Timeboxing for Fun and For Profit
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: General, Japanese, JLPT, Korean, Language Leave a comment »As I mentioned in my last post, I am great a devising projects, and terrible at follow through. This includes blogging, language studies (Japanese and Korean), Buddhist practice (e.g. nembutsu, meditation, etc), among many other things. The problem is always the same: at the end of the day, I never feel like I have enough time to finish things, so I inevitably sacrifice all or some of my projects and get frustrated. I am a real type-A personality sometimes. ;-p
But then recently, I read on AJATT’s website a simple concept called timeboxing. AJATT didn’t invent this, it’s a well-known subject, but AJATT is very effective at bringing such useful bits of advice to a broader audience.
The idea, as I understand it, works like so: if you have an activity you want to do, it’s better to do it in small units of time, even daily. The amount of time you put into it depends on the activity, but it should short enough that you’re practically guaranteed to have time for it. Having a timer helps too.
For example, for my Anki flashcards, which I do on my iPhone using AnkiMobile, I set a timebox for both Japanese and Korean decks to be 5 minutes. Five minutes is short, and may not cover all cards due, but I can definitely spare 5 minutes for each deck. Anki is nice enough to warn me that the time is up too so I don’t forget.
As AJATT writes in another article, smaller blocks of time “invite action” rather than procrastination. If I did 20-minutes blocks of time on Anki, I could accomplish more per block, but I am also more likely to hesitate and procrastinate, rather than do something. The point of all this is to just keep doing something routinely, rather than not doing it at all.
So, I also started trying this for Buddhist practice too. Being perfectionist, I spend more time worrying about what is the right practice, whether I am doing it enough, or is it working, etc., than actually doing it. So, I decided to time-box this as well. I “boxed” my Buddhist practice to just reciting the nembutsu 10 times a day. If I stick within my time-box daily, this takes about 30 seconds a day. Pretty easy.
You can do this with exercise too. I started experimenting with exercising for 1 minute a day. One minute may seem like much, but that’s still more than I did all last week. I found 1 minute of push-ups and sit-ups was still a good workout, and I am less likely to procrastinate over a 1 minute task, than a 30 minute task.
So easy, a caveman can do it!
But sometimes 5 minutes is not enough. For example, blogging a post on average takes me 1-2 hours (like I said, I am a perfectionist), so here 5 minutes is simply too little. Instead, I can time-box to something smaller like 20-30 minutes, and simply finish the next day rather than spending hours and not getting other things done. ;p
But for longer blocks it helps to subdivide them into smaller tasks and timeboxes. Timeboxes within timeboxes in other words. I’m doing that right now with this blog post. ;-p
Or, for my Korean studies, I listen to podcasts that take about 10-15 minutes on average. I also need a little time at the end to put new vocabulary into Anki. So here, the timebox might be 20 minutes, but I can divide that into 15 minutes for listening and 5 for inputting new vocab.
I am still working out the details of particular timeboxes, but having projects and hobbies put into smaller, more manageable chunks of time has helped immensely already. I feel like I am getting a lot more done, and not so flustered like before. To my surprise, I feel satisfied just getting even a little bit done a day, rather than doing it in big, big chunks that took too long.
Amazing what 5 minutes can do for one’s life. 
Coffee and Tea: My Adventures and Woes
Posted: February 19, 2012 Filed under: Cooking, Dune, Health, Japan, Korea | Tags: Coffee, Tea 6 Comments »This post is dedicated to reader “Kendall” who inquired about this recently.
Coffee has been my life for years. I am sure I have spent thousands of dollars in the last 10 years drinking nice coffee from the many excellent cafes here in Seattle, or brewing coffee at home. I am picky about coffee, which was an issue when I lived in the EU because iced coffee is uncommon (but the lattes were awesome), and I can’t drink coffee straight-black. I am a coffee-snob. 
This is a problem because it costs both money and calories. Money because it’s an expensive habit, and calories because of all those sweet espresso drinks (and the pastries they sell with them).
I’ve tried many times to quit coffee, or just switch to tea, but it often fails. In my last trip to Japan, I really developed a taste for oolong tea. It has the same benefits of green tea, but doesn’t taste like lawn clippings, and is really cheap and easy to get in cold, bottled form. I drank it often instead of Coke or Coffee, and had big plans to keep drinking it here in the US, but that plan quickly ran out of steam because bottled, cold oolong tea is hard to get and expensive. You can buy large gallons of it, which are good, quite not practical where I work. And sometimes, I found I still craved coffee for improbable reasons (probably because of the sugar).
