Nola and Bill and Kyoto and typhoon!
Mood:  caffeinated
Monday, June 21st

I had heard the typhoon was coming on Monday, and the forecasting around here is extremely accurate. Despite these warnings we headed for Kyoto anyway. When we reached the Kyoto JR station we headed up to the top to get a birds-eye view of the city. Our umbrellas were blown inside out and it was a bit unpleasant up there, but we still got a great peak at the city despite getting a little damp. Hopping a bus we quickly arrived at Sanjusangendo as the rain began to fall. The 33 spaces that house over a thousand gilded Buddha's are such a powerful sight. They are guarded by an assortment of male and female figures. It was wonderful to be able to take the time to read about each figure. Surprisingly most of them are based on Hindu entities. A feeling of unity and oneness came over me while i studied these statues with physical traits that range from India, China, Africa and all over Asia. Buddhism has incorporated the art and beliefs of many cultures. It is truly beautiful to see it all come together in this inspiring temple. It gives me hope that one day the world will come to see that we are all one.
Sorry, i get a bit emotional and philosophical after experiencing these ancient, holy places.

Also at Sanjusan Temple is information about another interesting practice - archery. An archer in 1686 shot arrows non-stop for 24 hours at this temple. He shot 13,053 arrows and hit the target 8,133 times. He was only 18 years old. The hallway was 120 meters (131 yards) long and he shot 544 arrows/hour. That's 9 arrows every minute! I can't help but think that this was a form of meditation. The concentration must have been intense.

When we finally made it out the other side of this wonderful temple it was pouring rain. Some kids were daring each other to run half way out into a courtyard and back again. In a matter of seconds they were drenched through and through. We dashed to a taxi and headed for the Kyoto Crafts Center. When you get handed a typhoon in Kyoto - go shopping! This place has 6 floors of crafts from all over Japan and pretty reasonably priced - from lacquerware to pottery, paintings, woodblock prints, kimono and more. It was easy to kill a few hours here. While browsing a few floors i kept noticing a certain group of people wearing name tags. I finally asked an especially happy looking man with a name tag on his chest that read Papau New Guinea what kind of group he was with. He joyfully answered that he was with a group of about 40 high school instructors from around the world. They were guests of the Japan Foundation and were studying peace and non-violence. This was the first of 3 groups that will be doing this tour which includes visits to Kyoto, Hiroshima, Nagasaki and many other places in Japan. I noticed other teachers from Bangladesh, India, Sudan, Canada, Britain, and Iran. Nola and I were reduced to tears as these teachers told us about how eager they were to get back to their classrooms and teach their students about peace. THERE ARE GOOD THINGS HAPPENING IN THE WORLD!

The Crafts Center receptionist generously offered to get us on a bus that delivers guests to their hotels. She found a hotel close to the shopping center that we wanted to visit next so we managed a free ride to the hotel and then walked a block to the next shopping experience. The rain was still falling but definitely slowing down. The clouds above us were racing by with very high winds. This typhoon is going to rush right by us while we shop! Yahoo. For a pretty challenging weather day we managed to see a lot and we managed to buy a fair share of souvenir gifts.

Tired and happy we caught the train back home - in bed before midnight to begin again tomorrow morning. Whee.