Past activities

I'm really having trouble keeping up with all the things I'm doing here. I was planning to just write about the highlights, but I feel like I'm not even living up to that. So now I'll just write about some stuff I've been doing without getting too much into details.
First of all, quite some while ago I've been to the headquarters of the Sôtô school of Zen Buddhism. The temple in Leiden where I used to go is also founded on Sôtô principles, so maybe you could compare this to a katholic who went to the Vatican in Rome, the religious centre of his or her belief. Now in Zen, there isn't that much belief attached as with katholism, zen is mostly "just doing", so the definition of 'religious centre' should also be put in quite a different perspective. Also in the headquarters, they are 'just doing' their business, mostly administrative business. It's not a temple, no monastary or nice old building that has fulfilled this function since hundreds of years. It's just an ugly high building where the administrative affairs are taken care of. But still it's priests who are working there. So while I was waiting until someone came who could help me (I asked where I could do zazen in Tokyo), there were people walking around with shaven heads, a rakusu (a kind of ceremonial bag worn around the neck indicating that that person is initiated into buddhism) and a business suit - indeed very appropriate. Besides, part of the builing is used as a hotel (and a luxurious one to that) to generate some more revenues, so at the ground floor there's nothing at all that indicates what the actual function of the building is. There's just a sign outside saying something like "central Sôtô Shû office".
In the end I talked a bit with a young priest turned officeworker and got a list from him with some tempels where I could do zazen. In the end I went to a temple that wasn't on that list but that was named in a book I got from Zeshin, the priest in the temple in Leiden. I'll tell more about that later on.
Then I've also visited the Diet, the Parliamentary Building here in Tokyo. I was invited by a housemate to go with the Public Policy and Finance Class. I had dropped that, but because there were so few students left (just two...) we could take some friends with us. So in the end there were more people who didn't take the class, but at least some people now had the chance to see the parliament. Actaully, in the end it wasn't that much special. We just visited the Lower House (House of Councillors, comparable to the Dutch Eerste Kamer), but there wasn't a meeting going on. We just listened to a tape explaining when the builing was build and how much that had cost. Still, it was fun walking through the corridors and seeing signs of the several parties next to certain (meeting?) rooms, knowing that when the parliament is in session those same corridors are filled with politicians of those parties. And of course it was fun to be inside anyway. Some while ago I walked around it from the outside, but at every entrance there are policemen watching and it seems almost impossible to get in. Quite some contrast to the Dutch parliament (at least, the Upper house or Tweede Kamer, I don't know about the Lower house), where you can just walk in without appointment, but after leaving your bag and walking through a metal-detector. Maybe this is one of the signs of how far democracy is developed. Is politics really conducted in public, accessable to all and in a transparent and responsible way? Well, even if you get in during a meeting, most topics are already decided behind closed doors, between the factions of the LDP, the leading party with an absolute majority again after the latest elections in september. I was quite optimistic about democracy in Japan, but after following this course about Japanese monetary policy and now that the LDP again has an absolute majority, I'm not that sure anymore. In that course we talked about how the bureaucracy actually makes policy in Japan, even without that much influence of the LDP. This policy is made in councillation with business representatives, agricultural pressure groups and the biggest bank, but without any pressure from labout unions (which are always connected to a certain company) and almost no environmental organisations interfering. If the LDP really wants to make decisions 'indepentently', it has to have the support of either the business- or agricultural pressure group, the financial sector being too much linked to the Ministry of Finance. Anyway, there won't be too much to see in the Diet building.
