Walk through any neighbourhood early in the morning, and you can't miss it. The old ladies with brooms. And, no, this doesn't mean that Tokyo neighbourhoods are full of witches (though that certainly would explain some things...), but that the japanese ladies feel some kind of obligation of sweeping the street in front of the house in the morning.

You'd think trees drop their leaves only in the autumn, but no. After some times of sweeping the temple grounds, I can tell you that japanese trees apparently haven't been told this, and instead they drop them whenever they feel like it. I'm afraid to think how it must be in the autumn... And the brooms themselves! You'd never think a bunch of sticks like that would be of any good with leaves, not to mention dust - but it works surprisingly well. Even though it looks like something that would useful only for decorative purposes. I noticed yesterday evening that all this sweeping has also affected my views of what is clean. Or "clean" isn't actually the right word, it's just that I notice the leaves, even when there's few of them, and automatically my thought's go to the broom rack on the temple wall. I'm sad to tell you, though, that sweeping leaves has had no effect what so ever to the order in my room - it's still what I call an "orderly chaos"... *g*

Another thing you see often is the wet ground. After sweeping the leaves and dust away, the ground is dowsed with water - apparently to keep the dust away. I can understand the logic if you live with dirt roads, but in modern cities..? Personally I'm more irritated by the fact that there's puddles everywhere in the mornings, rain or not.

And there certainly is an endless supply of rain these last days. I even woke up twice during the night, only because the rain was so loud (or so it seemed...). No hope of having dry shoes ever again for some time. At least that means I can shut myself in with a good conscience, and drown in with my new bollywood movies - and maybe some of the older ones, too. I'm once again in the bollywood mood, you see. And the sound of rain during the morning zazen was quite nice too. Plus, we didn't have to sweep outside, but instead cleaned the floors inside. It was faster than the outdoors samu, so had to help Maru-san with the breakfast after my favourite task of scrubbing, which resulted in missing spoons and chopsticks which were noticed only after starting the meal - luckily I had left their box downstairs and hadn't taken it back in the kitchen, so that he had only to cross the room, not climb the stairs... Well, next time. :) Making mistakes isn't bad - only repeating them again and again.

I have to confess that I have a passion (obsession?) that is at least as strong as the one with buddhism and monks. And if I'd have to single out THE hottest man in the universe, he wouldn't be a) a monk nor b) japanese (actually, japanese men who aren't monks leave often a great deal to be desired, IMO...).

He's from India.

Hello, my name is Laeticia and I'm passionately in love with Bollywood movies. And especially with anything that has Shahrukh Khan starring in it. It's a passion that surfaces now and then, but when it does I'm totally swept away with it. Why am I writing this now? I just dreamed of Him before I woke up, and have been watching clips from my favorite movies on youtube ever since getting up. I need to get again to my small hindi shop in Akihabara that sells the movies for 1000y - I need more movies. I've bought 8 of them by now...

This all begun when I saw Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G) in 2002. It lie kind of dormant, waking up once a year when I managed to see the movies at the annual film festival in Helsinki, until... Until I came here, and got the soundtrack of Kal Ho Naa Ho (KHNH) from a friend. I must have spent some weeks on youtube looking for videos. And then I found this small shop. This is once again one of those things that make my man question my sanity - and if he'd see me watching the movies he'd leave running. *g* Bollywood dramas are the only movies I cry my eyes out watching - and this means that depending on the movie I might be crying almost half of the movie. And the ones I just mentioned do it for me every time, no matter how many times I watch them - this being also one of my reasons for watching them. This is why I prefer to watch them either by myself or in the darkness of a movie theater - and certainly without my man, he always panics out when I cry. Men... ;)

Anyways. Bollywood movies are long (around 3hrs), full of colors and emotions, and dance scenes. And dancing men. Oh, the dancing men... Or should I say, The Dancing Man. Shahrukh Khan, or SRK as he's know to us no-lifers. It is still a total mystery how the guy can enchant me this deeply. I've never been a fan of anything when younger - no actors, no singers, no tv series, not really. Not like this. Maybe it's like chickenpox - the later you get it the more dangerous it becomes. Just look at me and my monks...

But as with the monks, it's not only him and his good looks (though they certainly help), it's also the intensity of him (and his eyes. Omg, his eyes...). I don't know how to describe it better. And of course the roles he's cast in - I can say that I have absolutely no interest in him as a private person. Whatever it is, though, I'm totally under his spell. And by the way, so has the whole of India been for the last 10 or so years, and his monopoly of male superstardom has only recently started to give way to others. Of course there's always been other stars too, but in his age group he's been the absolute top in a way that has no equal in Hollywood.

