Temple TIme

The next day after a very large breakfast that included eggs, miso, rice, bacon, sausage, asparagus from the garden and a special pink rice sprinkled with black seseame seeds served only on special events, we visited one of the town’s Buddhist Temples, www.chuouji.or.jp. We were to spend most of the day (Sunday) with the Buddhist priest, his wife and daughter, about 20 young children aged 6 through 15,about 6 grandmothers and a member of the board of education, Hideo Ishikawa, also a Buddhist community member. It was a Sunday school that began with about 15 minutes of Zazen meditation, followed a sing along led by Hideo-san, who played the guitar. The children then had an hour of study time, where even the 6 year olds helped to set up the tables and then worked on their math, writing and reading. While the students worked, we were welcomed to wander around the Temple. The daughter of the priest took us up to the mausoleum where the remains of cremated family members rested. The daughter opened up the chest that belonged to her grandfather who was the Temple’s previous priest. Inside the chest was an individual shrine in his honor. The honor and duty of priest-hood is passed down from father to son, and the son becomes the Temple's priest when the father passes away. When the daughter opened the chest to show us the earn, she realized that she had opened the wrong chest! We all laughed together as she proceeded to open up multiple chests until she found her grandfather.

Games followed study time and the children put away the desks and began playing Japanese games. Hideo-san taught me how to play 5. It is a game played on a gridded board using white and black flat marbles. The object is to place 5 marbles in a row before your opponent. We were asked to play an American game with the children I suggested musical chairs – we played using cushions to the music of Abba!

While all this was going on, 6 grandmothers were working in the kitchen making curry and rice for our lunch. The children set up the tables once again, and we shared lunch. I was lucky to sit with Yuzuna, a gregarious 6 year old girl, who kept us laughing through the whole meal. When it was time to leave, Yuka and Yumiko took me to the Shinto Shrine and then treated me to soft Tofu ice cream.

The home stay was soon over. We took a family picture and then Yuka and Yumiko took me to the Happy Valley Golf Resort. I hope that Yuka will come and visit me in the US.