Big in Japan: A beginners guide to Zen

by Matthew Firestone on

All this month, Big in Japan is bringing you a special series on Zen. From ancient scriptures and Buddhist mantras to austere minimalism and the sound of nothing, we’ll do our best to help you find your own little slice of inner peace and enlightenment…

Few Japanese words capture the imagination quite like Zen (??), a school of Mah?y?na Buddhism that emphasizes experiential wisdom over theoretical knowledge. Of course, while most Westerners have a vague concept of what Zen entails, few understand the subtle intricacies of this centuries-old philosophical treatise.

Indeed, Zen is much more complicated than a cup of green tea from Starbucks or a pebble rock fountain from Bed, Bath & Beyond. However, you needn’t spend years and years on a remote mountaintop living off of nothing more than morning dew and tree bark to grasp the core fundamentals of Zen.

On the contrary, all you need is roughly five minutes to read today’s post, which will hopefully help de-mystify some of the mysteries of Zen Buddhism.

The establishment of Zen is largely credited by to an Indian prince turned monk, namely Bodhidharma, who is reported to have spent several decades doing nothing more than living in a cave, staring at the wall and mediating from dawn to dusk.

According to tradition, Bodhidharma left India in 517 AD, and traveled to China to spread Buddhism that ‘did not stand upon words.’ While Buddhism had already taken hold across the Middle Kingdom, Bodhidharma felt that the religion had been perverted by superstition, and was completely devoid of any kind of meaningful insight.

In the words of Bodhidharma:

“If you use your mind to look for a Buddha, you won’t see the Buddha. As long as you look for a Buddha somewhere else, you’ll never see that your own mind is the Buddha. Don’t use a Buddha to worship a Buddha. And don’t use the mind to invoke a Buddha. Buddhas don’t recite sutras. Buddhas don’t keep precepts. And Buddhas don’t break precepts. Buddhas don’t keep or break anything. Buddhas don’t do good or evil. To find a Buddha, you have to see your nature.”

In case Zen is starting to get a bit too cryptic for you, just simply look within. Indeed, Zen upholds the doctrine that all sentient beings have Buddha-nature, and that this inherent wisdom is nothing other than the nature of the mind itself.

In other words, the aim of Zen is to discover the Buddha-nature within through meditation and mindfulness of daily experiences. Practitioners of Zen believe that new perspectives and insights on existence will lead you down the road to enlightenment.

So, while Zen is deeply rooted in both the teachings of the Buddha and Mahāyāna philosophy, the emphasis is on daily mediation, not scriptural readings.

Truly, Nirvana may be a lot closer than you think…

Want to learn more? Sure you do!

Be sure to check out Big in Japan all this month as we delve deeper into the subtle art of Zen (禅).

** All images courtesy of the WikiCommons Media Project **

The best phone for international travel?

by Scott Carmichael on

I’ve written about the scam that is international roaming charges in the past, and I mentioned briefly how you can bypass paying an arm and a leg to talk to the folks you left behind. But in this article I’m going to tell you what I consider to be the best phone on the market for international travelers; The T-Mobile Blackberry Curve.

Why the curve, and not the sexy iPhone? Well, the Blackberry Curve has 2 very interesting features you won’t find with any other carrier, or any other phone. One is unique to the phone itself, and one is unique to T-mobile.

The Blackberry Curve (as well as several other T-Mobile Blackberry smartphones) comes equipped with Wi-Fi. And while that may not be very special, the Wi-Fi in these phones supports a mobile calling system called “UMA”. UMA is essentially a method of connecting to the mobile network using Wi-Fi and the Internet, instead of cellular towers.

What this means, is that as long as you can get the phone connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, you’ll be able to use it just like you do when you are back home.
For example; lets say you are in Denmark. The cost of a call from your mobile phone in Denmark back home, is $1 per minute. But if you have free Wi-Fi at your hotel, you simply let the Blackberry connect to that, and you can make calls as long as you want, using the minutes in your plan. Better yet; you can even send and receive text messages, and get online, without any insane roaming charges. If you subscribe to the T-Mobile hotspot@home service, you’ll be able to make unlimited domestic calls for just $10 a month.

