Miyako Odori – Midorikai interlude

April 29

We had a holiday today so I bought a ticket to go see the Miyako Odori performance in the Gion district. We were unable to take pictures but here is a link to some information in English about the show: http://www.miyako-odori.jp/english/ This is the 144th performance and every day in April geiko and maiko (the term preferred in Kyoto for “geisha”) the apprecentive geiko (called “maiko”) along with full-fledged geiko perform in this review. They have four performances a day the entire month! Quite exhausting for them. I’ve attached an image I found on google from the event. The costuming was also exquisite!

We had a fascinating lecture on Zen and Zazen (seated meditation) with Kershner-sensei. He’s a new sensei for Midorikai and after my yoga school training I was so excited for this lecture. He is incredibly knowledgable about his subject and I scribbled pages of notes in my log about what he was talking about. One metaphor he mentioned, in regards to meditation, was how humans are the only creatures on this earth that think of the past and the future and not the present. Picture a cat sitting in front of a mouse hole. The cat is completely absorbed in sitting there. It’s concentrating on the task at hand. It isn’t thinking about the mouse it ate yesterday or the mouse it will eat tomorrow. If it drops it’s concentration on the now, the mouse has an increased chance of escaping. That is one metaphor about being in the now. But also understanding that humans have a unique issue where the ego causes the mind to wander. To get restless. Hopefully meditation can help people learn to live more happily in the present. We will meet with him monthly and I can hardly wait for more practice and information! I’m even thinking of visiting him at his temple for zazen practice once we have had a few more meetings under our belts.

First week of Mizuya Toban
This week has been incredibly challenging for me because I had my first mizuya toban week. Now a mizuya is where all the preparation and clean up happens for the tea room. Toban means “duty.” But mizuya toban goes far beyond just caring for the tea room. You are responsible for caring for the whole school and cleaning it before and after the school day and in between classes. It is exhausting work even for the Japanese students. In Japan they don’t employ janitors and things. Taking care of the school and all of it’s equipment is completed by the students. I think this is a very positive thing. American students would treat their schools MUCH more respectively if they knew they had to clean it at the end of each day! Here is what a typical mizuya daily schedule looked like for me this week:

6:00 am Arrive at school and begin cleaning and preparing tea rooms for the morning classes.
8:30 am Chorei / role call
9:00 am to 12 pm Two lectures on various Japanese cultural topics. This week we had lectures on zen buddhism, Japanese poetry, bamboo, the flow of the chaji, or tea gathering, and tea scoops.
12 to 1:30 pm Mizuya toban cleans the tea rooms and prepares for the second half of the day. They also eat a quick lunch during this time.
1:30 pm to 4:30 pm Afternoon classes. Midorikai is in the tea room.
4:30 pm to 8 pm Mizuya toban changes in to clothes that can get dirty and the daily deep cleaning begins (bathrooms, kitchen cleaning, etc). You do get a dinner break but must come back to complete. No students are released until all tasks have been completed.

Sleep is a valuable commodity during the week that you are on Mizuya toban. It was helpful that the week prior I stocked up on snack foods and cooling pads to put on my sore joints. Most cleaning is done on your knees (Have you seen the scenes in movies where they are on their knees cleaning the floor with a tooth brush? Well, the whole day is spent much like that, with the intense focus on tiny details). You have a Mizuya Cho (a third year student) who is responsible for making sure it is done well, so most things you do need to be checked by this person and if you didn’t do it well enough you will need to do it again. If you finish a task too soon, you may need to do it again also. Here they don’t want you to change how something is done or try to improve it. You need to find the balance between doing something fast and accurately, but also not being “too fast” where you might get the reputation of being sloppy or inaccurate. It’s a fine balance. Also, it doesn’t help that you “just did something” yesterday, because you will do it again today and tomorrow, and so forth.

Often I’m also trying to figure out what they are asking of me since I don’t speak Japanese, so it’s a lot of hand gestures or careful observation. I’ve gotten very good at observing what other students do and copying them. They call this “sucking the information through your eyes.” When you don’t ask someone what they are doing but are always watching, trying to learn by viewing. Careful, meticulous observation and constant vigilance. Knowing when to ask a question or when to ask for help is important to learn too. It is tiring. You either fall asleep as soon as your head hits the pillow or you lie in bed awake for hours from all the cortisol/adrenaline response that is still remaining in your system.

Golden week is coming up and many Midorikai students have some fun trips and exhibit visits scheduled. The weather is getting warmer and the wisteria and dogwood trees are in bloom. There won’t be many more break opportunities after Golden week until Summer vacation, so this is a good time to see some things and take rest.