His Holiness the Dalai Lama (HHDL) and Halloween in Shibuya (HIS)

I hung out with the Dalai Lama yesterday. Well by "hung out" I mean we were in the same room together. Actually by "same room" I mean really big auditorium. And really when I say "Dalai Lama" I mean bald Tibetan looking dude in yellow and red (McDonald's?) robes. But I'm pretty sure it was him. He was speaking about Buddhism after all, and samsara, and some other really complex stuff... Oh and apparently there's bingo tomorrow at 3, BYOD (bring your own dharma). At least I think he was. Honestly I have no idea what he was saying. My Japanese is bad enough as it is, but Japanese spoken with a Tibetan accent? Fugghitaboutit! Oh wait... Oh yes I'm being told that he was speaking Tibetan and his interpreter was speaking Japanese. Well I'm just an idiot then and have no idea what language sounds like.

But regardless of any of those sorts of language or spacial boundaries it was a rather moving experience. I think. I dunno I just felt really mellow the whole time. And bored. Yeah I was pretty bored. But mellow. So I guess it balances out. It was really cool though to see so many people show up to hear him speak. People talk about the world being in such a dismal place, but when so many people come to listen to a guy talk about transcending desire and peace can we really say it's all that bad?

After his talk we headed to Shibuya for some ramen and to see all the crazy Tokyo kids dress up for halloween. Forgive me, but by "all the... kids" I mean all 20 of them. But they did have cool costumes as you can see below. I would say "after the jump" but never understood what that meant because I'm not making any jump and it usually just means "after the empty space" so fuck that. "Below" works for me.

Anyways, I didn't get dressed up this year. I'm still getting accustomed to just being here and didn't really have like a group to go out with. Hopefully next year I'll be motivated to don some crazy attire and head out to the streets. We'll see...