shrines, soba, and studying

Today my host family and I went to a beautiful group of shrines on the outskirts of Kyoto. I really enjoyed going with a Japanese family, but I would have liked to have slowed down and really absorbed more of my surroundings. I guess though, when you go anywhere with kids, you have to be prepared to see things at their pace. It was good, though, to have someone with me who could explain Japanese religious traditions. My host mom, Yukiko drew a strange connection that I had never thought of before. When a Japanese person visits a temple, they often pray by flipping a coin into a box, ringing a bell, clapping twice, and then bowing. She explained that this coin was like offering a gift to the gods, the same way that Christians collect money during church services. I had never really looked at it in that way, and it makes me wonder exactly how different the religions are. I’ve been doing research into it, but I am not ready to make a statement yet. Blanket statements can really undermine discussion on a certain topic.

After touring the temple we went out to eat at a soba restaurant. I am still not big on noodles, but I did my best to eat what was in front of me and found that I was very quickly full. Go figure. Noodles are gross, but they fill you up quickly.

After lunch, my homestay family rode with me all the way back to Kyoto where they put me on a bus and waved for about 10 minutes before the bus pulled away. They were very nice. I have their address and I hope to write them soon. Even better if I can do some of it in Japanese, although I think Yukiko would prefer it to be in English so that she can learn more. I will have to use a little of both.

Tonight was, as it usually is, filled with a lot of work. A lot of us got together to discuss our homestays, but more than anything we had several papers due and only one night in which to do them. The homestay really cut into the amount of studying time I had, but it was worth it. Now I am slowly falling asleep as I try to get everything done for classes tomorrow.

At the same time, I have so much going on, I almost feel like bursting. It is not all school work, but emotions and excitement about figuring out really important things. I feel like I gain insight every day into my personal, spiritual, and academic life. Just taking the time to sit down by yourself away from the hustle and bustle of everyone else does that. Plus, I’ve been trying to avoid the stress of not having things done by doing them. I learned this lesson last semester when I was struggling to churn out a response paper every week for Theories of Visual Culture. The more I would worry and struggle, the less I would get done and the worse grade I would get. When I finally started just letting my fingers move over the keys as I thought about the movie I was responding to, I started getting higher and higher grades until I finally managed to turn in a final paper that I was quite proud of, by doing instead of thinking. Thinking is important. It is a great way to lead up to writing a paper, but if one spends so much time thinking that it turns into stressing, that’s when the thinking has gone too far. Stress never yields a positive paper because you second guess everything you are saying so often that you are afraid to make claims of any type so you end up with a paper that says nothing of your own personal opinion and feeling. Learning to overcome stress is probably the biggest reason that last semester ended up being successful. I’m glad that I can keep working on it here in Kyoto.


Music equivalent of the day: Hiyoshi-Taisha (the shrine)
Food: soba (japanese noodles)
Meditation/ inspiration/ thought of the day: Eastern and Western religions
What I learned: The ritual that people go through when they worship at a shrine.
Top priority: Work