The second reason why I recommend the Blackberry for international use, is the T-Mobile Blackberry international plan. For just $19.95 per month, you can send and receive as many emails as you want, on any mobile network in the world. To put that in perspective; AT&T will charge you $16 for just one Megabyte of data (about 20 or 30 emails). The T-mobile Blackberry International plan can even be added for a portion of the month, and you’ll only be charged the pro-rated price.

I have used my Blackberry abroad many times, and never received a bill with more than $10 in roaming fees (you won’t always be in range of Wi-Fi). Of course, there are alternatives to making Internet calls back home, but the Blackberry does it so effortlessly that it’s almost a no-brainer.

My only tip is to disable the “mobile network” option on the Blackberry before making a call, as the Blackberry can switch between Wi-Fi and cellular seamlessly, and if the Wi-Fi connection drops, you might be back to $1/min calls without noticing it.

Finally; one other reason why I prefer T-Mobile over any other carrier, is that they have a very liberal phone unlocking policy. Anyone who has an account “in good standing” can get the unlock code for their phone after just 90 days. Once your phone is unlocked, you’ll be able to swap out your own sim card for a prepaid card at your destination.

Galley Gossip: Flight attendant – still a hot job to date.

by Heather Poole on

What would you do if you were a flight attendant and some young lad said to you, “I like the way you walk?”

Personally, I would have kept on walking. If possible. Because you never know if there’s going to be a 200 pound drink cart blocking your way. But hey, that’s just me.

One New Zealand flight attendant did not walk away when a passenger commented on the way she worked the aisle. Well maybe she did walk, I don’t really know, but what I do know is she took it a step farther and complained about the rugby player from the South Canterbury team when he asked for her number on a flight from Gisborne to Wellington. Again, I don’t have all the details. The article was short. I’m not even sure exactly when the comment pertaining to the walk was made, but at some point the entire rugby team was offloaded and put on another flight. I wonder if she, the flight attendant, liked the way they walked – off the airplane.

On a side note, I can tell you that John, my friend and fellow coworker, would have been very disappointed to have seen that rugby team go. But that’s another story.

The rugby team coach, Ken Wills, claimed the incident was blown out of proportion. He told the Herald Newspaper, “One of the guys was trying to use a pick-up line and exchange text numbers. The boys had a lot of fun on a flight on the way up and one got an air hostess’s number so they were all trying to match him.”

Every year there’s a popular men’s magazine that rates the top ten hot jobs to date, and each year flight attendant makes that list. It’s true. I’ve seen it. If flight attendant is not THE number one hot job, it is definitely one of the top five. When you’re single and dating, this kind of list not only helps to attract Mister Wrong, but also Mister Never-In-A-Million-Years. Trust me, I know from first hand experience. Believe it or not, there are also websites dedicated to the madness, websites like Crewdating.com. Swear to god. Go look it up if you don’t believe me.

Check out this ad from a lonely guy on Craigslist – Craigslist of all places!

I am the principal of a US based boutique investment bank. I have offices in Shanghai, NYC and Washington DC. I have homes in the US and Shanghai. I am 191 cm, 86 kgs, full head of hair, hazel eyes, and am considered handsome by some. I am absolutely smitten with the elegance of the flight attendants on Singapore Airlines. I spent a great deal of time there, and find myself drawn back time and time again, if not just to fly Sing Air. I would appreciate any introduction… I will share more details of myself and pictures with a reply.

Honestly, I do not see anything wrong with Lonely Guy’s ad. In fact, I’m a little impressed that he knows what he wants and he’s not afraid to ask for it – in an ad. On craigslist. That’s what successful people do. That’s why they’re successful in the first place. I have a very strong feeling that Lonely Guy is going to find his elegant Singapore Girl – in an ad, on craigslist – and I do hope when he does he emails Gadling to tell me all about it! What can I say, I’m a romantic at heart.