So I went to see something that Japanese are also interested in themselves: baseball. And not just any radom match, this was the legendary match between the team of the University of Waseda (where I'm studying) and Keio University, the most important competitor in boasting to be Tokyo's second best University (after the legendary Tokyo University where all the politicians have studied). This same competition is visible in the baseball match. Actually, it were two matches and they were part of the League of Six Universities of Tokyo. Also in this case both Waseda and Keio didn't compete for the first place (that was taken by I think Heisei University) but for the second. The first match, on saturday, was won by Waseda. On sunday I went to see the final showdown. Maybe the most ardent competition was not reflected by the players on the field, but by the way the audience cheered for those players. That's really something special. First of all, they have a perfectly trained army of cheerleaders, both girls and guys. I heard that they practice about five times a week and in the weekend they have to support several teams of Waseda (next to baseball also soccer, rugby etc.) if they're playing. During the baseballmatch the cheerleaders are mostly activated when Waseda is at bat (in Dutch aan slag). Then there would be about 8 girls on a stage with a guy in the middel. While ther orchestra (seated in the gallery) plays certain Waseda-songs the guy would act as conductor (but a most energetic one) and the girls would do all kinds of dances like cheerleaders normally do. But then there are also girls standing in front of each section of the gallery to indicate how the supporters should clap their hand or actually the inflatable cilindrical barrs that produce quite some noise when hit against each other and that can be bought along with a sheet with the lyrics of the Waseda anthem. That anthem is sung before, in the middle and after the match. So when all the cheering is not in vain and the team actually gets a point, everyone put his arms around the shoulders of his/her neighbour, moves sideways to and fro and sings another Waseda song. For the rest, the cheerleading is conducted quite independently from the game (save some moment when either the batter or the pitcher needs some extra luck). So even when things turn really bad, the cheerleaders and the audience act like nothings the matter and keep supporting their team. Accordingly, no one ever shows any sign of dissaprovement, like dutch would do during a soccer game when they don't agree with the decision of the referee. So after nine innings not just the players but especially the cheerleaders and the supporters get quite tired (and then they still have to sing three verses of the Waseda anthem). By the way, the same procedures are followed in exactly the same way by the Keio supporters, but so to speak in a complementary way (cheering when Keio is at bat and with Keio songs etc). At least for Waseda all this effort was rewarded with another victory of Waseda over Keio and thereby a second place in the Six Universities of Tokyo league.
Last but not least, I went for another 'mountain walk' today. Maybe rather a hill-walk, especially compared to my previous experiences, but not less satisfactory. The tops I climbed this time didn't exceed the 857 meters and instead of the rough and rugged rocks of Mount Fuji and the Tanigawa-dake ridge I could walk on soft smooth sandy pathways leading between green forrests with here and there some yellow or red autumn colours. Because the hike was just about an hour away from Tokyo, I could easily make in time to get back in the evening. Next to the usual quiet nature, beautiful winding paths and great views there was also a big temple-precinct on the first hill I climbed, Mount Takao. This originated from a temple of the Shingon school of buddhism founded by Kôbô Diashi himself. He was one of the first to bring buddhism to Japan in the 8th century AD and Shingon is still an important buddhist school in Japan. There were some pilgrims walking up the mountain and even reciting prayers under the Biwa waterfall. Standing under a waterfall is quite a common practice in Japanese buddhism as an ascetic exercise and probably also because of the purifying characteristics attributed to
water.
Probably because of that temple (and the proximity to Tokyo), there were quite some people climbing the mountain and enjoying the sight from the top. I also got to talk to some schoolkids of about 11/12 year old. It was very funny to be surrounded by those young Japanese, explaining about what I did in Japan, in Tokyo and on that mountain.
When I walked on from the top of Mt. Takao it became more quiet while the path was still easy to find and to walk and the weather was still nice; the perfect conditions to fully enjoy the hiking. I got to Mt. Jimba and down to the bus-station perfectly in time to be back in Tokyo around 19.00 o'clock. I got off the train at Shinjuku, strolled a bit around Kabuki-cho (a very interesting part of Shinjuku because of the many Korean shops and restaurants there) and finally walked back home along Meiji-dori. Meiji-dori is a road leading through Tokyo from north to south, providing an easy route from Shinjuku to Waseda. It was so nice to get back from the (relatively) deserted mountains to the lively Shinjuku and then walking along that street, feeling like I got back home.