East Eats West

You smack me and I will be happy!

The Japanese are the friendliest, respectful and safety-conscious people I have ever met. But not only the people are friendly, even the machines from the ticketing machine and the car are friendly and say a hundred times sorry or warn you. In the train the staff warns you about leaving things behind, about the gap, about not to run and not to miss the next train. If you enter a restaurant all the staff hails you welcome. At the parking attendants usher you to next empty space. And every one does it while smiling and bowing. I smile and wait. I smile and be ushered to my seat. I smile and have my blood-pressure taken in the gym. I smile and the lady in the elevator presses the button. You guess I am the happiest person in the world? Sometimes I miss something: I miss that someone is rude to me. I miss being ignored. I miss being rude myself. I miss machines that do not talk. Sometimes I get this mental picture. I get the desire not to smile. I get the desire to stop them smiling just for once. I do not understand the British term “happy slapping”!

Please give us faster auto focus

Modern technology gives us everything: 8 mega pixel cameras with anti-shake, digital zoom and LCD displays. But one tiny problem remains unsolved: the stupid user. Every time I ask a Japanese person, young or old, to take a picture of me, the just press the button and click, I get a picture that is not sharp. Today I tried to get a picture in the Sony Technology Centre from the hostess. Click, another blurred picture of me and Aibo. I asked her again and explained the system. Yes you guessed right, another blurred picture. Most of my Japanese friends showed me their holiday pictures and guess what: them on a beautiful mountain: blurred. Them together with friends at the concert: blurred. You get the idea. So please gods of technology, give us super-fast auto focus or the one-click sharpen-button for the camera!

Interesting facts about Japan - Sumo

12 out of 42 top ranking Sumo wrestlers are foreigners. They come from Georgia, Bulgaria, Mongolia and Ukraine. A famous Bulgarian Sumo wrestler just won an important tournament in Kyushu in the final match against a yokozuna (grand master). The current yokozuna comes from Mongolia.

The missing Japanese religious book

My hosts Taki and Hiroko invited me to an Onsen (hot springs) in Hakone. While soaking in the hot sulfuric water we discussed religion. Taki pointed out to me that in Buddhism in Japan came from India via China to Japan. What is missing in Japanese Buddhism is one holy book like the Bible or the Koran. Buddhism is very much a philosophy on life and how to lead life as much as a religion. Buddhism in Japan is dominated by different sects like Soto and Rinzai and influential masters, each of them having their own belief. Most Japanese attend Buddhist New Year celebrations while burials are held by Shinto priests and they get married Western style. What is very much missing in Japan is the priest as moral guide like in Catholicism. Buddhist texts are written in ancient Japanese scripture and not understandable for normal Japanese. So Japanese rely on monks and priests interpreting the texts for them. A reformation like in Christianity has not taken place in Japan. Nowadays Buddhism and Shinto are very much dominated by tradition and rituals as the Zazen.

This reminds me of Christianity in Europe nowadays that has lost most of its appeal to modern people. Being still very much rooted in ancient rituals and teachings Christianity has lost its relevance for daily life in our enlightened and technical world. Only young Christian groups that worship in an inspiring environment and answer modern day questions attract a following. Old rites and moral authority are rejected. Jesus Christ is used as new leader and pop symbol. He represents hope and relief from suffering. As so many times in history: even though saints do not want to be pictured, humankind strives for representations, images and idols. Buddha instead laid heavy focus on each one striving to lead a good life and following its own paths: way to vague in a world where easy and simple rules are wanted.

Zazen part II at Seishoji, 26th November, 110th day

I visited another temple in Tokyo for Zazen. Its name is Seisjhoji and is not far away from famous Roppongi. To my surprise I was the only practitioner of the English speaking monk (from China). Besides another small Japanese beginners group I was the only one in the new meditation hall. The monk, Shi Fa Guang, even presented me with one of his own calligraphy, what an honor! I preferred this calm setting compared to the stressful buzz at Sojiji.

Sushi for breakfast at the Tsukiji, 25th November, 109th day

It is perfectly normal in Japan to eat salad for breakfast. Do you think this odd? What about some freshly-caught raw fish for breakfast? Today EastEatsWest visited the Tokyo fish-market Tsukiji (Tokyo Central Wholesale Market) at 6.30am (it starts at 5am). The market is a maze of tiny stalls and big wholesale and auction halls bustling with activity. In the land of Sushi and Sashimi freshly-caught fish is crucial for keeping all the restaurants running. The king of all fish is tuna and the world’s best quality is shipped frozen to Japan. Japan consumes about 30 percent of the annual global 1.7 million tuna catch, and its 80 percent of its tuna raw. The favorite tuna is the South Blue Fin which is endangered and managed. These massive fish lie around in halls frozen with tail and fins chopped off bearing all sorts of colored marks indicating price and quality. Workers carefully examine them then drag them with big hooks to trolleys. The tuna is then either sold as bulk (weighing up to 100kg a piece) or in pieces in the specialist fish stalls. Like with beef different parts of tuna make for different quality and you can order them accordingly in the restaurants. The best quality tuna is white and soft as butter. It is called o-toro and can cost up to 25$ a piece of a couple of grams in a restaurant. After being in Japan for a while and having eaten so many times raw fish and can now more or less tell the difference between different qualities of tuna and o-toro is a quality of its own. Besides tuna all sorts of other fish from crabs to shrimps, octopus and eel are sold. There is also an auction house where live and dead fish is sold. So far I looked at Japan as country of supreme risk-aversion: for example we went yesterday to the underground parking of a department store and not less than five security staff guided us to our parking lot, even helping us with taking the ticket out of the (talking) machine! But Tsukiji is different, refreshingly different because risky: with thousands of trucks and little motor-propelled trolleys speeding around Tsukiji is like a bee-hive. I was a couple of times almost overrun and people push and shove, very un-Japanese like. I was enthralled to realize that even Japanese can be daring and risk-taking, if let! 