While I do have a fondness for Lonely Guy, I’m not so sure what to think of the guy on Ask.com who wrote…

I am an Arabian male and I have always wanted to find a flight attendant ( Air Hostess ) to go out with. I don’t know if it is a fantasy or the interest in finding a person who toured the world but I want to find one that often flies to the Gulf Area (Saudi, Qatar, Bahrain, UAE, Kuwait) and hook up. Of course I won’t just date any hostess but we got to be interested in each other. .. I just don’t know where to look!? …. Anyone there who is interested or knows where can I look?

Arabian Male, Whadaya mean you have to actually be interested in one another? And you won’t take just ANY hostess, you say? But why not? Yeah, can someone say booty call? What I find even more amusing than the ad above, are the answers to Arabian Male’s question…

Tara wrote, “The obvious place to look would be an airport or better yet fly first class. It seems the first class passengers always get the most attention–then just work your magic. My real advice: Give it up, babe.”

JB wrote, “Go to the airport. Be there 24/7. Whenever a flight attendant pass by you .. say hi .. or pretend to be a passenger and ask a question … simple as that .”
I’d say Tara and JB both gave pretty sound advice. Advice I suggest not to take came from The Player at Askmen.com, who wrote a post entitled How to pick up a flight attendant. I do not know one flight attendant who would fall for his nonsense. And then there was Doc Love’s “interesting” post, Are flight attendants dateable, full of advice on, you guessed it, flight attendants and the game of dating. You did notice the words the game are in italics? Good. Because I’m not even sure what to make of that – game. Believe it or not, the best advice came from the website ehow.com…
  • Make a great first impression by dressing neatly, instead of going for comfort with sweat pants and flip-flops like many fliers do. Smile, be friendly and try to join in light conversation. Because most fliers tend to ignore flight attendants until they need something, your outgoing personality will quickly catch her eye.Take any opportunity to help her out. For example, if she is struggling to fit someone’s oversize carry-on into the overhead compartment, jump up from your seat and offer to help.

  • Flirt a little, but not so much that she finds you annoying or even threatening. Make eye contact now and then, be polite saying please and thank you. While you want your interest to be obvious, you don’t want to come off as desperate.

  • Remember that flight attendants risk losing their jobs by accepting a date with a client while working. So, instead of directly trying to pick her up while she is surrounded by co-workers and clients, simply slip her a business card on your way off the plane. If desired, you might add a short note to the back of the card. Avoid the temptation to verbally pick her up, as you are sure to get a solid no.

Meeting a flight attendant is one thing, but being able to really date, as in having the confidence and patience to deal with a job that takes your love interest out of town for days at a time, even on the holidays, is quite another. Just ask my husband, a man I met on a flight.

Tour stops #4, #5, #6, and #7: From the college towns: “Come and couch-surf Kansas!”

by Rolf Potts on

After a somewhat lonely showing in the Salina Central Mall, I took my book tour east on I-70 for a series of events on college campuses in Manhattan, Topeka, Lawrence, and suburban Kansas City. It was here, amid college students who were keen on the message of Vagabonding and intrigued by the tales in Marco Polo Didn’t Go There, that I feel like my book tour finally hit its stride.

I suspect that university campuses will always be my bread and butter when I tour for books — if nothing else because of the “time-is-wealth” slant of Vagabonding, which college students are always keen to hear. My tour of northeastern Kansas colleges started at Kansas State University in Manhattan, where I was slated to give keynote address to the Kansas International Educator’s conference. The word “keynote” was slightly intimidating (it made me feel like an adult all of a sudden), but I decided to keep the subject matter of my speech close to what I know best — travel, and the gut-level lessons you learn when you live in unfamiliar cultures. Since these concepts are easily applicable to international education, this led to a great post-talk discussion of living overseas, including safety issues and how to best motivate students to leave the comfort of home and study/travel abroad.
After my speech for the KIE folks, I jogged over to the K-State student union building and gave an International Coordinating Council-sponsored talk to 20 or so students, including hitchhiker extraordinaire Aaron Bell (whose hard-won hitching strategies I will blog about later this year at Vagablogging). Several members of the audience were members of Couchsurfing.com, and they all had a common refrain for would-be USA travelers out there: “Come to Kansas and stay with us!”

