A last look at Japan

.

Somewhere between Fukuoka and Osaka.

#

Review: Kyoto (Japan) Vipassana Center

.
The Kyoto Vipassana Center was a veritable hotel.

There was soap in the bathroom, detergent for washing clothes (by hand in a bucket), a spinner to save you the effort of hand wringing wet clothes, screens on all the windows, hot water on demand, clean futons, immaculate wood floors, a wide assortment of condiments (such as pickles, teas and sweeteners), insect repellent, salve for bug bites, a large container of medicines in the kitchen, complimentary earplugs in case you were bunking with a snorer, and fans in all the rooms. The only thing not included were sheets, which oddly enough were one of the few provisions at Bodhgaya and Sarnath, the two India centers I visited in 2007 and 2008. There we had nothing more than a bed, cold water, buckets, and mosquitoes (even in December).

Kitchen in the background,
attached to dining hall left (not visible in this photo)

Fortunately, few of the latter were buzzing about Kyoto, even in the midst of summer. We did, though, seem to have more than a fair share of spiders and cockroaches, neither of which were a particular bother, except for the cobwebs that occasionally came in contact with my face. Pleh, pleh . . .

The Kyoto center was christened Dhamma Bhanu (Dhamma Light) by Goenkaji himself back around 1989 when the master paid a visit and taught a course or two himself. Today you'd hardly guess that the facilities are 20 years old. It seems a good amount of love and attention has been lavished on their maintenance.

Stairs at left from the Dhamma Hall / Residential Building.
Building at right toilet/shower block, building left dining hall and kitchen.

Toilet/shower block, space for hanging laundry

Like most Japanese buildings or compounds, those of Dhamma Bhanu are rather compact. The residential quarters and Dhamma hall are in the same building. My room was only 5-6 meters from where I sat each day for meditation. Even those housed furthest from the hall are no more than 20-30 meters away. Once you leave the residential building, its only a dozen paces to the bath/toilet block or to the dining hall.

The Dhamma Hall is in the center on the second floor;
left wing is female residence, right wing male.
The garden was available for walking to female students.

To the right of the above photo was this patch of grass and clover,
used for overflow and as walking space for male students.

The center sits in a valley in northern Kyoto prefecture, a quiet pocket of Japan through which passes one narrow road used each day by perhaps a dozen or so drivers. When you're sitting you might also notice a small plane passing overhead a couple of times a day. Otherwise there are few audible intrusions of the surrounding society – no school bells, no trucks blaring advertisements, no construction, no kids playing ball. Just the relaxing chirping of crickets, cicadas, and birds, as well as the gurgling of a small stream running around the perimeter of the center's property, bounded by low mountains (or high hills), a lush green in the midst of the summer season.

At this time of year typical daytime temperatures are uncomfortably warm. A center volunteer noted that the heat often makes meditation uncomfortable. We were quite fortunate, though, to have rain every day of the ten our group was in residence. The sun came out for a couple of hours on two or three days, but for the remainder it was overcast, windy, and wet. I didn't hear anyone using electric fans in the evening. It was a bit too chilly for that.

The Dhamma Hall on last day clean-up.

I understand installation of air conditioning in the Dhamma Hall is under discussion. Perhaps it will be added soon to make life more bearable for those city seekers brave enough to sit quietly for ten days with few of the comforts to which they are accustomed. If you happen to have difficulty with mobility, though, you will not be able to meditate at the Kyoto center. The Dhamma Hall is located on the second floor, up a flight of 16 steep steps, and if you also happen to be male you'll have to climb another set of steps to get to your meals. New students can expect to share a room with anywhere from three to six others, with little more than a futon-size private space. Old students may also have to share living quarters if they attend during one of the center's peak periods (which coincide with the Japanese vacation calendar – New Year's, Golden Week, and Obon).

