The young nun who is my guide and escort tells me that "it ALWAYS rains this week", apparently next week it stops!
The plane from Japan to Taiwan was delayed about three hours because of an engine problem. The United pilot, attempted to pacify the passenges, gaily said "We wouldn't want to fly in a bad plane would we"?
At Immigration in Taipei the officer seemed amazed to see a Western Buddhist Monastic, I was the first one he had seen. This has often been the case here in Asia, people are supprised to see a Western monk. I was greeted at arrivals (they were holding up a large sign with "Welcome Mugo Master") by a novice nun and three lay people. The couple I found out trade in rosaries and there is a young woman studying Business who, I think, was on board as an interpreter. We climbed into a modern SUV all decked out with rosaries and the like and charged off into the night which soon become early morning. The humidity is high and it's about 23c. Thankfully it had been arranged for us to stay at a hotel for the night to rest before going on to the next destination...where ever that might be. We traveled for about two hours to get to this place. I see we are in Taichung...
(For those who are interested in technical matters it is a relatively normal feature of hotel room to have a LAN connection to the internet and that is how I am able to write this blogger on my laptop.)
The plan, as far as I can understand it, as language is difficult, is to have lunch with the Master who has arranged all of this and then go to the mountain temple after that.
