Off to the Temple

This evening we will go to a Buddhist Temple and spend the night. The two groups who visited China and Japan on the program we are following also went to the temple, and their stories have become legend. We are hoping for warmish weather (it hasn't been too bad this week) because we will be sleeping in a place with no heat, so we are coming prepared with layers of clothes. We'll take a bus there and walk home; it's supposed to be a beautiful place in the mountains of Kameoka, not too far from our university, Kyoto Gakuen. We will be eating somewhat austere vegetarian food, sitting in lotus position, and listening to the chanting of sutras, following along with the meditative practices of the Buddhist monks. I am thinking of the experience as something comparable to staying at a medieval monastery, although I hope a little warmer. Here are some websites where you can see where we will stay, and listen to some chanting. I'm actually looking forward to going to sleep at 9 p.m., although we may be awakened at 4:50 a.m.!

http://www.naritasan.org/flash/okyou.swf
http://shofukuji.net/music/singyo2.mp3
http://www.tekishin.org/english/index.htm