Kamakura
Today I got up bright and early to head to Ichigaya to meet the girls to go to Kamakura. Kamakura is south of Yokohama (which is south of Tokyo) and is a place with lots of temples and shrines and stuff. And it is a bit outside the city life so it is often a place to cool down after Tokyo bustling life.
We met two other people at Tokyo station to see whereabouts we needed to board to get to Kamakura. I hadn't been to Tokyo station before. I looked outside for a bit and the station looked a lot like Grand Central Station. Not instituionalized stations like the rest of them. We figured out how to get to Kamakura, bought the ticket and went on our way. It took about 50-60 minutes to get there. Not too bad since there was a nice view on the way there. It was kind of foggy today though, so we couldn't see mount Fuji. Apparently on the way to Kamakura is a good place to see Mount Fuji. Eventually I'll see him.
We got there and of course the women wanted to have a cup of coffee and look at a map and plan the day. Being a man and having no need for this thing they call "map", I walked around the area around the station while they discussed. Then we went off to see the "Big Buddha" 大仏 (daibutsu). We took this little train to the area around it and walked up the street to see it. Pictures:
This was a shrine of sorts outside the gate.
This is the pond right inside the gate as we entered.
This is the waterfall sort of thing they constructed for the pond.
They had lots of these little shrine things all around the pond. They are probably each for a different buddha I'm guessing.
This was the entrance to some cave they had. This is a traditional Shinto gate. Called "tori", not tories as in magaraet thatcher. Shinto and Buddhism are two very different religions but very much mixed in Japan. Always interesting to me.
This was inside the cave. There were a lot of different relief murals of buddhas and each one had a candle rack. Some had more candles than others, this one was pretty popular. I would have taken more pictures but I didn't want to use the flash since technically this is the equality of taking pictures during high mass.
After the wall reliefs we had to duck into this pretty small tunnel and go through to the exit. But on the side of the exit was a small side cave with this inside. I can't remember what it was. But I think it had something to do with writing a name of a loved one on the figurine. I can't remember. I did use the flash here since no one was there except white people.
More of the little figurines.
This was the buddha who protected the afterlives of aborted babies or infants who died before a certain age. It was kind of sad because each little statue is dedicated to a different baby and some were dressed up and had little outfits on.
And then my battery died. I was not very happy about that one. But it was my fault I guess since I hadn't charged the battery in a week. I still had my regular film camera so I didn't miss out too much. Until I ran out of film later in the day. Good times.
Anyway, this temple ended up being not the Daibutsu but the golden buddha. It was a giant buddha that was golden basically. It had all sorts of ornaments around him and such. Next to it was a lookout and you could see the whole bay. Once again I was made fun of because I was so amazed by the sea. You miss out on a lot living 15 hours away from any sort of ocean-like body.
After that temple we headed onto the Daibutsu. It was basically on the other side of this very long street. A very touristy street. We got to the Daibutsu Temple and apparently it was field trip day for these little japanese girls to practice english with tourists. So funny. And of course that meant that the girls I was with wanted to talk to them all and aww at their cuteness. The Daibutsu was actually really big. I didn't think he would be that big. I wish my camera had had batteries. But oh well. We also got to go inside of him. It was really hot and stuffy but sort of neat.
After that temple we decided to head to the beach that we saw from the first temple's lookout point. So we walked for a really long time and found it. But then we realised that we were pretty hungry. You would think they would put a lot of restaurants by the beach. But this is logical, and often times Japan is not. So we went searching for a convienice store and never found one. So we were desperate and went to a place which specialized in "California Food". I didn't know this cuisine existed but we decided to give it a try. The food was kind of expensive but it gave us a really good view of the beach so we thought it would be worth it. Not true. When they finally gave us our food I thought they were kidding. In america if you tried to pass that off as the main dish you would probably get shot. The pizza although very good was not even enough for one person. And the sandwiches although very good were about the size of tea time snack sandwiches. We left bitter and still hungry. But the beach erased all that. It was really pretty. The sun wasn't quite setting but was behind the hill so it made for good pictures.
After walking the beach we decided to go to one last shrine before heading home. This shrine was pretty much on the other side of town, so it was a good trek through town. In the middle of the main street they had this "tori" (the shinto gate) that marked the beginning of a sort of green parkway through the town. Very picturesque. Quite a day for my battery to die. We decided to stop off for ice cream before the shrine. They had a flavour I hadn't seen before, sweet potato. Being as I have never had a bad ice cream (besides the one time we made homemade ice cream and I think either dad or mom microwaved the eggs because of the e coli scare. causing the ice cream to have little bits of platic like eggs in them) I decided to give it a try. These Japanese are quite clever at times. I would have never thought to make sweet potato an ice cream. But it was really good. Sort of like a sweet potato, but not really. Hard to describe. It is a like the green tea ice cream, good but you don't know why.
We saw the last shrine and they were having a wedding ceremony. Bring a book. I thought catholic weddings were boring. Shinto weddings definately have the upper hand. They always talk about the high rate of single women in Japan. And I think I figured it out today, they don't want to go through one of these. Although they are beautiful and whatnot, I can't imagine staying awake for the entirety of it. This shrine was on a hill and you could look out and see the road we had just walked all the way down and also see the beach. Very neat. After that we decided to make it a day and head back. It started raining as we were walking home. But since it was supposed to rain all day in the forecast but instead was a gorgeous day, a little rain was fine.