The wise sage over at AJATT wrote a nice post about the problem with personal projects: like military strategies, they quickly fall apart in real life. As his post explains, you have to make the process fit the person, not the other way around. Make a clear, concrete goal, and then adapt your process to reach toward that goal, even if process is slow and flawed.
So, my goal is to stop buying coffee at cafe’s. Just doing that will at least save $100-$150 a month, and save plenty of calories I don’t need anyway. If I can break the coffee habit altogether, that’s a bonus but not required.
I realized that in order to stop doing something, I have to put something else desirable in its place. For me, this was tea.
True to AJATT’s advice, I’ve been experimenting and evolving my strategy here. We have coffee and tea bags at work but frankly they don’t taste good. So instead I just bought some cheap tea of my own:
The Yamamotoyama brand of oolong tea costs $5 a box but has 20 bags in it, so I pay some money up front but I save a lot in return. Also it’s pretty good tea. Not gourmet but easy to prepare and good. The green tea is also good but hard to find so I probably won’t buy often.
But with help from my wife I discovered other good alternatives. Lately, my family and I have been enjoying Korean corn-tassel tea (옥수수수염차, oksusu suyeom cha):
My wife tried it first in Japan after shopping at Shin Okubo, and because it has no caffeine my daughter can drink it too. Soon all 3 of us started drinking it regularly. It’s slightly sweet but has a good, smoked, earthy flavor too. Because we shop at a local H-Mart regularly, it’s very easy and cheap for us to buy a large box and drink that for a couple weeks.
But even for coffee we found we liked Asian freeze-dried coffee a lot too:
This brand, Maxim (맥심 maegsim), comes in small packets, complete with sugar and freeze-dried cream so you just add hot water:
It’s not gourmet coffee but surprisingly good for something so cheap. Somehow it reminds me of the “Spice” from Dune. Unlike the Spice, it doesn’t cost a planet to buy it; you can buy it in bulk-sized containers for cheap and it will last a while. It won’t save calories but does help when I still crave coffee. Sometimes, I drink coffee, sometimes I drink tea. But I am trying really hard lately to avoid buying coffee at cafes. Each time I do, it saves me at least $4 or as much as $7.
The point here is that having a concrete goal and being flexible about how to accomplish it has proven much more effective and fun than my old method of self-discipline followed by procrastination and guilt.
You Reap What You Sow
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Japanese, Korean, KPop, Language, Music, Religion Leave a comment »I wasn’t planning on posting this at first, but I really liked this one KPop video by a lesser-known artist by Red Roc. It’s dark and intense, features the awesome T.O.P. from Big Bang, and has a surprise ending:
If you notice at the end, the girl in the photos is someone different. Truly, you reap what you sow. Speaking of which, there is a yojijukugo in Japanese, 自業自得 (jigō jitoku) that means the same thing, and in Korean they have the phrase 자업자득 (saeob sadeug) which seems equivalent. It’s likely both phrases are derived from the same Chinese source, though I am speculating.
Anyhow, I’ve known people in real life who have have been in mutually destructive relationships like this (minus the baseball bat). It’s really sad to watch because it also hurts those around them too. And in the end it doesn’t bring any satisfaction; it just makes the wounds bleed worse and longer to heal.
P.S. Credit goes to Eat Your Kimchi for finding this song.
Nirvana Day 2012
Posted: February 14, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Religion | Tags: Nirvana Day, Shakyamuni Leave a comment »
In order to liberate the living,
As a skillful means I appear to enter nirvana.
Yet truly I am not extinct.
I am always here teaching the Dharma.I am always here.
But due to my diving powers
Perverse living beings fail to see me
Even though I am close.When the many see me as extinct
They make offerings to my remains everywhere.
All long for me,
Adore and yearn for me.And when the living have become faithful,
Honest and upright and gentle,
And wholeheartedly want to see the Buddha,
Even at the cost of their own lives,Then, together with the assembly of monks
I appear on Holy Eagle Peak.Then I tell all the living
That I am always here, not extinct.
Yet by the power of skillful means
I reveal both extinction and non-extinction.If there are living beings in other lands
Who are reverent and sincere in their faith,
Then among them as well
I will teach the unexcelled Dharma.–Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16, Reeves Translation
Though the historical Buddha has passed away in the final Unbinding, which we call “Nirvana”, I like this quote as it reminds that what he stood for lives on for all ages.
