Today, I woke up and continued trying to recover the data from the SurfingSeattle blog. At about 11AM, I left the AirBNB and spent a few hours working at a Starbucks near the Metrotown Station. At about 2PM, I started heading over to Pacific Central Station, where the Amtrak bus leaves from. I had about $15 in Canadian cash which I wanted to spend before heading back to the United States.
I ended up spending the $15 in the stupidest place possible: McDonalds. I ordered a fancy sandwich, with (upgraded) poutine fries, and an iced sugary coffee drink. Considering, I wasn’t too hungry to begin with, I felt awful after eating this unhealthy meal. This was a terrible idea, especially since I would be spending the next 4 hours riding in a bus.
When I arrived in Seattle, I noticed an informative sign on the street in Pioneer Square. It was interesting to learn that the Pioneer Square neighborhood was originally underwater, until it was drained to become dry, usable land.
When I arrived at King Station, I walked over to the AirBnB at a Buddhist Temple near Pioneer Square. The temple is called Seattle Choeizan Enkyoji. Here is an interesting article on their website about “Becoming a Buddhist.”
I arrived at the temple at around 9PM. The temple is located at the edge of both Pioneer Square and the International District, in a neighborhood with a lot of dilapidated buildings, homeless people, and drug addicts. I walked up to the building’s intercom system, a bit paranoid and attentive of the people surrounding me. Mike buzzed me in and I walked up the stairs of the clean, well-maintained building to the temple on the 2nd floor. The sanctuary area of the temple is a highly decorated and ornamented worshipping area with many spiritual images, statues, charity boxes, and other instruments/supplies. I removed my backpack and walked over to the dining/recreation area where a couple of other travelers were sitting at a table with Mike. We each shared some basic information about our backgrounds and travels for about 30 minutes, before the conversation winded down.
Mike mentioned that he is basically the caretaker of the temple. The temple decided to post listings on AirBNB because they haven’t been able to raise enough money through donations. They have a pretty efficient, low-cost, high-grossing operation going on which seems to be a win-win. However, I was hoping for a more immersive, social, educational experience which I unfortunately didn’t get. It might have been because I showed up really late.
Write about Buddism and the “becoming a buddhist” article on the temple’s website…..
https://www.youtube.com/user/ChoeizanTemple/videos