The male dining hall

As one might expect for a center in Japan staffed by Japanese volunteers, the food was typical Japanese fare. Mid-day meals included oden, pasta with tomato-based vegetable sauce, udon, a one-pot dish of mixed veggies boiled in a light soy sauce, chilled tofu with green veggies, and on the last day, Japanese curry. Whatever was left over from lunch was recycled the next morning, along with fresh bread, butter, jam, and copious amounts of fruit, which in summer included bananas, oranges, grapefruits, apples, and plums. The evening meal for new students was fruit, for old students tea. Altogether the food was healthy and the amount adequate, but taste and presentation hardly remarkable.

Information displays Day 10

One thing I greatly appreciated at the Kyoto center (that I did not find at either of the Indian centers I visited) was the management's willingness to share financial information. On the last day of the course when silence is lifted and donations accepted, a number of placards were erected in front of the dining hall with information on center activities and volunteer opportunities. Included in this presentation was a chart of the center's income and expenses. If you were perhaps wondering about the size of an appropriate donation, you could find that the average daily expense per student is just over 2000yen.

Center income and expenses

This may seem high in comparison to India, but where in Japan can you get two meals a day, a clean bed, and all the other amenities – plus absolute silence and the chance to meditate? Just make sure you bring cash. Credit card donations are not accepted.

Dhamma Bhanu is a fine facility for sitting Vipassana. I'll be leaving soon to take a job in the Middle East, but should I ever be back this way, and have the opportunity, I would be very pleased to sit another 10-day course in Kyoto.


Links:

• Kyoto Vipassana Center Dhamma Bhanu website
• Kyoto Vipassana Center Dhamma Bhanu video

#

Saying Goodbye

.
This week I've been saying farewell to the people I meet on my daily rounds through the neighborhood, as well as a few friends and colleagues.

The Fukuoka Giant Revive Club:
cycling around Ohori Koen with cousin Randy

The postman
(sorry to say, all these years later I don't know his name)

Mr Shimizu, the neighborhood green grocer

Hiroyuki at Taguchi Shoten Records

The ladies of Fukuoka Foreign Relations:
Noriko, Motoko, Rumi


Members of the Nishijin Community Center English class:
Kazuko, Yumi, Meiko, Hiroko, Eri, & Hide

#

Shiori (one and a half)

I arrived in Fukuoka last night after a 10-day meditation retreat in Kyoto and a couple of days visiting with the in-laws. I will write more later about the Kyoto experience, but for now wanted to let you have a look at my niece.




We still had some trouble communicating, as we have had since the last time we met. Besides her mother and grandmother, Shiori is wary of contact with anyone else, including aunt Mutsumi and uncle Jeff. When you start to get close, she begins breathing hard and whining, and if you come too close may begin crying.

If you approach while her attention is diverted, though, she has no time to anticipate and react. In this way I was able on our last night to carry her through downtown Sannomiya with only a small initial whine.

Perhaps she enjoyed the elevated point of view.

#

Nagasaki: Daionji & Tomonaga-sensei

Yesterday Mutsumi had a couple hours of work in Nagasaki and as I haven't been in a while and as I'm unemployed and mostly ready to move to the UAE, we decided to make the trip together and rode out together on the 07:00 bus. While Mustumi was working I wandered around through Daionji, a 17th century temple which sits at the bottom of a mountain that we would later that day climb by taxi.

I didn't realize until I viewed the photo on the computer that the gate is fashioned in the shape of the Buddha's feet.

The sound of summer. The first cicada I've seen this season .

After meeting up with Mutsumi for lunch in Chinatown, we went to visit her grandfather Tomonaga's grave, which has a lovely view over the bay. Mutsumi swept and layed fresh flowers, and then we walked down the mountain, which seemed to be covered with nothing but graves, only to come out in - Daimonji!

#

Moving to Ras Al Khaimah

The email for which I have been waiting has arrived and I can now announce that I will next month be moving to Ras Al Khaimah, one of the seven Emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates. Mutsumi will be joining me next year after completing her contract with her present employer.



