Today we woke up early to attend a Buddhist fire ritual. I grew up in a Christian household and have never experienced any other religion before, so I was intrigued for this. The ceremony was performed by two monks, one by the main table and another by the gong instrument. They both recited prayers while the monk by the main area kept adding wood to the fire. The fire got larger as they both started chanting louder and faster, which was a cool touch to the ceremony. I felt it wouldn’t be polite to take pictures or videos, so I don’t have any pictures of the ceremony. After the ceremony, we went to Reihokan Museum. I loved the location of this museum. Several of the museums we’ve visited so far usually are surrounded by whatever city we are in, which is what made this one a little different. It was nice to walk around and be able to enjoy what I was seeing more. I also liked this museum because it had so many cool artifacts. It was interesting to see how the art style and materials used to create art pieces evolved over the years. I also think it’s amazing that such old art has been able to be preserved. There were art pieces from 1200, which is really old. I didn’t even know art pieces with the materials they used could be preserved for that long, and it makes me wonder how they were able to be kept in such great shape for that long.
A take on the intersection of tradition and modernity- the fact that these art pieces were once used for some sort of decoration, and now they are placed in glass displays. It goes to show what significance these pieces had in culture and are a way to show the timeline of changes within not only the style, but the materials used show the technological process of Japan as well. On the same grounds of this museum, there were a lot of temples and shrines. At this point during the trip, I had become more comfortable with breaking off from the group and exploring the places we go to alone. I like doing things at my own pace, and I also felt like I was able to appreciate some places more because I was alone and got to think to myself. The grounds were beautiful and I just can’t express my admiration for the architecture. I took lots of pictures so I could bring myself back to the place. I genuinely felt at peace when I was there.
After this museum, we went back to Osaka and stayed at the same hotel as last time. Our second time in Osaka, we went to Doutonbori. We found a place to eat where we made our own meals. I decided to make some yakisoba and I think it turned out pretty well. We all were a little cautious since we had never been to a place like this, but we had such a fun time figuring it all out. We wanted to go shopping after dinner, but unfortunately most places closed at 9 and by the time we finished dinner it was almost 9. Other than that, we had a fun time!
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