Our First Stop, The Second Day in Kanazawa

We headed to J-Mom's cousin's house. Tomoko-san. They live in the same building that houses the temple. It's kind of a small temple and the outside isn't all grand and ornamented.

Tomoko's husband is the head monk and their son is also a monk. They hang out in the temple in kimonos until business calls them and they take off. He sat and read from three different scrolls, rhythmically banged some wooden sticks together and rang a bell. If I knew more about what was going on, I'd happily tell you. Towards the end of the ceremony, we all took turns bowing at the altar and lighting incense. The wooden box to the left of the frame is what J-Mom now has in her bedroom. I was the last to go and the procedure was like this: Walk up to front. Bow to Monk. Kneel. Bow to front. Take incense. Bow. Put in burner. Repeat two more times. Bow. Return to seat.

The reason for our visit was two fold. Above is a picture of the feast we were to have that night. The kids dressed up in kimonos and one little girl performed a fan dance that she's been practicing. The food was great. There was so much sushi and sashimi there. I was seated across from a guy whose daughter is married to a German and he insisted that we share some conversation. I couldn't understand a word he said. It sounded like "Ne Jory! Ne? [japanesejapanesejapanesejapanese] Ne Jory? Ne!?" Ne kind of means "Isn't that right?" I just kept nodding my head. Also, Tomoko's husband, after a few glasses of wine, decided he could speak English. He went about explaining to me the differences between Shin Buddhism (his sect) and Zen Buddhism. Needless to say, I coudn't follow much of it. Zen reaches satori from inside and Shin gets it from Amida. Also, as demonstrated by both Shin monks present, you can still drink, marry, and have a normal haircut.

A picture of Tomoko and her grandson Rito.

Tomoko, her daughter-in-law, Rito, and .... Rito's sister.

Tomoko was extraordinarily nice. I'm sure she appreciates me checking in on her dad (Tokuji) but you could tell she was just kind-hearted. After the dinner party, her son and his friend leaped up to say goodbye to me (we didn't speak the entire party). One kept feeling my arm and forced me to feel his arms and back. They both also backed up to me to find out who was the tallest. The friend was the same height and the young monk was a touch taller. They were both tall by Japanese standards. I forgot to mention that both young men were extremely inebriated. This caused them to be very gregarious and loud. The young monk escorted me to the taxi all the while massaging my lower back, while repeating, "be good! be healthy! take care!" I tried to walk faster to detach his probing fingers but he stayed attached. Five arigatous and I finally made it to the taxi.

Earlier in the day, we went walking and I noticed a good deal on a bok-to (wooden sword- see other blog). It was about half the price of the ones in Yokosuka so we bought it for Noriko. I didn't carry it out to the taxi so I didn't know where it was. As I sat down (in the front), I asked Noriko and parents "Bok-to ga arimasu ka?" Do you have the wooden sword? To this, the driver chuckled loudly. I didn't know, but while the young monk was escorting me out they had been asking (more appropriately described as 'carrying on'- they can be noisy) each other "Where's the umbrella? ( I had it).

Rito feeding the pigeons.

Lunchtime