I will be teaching at the women's Higher College of Technologies, about which you can learn a little more on their website here. If you want to know more about the Higher Colleges system, have a look here.




Ras Al Khaimah is right at the northern tip of the the UAE. You may notice a mountain range, which makes the geography a little more interesting than sand dunes. Dubai is quite close by, only a 60-90 minute drive. And if the Iranians ever decide to shut down the Strait of Hormuz, as they've threatened from time to time, we'll have a front row seat.

I'll post more later. For now, here are a couple of RAK promo videos.

#

Limits of intellection

I don't know who Moeka Hiraoko is. Perhaps she's a student of Parissa Haghirian, an Austrian professor of management at Tokyo's Sophia University on whose website Moeka's essay is posted. Google didn't return much on Moeka except a Facebook entry, and as her essay is copyright 2009, and is about her experience studying in the United States, I guess she may even still be a student.

Who she is, though, is not so important. It's what she has written about her experience in America that you may find interesting. A typical middle class Japanese girl who went to San Diego to study English, she took an immediate disliking to her Swiss classmate Maria, who seemed to embody the stereotypical image of the selfish westerner.

For example, her English was much better than mine and when I didn’t understand what she said, she showed her irritation very clearly. We both loved shopping so we went to malls almost everyday after school, but she didn’t care how long she made me wait, and didn’t wait for me when I took time. Also, our host family had a nine year old daughter who was cute and lively, but Maria thought that she was sometimes annoying. When she asked us if we would like to do something with her, Maria often said no, even though the family was taking care of us. All these actions are considered very rude in Japan, and I had never met someone like her before. So I started to become offended by her behavior after spending a week with her.

However, what surprised me a lot was that another girl, whose name was Ina and also came from Switzerland, said that Maria was very cool. I could not believe it at first because I thought that she was harsh and unpleasant. I asked Ina why she thought that Maria was cool. She told me that a girl like Maria, who always expresses her opinion without hesitation and does whatever she wants with confidence, is considered a cool person in Switzerland. I am not sure if this is actually the standard of cool girls in Switzerland because I have never asked anyone else from thereabout it. However, for me at the time, with barely any experience outside Tokyo, it was very surprising that someone would think about Maria like that. I had heard that Western people were not at all like Japanese people, but it was the first time that I had actually experienced it.

Moeka then does what for most people would be difficult, for many impossible. She sets aside her native inclinations to adopt Maria's behavior in order to find out from the inside what it's like to live as the other. You can read more about her experience here. Don't worry, it's not a long essay.

What struck me most while reading it was how well I could relate to Moeka's feelings. I suppose 17 years living among Japanese has made me more like them than I perhaps imagined. Which is really not a bad thing at all.

Except when you have to deal with opinionated westerners.

#

Rainy season

The view from our balcony 07:00 this morning. Which could have been any morning this week. Wet, gray, and windy.

#

Shakin': Oita Earthquake

Here you see the chart from Yahoo Japan's Earthquake page, a regular feature of the weather section, with details of last night's quake in neighboring Oita Prefecture. While a pretty good shake at 4.6/7, there was no damage here, nothing falling from shelves, just a tremor to wake us from sleep.

#

Thanks for the music

We closed CDJam today, almost four years since we started in the late summer of 2005. Sales were always a steady dribble, enough to pay the cyber rent. A few artists recovered their start-up fees and made a small amount of money. For ourselves, I think we about covered our costs.

It was fun while it lasted. It gave us a chance to meet many wonderful people, Japanese customers and overseas artists alike.

And it really wouldn't have happened without Mutsumi, who did an incredible job writing and translating the CD descriptions, doing radio promotions, and managing the orders and accounting. Otsukaresama, Mu-chan.

We are now beginning the task of contacting each of the artists, paying royalties, returning CDs, and disposing of unclaimed inventory, the boring, tedious side of business.