PS: To be honest, I did not feel to eat Sashimi but had Udon noodle soup instead for breakfast…

Monday night in the metro, 22nd November, 106th day

On Monday night I met my friend Alvin who is on business in Tokyo. On the way home at midnight I walked down the stairs to the subway to find a young business man lying on the platform, snoozing on his attaché case while one station master tried to motivate to get up and another cleaning the unpleasant residue on the floor the poor guy left. A bit later a young American lady on high heels stumbled down the stairs, nearly crashing, and then tried to decipher the announcements on the digital board above her head. I offered to help her and she almost collapsed in my arms. She mumbled something about the other side of the platform and off she went, walking like a drunken sailor. Unfortunately I missed the last subway to my friend’s house so I took another train that terminated a few stops before my destination. The coach was packed with people, mostly business people in suits, all looking terribly tired at 1am and the majority peacefully sleeping, seated or standing. At the final destination everyone got out and I found myself in a huge queue of about 70 people waiting for a taxi. I got home at about 1.30am for a hefty charge of 40$ for the 15 minutes cab ride.

The eerie thing about my Monday night experience was the total silence, discipline and calmness the Japanese endure this ordeal: No joking, no talking and no laughter, just quietness! Sorry, no pictures here!

Zazen at the Sojiji Temple in Tsurumi, 20th November, 104th day

Japan is plastered with Zen-Buddhist temples and the two prevailing sects are Soto and Rinzai. The differences are in how they practice their believes and meditate. Zazen, sitting and thinking about not thinking, is their religious practice besides festivals and other ceremonies. Besides K1, onsens and Shodo one of my major reasons for visiting Japan was attending an Zazenkai, the ritual of Zazen, in a Zen temple.

My host Taki helped me to find the head temple of the Soto sect in Japan, the Sojiji temple between Tokyo and Yokohama. Each Sunday at one o’clock they practice Zazen and foreign visitors are welcome. The temple compound houses different building and the main temple is a massive wooden construction. Sojiji is an active temple with dozens of monks living there. Upon arrival at the temple a monk clad in black loose clothes who knew a bit of German welcomed me and he led me to the registration office. Most of the amateur Zazen practitioners (actually they are part of a Zazen club) were Japanese in their 50ies, 60ies and 70ies. All of us then got shuffled in a typical line to the large meditation hall. A monk explained the details of how to meditate because each temple has its own rules (a bit similar to Christian congregations). We entered the hall, bowing frequently to monks and were then lined up in front of raised tatami mats equipped with meditation pillows, facing the bare white wall. The hall was a traditional Japanese wood structure with sliding doors, a Buddha altar, dim lighting and no heating (there is never heating in a Buddhist temple). The monk then in detail described how to sit (Lotus position), breath (do not think about breathing) and what to think (think about not thinking). We bowed about a dozen times and finally were allowed to sit down after taking shoes and socks off (one always meditates barefoot). After some sideways and forward and backward movements in order to find a comfortable sitting position we took the meditation position with our legs folded, the back straight, the chin tucked in, the eyes half open looking down 45° and the hands folded. Upon a bell ring the entire temple turned silent (the monks and more regular practitioners were sitting in the temple inside). The attending monks with their long wooden sticks gave everyone a crisp slap on the shoulder in order to raise the spirits. During Zazen if one feels drowsy or the mind wanders one can raise his hands and a monk comes and gives one slap on the right shoulder with the wooden stick. I fought with my legs falling asleep and all too sudden the first 30 minutes were over. We got up and walked slowly in a circle before leaving the hall for a five minutes walk to the other side of the temple were a priest held a Dharma talk for one hour in Japanese (glad they gave me an English Soto Zen booklet that I could read). The Dharma talk is very much like a Christian sermon only that the Japanese language is very monotonous (a few elderly men took the opportunity for a nap). After the talk we were again walked in line back to the meditation hall where we did another 30 minutes of sitting. At the end of this session, two hours after the start of the Zazenkai, everyone finished the ritual with cleaning the meditation hall with brooms and wet towels.

For the beginners the Zazenkai ended with a question and answer session over a cup of green tea with a young Buddhist master.

I surprised him and the attending Japanese with my question about how one can be a good Buddhist and a good business man at the same time. His answer was that everyone has to follow his way and just do one thing at a time. Instead of thinking about competing with others one should focus on his path, one shall not be greedy and be happy here and now, one has to accept reality and live with care and attention for fellow humans. At five o’clock I left the Q&A and went on my one hour way back home.

Overall I felt the Zazenkai too much focused on rituals and behavior instead of creating an environment for peace and meditation. The site was very inspiring but monks running around in flying robes do not create not the perfect atmosphere for contemplative Zazen. The monk translating was hectic and distracted. I was surprised to see so much bustling energy in a place where everyone should have ample time.

My Impact - making the world a better place

My friends Joanna and Wolfang are travelling the world  interviewing people that make a positive impact (hence the name of their website). They have compiled hundreds of interviews of engaging and responsible people and are planning to write a book about it. Start to make your impact and visit their website www.myImpact.ch or send them an email.

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