#287

June 2014
Sorcery, a Dragon and a Long, Dark, Narrow Cave
– A Trip to Jigen-ji
By David C. Moreton

Jigen-ji (Keiho Fukuda)

Do you like to go spelunking
or contorting your body in allsorts of directions in order topass through small rockcrevices? Do you like tales ofmystic rituals, sorcery andbattles with dragons? If so,then I highly recommend goingto Jigen-ji, which is number
three of twenty bekkaku (other)
temples along the eightyeight temple Shikoku pilgrimage,and going through the cave
there called Anazenjo (placeof ascetic training). This
temple, located on top of amountain in Kamikatsu town
about 35 kilometers from
central Tokushima, can bebest reached by car although
it is possible to get somewhat
close by bus.
It is said that in 793, when

A Trip to Jigen-ji...continued on page 3

Page 1, 3-4: A Trip to Jigen-ji
Page 5-7: Uniting Tokushima and the World through Baseball
Page 7: Fitness Corner, Page 8: Japanese Lesson
Page 9: Letter from Suketo Hoikuen; Page 10: Irene's Recipe Corner
Page 10: Aparna's Recipe Corner; Page 11-12: Events & Memoranda

1

is a monthly publication of theTokushima Prefectural International
Exchange Association (TOPIA)

Jenifer Tanikawa & Martin RathmannDavid C. Moreton, Keiho Fukuda, Junko
Kimura, Martin Rathmann, Clint Eckstein,
Yoshie Motoki, Kazue Inoue, Irene
Wachuga, Aparna Matale

Clement Plaza 6F
1-61 Terashima Honcho Nishi
Tokushima City 770-0831 JAPAN
tel: 088.656.3303
fax: 088.652.0616
topia@topia.ne.jp
http://www.topia.ne.jp/
Download a PDF file of awa life or view theonline version by going to TOPIA's website!

Show Tokushima Some Love: Awaglot
The literary corner of
AwaLife, Awaglot, is acombination of the words"awa" and "polyglot", whichmeans multilingual. Be it
fiction, nonfiction, prose
or poetry; funny, sad, longor short, we want yoursubmissions! If you like towrite, then express yourself!
There is also a classifieds
section for you, our readers,to post ads in, but a few
rules do apply!

Religious, political,
or commercial activities,businesses searching forclients or employees,
things the Awa Life editors
deem inappropriate.

If you have something you
would like to share with
the Tokushima community,
email the editors atconcerts,
lectures, and other event
information, cultural, sporting,and other community
group information, etcetera.

A swallow in the Rain (Junko Kimura)2

A Trip to Jigen-ji Temple(Con't from Page 1)
Kukai came to this place topray that humankind be
sparedsufferingfrommisfortune and illness, hediscovered the cave and forthree weeks sat in front of
the cave reciting sutras andconducting a fire ritual. From
the depths of the cave anevil dragon emerged andtried to torment Kukai as it
had done with the local
people, but Kukai drew a
Sanskrit letter on a small
rock, threw into the dragon`smouth, and the dragon was
entrapped into the walls of
the cave. In fact, at one point
along the cave tour the guide
will show you where thedragon`s body, head, horns
and tails are believed to be.

cloth belt, and present you
with a 15cm candle. Make
sure to return the robe after
the tour. Since the cave isconsidered to be a sacredsite all participants mustwear the robe and in apractical sense it keeps yourclothes from possibly getting
wet and dirty. The candle isthe only light you will beallowed to use in the caveand you will quickly find out
how difficult it will be to holdon to it and try to squeeze
through the tight spots. You
can keep the candle
afterwards. Be grateful thatyou can wear your regularshoes in the cave because
in the past participants had
to put on straw sandals.

Let me explain some of thedetails of the cave tour, which
does not run on a regularschedule. First, take the cave
test. If you fail this, you will
not be allowed to enter the
cave. Find two round pillars
approximately 25 centimetersapart beside one of thetemple buildings and squeeze
your body between them. If
you can get through, thenyou should be able to get in
and out of the cave.