#

My days at home

Looks rather tasty, doesn't it?

This is what I do most days, make lunch. We're eating two meals a day, breakfast at around 06:30 and lunch at around 14:00. In between and after we snack. If Mutsumi is working, she'll have a bento at noon and whatever I had for lunch at around 18:30. Makes for a light stomach at bedtime, a sounder sleep, and an appetite in the morning.

I've also learned a bit about shopping. Used to be Mutsumi did most of it and so I never got to know the store like she did. If you're just shopping once in a while for a particular meal, you don't need to look through the entire market. But if you're there a couple of times of week buying for every meal, you start noticing stuff, like sesame paste. Never saw that before, but there it was. You also start noticing the fluctuation of prices. Only a few weeks ago 3 apples were 290 yen. Last week they went up to 350.

I'm not a regular among the oka-sans and oba-sans just yet, but I might if I keep this up.

That's not likely to happen, though, as it appears I'm off for a warmer climate. Much warmer. Like 20 degrees warmer. High temperatures in Damman, Saudi Arabia this week are in the mid to low 40's.

More on that later . . . ;-)

#

Westward from Kobe

.

In Tarumi with the Kawamuras

This past week we had guests from Thailand. Krit and Knot, the couple whose wedding we attended back in March, flew to Tokyo to meet up with their friend, Dr Earth (whose real name is much longer and more difficult to read), who had already been in Japan a month studying surgical procedures at the National Cancer Center. After a few days in Tokyo and Kyoto, they met up with us in Kobe, where we spent the night at Mutsumi's family's home, sleeping on full bellies after a lavish spread of sushi and tempura that squashed even the Dr's appetite.

At Himeji Castle

The Dr as we often saw him

Yufuin

We spent half a day touring Himeji castle, before returning to Fukuoka and moving on the next morning to the onsen resort town of Yufuin, where we strolled through town and sat in hot springs. While the others were shopping, I rented a bicycle and enjoyed the several kilometers of dedicated bicycle lanes and quiet roads winding through and around this mostly agricultural valley. Once back in Fukuoka the push was on to finish up last minute shopping (souvenirs courtesy of the 100yen shop) and yesterday morning the gang left for the airport, leaving the house feeling a bit empty. =sniff=

Momoka, the innkeeper's daughter:
"Everyone likes me but I don't know why."

Mt Yufu

A few hours later I had my first of three interviews scheduled this week with universities on the Arabian peninsula. It was the first formal interview I remember since the mid-90's when I interviewed with Kuwait University, but even so I think I did alright. A reply is expected from this institution by next week. In the meantime, I have another tonight, still another Sunday evening, and one more – Insha'Allah – coming soon.

#

Clearing out and starting over

.
I talked to my mother this week. She asked me what I've been doing. And I didn't know quite what to say. It seemed I haven't been doing much.

But that's not really true, of course. It's just that there is nothing too terribly unusual or interesting to write about. Mostly I've been working on sorting through stuff that we have collected over the years in Fukuoka, 12 years of books, cds, textbooks, grades, student reports, financial records, boxes of letters and photographs, suitcases and bags full of old clothing – just a big pile of junk taking up space. Some of this stuff goes straight to the trash or for recycling, some of it we've been putting on Yahoo Auctions. The photos we have been going through a little at a time, pulling out stuff that I have been scanning and archiving.

With my stewardess class in the Summer of '99

We've also decided to close our music store, CDJam, which has been limping along the past couple of years, mostly neglected but at least paying the cyber rent. For the next few weeks we'll be selling everything at 50% of retail, and after that finishes early June we'll be finding ways to clear out the outstanding stock.




