Photo of the Day (10/23/08)

by Kent Wien on

Misha Logvinov captured this picture near the summit of Yuriga-take in Japan, which rises to nearly 10,000 feet. What caught my eye were the breathtaking colors. I’m not sure if a filter was used or if there was any post processing involved, but this picture certainly carries some impact. It might be best viewed in it’s full size, in fact.

Way to go, Misha!

Can you top this? Are you a Flickr user who’d like to share a travel related picture or two for our consideration? Submit it to Gadling’s Flickr group right now! We just might use it for our Photo of the Day!

Someone please go visit this Tokyo broom shop

by Jerry Guo on

Japan is known for its retail hyperspecialization, a big mark upon its reputation as an super-efficient economic powerhouse. For example, maid cafes, or the Japanese equivalent of Hooter’s (but with coffee) have sprung several derivatives including butler cafes, sargeant cafes, and the dubious sexy mommy cafes. There’s even stores that sell glasses that maids wear in the cafes.

So I guess it was inevitable that hyperspecialization just goes kabloom at a certain point. And that point is trying to have a store dedicated to brooms. Apparently this shop (pictured) hasn’t had a customer since Saturday, September 2, 1972, and that customer, it turned out, was looking for a hand brush that they didn’t carry.

This almost sounds too absurd even for Japan–and some commentators are pointing out it’s a joke. Perhaps our resident Japan guru, Matt Firestone, can debunk or confirm this myth. In the meantime, if you come across this place, please please buy something.

[Via Boing Boing]

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 **

Travel-Inspired Tattoos

by Mike Barish on

I spent 29 years on Planet Earth without ever getting a tattoo. Then, in March of this year, I took the plunge. Why? Well, for me, I was finally inspired to get inked because I had an idea that was special to me. It connected me to set of memories that I never wanted to lose and had a unique personal story involving two amazing trips that I had taken.

On the inside of my left forearm I have my last name tattooed in Hindi. While traveling to India twice in 2007, I had learned that my last name (pronounced baarish in Hindi) meant rainfall. And both times that I went, despite the fact that it was not monsoon season, it poured in Delhi. The running joke amongst my Indian coworkers and friends was that I had brought the rain with me.

Immediately, I knew that I wanted to get baarish tattooed somewhere on my body. I had several of my Indian friends in Delhi and in the States write the word on paper for me (I did not want any misspellings, or worse, a completely different word tattooed by mistake). I debated where on my body to get it, what tattoo parlor to go to and whether I should try to get back to India to have it done there.

It took me a year to gather up the nerve to get inked. Now I wonder why I waited so long. My tattoo is an incredible reminder of two amazing trips to my favorite country in the world. It immediately stirs up memories of friends, places, foods, smells and experiences. And it’s my family name, in which I take a great deal of pride.

I almost got another trip-inspired tattoo this past spring. That story is less sentimental and more comical. Though it could have been tragic. While out in Osaka, Japan one night, after several sakes and Yebisu beers, my friends and I met up with a tattoo artist. He introduced us to his friends and showed us their studio. In my drunken stupor, I actually thought it would be a novel idea to get a tattoo of the Yebisu logo. Thankfully, the studio was closing and no one was available to do the job. I dodged a bullet on that one!

Have any trips motivated you to get inked? Have you gotten a tattoo while on a trip? Do you regret that shamrock on your lower back that was inspired by a few too many pints of Guinness? Share in the comments.