Namo Tassa Bhagavato, Arahato, Samma-sam Buddhasa
Nomaku Sanmanda Bondanan Baku
Namo Shaka Nyorai
P.S. Past Nirvana Day posts here, here, here and here.
P.P.S. In contrast to the fun I had with wife and daughter on Valentine’s Day, I’ll be taking it easy, upholding the five precepts, the ten good deeds, etc. And I will abstain from all meat today out of respect for Shakyamuni Buddha.
Is Buddhism a Religion, Philosophy, Superstition, Psychology, etc?
Posted: February 13, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Literature, Religion, Zelazny Leave a comment »
A 16th century image of Terminus, the Roman God of Boundaries. Concedo Nulli is Latin for 'yield no ground'.
Recently, just before my last trip to Japan, I re-read an old, obscure, but excellent novel by Roger Zelazny named Jack of Shadows, which explores an Earth whose rotation has stopped, and Earth is divided into a “light” side and a “dark” side. It’s one of those classic science fiction novels from the 1960′s and 1970′s that were full of imagination. Anyway, there is one quote I wanted to share with folks (it’s a bit long, sorry):
Morningstar the demon: “I know many things, not all things. There is a difference.”
Jack: “Then tell me some things. I have heard daysiders say that the core of the world is a molten demon, that the temperature increases as one descends toward it, that if the crust of the world be pierced then fires leap forth and melted minerals build volcanoes. Yet I know that volcanoes are the doings of fire elementals who, if disturbed, melt the ground about them and hurl it upwards. They exist in small pockets. One may descend far past them without the temperature increasing. Traveling far enough, one comes to the center of the world, which is not molten—which contains the Machine, with great springs, as in a clock, and gears and pulleys and counterbalances. I know this to be true, for I have journeyed that way and been near the Machine itself. Still, the daysiders have ways of demonstrating that their view is the correct one. I was almost convinced by the way one man explained it, though I knew better. How can this be?”
“You were both correct,” said Morningstar. “It is the same thing that you both describe, although neither of you sees it as it really is. Each of you colors reality in keeping with your means of controlling it. For if it is uncontrollable, you fear it. Sometimes then, you color it incomprehensible. In your case, a machine; in theirs, a demon.”
Jack: “The stars I know to be houses of spirits and deities—some friendly, some unfriendly and many not caring. All are near at hand and can be reached. They will respond when properly invoked. Yet the daysiders say that they are vast distances away and that there is no intelligence there. Again…?”
Morningstar: “It is again but two ways of regarding reality, both of them are correct.”
Jack: “If there can be two ways, may there not be a third? Or a fourth? Or as many as there are people, for that matter?”
“Yes”, said Morningstar.
Jack: “Then which one is correct?”
Morningstar: “They all are.”
Jack: “But to see it as it is, beneath it all! Is this possible?”
Morningstar did not reply.
“You,” said Jack, “Have you looked upon reality?”
Morningstar: “I see clouds and falling stones. I feel the wind.”
Jack: “But by them, somehow, you know other things.”
Morningstar: “I do not know everything.”
Jack: “But have you looked upon reality?”
Morningstar: “I—once… I await the sunrise. That is all.”
So, when I see yet another article arguing about whether Buddhism is a religion or philosophy, or whether it’s superstitious or not, I find this quote somehow appropriate.
P.S. Thanks to a certain reader who posted the Guardian article on Twitter.
P.P.S. Various articles on the subject…. but probably the most important one as well as this.
Happy Third Blogirthday, JLR!
Posted: February 11, 2012 Filed under: General | Tags: Birthday, Blog 3 Comments »I almost totally forgot, but my blog has survived a third year as of January 21st. The JLR is now 3 years old!
No one is more surprised than me.
I have come close to deleting the blog this year a few times out of fatigue and frustration. It’s the same problem every time: I push myself too hard, I don’t balance my life well and get burned out. I take a break, get good advice from my wife, get inspired and start the cycle over and the blog survives another day. ;-p
This, the third year was a busy one. Besides the usual material I changed the blog format somewhat this year. So compared to the 2nd blog-irthday, there is more to celebrate this year.
As for this year, I hope to further refine things and balance other projects with blogging more. So you might notice a slight decline in blogging frequency starting this week. I haven’t decided how much of a decline but it’s an ongoing experiment.
As always, thank you everyone for your support and readership!
–Doug (a.k.a. “the management”)
The Buddha-Dharma as an antibiotic for the mind
Posted: February 10, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Health | Tags: Amitabha, Kannon 2 Comments »Disclaimer: I am being metaphorical here.
