Doing these things that I do

Tuesday was a national holiday (Autumn Equinox Day), so I decided the best use of my time would be a bike ride with Kendall and her host dad. I woke up way too early for a holiday (645, much earlier than I ever have to get up for school) so I could meet them at the bike rental shop. I rented a sweet red mountain bike and off we went. Kobayashi-san led us through some neighborhoods until we started going up Kitayama (lit. Northern Mountain). We reached two different peaks and passed through a couple really beautiful towns in the middle of nowhere on this enormous mountain. The roads were lined with incredibly beautiful forests. 

Wednesday was my first taiko practice. I'm not quite sure how to describe this experience. I felt both like a complete outsider but also immensely comfortable. Everyone was so skillful at drumming! A couple of middle-aged women helped me out a lot--not just with rhythms but also with buying the special socks that I will need for playing taiko for the rest of the year. One really cool bald guy spoke really great English, and he was really helpful with providing me with sheet music of rhythms that I need to learn and try to internalize before the next practice. 

"In Zen it is said: 'After satori is the same as before satori.' Before undertaking religious training, mountains are mountains, willows are green, blossoms are crimson. During practice, however, mountains are no longer mountains, nor willows green, nor blossoms crimson. Passing beyond this, again the mountains are mountains, willows are green, blossoms crimson; but these blossoms open in no-mind and scatter in no-mind, free of the impositions of our attachments. Though they appear the same, one has emerged into a world transformed."

Today I relaxed a bit, only the second day in almost four weeks that I have slept later than 930. I got my homework out of the way and went into Kyoto for a Doshisha/AKP mixer party that was actually a lot more fun than I had thought it was going to be. It was at this weird Mexican restaurant with pretty terrible food (I kept thinking about that last burrito I had a few days before I left California). But, it was nomi-hodai (all you can drink) so after a little bit everyone was makka-iro (this literally means 'too-red color' but sort of translates to Asian glow). I met lots of random people and could almost feel my language skills improving. I know I must be better at speaking Japanese now than I used to be, because even last week I would have had absolutely no idea how to communicate the idea of a beer jacket in Japanese. 

After the party, my friends and I went with a bunch of new Japanese friends down to the river. We were going to hang out and talk but I was almost immediately distracted by the sounds of nearby drums. For the past few weeks I have been wondering where all the live music in this city is, and now I know it is at the river at Sanjo: a drumming/fire dancer group called Asobi (this is a play on words: 'asobi' means 'to play', but the character for 'bi' has been replaced with the 'bi' that means 'fire') that plays there most Saturday nights. I was completely transfixed on the drummers, and met some of them in between songs. Live music is really going to heal the world (and I guess fire dancing won't hurt either). They are playing at a music festival tomorrow that I really want to go to, but I already have plans to visit the Suntory whiskey factory. (More nomi-hodai?)