Here is is, people! Photographic proof at last that while I used to be cool, I am now a know-it-all phony prick in robes surrounded by sycophantic fans who worship my thoroughly wiped ass day and night. Yeah, that's right, mutha-fucka! Bow down to ME! All the way to the ground, you little weasel! Worship ME, like the DOG that you truly are! Praise my attainment of the most high ENLIGHTENMENT, you scum sucking slug! Bask in my radiant greatness and feel the glory that a worthless scurvy vermin like you could never hope to achieve in a thousand million kalpas! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaa!!!!Actually it's a photo taken at the precept ceremony I performed for Ren Kuroda. In this part of the ceremony you bow down to the teacher and ask to get the precepts. Once they are given you get to sit on the fancy chair while the teacher circles you with his head bowed praising your most high and mighty ass for taking the vows. There's video too. Go take a look.
Some people at the retreat asked if they could get copies of Nishijima's pamphlet on the precepts, which I quoted from and which you can see me holding because I don't have the ceremony memorized. It's on line at this link for free so go get it and print one of your very own!
And here's a shot taken out the window of Ren's apartment. Actually this is a temporary place till he gets the water lines fixed at his real apartment. The weird pinks and yellows in the photo aren't real. It's some kinda artifact or something from the digital camera. The window looks out over the Roppongi district. Roppongi is where all the embassies are. In the eleven years I lived in Tokyo I think I went to Roppongi all of three times. I'm not a major fan of places like this. Each night when I walk back to Ren's apt. I'm accosted by at least a dozen Nigerian guys who want me to go with them to nightclubs. It's not the least bit fun or interesting and I never have been able to suss out why it's so popular. Sex, I guess, and alcohol. But you can get those in cooler places. Go figure.
The view looks exactly like a miniature set from a Godzilla movie, particularly this one used in 1974's Terror of Mecha Godzilla.