Anyhow, recently I was fortunate to receive a large shipment of Buddhist books from a friend overseas whom I’ve been exchanging books with over the years. The books are a mix of Theravada and Mahayana books, and this week I started to cherry-pick various books and reading them. One such book is Pure-Land Zen, Zen Pure-Land which contains letters from Ven. Yin-Kuang, a Chinese Buddhist master with a background in both Pure-Land and Zen (Chan) Buddhism. The book is also available online as well if you’d like to read it.
Anyhow, one part, letter 17, really caught my eye. He writes:
Heavy karmic obstructions, excessive greed and anger, a weak and ailing body, a fearful, apprehensive mind — these symptoms will, in time, disappear naturally if you singlemindedly recite the Buddha’s [Amitabha] name.
He then quotes from the Kannon Sutra, which is the 25th chapter of the Lotus Sutra:
If … living beings much given to carnal passion keep in mind and revere the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World [a.k.a Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva], they will be set free from their passion. If [those] much given to irascibility [hatred and anger] keep in mind and revere the Bodhisattva Regarder of the Cries of the World, they will be set free from their delusion.
– Translation by B. Kato, et al, The Threefold Lotus Sutra, p. 320
Somehow, this reminded me of the idea of “antibiotics” in the medical field. Antibiotics are supposed to be taken as a series of pills over many days. At first, you don’t feel any different; the disease is still there. But if you stick to the routine, eventually the symptoms will lessen and lessen. However, like a real antibiotic, you have to keep taking it all the way to the end until you’re fully cured. Even if you think you’re cured, you have to keep taking it regularly Otherwise, the problems may return later. Devotional Buddhism, like any Buddhism, is a very slow process.
P.S. Special thanks to “A” for the excellent reading material.
Buddhism: Try To Suck Less
Posted: February 7, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Japanese, Jodo Shu, Language, Religion | Tags: Nirvana Day 5 Comments »
The title for this blog post was inspired by some excellent advice from AJATT on learning a foreign language, and not giving up. Early in January he posted a couple bits of advice on Twitter:1
Keep learning and you’ll eventually stop sucking. Stop learning and you’ll suck forever.
And later:
We all know you suck. We know you live in Sucksville. That’s fine. You were born there. Just inch your way out.
The point of these bits of advice is the same: don’t be complacent and don’t fool yourself. When studying Japanese, or any language, it’s easy to believe that after studying a while your skills improve. But then, you speak with native speakers, and you still make terrible mistakes and sound really stupid. It’s happened to me time and time again. 
So, AJATT’s advice is simple: just admit you suck. Once you do that, your mission is to keep trying and “inch your way out”. Eventually, you’ll suck less. This is brutal advice, but very true if you stop to think about it.
I thought of this because the Buddhist holiday of Nirvana Day is approaching a week from now.2 And to me, AJATT’s advice is true in a Buddhist context too.
Recently, while reading someone’s blog post about the issue of race and Buddhism in America, I was surprised by how many people attacked the blog poster, but also reiterated that they were Buddhists for a number of years. And yet, to anyone reading their posts, it would seem painfully obvious that they weren’t acting very “Buddhist” at that moment. But this really illustrates how the mind can fool itself. Ego is not something you can consciously perceive, but it drives a lot of what we do, think or believe. We fool ourselves all the time, and often don’t even know we do it.
People can lull themselves easily into believing their good, or they’re right, even when it’s painfully obvious to others around them that they are not. People who practice Buddhism for a long time can still easily fall prey to anger if someone wounds their ego just right. I know this painful lesson too well.
On the subject of Nirvana Day, the final words of the Buddha to his disciples, according to the Pali Canon, are thus:
“Now, then, monks, I exhort you: All fabrications are subject to decay. Bring about completion by being heedful.“
The Buddha didn’t say “you can stop halfway” or “just give it your best shot”.3 He urged his disciples to tread carefully from start to finish, even when they’ve advanced a long way on the path. Unless all three poisons of greed, anger and ignorance are completely uprooted, then you are not done. It is said that Maitreya Bodhisattva, a Bodhisattva of the 10th degree and the next Buddha to come, still pays homage to all the Buddhas in the sutras because even he realizes that he is not done, and that he still suffers from delusion, however small.