Third, place any valuables,
bags, hats and other bulky
materials in a free locker
located just inside the temple
building. There will be noroom to carry such items
through the cave. Even
carrying a digital camera
might be difficult. Note – If
necessary, go to the bathroom
and perhaps eat and/or
drink something because it
will be a couple of hours
before you get back to yourstuff. The cave is about 100
meters long and if there arefew people on the tour, it will
only take about an hour to
go in and come back out,
but if there is a large group,
it can take two to three hours!!!
Fourth, follow the trail for

Second, if you pass this test,
go to the temple office andpay the tour fee of 3,000 yen,which applies to one person,or two or three people. A staff
member will lend you a 3/4
length white robe that has aabout fifteen minutes up themountain until you reachthe main hall (hondo) andtwo other buildings. Here you
will meet your experienced
guide, some of whom havebeen leading groups of people
in and out of this cave for
decades. Some give tours
up to five or six times a day!
Fifth, you will first climb
some steep stairs and see
the spot where Kukai sat for
ascetic training, then you
will go to entrance of the
cave, light your candle, andproceed in. The guide will
give you very precise
directions, which must be
followed exactly or else you
will not be able to get very
far into the cave. However,
you might find that the guidespeaks super-fast as I
certainly did, and I could not
follow what she was saying;
but do not panic and takeyour time. You should be
able to make it through thesuper-tough spots. Note –No directions or explanation
will be given in English. At
certain spots the guide willstop the group and givecommentary about the special
meaning of certain rockformations. At the “end” ofthe cave – a small room-likearea- the guide will lead thegroup in sutra reciting including
the Heart Sutra. As well, theguide will ask, “Is there anyone
who wants to make a wish?
Candles are 100 yen. Please3

A Trip to Jigen-ji(Con't from Page 3)

Jigen-ji (Keiho Fukuda)

pay when you get back to in, but I am sure you will be it is said that if you make it
the temple office.” If you say very relieved to see the light through the cave something
yes, then the guide will ask at the entrance.
good will happen to you, foryour name and your wish,
example, unexpected money,
will light a candle, place it on Finally, walk back down the continued good health, being
the candle rack, and repeat trail to the temple, return your able to pass any tests, andwhat you said to the statue robe to the office, pay for any not getting in any trafficof Kukai/Kobo Daishi with a candles that you bought to accidents, so wait and see.
petition of “Yoroshiku onegai make a wish, and congratulate Your cave tour will not haveshimasu.” (May this wish come yourself or others you are been made in vain.
true) Then you will begin the with for making it throughtrip back, which I think you the cave. Your body may hurt
will find easier than coming in places for a few days, but
Temple website (Japanese): www.anazenjo-jigenji.com/
Photographs of the temple and cave: ohara98jp.exblog.jp/20199856/

Uniting Tokushima and the World through Baseball
By Martin Rathmann

Left to Right: Kentaro Ueda, Joe Wilson & Danny
Fernando Cruz Ayala (Indigo Socks)

4

Having claimed the top spotin the 2013 season of the
Shikoku Island League
plus, the Tokushima Indigo
Socks (IS) have been
gaining momentum on the
baseball field. One of theteam’s philosophy is to
unite or to connect the local
people of Tokushima to theworld, and true to thosewords, they have been
recruiting foreign players
from around the world toplay on their team. We sat

Uniting Tokushima and the Worldthrough Baseball (Con't from Page 4)
down with Danny Fernando
Cruz Ayala and Joe Wilson tohear about their experiences
playing in Tokushima.

a long time. I didn’t play
baseball for a year. And
then I kept trying to throw
again and again, and I

What’s your favorite place inTokushima?
For now, the sushi place. I likesushi.
Before or during the game
do you do something like acustom or ritual?
I’m Catholic, so I always
pray to God. Also, before
the game I listen to music. I
try to move my mind toanother place. During thegame I focus on the guys
around me, so I don’t like tothink about other things.