The only downside is that all the youtube clips are horribly bad quality and I've found it practically impossible to find any good pics of him in the internet - they're all of the "cute boy next door" -type, while I personally prefer his intense stare. I tried to add a youtube clip, but it didn't want to cooperate. Just do a google image search of him, and ignore all the too cutesey pics. Or better, watch one of these movies: Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Don, Chak De India, Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna or Devdas.

"...and I thought it was a towel or something, but then noticed that little Tarô-kun had wiped shit on my head."

Once again pieces of conversation you wouldn't have thought to hear at a zen temple. ;)

Honestly, I highly doubt that anything can surprise me anymore - I just make a mental note to myself that "this is Japan, after all", and let it go... For example, I've seen here both sugar that doesn't melt in the oven as it should, and poweder sugar that doesn't dissolve into water - now sugar, in my opinion, should BOTH dissolve and melt when heated, so I'm really starting to wonder what is it that we're eating here. Scary...

But anyways, back to the conversation. I did come back to the temple after practise as I was earlier there than what I expected. I heard voices inside but wasn't really sure whether the party had already died, so I sneaked to the back of the house to look from the windows - and lo and behold, still 10 people going on. So, I decided to come in for a time. The baby, Yûya (whose parent's seem to live at the temple, but I'm not sure yet of their exact relationship with the jûshoku, maybe they're his sister/brother, or something - also, the man teaches karate with jûshoku) had woken up and came to be entertained by us, and that's how the discussion drifted to kid excrements, among other baby-related things - the jûshoku's son (whose name isn't really Tarô, but I can't remember what the kid's name really is) had apparently shown his appreciation of seeing the monk who was telling the tale by this unconventional method... You see, all these monks usually have a wife and kids *damn*, so they're as comfortable talking about family life and kids than world poverty (a subject we got on to later when Yûta and most of the others had gone to bed).

The monk was once a again a funny one. He's been friends with our jûshoku for a long long time, but lives now in Kyoto - they still visit each other from time to time and all the older members of our zazenkai knew him quite well. He's also got a very expressive face, and he was making all of us, the baby included, roll on the floor laughing with his impersonations of his friend: "If jûshoku would be here, he'd say..." Jûshoku looks physically like a tough guy (he's a budoka of many years), but he also speaks in a very very masculine way whenever he's not in his official role (meaning drinking in the upper room after the party in the lower one has moved there and most people have gone home), whereas this Kyoto monk was very slightly built and whole his manner was very different - it was absolutely hilarious to see him speaking rolling the "r" like his friend. We didn't go on later that until midnight, since the party had started at 4pm, so I got to bed around the same time I would have done anyway.

Yesterday I was asked by the guys in our morning zazen why I had to leave so early on saturday, meaning when I left at 3pm, but when I told them that I had actually returned AFTER parctise... Well, let's just say that they were highly amused. *g* And told a first-timer woman about the wednesday party and that I'm always staying until late because I like sake. Well, I should soon get a sign and hang it around my neck that say something to the effect of "this strange foreigner girl likes sake - give me some", the way they are going on about it... But then again, as I said before about the japanese and teasing, it's a good sign. :)

I just wrote a great long thing and then this thingie goes and somehow manages to delete it. *angrygrowl*

Now it has to wait until tomorrow, I'm too tired to do it again right away.

Good night, maybe it re-appears during the night...

I'm bored and like to fill out these questionnaires, so here you go.

1. First thing you wash in the shower?  Hair

2. What color is your favorite hoodie?  Dark Brown

3. Would you kiss the last person you kissed again?  Yes, it must have been my boyfriend... In January. Long-distance relationships suck.

4. Do you plan outfits?  Not really - it depends what is clean and what is the weather...

5. How are you feeling RIGHT now?  Tired, a bit post-hang-over but still relatively calm

6. Whats the closest thing to you thats red?  Pink: post-it notes meant for marking books. Red: The covers of Nihon Bungaku Taikei edition of Heike Monogatari

7. Do you say aim or a-i-m?  Don't understand the question...

8. Tell me about the last dream you remember having?  As I dozed in the afternoon while listening to sutra chanting, I saw a dream where I was talking with a guy from our zazenkai, Maru-san. But I have no idea what we talked about. I just remember being surprised when I woke up and realized it was a dream after all.

9. Did you meet anybody new today?   Nope. Small circles here...

10. What are you craving right now?  Sleep. And Mt. Kôya with it's handsome young monks. And french fries.

11. Do you floss? No, I always forget. Am lazy...

12. What comes to mind when I say cabbage?  Cabbage snacks served at a bar where none of my friends want to go. I like cabbage.

