金曜日, 6月 02, 2006
Yesterday was another loong day. I got up at about 4:30~5 to write my paper for metropolitan tokyo, my japanese presentation on a recent news event (i talked about the earthquake in Java... 地震 =じしん =earthquake), and got some of my reading done...
But i had to leave for school early because I had to print my paper there... it realyl sucks not having a printer...
so, i went to classes and then in our japanese culture class we discussed mizuko kuyou, which is the practice of appeasing the spirits of dead featuses... which are called mikuko, literally...water children.
birth control wasn't legalized in japan until the 90's but abortions have been legal for a really long time.. since the 40's or so, i think. so, until birth control was legal, most women just had abortions. I think the statistic is about 60% of women have had one or something. any who, many women were having problems, falling ill and whatever- (it was around mid-life crisis time for them) and many of the shrines and temples preyed on their emotional problems and attributed them to the mizuko. They charged them exorbitant(sp) fees to perform ceremonies and put up statues, etc for the mizuko to appease them. While this is usually in connection to buddhism, there is no contextual support for this practice and many of the main sects of buddhism refuse to perform these ceremonies. however, because of the popularity of mizuko kuyou, many people have asked for these ceremonies and so their temples oblige. That's the reason that the Zojoji temple in tokyo has them.
then we went into zojoji temple and there was just a monk and a woman chanting for a while, then a bunch of monks came out and chanted at the main statue accompanied with gongs, and drums, it was really peaceful. when i can upload video, you'll see.
after we got back, i went to my us and east asia class and then came home.... and finished The Rule of Four...kinda like davinci code in that it seeks to reveal the secrets held within riddles encoded in an apocryphal text... but rather slow... it was a book to read once...
anywho, i don't know if i mentioned it, but i got a postcard from elissa, who's in china with a friend right now. so that was really cool, to get a postcard in japan from someone in china.
um.. i think that's it.
today through tuesday(maybe monday, i don't rememebr) i'm going to kyoto. that's pretty cool. i'm not sure if i'm taking my computer because i do'nt think i'll have any place to access the internet so it's not worth it. Plus, we're staying in a hostel and i don't know if its worth risking it. so, i'll probably update when i get back.
[fin.]
But i had to leave for school early because I had to print my paper there... it realyl sucks not having a printer...
so, i went to classes and then in our japanese culture class we discussed mizuko kuyou, which is the practice of appeasing the spirits of dead featuses... which are called mikuko, literally...water children.
birth control wasn't legalized in japan until the 90's but abortions have been legal for a really long time.. since the 40's or so, i think. so, until birth control was legal, most women just had abortions. I think the statistic is about 60% of women have had one or something. any who, many women were having problems, falling ill and whatever- (it was around mid-life crisis time for them) and many of the shrines and temples preyed on their emotional problems and attributed them to the mizuko. They charged them exorbitant(sp) fees to perform ceremonies and put up statues, etc for the mizuko to appease them. While this is usually in connection to buddhism, there is no contextual support for this practice and many of the main sects of buddhism refuse to perform these ceremonies. however, because of the popularity of mizuko kuyou, many people have asked for these ceremonies and so their temples oblige. That's the reason that the Zojoji temple in tokyo has them.
then we went into zojoji temple and there was just a monk and a woman chanting for a while, then a bunch of monks came out and chanted at the main statue accompanied with gongs, and drums, it was really peaceful. when i can upload video, you'll see.
after we got back, i went to my us and east asia class and then came home.... and finished The Rule of Four...kinda like davinci code in that it seeks to reveal the secrets held within riddles encoded in an apocryphal text... but rather slow... it was a book to read once...
anywho, i don't know if i mentioned it, but i got a postcard from elissa, who's in china with a friend right now. so that was really cool, to get a postcard in japan from someone in china.
um.. i think that's it.
today through tuesday(maybe monday, i don't rememebr) i'm going to kyoto. that's pretty cool. i'm not sure if i'm taking my computer because i do'nt think i'll have any place to access the internet so it's not worth it. Plus, we're staying in a hostel and i don't know if its worth risking it. so, i'll probably update when i get back.
[fin.]