Danny Fernando Cruz
Ayala
Pitcher/ El Salvador
Why did you become abaseball player?
I liked it. When I was 8 years
old, my two brothers played
baseball and they invited
me to play. In the beginning
I didn’t like baseball, butthey kept encouraging me,
including my father, and I
finally said okay. And so I
started playing at 8 years
old, and at 14 years old, I
was offered a scholarship toplay baseball in the capital,
San Salvador, so I moved
to the capital to play. Then
at 17 years old, I was signed
to the Seattle Mariners(minor league) and I played in
Venezuela and the UnitedStates with them. I got released
from Seattle because I had
a Tommy John surgery in
my arm, so I can throw
more. Then I came back to
El Salvador and stayed for

decided to try out for this team.
Ayala has played in the
Dominican Republic, Venezuela
and the US and started
playing in Tokushima justunder 3 months ago.
How do you like it? What
are your impressions ofTokushima?
It’s a good city size, quiet
city, I like it, and it’s nice.
The culture is very interesting,
I like it. I want to learn more
about the culture.

Message to the readers:
Que siempre luchen por
sus sueños y que nunca
digan que no pue den
hacer algo, nada es
imposible.
Always fight for your dreams
and never let anyone tell youthat you can't do something,nothing is impossible.

The Tokushima Indigo Socks (Indigo Socks)

5Uniting Tokushima and the Worldthrough Baseball (Con't from Page 5)

Joe Wilson
Infielder/ United States
Why did you become abaseball player?
My father was a baseballplayer, but that wasn’t themain reason. I just enjoyed
the game a lot. I’ve always
been quite small, but I don’t
play small. I always surprisepeople with how I play, so I
like having that feeling. I
enjoy playing and it helps
that I’ve been good. I justknew that it was somethingthat always made me happy,so that’s why I continued toplay.
I started at 10. Which is prettylate in the game in America.
A lot of kids start at 3 or 5. A
lot of that had to do with myfather not pushing me into
doing something. My parents
are really okay with what I
wanted to do.
Wilson initially came to tryouts
in November but officially
moved to Tokushima to playfor the IS in March of thisyear.
6

How do you like Tokushimaso far?
I like it a lot. Kentaro (IS teammate) has a lot to do withthat. If he wasn’t here, it would
be a completely different
story. But he makes thetransition a bit easier. I
played in Europe the last
couple of years, and thatmade transition a bit easiertoo. But there is a language
barrier. The big question
everyone asked me was
how I handle the food. Well,
my mother is Korean, so it’sreally not much different
with food that is there.
Is there any food that you
particularly like?
Sukiyaki. Udon noodles.
Where else have you been?
I was in Vienna, Austria.
Mainly the last 2 years I wasin Mannheim, Germany. And
through those few years, I
spent time in Venice, Italy
and in Paris for a little while.
Any differences between
Japan, Europe and the US?
Between the States, Japanand Europe, every country,
mainly it’s the continents,
they have their own stylethat comes with the talentand the body type that most
of
them
have.
The
Japanese are much smaller
in stature and are muchquicker. They don’t have as
much talent I would say as
far as power goes. They
really try to work on
repetition and quantity. In
Europe, they are muchbigger but they are slower
in their movements. But
their size makes up forsome of that. I think that
America has the best
baseball because they havethe mix of most talent. But
each continent, each country,
runs practice differently, they
run the games differently.
In terms of culture in general,
was there anything surprising?
Biggest thing that shocked
me when I came, my number
one answer is the nonWestern toilet that’s here.
That’s definitely something.
As far as living goes, I didn’t
realize how there’s not reallymuch furniture. There’s justthe futons there on the floor,
they don`t really havecouches. The wooden floor
and the paper thin walls
makes it different too.
Besides baseball, there’s
not a lot of down time to be
doing stuff. And people ask
me how do I really like thecity, but I don’t know it very

Uniting Tokushima and the Worldthrough Baseball (Con't from Page 6)
much. They say there’s a
big festival in August (Awa
Odori). If we have time I
would like to see it. But
Tokushima City is nice.
Any particular habit or ritual
you do before or after thegame?
As baseball players, we arequite superstitious. Every
individual article of clothingor equipment that I havethat is a right or a left, I
always put the left one on
first. Whether it’s my sock,or my shoe or my batting
gloves. I always put it on left
first. I don’t know where itcame from, why it started Message for the readers:happening but I do it. I hope that I can continue toimprove myself every day.
Where do you see yourself Whether it be winning,with baseball?
losing, any type of awards, I
Right now, I don’t know. just want to continue to try
Each place I’ve been too, and improve myself as ait’s all about trying to get to a player and as a person. I
higher level and improve don’t know what I can do tomyself. Well I’m injured at get more people to comethe moment, so I’m trying to watch the game, but thatget back from that and go would be nice.
from there. But I could see
myself staying here to play, I
could see myself goingsomewhere else also, I’ll
see what opportunity comes
next.