I say right-on to that, since a place like Kansas is off the beaten path in the truest sense of the word, and the student-couchsurfers there seem keen to show travelers the best of what the state has to offer.

Once I’d finished in Manhattan I continued on to Topeka, where I spent a day at Washburn University speaking with the writing students of novelist Thomas Fox Averill and memoirist Sarah Smarsh. None of these classes dealt with travel writing per se, but even among the fiction students I was able to generate some great discussions about how travel can sharpen your sense of place as a writer (and I’ll share some of these specific tips in my next post).

After an open-to-the-public Marco Polo Didn’t Go There reading at Washburn Union, I made a red-eye drive to Kansas City, where I was slated to give a noontime vagabonding talk the next day at Johnson County Community College. JCCC is one of the largest and wealthiest community colleges in the United States, and as a venue it reminded me of my talk at Google’s New York office: It was very organized and high-tech, with a sharp and engaged audience. As was the case at K-State and Washburn, a few of the students in the audience had been Vagabonding fans for years, and they brought in yellowing first-edition copies (some of which had traveled around the world with them) for me to sign. It’s always awesome to meet people who not only have read Vagabonding, but have already put it to use, and traveled around the world and back with stories to tell.

My final stop on my tour of northeastern Kansas was the classic college town of Lawrence, where my cousin Dan and several other old friends live. There I made an appearance at the River City Reading Festival alongside Kansas authors like American Shaolin author Matthew Polly, River of Doubt author Candace Millard, and Ice Harvest author Scott Phillips. I had a small but lively crowd at my reading, but the real spectacle was the author signing tent afterward, where a long line of people was stretched out along the library waiting to meet — no, not me — What’s the Matter With Kansas author Thomas Frank (who was there promoting his new book, The Wrecking Crew).

I managed to attract a dozen or so Marco Polo Didn’t Go There fans during my hour-long stint in the tent, but Thomas Frank’s mob of admirers was a reminder that other authors certainly have a more high-profile manner of promoting their books this year.

After Lawrence, I headed off to London, England of all places — to record voice-over for a Travel Channel special I’ll describe in a future post. [Photos by Jeffrey Couch.]

A Slice of Japan in New Jersey: Mitsuwa Market

by Mike Barish on

Everything about Japan is unique. The people, the culture, the media and the food are all reflections of the how incredibly fascinating the entire country truly is. Having visited Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka back in May, I have been jonesing for an authentic Japanese experience ever since I returned home. Sure, I can find great ramen joints and sushi counters in New York City but no place can make me feel like I have somehow teleported myself to the Pacific Rim. I was getting the shakes. I needed a fix. I was losing all hope. Until I went to Mitsuwa.

Located in Edgewater, NJ (just across the Hudson River from Manhattan), Mitsuwa is a big ol’ slice of Japan in the land of diners, strip malls and other bastions of generic American suburbia. It’s a supermarket, a food court and the center of a Japanese shopping complex that will satisfy so many of your Japanese cravings. I had been eager to visit Mitsuwa for some time now, and this weekend provided the perfect opportunity to make the trip from Manhattan to [shudder] New Jersey.

Acting as my guides for my pseudo-Japanese jaunt were my friend Matt, his Japanese girlfriend Nodoka and her sister Asami. With their help, no product would be beyond my comprehension. But, perhaps harder than understanding Japanese marketing gimmicks, I had to get myself to Edgewater, NJ.

Luckily for all of us New Yorkers, Mitsuwa runs shuttle buses from the Port Authority Bus Terminal directly to Mitsuwa for $3 each way ($2 for children). During the week, buses leave Gate 51 of the Port Authority Bus Terminal once an hour and return hourly from Mitsuwa. On weekends, buses leave from Manhattan and Mitsuwa every half-hour. You can find detailed instructions for taking the shuttle bus along with schedules and helpful photographs on Mitsuwa’s shuttle bus information page. The ride takes about 20 minutes and you spend most of the time in the Lincoln Tunnel. A word to the wise: It’s a mini-bus and they don’t allow people to stand. Arrive 15 minutes early to ensure you get a seat rather than having to wait for the next bus.

