I just got the photos from this up as well.
My friend Mary Beth’s supervisor, Madoka, is married to a Zen Buddhist priest (who took the name “Zen,” actually). Since Madoka is one of th nicest people in the world, she and Zen invited a small group of foreign English teachers to come have a meditation workshop at their temple one Saturday morning.
Madoka and Zen
Seven foreigners doing zen meditation in one place is apparently a big enough even to make the nightly prefectural news. A whole camera crew came and filmed us, and we ended up on the nightly news across the entire prefecture. Whee. Incidentally, it’s extremely difficult to meditate with a camera in your face.
The day included an orientation to Zen Meditation, a 20 minute meditation session, a short and informal tea ceremony, a delicious lunch of traditional temple food prepared by Madoka and her mother, and a short tour of the temple and grounds afterwards. There are pictures of all of this in the set.