Fitness Corner
By Clint Eckstein
Burpees!!!!
This workout is as brutal as
it is simple. You’re doing
one exercise, a burpee.
Start in a standing position.
Squat straight down, putting
your palms on the ground.
Jump your legs back sothat you are in position to
do a push up. Jump yourlegs back up to meet yourhands. Stand up and jumpstraight up as high as you
can. You can make thisexercise harder by adding apush up each time you doit.

Here’s the workout:
10 burpees 40 seconds rest
5 burpees 30 seconds rest
2 burpees 30 seconds rest
10 burpees 40 seconds rest
5 burpees 30 seconds rest
3 burpees 20 seconds rest
10 burpees 40 seconds rest
5 burpees 20 seconds rest
4 burpees 20 seconds rest
10 burpees 40 seconds rest
5 burpees 10 seconds rest
5 burpees
That’s it! It will work yourwhole body without using
weights. It is a great aerobic/

anaerobic workout because
it combines both strengthand cardio. What’s that you
say? 74 burpees aren’t
enough for you? If you’re inbeast mode, rest for aminute or two and do thecircuit again. A bit too
much? Cut the ten burpees
in half to 5, or if you’re notthere yet, just eliminate
each set of 10 burpees.
Questions or comments canbe sent to:
clinteckstein@hotmail.com

7Japanese Lesson
By Yoshie Motoki

8Letter From Suketo Hoikuen
By Kazue Inoue
As it gets warmer, more andmore preschool children arestarting to play outside, andone of their favorite pastimes
this time of the year isplaying in the sand. Sand has
many excellent properties
that are perfect for playing
with. For example, you canplay with sand by digging
holes with a shovel or evencreating a mountain. They
can also use various items
like buckets and foodcontainers to add morevariety to sand play. As well,they can engage in pretend
play by creating mud
dumplings and soup by justadding water to the sand or
they could mold various
things such as rivers andcities out of it. The best partabout playing with sand is,
you can create and recreate
as many times as you like,it’s fun for children of allages, and there are no
limits to how many children
can participate.
If there are sandboxes thatyou can use in your nearbypark, preschool or kindergarten,
I encourage all of you to go
andexplore.
(Somepreschools and kindergartens
have play areas that areopen to the public so pleasecheck with your local city
hall or ward office to findthese locations.) And ofcourse, Suketo Preschool is
open to the public andanyone can come and play.
***
This Month’s Craft
Flying Rocket
Materials- 2 Newspaper pages- Colored plastic tape(optional)- Straw- Elastic bands- Toilet paper roll
- Construction paper- Tape- Scissors

newspaper into four, thenroll up into a cylindrical shape.
(You can make it look extra
fancy by wrapping it up withcoloredplastic
tape.)
2. Tie two elastic bands
together and tape it onto astraw (cut into 6cm length).
Attach the elastic band andstraw to the end of thenewspaper stick. And there
you have it, your very own
launching device.
3. Take a toilet paper roll andcover it with construction paper
to create a rocket. You cancustomize it by decorating it
in different colors andpatterns.
How to Play
Pull the straw and elastic
band downwards and set
the rocket on top of the
straw. As you let go of the
straw, your rocket will gosoaring through the air.

Instructions
1. Take 2 pages from anewspaper and lay it on topof each other. Fold the9Irene's Recipe Corner
By Irene Wachuga
most popular. These days
however, most people use
sugar in place of mirin andadd a splash of stock tolessen the acidity. Use it todress veggies or fish.

