Who wants to speak English?

That was the key thought floating through my mind as I lay on my bed in the dormitory at 11pm last night. Two people from denmark, one from French Canada, and two from France, and all having very lively conversations. At one point, the danish people tell the french people that they can speak French, and everybody is happy! Except me, sitting in the corner grumbling in my own strange language...

The highlight of that day was a tour/meditation in a zen temple. Finding it was a challenge, as I attempted to hop from one temple to the other on foot...big mistake. Kyoto has a habit of switching North with West, and West with East, and I spend a lot of time retracing my steps after walking in the wrong direction for several kilometres. And I don't think I'll ever be able to navigate the maps of Kyoto. Still, I do eventually find my way to the temple after an hour or so.

My companion from the tour is a very nice guy from Berlin. It is nothing like I had in mind; I thought it would be fat Americans yelling their way around a temple "Look hun, they've got them paper door things!". But instead, me and Christoph (That's what I call him, he looked very artistic) spend hours chatting in English with one of the monks. Christoph is a artist/musician from Berlin, and his enthusiasm for every painting and picture is contagious. Check out his website http://www.chrisgertges.de/ and his myspace http://www.myspace.com/chrisgertges

Being shown a temple in depth is an amazing experience; we are allowed into all the room that would usually be marked NO ENTRY, and are pointed out every detail and secret. There are quite a few of these, and what seemed like an ordinary gold screen painting turns out to be fascinating. One of them is 250 years old without a single restoration, yet still amazingly vibrant since the pigments are made from rubies, ivory, emerald and gold. One painting contains a visual illusion based on which side of the room you sit on, where walking from one side of the room to the other the perspective changes.

Another contains secret Christian symbols, dating back from the time when Christianity was persecuted in Japan, and this Zen temple harboured secret practicitioners. A rose in winter symbolized the birth of Jesus, a white Lily symbolized Mary, and even the holy trinity found a place as three birds, one of which was white (the holy spirit). We also see the bell hidden within the temple for over 400 years, which the Japanese army attempted to recquisition for its iron, but the head priest intervened to protect it. A committee is currently deciding whether to designate it a "National Treasure", and members of the Vatican are soon travelling in Japan to see the bell. But for now, its just me, Christoph, and the bell, which the monk rings several times for us. A sound of rebellion that has echoed through the ages...Having always seen Christianity as orthodox, the idea of Christianity as an underground, secret religion opens up a whole new perspective for me.

We go into the tea room and talk for hours more, about anything that comes to mind: Zen, Mayan spirituality, Japanese art, and so forth. The monk who shows us around is a bit of a jet setter, having just arrived back from Seattle, and holds a degree in Psychology. He has been all around the world, and much of the conversation between the two focuses on European places I have never heard of. And if I ever go to Berlin, I have a place at Christoph's house :D.

After walking around for about a million more hours (lost of course), I find my way to a beautiful park in time for sunset. I talk to a Japanese woman who uses a very thick Kyoto dialect, making most of what she says incomprehensible, but it still sounds nice. After my day of wandering, I soak my feet in a nearby onsen, reputed to be the best in Kyoto. In addition to the usual array of baths, there is a herbal bath and a "Takaon" bath, Japanese for "hotter than the sun". I spent a good amount of time in both, and my cares of the day are forgotten.

Budget is looking much better now - despite the $20 temple tour, I have kept my budget to $45 a day (much less than $75 a day). I came down hard on food, and now spend only $10 a day - $3 on a big delicious breakfast of miso soup, grilled salmon, rice and orange juice, $4 on various snacks which now constitute lunch (mainly onigiri, rice balls with various fillings), and $3 on dinner, beef curry (the cheapest dinner meal in Japan that I can find). The only thing I am waiting to see is how my nutrition ends up - I spent a while trying to figure out whether I was getting enough Vitamin A, B, C, D, E, K, R, and Q, but then I looked at my water and noticed that it advertised its high "Vanadium" content. WHAT THE HELL IS VANADIUM?! Giving up on balancing all these complex micro-nutrients, I took a multi-vitamin instead. I'll give my new diet a week or so - if I develop scurvy, I'll come up with a new idea