So, the point of AJATT’s advice (and this post) isn’t to hate yourself, but don’t allow yourself to get self-satisfied no matter who you are. Confucius, the great sage of China, was relentless in his efforts to improve himself even at an old age. As quoted in the Analects:
[2:18] Zizhang was studying to get an upgrade in his civil service rank. [Advising him about self-improvement,] Confucius said, “Listen widely to remove your doubts and be careful when speaking about the rest and your mistakes will be few. See much and get rid of what is dangerous and be careful in acting on the rest and your causes for regret will be few. Speaking without fault, acting without causing regret: ‘upgrading’ consists in this.”
and:
[14:24] Confucius said: “The ancient scholars studied for their own improvement. Modern scholars study to impress others.”
The key is to always strive for improvement, and be wary of faults.
As Jokei, the famous 13th century Hosso scholar-monk wrote of himself:
If I desire to enter the vast and great entrance to the mind, my natures is not equal to the task.
If I want to practice just a little bit of cultivation, my mind is difficult to rely on.
Thus even great Buddhists of the past still found much fault with themselves. And Honen wrote as well:
If indeed, it were by my own power that I attained it [birth in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha], there might be some excuse for my pride. But whenever pride arises within the heart, it shows positively that we are in the wrong, both in our faith and practice, and are utterly out of harmony with the Vow of Amida Buddha, and neither He nor any of the Buddhas will extend us their protection. Yes, indeed beware!”
So, to me, it seems better to just just approach the Buddhist Path with the attitude that you suck and that Buddhist practice is to help you suck less. It’s OK to suck. We all do to some degree or another. Don’t worry about the other guy/gal and don’t compare yourself to others. Just strive to suck less and you’ll inch your way out eventually.
I found lately that this kind of attitude has invigorated my Buddhist practice even on the days when I don’t “feel like it” (I’m doing it to suck less, not because I feel like it).
It’s a hard way to look at Buddhism but sometimes we need a kick in the pants.
Namo Shaka Nyorai
Namo Amida Butsu
1 Apologies for all the American slang. For those not familiar, “to suck” means to be bad at something (下手).
2 February 15th according to Japanese Buddhist. Other Buddhist communities may vary.
3 Similarly, read chapter 7 of the Lotus Sutra.
Happy Belated Setsubun!
Posted: February 6, 2012 Filed under: Family, Japan | Tags: February, Oni, Setsubun 4 Comments »
I didn’t intend to post this so late, but last week was a hairy week. :p
Anyhow, my daughter made this calendar in school for February1 and the theme was around Setsubun, which is a popular holiday in Japan that traditonally celebrates the coming of Spring. This is based on the traditional calendar, not the Western calendar, so the dates are a bit different than what people might expect. Setsubun (節分) literally means “seasonal division”, and marks the time when Spring begins along with the new year.
So, the main tradition these days is to drive out the bad luck (in the form of oni demons), and bring in the new luck. Parents might wear oni masks and the kids get to throw roasted soy beans at them. I have a really good video from last year of my daughter, just turned 4, yelling “Kung fu!” as she threw beans at me, then ran to pick them all up. I’d love to post it except for privacy reasons. Kids normally yell oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi meaning “Demons out, luck in!” when they throw beans, but my daughter got mixed up.
So, that explains the two Oni demons for the February calendar. In modern Japanese pop-culture, Oni are depicted as demons with colors like red, blue or green, and wearing leopard-printed shorts (signifying their beastly nature).
My daughter also informed me that the little green thing in the middle is “treasure”, because Oni like to hoard too.
1 Similar ones for December and Janaury for reference.
Bigger is Better: Adventures in Fukagawa
Posted: February 5, 2012 Filed under: Buddhism, Japan, Shingon, Travel | Tags: Tokyo 4 Comments »The following day after seeing Sojiji Temple and Yokohama Chukagai, I was happy to meet another blog reader: “Marcus”, star of various blogs over the years, and another long-time reader. Him and I both have a history of changing blogs, but thankfully we’ve always kept in touch, and it was nice to meet him in person at last.
Marcus was joined by his wife, and I was joined by my little girl who wanted to spend time with Daddy. Plus, my wife was sick and wanted some sleep 
. Marcus had invited us to the Fukugawa district in Tokyo, which is pretty far from where I normally stay with my in-laws in Kawasaki City, southwest of Tokyo. I had no idea what to expect at Fukugawa, but suffice to say I wasn’t disappointed.
