So, between that small gathering of friends, it seems we went through the entire bottle of Glenfiddich rather quickly. In the span of no more than two hours, it was all gone, and here I am, just a wee bit tipsy, holding the bottle upside-down to show that it's empty. After this, we all went to the traditional, Japanese "ni-jikai" or "second party." I'll tell ya -- the Japanese know how to DRINK!







The next trip I took was to Minobu, Temple. It is the world headquarters to the Nichiren sect of Buddhism, which is the second in the world for its number of practitioners around the globe. Nichiren was a saint who lived hundreds of years ago in Japan, whose philosophy for achieving enlightenment (and Nirvana) was the repetitive recitation of the "Lotus Sutra." Now, I'm not a Buddhist myself, so I won't claim that what I say here is 100% error-free, but I will do my best.

I came on a very auspicious day. Let me fast-forward for a second, as it will tell the tale much more easily if I do. The next day, on our river boat cruise (explanation forthcoming) I met a lovely lady named June, who grew up in Tokyo but moved to the U.S. and now works as a realtor in Las Vegas. As we got into a conversation I learned she was a Nichiren Buddhist, so without missing a beat I whipped out my digital camera and showed her all the pictures I had taken from Minobu Temple the day before. She was thrilled to see them, and told me that I was very lucky as it happened to be the Buddha's birthday, and that was the reason for all the pomp and ceremony I had photographed and taken video of.


Taking a drink from the Quaich, with my new friend June sitting next to me.

Anyway, back to the story.