Post-onsen haze

Yesterday was a good day even without the zazen (I'm still amazed by the fact that getting up at 4.45 didn't ruin my whole day by making me a walking corpse...). I had made plans to see a friend and her mother, who has been visiting here for some 2 weeks, for a day of hanging around in Ueno and Asakusa, the older parts of Tokyo, but in the end me and my friend just decided to go to an onsen (mother declined and stayed at home cleaning). I hadn't been in LaQua before, but it was a nice though a bit pricey place. Nothing unusual, but great for a bit of relaxation.

Onsen are perhaps my main reason for not getting any tattoos. I've been thinking for a long time of having one, but never got around to it. In Japan, as you might know, tattoos are often connected with organized crime, so there's usually a strong "no tattoos" policy in most onsen. I've heard about foreigners who could get inside despite having whole of their back tattooed, but there's always been a "high-ranking" japanese friend included in the explaining process, and usually at a local onsen where he was well known. So, I'd rather not try. (Besides, the tattoos I was thinking have become mostly if not meaningless, at least so much weaker in their meaning for me in the last month that even though I wouldn't probably want them removed or anything like that, I'd probably not view them in the same way. Maybe I should take the hint and decide for once and for all NOT to take any permanent pics on myself...)

So anyways, 3,5hrs of lying in hot waters, talking and a nice tofu-kaiseki (japanese "fancy" meal with some 8 small plates, all had some kind of tofu as the main ingredient). Gooood... And my friend's mother paid it all. Even better. :) So, after we were all soft-headed from the afternoon of pure relaxation, we got a long-awaited phonecall.

Our dear friend and tutor had finally remembered that he was supposed to contact us after he came to Japan, and we arranged a night out for the 15th. The guy knows the best places to drink and eat in Tokyo, be it high-end restaurants or tiny street bars, so we're looking forward to a night of good (and I do mean GOOD) sake and food, and hopefully, as he already promised to take me there, The Monk Bar. It's not it's real name, but that's how this legendary place is known between us. It's a tiny bar run by a young buddhist priest (and I think by now everyone knows what I think about buddhist monks... *g*), who's supposed to be really fun and good company. There's also a legendary quote from him or some other, I forget, that goes something like: "Praying/chanting a mantra... It's like having sex with Buddha. " Absolutely brilliant, I say! :D Who still tries to tell me buddhism is a boring intellectual religion? So, hopefully...

At first we mixed the dates and thought that 15th is on wednesday, and I already told my polish friend I can't make it to zazen, but today morning I realized that it isn't the case at all! So happy! Now I can go both to zazen and then on the next day to TMB, two nights spent drinking with monks instead of just one. ;)

And just as a disclaimer - even though my stories, esp about zazen, seem to always include drinking, I most certainly am NOT an alcoholic. :) Actually, my friends always whine that I don't drink much at all. The fact that I must be able to speak in japanese at these places hopefully acts as evidence that I'm actually not very drunk at those times... Plus, I have to be able to go to the japanese class next morning at 9am, and if I'd be really drinking, my hangover would keep me in bed until early afternoon (not young anymore, apparently). The polish friend, who actually introduced me to the zen temple (of which I'm eternally grateful to her) always teases me that I get through the zazen only because there's drinks afterwards. I hope it's mostly because she always leaves before me from the gathering and I stay until late talking with people (well my japanese is better, so think i get more of the mostly japanese conversations... Although there's a big number of people who can AND are willing to talk in english too. She also commented to me last friday that she thinks I've really become "one of them", by which I was kind of moved). It's not the drinking itself, but I've yet to find a relaxed gathering between the japanese where alcohol ISN'T served. As I said in an earlier post, drinking and socializing go hand in hand.

The bad news is that I still don't have the haiku for tomorrow. I was almost relieved when it seemed that I wouldn't be able to go and so get an extra week (plus my friend promised to get me the words for next week), but now... Of course they don't kick me out or even frown on me if I don't have the poems (they are so nice), but I want to have something written. At least one... Will need to think on "first leaves" and "beginning of summer". Sometimes I get really storng images and feelings for the words, sometimes I have to dig deeper. I actually have a kind of "feeling" for the leaves, but I need some time to really find the words to express it. It's the feeling when you see the new birch leaves in Finland, which usually the same time when the lectures in our university start ending - you read for the exams and think about the summer that is beginning.

And now the same in japanese, 5-7-5. Sigh...