I woke with a feeling of shaking underneath me. Professor Schulz jokes that it was him getting out of bed, but it wasn't, it was a category one earthquake from the nearby county of Matsuyama.
This morning after breakfast, we were met with a few options of which to spend our day. There are only two things on the agenda, cave meditation and a traditional tea ceremony. I opted for both and hopped on the bus to head off to the cave meditation. The temple where it is located is at the top of the mountain, and gave a mesmerizing view of the surrounding mountains, much like the view from the women's pilgrimage trail at Koyasan.
The few of us that opted for the cave meditation wore white covers, supposedly a spiritual protector.
The hike up to the cave was steep. Once we got to the top, we met a stout, petite women who motioned us to enter a shack. There we once again had to fit ourselves through two poles about 8 inches apart, at first I thought it was a ritual, then I concurred that it was to double check that we would fit in the cave. I had no idea what we were in for. We threw salt around our shoulders and cleansed ourselves with water before entering the cave. She lead our group and explained the history and details of the cave in Japanese. Professor Glassman translated.
At the mouth of the cave, she gave each of us a candle and instructed us to always keep it in front of us. This was no easy feat. As soon as we stepped into the cave, there was squeezing, crawling, and some of us even had to lie down. I could only imagine what it would be like to do this in the dark.
The cave is supposedly where Kobo Daishi meditated before he founded Koyasan. Here, he warded off a dragon which ate the people who would try to crawl through the cave. The dragon was forever embedded in the cave, and people could safely go through.
The cave also housed 5 natural formations of Buddhist deities. On the way back, we would repent our sins, clear ourselves from them, and be rebirthed by crawling through a womb like tunnel. It was an amazing experience, but very hard on the knees. They yelled at me tonight.
We went back to the lodgings to eat lunch with the rest of the group. We had a beautiful boxed lunch with tempura.
Next, we hopped on the bus again and headed to a quaint little house that served us green tea in a traditional tea ceremony.
There were two petite little women who went through all the formalities. Because there were slot of us, they did it in the most traditional way for Professors Francl and Glassman, and Atsuko who accompanied us.
Every move they made was meticulous and significant. At the end they explained to us why they performed such movements and answered questions we had about the ceremony.
Dinner followed, as the day has gone by very quickly. It was shabu shabu. But never as I've had it before. The broth was made from soy milk, which apparently makes it healthier. For the sides, an assortment of vegetables and yummy mushrooms, and meat Udon for the filler. It was delicious and everyone was full for the first time. I think this was my favorite meal of the last two weeks.
The night ended with a traditional Japanese dance by Atsuko and two other women from the neighborhood. And her teacher, who apparently is pretty famous, also performed a dance for us. What a treat!
Each group thanked each other for the hospitality and off we went to do our own things, mostly pack.
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