My husband (lay-ordained soto zen practitioner) and I are traveling to Japan soon, and we want to have an authentic zazen experience in either Kyoto or Kanazawa. Does anyone here have experience with Daijoji temple in Kanazawa? It looks like foreigners can just walk in and participate in services on any given weekday, but I'd love to be able to verify that before we just show up, especially since services start at 4:30am. Neither of us speaks Japanese, so I don't feel comfortable just picking up the phone and calling ahead. There's no email address listed on their website.
I'm also open to other suggestions in either city, but the big challenge is that we're only there for a few days, and all of the services I'm seeing that welcome foreigners either don't align with our dates, require groups of 10+ or require an overnight stay (our accommodations are already set). I've sent a few emails to different temples politely asking if we can come in and sit on our own in the zendo (no instruction needed), but I haven't received any replies.
Thank you!
by rhinegold