Japanese Vinegar
dressing
As the weather heats up,
our body’s need to bringdownthetemperature
makes us crave cooler
drinks and food. Vinegar isespecially good for us in thesummer heat and helps
preserve food. In Japan,
vinegar is quite popular as adressing. This 3 ingredientsauce (Japanese:;
aptly called so for using one
spoonful each, vinegar,
mirin, soy sauce) is the

Ingredients (serves 4)- 3 TBSP vinegar- 1 TBSP sugar- 2 TBSP stock(vegetable/ fish)- 1 TBSP light soy sauce- Octopus (boiled) 100-150g- Wakame seaweed(soaked and softened if dry)- Shimeji/ enoki mushrooms(boiled) one bunch
All cut into bite size pieces.

Aparna's Recipe Corner
By Aparna Matale

Tea Time Salty Snack(Salted Flaky Biscuits)
Preparation time: 10 min
Cook time: 20 min
Ingredients- 500g all purpose flour- 125g refined oil- 1 TBSP cumin or parsley- 1 TBSP Salt
(according to your taste)- Refined Oil to fry

10

Method
1. Take All purpose flour
and add oil, salt, and knead
it by adding 100 grams ofwater to make a dough.
2. Cover it and leave thedough for half an hour.
3. Make small sized balls fromthe dough and roll them tomake flat disc on the rollingboard.
4. Make 5-6 holes into thedisc with the help of a knife.
Prepare 5 - 6 biscuits in thesame manner.
5. Heat some oil in a pan
and put these biscuits into
it. Deep fry the biscuits andtake them out once theyturn brown in colour.
You can prepare 5-6 morebiscuits, till the first slot of

the biscuits gets completely
fried. Spread a napkin on aplate and keep the friedbiscuits on the napkin.
Napkin will soak all theexcess oil in the biscuits.
Now put the next slot of the
biscuits into the pan and fry
them in the same manner.
Take them out of the panonce they turn brown incolour and keep them on
the plate.
Salted Flaky Biscuits areready. You can serve them
hot with tea or coffee andcan store the rest in an airtight container.
Tip: These can be stored up
to 1 month.

Events & Memoranda

Crime Prevention Tips:
Protecting Your Bank Account
Crimes involving bank account information theft via internet hacking
Recently, there has been a surge in illegal money transfer cases (*1). The criminal willaccess internet banking illegally, then they will transfer money from someone else’s
account into the criminal’s fake account. By creating an account under someone else’s
name, they can prevent their own identity from being exposed. As well, there are criminals
who will buy bank accounts off others with the intention of reselling them (broker). To
prevent such a crime from happening, even if you no longer need your bank account,please do not sell your account to others.
Law on buying and selling account details
Japan is one of the countries that has signed the United Nations treaty (*2), and has
established laws (*3) to prevent the use of bank account information for criminal purposes.
As stipulated by the law, it is illegal to set up a bank account under a false identity and tobuy or sell bank account related information including, bank books, debit card and otheraccount information (personal identification number, customer number, password, etc.).
*1. In 2013, there were 1,315 cases, with an estimated 1,406,000,000 yen in total damages*2. International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism*3. Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds
11Events & Memoranda
Workplace Japanese Course: Useful Japanese to help you find employment
A course for the foreign residents of Tokushima.
Come and learn useful Japanese for the workplace and learn business etiquette!

Futsal World Cup TOKUSHIMA 2014
We will be hosting the much-requested“World Cup TOKUSHIMA 2014” event tocelebrate the start of the 2014 FIFA World
Cup in Brazil. Come and cheer them on!
When:

June 15 (Sun)13:00 – 17:00
Where: Tokugin Tomony Plaza(Prefectural Seishonen Center)
Contact: Satoru Fukui 090-4976-9402
Adam Gibson 080-5662-4179

Counselling Service at TOPIA
TOPIA offers a counselling and advisory service to all foreign residents to help withissues involving accidents, working conditions, housing, visas, international marriage,and more. Counselling is available in English and Japanese. Please note that although
every effort will be made, we may not be able to deal with all cases.
Everyday, 10:00 - 18:00 (closed during the New Year's holidays)
Tel: 088-656-3303 or 088-656-3320 (allows three-way conversations with an interpreter)12