"The Stick of Encouragement"...

Friday involved lectures as normal (which I forgot to bring half my completed homework to....durp!) followed by a trip to a temple..er..somewhere to partake in a 'Zazen' experience. (Wooo!)

Ahem, so a fairly large group of us piled onto the Marunouchi Subway Line and where whisked away to a rather random station (Hon-Komagome) where a certain temple (龍光禪寺）was to be located. It turns out the staff accompanying us had forgotten where the temple was too...

After a few wrong turns we finally arrived at the temple. It was fairly small and situated in the middle of a residential area. Walking inside and removing our shoes, we encountered a rather large tatami room with a couple dozen cushions laid out on the floor. Taking a cushion each, we were given a long complicated Japanese explanation of the practise of 'Zazen', a sort of meditation.

龍光禪寺

Cushions at the ready...

 After the Priest had sounded a pair of wooden clappers three times and struck a bell four times, we were to begin Zazen for twenty minutes. This involved sitting cross-legged (you know that uncomfortable way where your feet rest on top of each thigh), keeping our eyes open and fixed on a certain point on the floor in front and controlling our breathing - just counting our breaths in sets of ten and trying not to think of anything else....difficult when the Priest is patrolling the room, armed with a 'Keisaku' (encouragement stick). If one felt that one had not cleared their mind of all thought, they would place their palms together in 'gassho' and wait for the Priest to come and strike each of their shoulders twice with his Keisaku. It sounded SO painful but apparently wasn't....

We were given a quick break to recover our dead legs before another twenty minute session...

After a total of forty minutes absolute silence (and in my case, trying to force myself to stay awake - my eyes kept doing that flutter thing and my head kept nodding back and forth) we were allowed to uncurl our legs again and were given tea and some cake thing. If you want an honest description, it tasted of a mixture of egg yolk and sugar.

Strange cake

An hour of self introductions, our thoughts and the opportunity to ask questions, we finally left. I zoooooomed back to Meidaimae to throw on some fairly dark clothes, slap some dark makeup on my face and stick my hair up in all directions. Ten minutes is the fastest I've ever been getting ready for a party (I normally take three hours...). This little Hallowe'en party was something thrown together by the international department at Meiji University and lasted a grand total of two hours! It consisted of a room full of people dressed in silly costumes and various snacks and drinks laid out on tables. I didn't think it was worth 300円 to get in so I snuck in for free, took some photos and skipped off to a rather urgent meeting with my circle.

A scene from the Hallowe'en party

Hallowe'en costumes?

I practiced the songs that I'll be performing at the festival nyada nyada nyaaa and then wandered back to the international house to sneak into a second party (a Hallowe'en house party) again without paying. Glorious. It was a familiar sight to behold; a corridor and kitchen area packed with very drunken people playing loud music. I perched myself in the corner next to the speakers and took control of the music. I met Masashi, who shares the same love for Paramore that I do so I sang to him as he seemed to enjoy it.

A corridor full of drunken people

I went back to my room earlier than most after being nampa-ed by this drunken Korean bloke, to sort out some registration online and such.
Crazy Friday, crazy.

Other than seeing a baseball game on Saturday...I can't really remember what happened. I think it was baseball followed by more festival rehearsal and an early bedtime...meh.

Back at Meijijingu Stadium

かっとばせー！

~More antics soon....