In anticipation that I may need to work, I have been applying for a number of teaching positions, mostly in the Gulf. You may have seen this week reports filed for Children's Day showing Japan's under-15's to number just 17 million, or 13.4% of the island's population. Schools are consolidating or closing, the number of full-time jobs in nearly every sector of the economy is declining (replaced with underpaid part-time jobs that include no benefits), and the number of unemployed PhD candidates from Europe and North America arriving in Japan is making the university ESL market more competitive. Besides a not so promising outlook, the hiring season here won't begin until fall (with the next academic year beginning in April), which means hanging out and hanging on with not too much to do.

The Gulf, however, is continuing to grow in all the ways Japan is not. Native and immigrant populations are expanding, revenues from oil are mostly stable and other sources are being developed, universities and colleges are growing, many of them implementing English-medium programs in which all subjects are taught in English. That means nearly every university has, in addition to an English department, an intensive remedial English department. Salaries are not what they once were, but still decent and with all the perks – free housing, insurance, annual airfare, lots of vacation, and no taxes. And now is the hiring season, with the academic year beginning in September.




So far I've had four nibbles (Hamdulillah), two in Saudi and one each in Oman and Qatar. One wanted an interview, but never got back in touch and has been silent ever since. One has said (off the record) that the department wants to make an offer but that it may be a couple of weeks before they get to sorting out the paper work. I'm in the process of scheduling an interview with the third and with the fourth I have a telephone interview scheduled for next week. In preparation, I've been researching the universities as well as writing answers to interview questions. So far I've got eight pages of single spaced text.

Here in Fukuoka I've lined up some part-time work through a Japanese publisher and provider of language training. When I applied I thought I'd be teaching conversation classes in the downtown area, where the company's office is located. Instead starting the end of this month I'll be teaching the same textbook at the same university where I used to teach but, because of the university's decision to outsource their English education, making less money.

On Friday we're off to Kobe to meet our friends from Thailand, the ones whose wedding we attended. They're here visiting another friend who has been in Japan doing medical training and we're going to do a bit of traveling together for a few days in southwest Japan. Look for some photos next week.

That's what I've been doing. I hope mom is reading.

#

Of Tibet and Maple

This afternoon we made the short trip to Dazaifu to take in the exhibit of Tibetan Treasures now at the Kyushu National Museum. Perhaps because I've just returned from a world where these kind of artifacts are part of daily life it wasn't as impressive as it might be to those encountering them for the first time or after some period of absence. But as many of the items in the exhibit are show pieces, some of the best of the best, what was most stirking for someone like myself was the difference in workmanship between these pieces and the everyday items I saw in homes and businesses and temples in Kathmandu. The stuff in Dazaifu is gorgeous. Regrettably, photography was prohibited.

The exhibit is quite small and won't take you more than an 40 minutes to walk through, perhaps even less. For the 1000 yen ticket price, that's not such a great bargain, especially when you include transportation costs.

On the way back to the train station we stopped at Komyozenji, Fukuoka's most beautiful temple garden, today awash in the vibrant green of spring maple.

#

The Butsuzo Girl

As we share an interest in Buddhist art, I've sent an email to Ikumi Hirose. I first learned about the 29-year old graduate of Tokyo's Sophia University last week in the English edition of the Yomiuri Shimbun. As a young woman working in a field commonly tended by balding, bespectacled scholars, she's something of a curiosity, and by coining a name for herself she helped the media sell her to the public. As a result she has become something of a minor celebrity, the Butsuzo Girl. The Buddhist Statue Girl.

Hirose's written a book about some of her favorite statues and while on her travels to learn more about Japan's art legacy gives talks or lectures discussing some of her interests. The media dutifully turn up to these events not so much because everyone is suddenly interested in Buddhist statuary as they are in catching a glimpse of the Butsuzo Girl.

I'd care not so much for a glimpse as for a chance to talk and maybe visit some temples or a museum together. I hope my message wasn't filtered into her spam folder.

For those that might be interested, you can check out Ms Hirose's website here. The Yomiuri article is linked above.