13. When was the last time you talked on aim?  Don't have aim, so...

14. Are you emotional?  Yes. Esp. when tired and stressed out.

15. Would you dance to the taco song?  Taco song? Depends on how drunk I would be.

16. Have you ever counted to 1,000?  Probably not.

17. Do you bite into your ice cream or just lick it?  Both.

18. Do you like your hair?  Definitely, though our opinions about how it should behave are often quite different.

19. Do you like yourself?  Yes, definitely.

20. Have you ever met a celebrity?  Define celebrity. I'd say yes, but you might not know them.

21. Do you like cottage cheese?  Yes!

22. What are you listening to right now?  Sûtra chanting by Shingonshû monks of the Ninnaji sûtra study department

23. How many countries have you visited?  Let me see... maybe 14 + Finland

24. Are your parents strict?   There are rules, but they're not too strict

25. Would you go sky diving?  I have already, last August

26. Would you go out to eat with George W. Bush? Depends on who would be paying for it.

27. Would you throw potatoes at him?  Don't think so... I'm usually pretty polite

28. Is there anything sparkly in the room you're in? My buddhist accessories - the ringing bowl, its cushion and the stick used to ring it.

29. Have you ever been in a castle?  In several, in several countries

30. Do you rent movies often?  Not really. Sometimes I'm renting them all the time for some weeks, and then months go by without even one.

31. Who sits in behind you in your math class? I'm done with maths thank you very much. 3 years in math-specialized high school was more than enough...

33. Do you own a gun?  Actually, I do. A .22 target pistol

34. Can you count backwards from 74?  Think so.

35. Who are you going to be with tonight?  Me, myself and I. Plus chanting monks. :D

36. Brown or white eggs?  Don't matter.

37. Do you own something from Hot Topic?  Nope

38. Ever been on a train?  Yep.

39. Ever been in love?  Definitely

41. Are you too forgiving?  Certainly not.

42. Do you use chap stick? What is a chap stick?

43. What is your best friend doing tomorrow? I don't know... She's in Finland. :(

44. Can you use chop sticks? Like a native japanese. Ok, not THAT well, but I could say I'm fluent.

45. Ever have cream puffs? Cream Puffs? This questionnaire opens whole new worlds for me - chap stick, cream puffs...

46. Have you ever seen The Butterfly Effect?  No

47. What was the last question you asked? Cream Puffs? :)

48. What was the last CD you bought? Oda Kazumasa: Jiko Besuto 2 (in January)

49. Boys or girls?  I prefer men, thank you.

50. What is your bus number for school?  Right now I walk to the university (5min walk, great!), but in Finalnd I have to take bus no. 132

51. Is your hair curly?  Wavy and stubborn as hell.

52. Last time you cried?  Don't remember - some months ago I think.

53. Ever walked into a wall?  Nope

54. Do looks matter?  In some things. For example, if we're talking about monks... ;)

55. Have you ever bought anything from Pac Sun? I think this questionnaire isn't meant for people like me.

56. Have you ever slapped someone?  Yes, but only when they really deserve it and have been warned a few times.

57. Favorite time of the year?  Autumn. definitely autumn.

58. Favorite color?  Orange, red, brown, purple.

59. Are you sarcastic?  Who, me?

60. Do you have any tattoos?  No, and probably won't take any.

61. The last person you held hands with? Could be my boyfriend, could be a friend.

62. Do you sleep with the TV on? I don't have a tv, so, no.

63. Where was your default picture taken at? Does this mean my profile pic? In Tôdaiji, Nara. It's the biggest Buddha statue in Japan. And I'm quite proud of the pic, if I may say so.

64. Do you hate or dislike more than 3 people?  I don't hate people, but dislike, not that's another story... Definitely more than 3.

65. Do you like your life right now? Yes. I don't want to return to Finland!

67. What is your favorite animal?  Cat

68. What was the most recent thing you bought? Vitamin Guard, to get rid of my hangover. If we're talking about something bigger, a bunch of books last monday (15 000y - 150$?)

69. Do you have good vision?  Nope, I have to wear glasses and even then it's far from perfect.

70. Can you hula hoop?  I did when I was a kid, but haven't tried lately.

71. Could you ever forgive a cheater?  Depending on the situation, maybe.

72. Do you have a job? Not really. I'm writing an article for a book, but I don't think it really counts. I'm a full time grad student.

73. Can you handle the truth?  Yes. Even when it's not nice nor fun.

74. What are you wearing?  t-shirt, a hoodie and my meditation pants.

75. Have you ever crawled through a window?  Yes, including one time when I had to break the window...