We held the second online event for the exchange students in the autumn semester, “the virtual tour to Koyasan and Meditation Experience.” This was the second time following the event in the spring semester, and not just the exchange students in Japan but also those live in other areas such as Europe and Asia joined online.

In the first half of the session, a monk of Koyasan, Jijun INABA, introduced the Koyasan with fantastic pictures, and the second half of the session, he nicely explained Ajikan (阿息観), their original way of meditation, and exchange students actually experienced it for thirty minutes. We were worried about whether they could be sat silently for thirty minutes, but they were concentrated on the meditation very hard. It was impressive that everyone’s face was refreshing and calm.

Exchange students live unstable lives in the pandemic, but they spent fulfilling time which is away from everyday lives through this meditation event.