#

When Less is More

While checking the news yesterday morning I came across a USA Today article marveling over Japan's underpaid CEOs, in particular Japan Airline President Haruka Nishimatsu, who after taking over the company following a series of accidents and scandals, cut his own salary to US$98,000, rode the bus to work, and ate in the company cafeteria.

The $98k figure probably represents Nishimatsu's base pay, which is substantially padded by numerous perks. Still, "according to the consultancy Towers Perrin, CEOs of big Japanese companies earned an average $809,000 in 2003 — chump change compared with the $11.4 million raked in by their average U.S. counterpart," notes USA Today.

The smirking tone of the article suggests that the Japanese are out of step, that society here undervalues corporate leadership. It seems though, Japan has a far healthier attitude toward compensation and social cohesion than the USA, where the underlying operating principle in business seems to be to get as much as you can as quick as you can by whatever means necessary and damn those around you who aren't strong enough or shrewd enough to compete.

Except for young executives with a foot already on the career ladder, or those making a living off investing, I can't see that the average American could take issue with executives making less and sharing more with those further down the chain of command. But somewhere along the way citizens have been trained to believe the economy and the entire world free enterprise structure would collapse if CEOs were offered less.

Perhaps they imagine these guys (and its still mostly guys) indignant at offers of 10million instead of 100million, leaving in an insulted huff to go fishing rather than squandering their talent for so little reward. But really, what else would they do? If the salary bar were lowered, most would go on doing the same and be happy because they would still be making more than anyone else, which is what the outrageous compensation packages seem to be all about.

Quite unintentionally, I found in the same day's news an essay first written in 1966 (recycled through a blog via Google News) positing a more rational approach to economics, specifically in our underlying assumptions of value.

[The modern economist] is used to measuring the "standard of living" by the amount of annual consumption, assuming all the time that a man who consumes more is "better off" than a man who consumes less. A Buddhist economist would consider this approach excessively irrational: since consumption is merely a means to human well-being, the aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption.

The optimal pattern of consumption, producing a high degree of human satisfaction by means of a relatively low rate of consumption, allows people to live without great pressure and strain and to fulfill the primary injunction of Buddhist teaching: “Cease to do evil; try to do good.” As physical resources are everywhere limited, people satisfying their needs by means of a modest use of resources are obviously less likely to be at each other’s throats than people depending upon a high rate of use.

Buddhist Economics
By E. F. Schumacher

What if those CEOs did leave and go fishing? We might miss out on a few innovations, but we'd survive just fine and perhaps in the process create a saner, healthier, happier living environment. And after a generation or two, no one would imagine that things could or should be any different.

#

Kobe: 20-22 March 09

Friday, as you must be aware by now, was the first day of Spring, known here in Japan as Higan and celebrated by all as a national holiday. We took the occasion of a long weekend to pay a visit to Kobe and celebrate Mutsumi's father's birthday. He may be 83, but he's still clear and sprightly.




The weather over Japan for most of the weekend was not very holiday-like, cloudy, windy and wet. Besides stepping out for dinner, we did a little shopping for groceries that you can't find quite so easily in Nepal. Being an old port town, Kobe has for many years had a large foreign population, including a sizeable community of South Asians, who have established a few groceries specializing in food from the subcontinent. We visited one of these on Friday, the Muslim holiday and conveniently located just a block or two from the Kobe Mosque. Quite frankly, I have never seen so many foreigners in one place in Fukuoka. The tiny store was quite literally packed, with more outside waiting to get in. Just to browse the shelves we had to walk in a slow moving line. But that was all part of the fun, checking out selections and taking in the foreign languages.




Most of our time was spent at home, where Mutsumi gave dad an impromptu yoga lesson and where we spent much of the days being entertained by our now one-year old niece, Shiori.






Here you can see her holding her nose, a gesture she has come to associate with the question, Ikutsu? or, How old are you? In her one-year old brain, ikutsu has become mixed up with the word kusai, or smelly.

#