun!" I thought. "Plus, we could share accommodations and it wouldn't be so expensive." And since she was a zen practitioner too, I held off for a bit so that when I asked about the temple stay, I could ask for both of us.
But then that plan fell through too and I started to get worried.
"There's gotta be someone at the zen center with connections to Ei Hei Ji," I thought.
That very weekend was the weekend of, I think, Suzuki Roshi's wife's birthday and there was going to be a livestream or a podcast or something so I figured now would be a good time to look for a connection. At lunch that day, as I gave my $10 to Shundo (who was helping out in the kitchen) I asked, "Is there anyone here who speaks Japanese? I'm trying to get Ei Hei Ji."
He looked around the room and said, "Well, there's Issho..." and we saw Issho Fujita serving himself salad and I told him my story.
He asked me to give him my information and explained that he was leaving in three days.
"Okay," I said and ran home to find the original fax that I had sent. I made a copy of it, wrote a letter to Issho, and put it up on the communications board at the zen center. I haven't seen Issho since.
And then it was May. At that point, I started talking. I started telling people that I was going to Japan, for thirty days. The more I talked to them, the more people offered to help me. I had three different people refer me to the same person who was currently living in Kyoto. At the same time, I started to realize that I was going to Japan and that I had no plans. At first, I felt fine, but then, I started to make plans. I realized that I needed to find some accommodations so I went on line. What I found, is that it's very expensive to stay in Japan. A moderately priced hotel is $100 and the next level down was those weird capsule hotels and I didn't want to stay in them. I also realized that if I couldn't stay with my cousin, and I couldn't stay at the temple, I would have to stay, and pay for my accommodations, the entire time I was in Japan. That was 30 days, at around $100 a day minimum, and that was just for accommodations.
"Oh no," I thought. "I don't have $3000. This traveling to Japan with no plan isn't really feasible anymore."
But then I emailed the woman whom everyone recommended who lived in Kyoto and she recommeded some places to stay in Kyoto. She also referred me to pictures she had taken in Kyoto and it looked beautiful there. Then she recommended some hikes ouside Kyoto and some smaller temples that I could visit.
"Well," I thought. "I may not be able to hike from hut to hut but I can see some pretty places. And maybe the accommodations are pricey in pretty places and so I'll have to pay there but maybe in the big cities I can find some cheap places to stay."
So I looked around in Tokyo and I found a youth hostel with a private room for only $35 and that made me feel a whole lot better. Meanwhile, I opened the Lonely Planet guide to the section on Kyoto and started figuring out the things I could do there. I still kept hope for Ei Hei Ji in the back of my mind but was willing to let it go if I had to.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
The Myth of Paradise
Read this. It's a really interesting take on wanting to "get away from it all."
(Full disclosure: The author is my childhood friend, like big-time friend, like, our cabbage patch dolls pretty much had an arranged marriage.)
(Full disclosure: The author is my childhood friend, like big-time friend, like, our cabbage patch dolls pretty much had an arranged marriage.)
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