Meditation at the temple in Kyoto |
The oldest tea house |
By Andy and Lauren
andy today, after leaving our final host family, i went to a famous tea company that is renowned all over japan for making the best tea. the family who started it has been around for 500 years and the retainer [tea master] showed us different newspaper and magazine clippings about their tea. after showing us around the upstairs we went to the back where he showed us how it was made. after, we were allowed to grind, make and drink our own tea, which can be really expensive -- 500 dollars for every kilo if i can remember. now after making and finished drinking tea we're all on a train heading to go eat lunch.
this is lauren. I haven't actually written in this since the airplane, but no worries, I'm alive and well mom and dad. Anyway, in recent news, I got beaten by a buddhist monk today. I'm okay, but Aly has welts. You see, we went to this awesome temple, and we did this meditation thing. The monk has a big stick to hit you with in case you start to fall asleep. He'll also hit you just if you ask him to. Aly, Nagai Sensei, Zurn Sensei, Benwitz Sensei, and I all requested to get hit. Afterwards the monk told us a little bit about his religion. It was fascinating; it had a lot to do with appreciating the beauty around you and always doing the best you can do in all of your pursuits. He also talked about how important it is to love yourself, because you are the most important person in your world. Well, I guess I should go eat lunch now.