---NOTICE---

Early tomorrow morning I am leaving Sendai to go to Kyoto, actually the countryside about 40 kilometers from Kyoto Station, where I will be doing a 10-day meditation retreat. I will be completely cut off from the outside world, no electronics at all. I will meditate for more than 10 hours a day and attend a couple of hours of lectures. The rules are very strict: 100% vegetarian diet, no eating after noontime, no talking except to the staff, no communication of any kind with the other students, not even body language.

The program will end on August 28th and I expect to be back in Sendai late in the evening of that day. I will not be posting anything after this to this blog until the 29th. I plan to write something about the experience but I will not be able to post pictures, since cameras are not allowed.

This evening, if the weather holds, the local shrinewill be holding a festival. The shrine is less than 400 meters from my building. I believe that they will put little floats with candles in the river, sell food and drink, including beer, in an open space between the shrine and the river, and have fireworks. According to a flier that we got, there is going to be 2500 individual fireworks shot up between 8 and 9 p.m. The weather is not very good but it is supposed to clear and be very hot. I am planning to go to the festival and take my camera. If I do, I will post the pictures after I return from my retreat.

Hope you all have a good two weeks, the last two of summer.