Updates

I feel like I say this too often here but I have fallen behind again on my blogging. So just to catch up with my trip I will write some short blurbs about what I have done recently and hopefully go back later and go into more detail (I have a Kanpo piece in the works but I dont have my laptop here to work on it). Thursday and Friday last week were our last days with Denise before she flew back to America. Thursday was mainly about Kanpo and Friday was about minorities in Japan, and like I said I will probably go back once I have more time because both were really fascinating. I should also mention that on Friday at SUMS (Shiga University of Medical Sciences) a part was thrown for us so we could meet students here. This was very nice of SUMS to do for us and it was really fun. There was loads of good food and we met a bunch of new people!

Saturday I spent most of it looking at temples and shrines with my otoosan. The first one we went to was one of my favorites because you had to walk like 2km through the mountains, away from civilization, to get there. It was almost as though it was place where it was long ago so that you had to almost walk through the woods and kind of forget everything behind you and focus on where you were going before you could get there. I really like this concept of almost purification before getting there, but that might just be the Shinto sinking in. Next we went to Mt. Hiei, which was this HUGE mountain overlooking both Otsu and Kyoto. Otoosan was telling me that pretty much the whole mountain was considered a temple. I could see what he meant when we got to the top. There had to have been at least 12 shrines and temples to visit. I think the one that was my favorite was a Buddhist temple that was at the top of the flight of steep stairs. The set up of the temple was some steps up to a small outside vestibule where you would remove your shoes. After you did that there was a small enclosed garden that had a wood path leading you into the main building. You entered into this semi lit room where you would go kneel before a small fence facing another room that was not too visible when you walked in, but once you got up to the fence and knelt the view was amazing. I was just telling my friend that I wish I could have gotten a picture but it would not have done it any justice. I will try and describe it as best as I can. The air was heavy with incense. Even though it was only 2pm outside, the sun was mostly blocked and replaced with many candles. As I knelt down I was astounded at what was on the other side. Many candles lit up the the large space beyond the fence. In the center was a large statue of a Buddha. Not the stereotypical fat jolly Buddha but a more sober serene Buddha, sitting with his right hand raised. Around him were statues of what I believe were other smaller deities. The walls were covered in this round black and gold globe like decorations. It was breathtaking! It is amazing that after all of these years this shrine has been here it still maintains its original beauty.

After seeing a few more temples we started our decent. This mountain was so high that going up and down caused your ears to pop like on an airplane even though I was in a car. I found this amazing because I am from Michigan where it is flat. After making a few quick stops places on the way home, we had dinner with the rest of the family.

Nothing too exceptional happened Sunday except going back to Hikone for the afternoon to do Karaoke with my friends back there. It was really fun and I got in some quality songs because this was the first karaoke place I had been that had Panic! at the Disco (my favorite band). I will admit however, I am no Brendon Urie.

Post Op Picture.

Monday was probably one of the best class days so far because we got to learn about MRI image guided surgery AND THEN PREFORM IT! I mean it was only on a block of agar gel with a hypotheitcal tumor but we still did a pretty legitimate procedure with the Double Donut MRI and the Microwave probes to coagulate the hypothetical tumors. This was very interesting and a wonderful opportunity to try this type of procedure first hand. The rest of that day and today were lectures from various professors at SUMS that were interesting but I will be honest did not top the surgery. The only bad part about the surgery was that I forgot to take my bus pass out of my pocket and the MRI deactivated it because to the magnets but it was an easy fix. Just had to go to the Keihan Bus Office and ask them to remake it.

Well there are some quick updates. Hopefully I can find sometime this week to finish my piece on Kanpo and maybe a few others about other topics covered.