IMG_1049, originally uploaded by docfranxusc.

I forgot to mention this...here we are at the Todai-ji temple...where the big Buddha lives. Apparently, in this wooden pillar, this small hole is the passageway...to Nirvana....if you can fit through it. I mean, holy moly, it was like (or what i think it might be like) to go through the birth canal. I honestly thought I was going to end up like Santa in the chimney and the poor Japanese people were going to have to pull me out from the backside....i was so nervous i was going to get stuck, i think i bashed my arm -- the arm that you are looking at is bruised on the under-side.

Seriously this whole is like 18inches by 18inches...and I think my waist is bigger than that!!!

I squeezed through, to some applause at the other end. Amen. Nirvana or not...no more slithering through trees like i'm a size zero or something.