Fukugawa has a major Shingon Buddhist temple named Fukugawa Fudō Hall (深川不動堂) which is quietly tucked inside an alleyway right next to Monzen-Nakachō Station:
This temple actually is a kind of branch temple to the well-known Narita-san Temple way over in Chiba Prefecture (really close to the airport, oddly enough). Its main figure is Fudo Myoo, a popular figure in Japanese esoteric Buddhism, and someone whom I encountered years ago with reader “Johnl”, when we got to see the famous Goma ritual.
The temple is deceptively large. Here’s how it looks from the outside:
And this building to the left:
It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the building is covered in Sanskrit letters or “bonji” used in esoteric Buddhism, called Siddham. You see them frequently used in Japanese Buddhism, but especially in Shingon and Tendai Buddhist sects. Certain Siddham “letters” represent various Buddhist divinities, though further appreciation and understanding comes as part of esoteric Buddhist training, which I don’t have.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures inside. Believe me, the temple is pretty awesome, so I have to try and describe it as best as I can.
We went into the temple, and immediately to the left was a huge auditorium-style room, which is visible here on the temple website. On the far wall, high above was a statue of Fudo Myoo. It’s actually much larger than the picture shows, and the place was packed with people because it was just after New Year’s. Luckily, we found a seat off to the right, and we had come at the right time because we had stumbled into the beginning of the Goma ritual.
As with the one I saw years ago, it starts out pretty slow at first. In this case, they read the names of various people who sought blessings before Fudo Myoo. Once this concluded, then things started to pick up, as a small fire was started in the sacred space in the middle, similar to what is shown here on their website. Meanwhile, the drums started beating, and the attendant priests behind them started chanting. As the fire built up, other priests took some wooden tablets or ofuda and briefly waved them over the fire one by one. Presumably, people had registered for this ahead of time for various blessings, and these were being purified now.
Anyhow, by this point, the chanting and drum beats really got loud and fast-paced, and the fire within the sacred space had grown pretty tall. My daughter, who’s never seen a Buddhist ritual like this, wanted to know what was going on. I told her that this was getting rid of bad things (i.e. purification), and she interpreted that to mean “getting rid of the bad guys“, as in Disney bad guys. The Disney bad guys are the bad people she plays with often at home. So, then she replied that this ritual was supposed to be loud so that they would get startled and fall into the fire. Those were her words, really.
Unlike the Goma ritual I saw before, the priests did not lead the audience to approach and pay respects to Fudo Myoo, and the ritual came to an abrupt end as the drumbeats wound down, and the priests started to file out. One priest stayed behind and gave a brief talk, but the acoustics were not good, and I couldn’t understand much of what he said. I think he was talking about the temple itself, but I am not sure. Once the ritual was over, my daughter asked me if they would do it again. I was really surprised because the whole ritual probably took and hour, but she wasn’t bored.
From there, we filed toward the back of the room where we got some charms, and moved to the second floor, which was a kind of worship hall/musuem. There were several rooms on the second floor, all lined up with many Buddhist deities. One room was cool because it was all in black-light, with prayer wheels underneath glowing images of Buddhist deities. People would gravitate to the Buddhist figure of their choice, leave a coin donation and pay their respects. My daughter and I visited quite a few and emptied out all the spare change in my wallet.1
The next room didn’t have black light, but had many wooden statues of the same deities under normal lighting. We paid our respects here too, and then moved to the 3rd floor. On the third floor was a huge altar room devoted to Mahavairocana Buddha, the principal figure of devotion in Shingon Buddhism, but the walls were lined with many identical figures of Mahavairocana as well, all in gold.
Again, the temple is much bigger inside than it looks on the outside, but it was pretty awesome. Given that it’s pretty close to downtown Tokyo and Ginza, it’s one of those places I’d highly recommend.
From there, we ate lunch at a nearby restaurant back in the alleyway, where we had some curry and pizza. The pizza was excellent and my daughter enjoyed that alot. Marcus’s wife and I ordered the curry, only it turned out not to be Japanese curry (which is mild), but instead it was VERY SPICY INDIAN CURRY. I enjoyed it because it came with Indian-style yogurt which mixed well, but Marcus’s wife definitely suffered that lunch. The menu never mentioned that it was Indian curry, so we had no idea what we were getting into.
Once lunch was done, we went to nearby Sumiyoshi Park which is the subject of another post coming up.
P.S. For more information about the Goma ritual, and it’s significance in Buddhism, read here.
1 This happens everytime I go to Japan: I build up a lot of spare change, then use it up at Buddhist temples or Shinto shrines.
Hello, this blog is about my life as a father, Buddhist and Japanophile / Koreaphile. Any useful information I can pass along will hopefully make the 
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