Our friend Shu's Temple!

We have a friend named Shuuko that we have known for a while. He does the lighting for a DJ friend of ours, and he's pretty good at it. What we found out much later was that he was a monk, so we wanted to go visit his temple in neighboring Imabari. But it turns out, he isn't just a monk in the temple, he is the master! He is the 22nd generation in his family to be the master of his temple, which has been around for 586 years! He inherited it from his grandfather, because his father died when he was still in high school. So he should have been 23rd. We came and we saw him do his morning ritual, which was actually quite musical involving a gourd and a singing bowl. He is actually really talented at being a monk, he attended a special Buddhist university in Kyoto and has done all kinds of various training in mountain sanctuaries and the like. He primarily works in funerals, like most Buddhist monks in Japan, and his mom owns a flower shop on the grounds. She is really sweet, and we got a very fancy and official Japanese tea ceremony which was something I wanted to experience for a long time. The maccha was sooo strong! Some of the ceramics were 300 years old! Then Shu brought out a book written by the founder of the temple almost 600 years go! He also showed us a scroll painting depicting Buddhist heaven and hell, and I found that it was remarkably similar to some christian parables. Its quite amazing, seeing as how these religions formed thousands of miles apart. Actually the Amida Buddha, which is the main deity of the Jodo sect, and many aspects of the sect, are quite similar to Jesus and Christianity. Shu drew a lot of comparisons as well, it was quite interesting. He also gifted me some incense that his grandfather (mother's side) makes in a specialty shop in Kyoto. Then he took us out to eat Unagi (freshwater eel)! After almost a year in Japan, a wholly new meal is quite rare, so I was thrilled. And the food was delicious! It WAS weird to think, though, that the eel was alive when we came into the shop. Now that's fresh! All in all it was an amazing day, I was so interested to have a look into the world of a professional monk, especially one who I've known for so long! Shu and his mom were really happy to have visitors, because let's face it, his clientele usually is in mourning and foreign friends don't often come visit. I am looking forward to coming again, because Shu's wife is a registered expert of the Tea ceremony and wants us over for a full experience!