Once you arrive, you’ll notice that Mitsuwa is more than just a supermarket. You will immediately find yourself in the food court. And I’m not talking about Manchu Wok and Cinnabon. You’ll have your choice of ramen, tempura, katsudon and so much more. Lining the walls are display cases filled with lacquered prepared foods that provide visual evidence of the artistry of the food that awaits you. The sight of those shiny, preserved culinary specimens transported me to Japan (in my mind, at least). My guides directed me right to Santoka, a Hokkaido-based ramen restaurant with outposts throughout Japan.

The salty broth and tender pork were everything you hope to find in a quality bowl of ramen. And looking around, there’s absolutely nothing that would remind you that you are in New Jersey. The whole experience would be disorienting if your mind wasn’t so focused on how damn good the noodles are. Once you’ve satisfied your need for instant gratification, it’s time to get shopping. Here’s where it pays to have some Japanese speakers with you.

All of the signage on Mitsuwa is in English and Japanese, but almost all of the products are Japanese imports. As such, most have Japanese labels with no indication in English of what the item is, does or why you should own it. You’ll find Japanese juices, teas, beers, frozen foods, produce, meats, fish, household goods and appliances. And most of the items are very reasonably priced. Still, you will encounter the occasional specialty item that has been marked up. I was in the market for my favorite Japanese beer, Yebisu, and was disappointed to find that it was $18 for a six-pack. Hardly seemed worth it. I was, thankfully, cheered up by the discovery that a 750ml bottle of Suntory Whiskey was less than $40.

I grabbed some homemade karaage (fried chicken), some fish snacks (literally tiny dehydrated fish that I last enjoyed at a sumo tournament in Tokyo), a few bottles of Pocari Sweat (my hangover cure of choice), frozen ramen, miso soup mixes and a peanut butter spread in a tube. At least that’s what Nodoka told me it is. Time will tell on that one. Truth be told, I could have spent several hundred dollars in Mitsuwa if I didn’t exert some self-control. And it’s not because I’m drawn to gimmicks or novelty items (except for peanut butter in a tube). It’s because you can’t find these products in most places and they’re delicious.

A few things worth noting: Come hungry. Between the food court and the staff walking around with free samples, you’ll be full before you reach the register. As I meandered the aisles, I was offered samples of Wagyu beef, miso soup and grilled salmon. If you intend to buy a rice cooker or any other appliances, do not make the trip on a Sunday. Bergen County (NJ) has odd Blue Laws that prohibit the sale of appliances on Sundays. Something about Jesus not wanting us to enjoy onigiri on “his day.” If you are a fan of seafood, visit the fish mongers in the back of the market. The fish is fresh, the knives are sharp and the staff is incredibly gifted.

When you’re done in Mitsuwa, check out some of the other shops in the complex. There’s a bookstore where you can stock up on all of the manga that your heart desires, a ceramic shop with beautiful housewares and a shop that sells everything from Hello Kitty backpacks to Hello Kitty bento boxes. Then hop on the bus that’s waiting for you right outside the door of Mitsuwa, pay your $3 and say goodbye to Japan…er, New Jersey.

All in all, I spent more than two hours eating, shopping, browsing and relishing my “return” to Japan. Everything from the lighting to the pop music made me feel like I had taken a trip to the Land of the Rising Sun. But my passport was safely tucked away in my apartment and the Port Authority Bus Terminal will never be mistaken for Shinjuku Station.

Get to Mitsuwa ASAP. They have several locations in California and one outpost in Chicago, all of which you can find here.

Now, I’m sure some of you are doubting my accounts of the authenticity of Mitsuwa. For those of you still questioning whether anything in the States could successfully recreate the look and feel of a Japanese shopping experience, well, take a look below and guess where this photo was taken.

Yep, New Jersey. Crazy, huh?
(And you can see all of the photos from my trip to Mitsuwa here.)