Go figure, I go to pretty much the most gorgeous place I have been while in Japan, and my battery dies. It may have been because of that flash shot in the cave when no one was looking. Oh, karma.
We met two other people at Tokyo station to see whereabouts we needed to board to get to Kamakura. I hadn't been to Tokyo station before. I looked outside for a bit and the station looked a lot like Grand Central Station. Not instituionalized stations like the rest of them. We figured out how to get to Kamakura, bought the ticket and went on our way. It took about 50-60 minutes to get there. Not too bad since there was a nice view on the way there. It was kind of foggy today though, so we couldn't see mount Fuji. Apparently on the way to Kamakura is a good place to see Mount Fuji. Eventually I'll see him.
We got there and of course the women wanted to have a cup of coffee and look at a map and plan the day. Being a man and having no need for this thing they call "map", I walked around the area around the station while they discussed. Then we went off to see the "Big Buddha" 大仏 (daibutsu). We took this little train to the area around it and walked up the street to see it. Pictures:
This was a shrine of sorts outside the gate.
This is the pond right inside the gate as we entered.
This is the waterfall sort of thing they constructed for the pond.
They had lots of these little shrine things all around the pond. They are probably each for a different buddha I'm guessing.
This was the entrance to some cave they had. This is a traditional Shinto gate. Called "tori", not tories as in magaraet thatcher. Shinto and Buddhism are two very different religions but very much mixed in Japan. Always interesting to me.
This was inside the cave. There were a lot of different relief murals of buddhas and each one had a candle rack. Some had more candles than others, this one was pretty popular. I would have taken more pictures but I didn't want to use the flash since technically this is the equality of taking pictures during high mass.
After the wall reliefs we had to duck into this pretty small tunnel and go through to the exit. But on the side of the exit was a small side cave with this inside. I can't remember what it was. But I think it had something to do with writing a name of a loved one on the figurine. I can't remember. I did use the flash here since no one was there except white people.
More of the little figurines.
This was the buddha who protected the afterlives of aborted babies or infants who died before a certain age. It was kind of sad because each little statue is dedicated to a different baby and some were dressed up and had little outfits on.
And then my battery died. I was not very happy about that one. But it was my fault I guess since I hadn't charged the battery in a week. I still had my regular film camera so I didn't miss out too much. Until I ran out of film later in the day. Good times.
Anyway, this temple ended up being not the Daibutsu but the golden buddha. It was a giant buddha that was golden basically. It had all sorts of ornaments around him and such. Next to it was a lookout and you could see the whole bay. Once again I was made fun of because I was so amazed by the sea. You miss out on a lot living 15 hours away from any sort of ocean-like body.
After that temple we headed onto the Daibutsu. It was basically on the other side of this very long street. A very touristy street. We got to the Daibutsu Temple and apparently it was field trip day for these little japanese girls to practice english with tourists. So funny. And of course that meant that the girls I was with wanted to talk to them all and aww at their cuteness. The Daibutsu was actually really big. I didn't think he would be that big. I wish my camera had had batteries. But oh well. We also got to go inside of him. It was really hot and stuffy but sort of neat.
After that temple we decided to head to the beach that we saw from the first temple's lookout point. So we walked for a really long time and found it. But then we realised that we were pretty hungry. You would think they would put a lot of restaurants by the beach. But this is logical, and often times Japan is not. So we went searching for a convienice store and never found one. So we were desperate and went to a place which specialized in "California Food". I didn't know this cuisine existed but we decided to give it a try. The food was kind of expensive but it gave us a really good view of the beach so we thought it would be worth it. Not true. When they finally gave us our food I thought they were kidding. In america if you tried to pass that off as the main dish you would probably get shot. The pizza although very good was not even enough for one person. And the sandwiches although very good were about the size of tea time snack sandwiches. We left bitter and still hungry. But the beach erased all that. It was really pretty. The sun wasn't quite setting but was behind the hill so it made for good pictures.
After walking the beach we decided to go to one last shrine before heading home. This shrine was pretty much on the other side of town, so it was a good trek through town. In the middle of the main street they had this "tori" (the shinto gate) that marked the beginning of a sort of green parkway through the town. Very picturesque. Quite a day for my battery to die. We decided to stop off for ice cream before the shrine. They had a flavour I hadn't seen before, sweet potato. Being as I have never had a bad ice cream (besides the one time we made homemade ice cream and I think either dad or mom microwaved the eggs because of the e coli scare. causing the ice cream to have little bits of platic like eggs in them) I decided to give it a try. These Japanese are quite clever at times. I would have never thought to make sweet potato an ice cream. But it was really good. Sort of like a sweet potato, but not really. Hard to describe. It is a like the green tea ice cream, good but you don't know why.
We saw the last shrine and they were having a wedding ceremony. Bring a book. I thought catholic weddings were boring. Shinto weddings definately have the upper hand. They always talk about the high rate of single women in Japan. And I think I figured it out today, they don't want to go through one of these. Although they are beautiful and whatnot, I can't imagine staying awake for the entirety of it. This shrine was on a hill and you could look out and see the road we had just walked all the way down and also see the beach. Very neat. After that we decided to make it a day and head back. It started raining as we were walking home. But since it was supposed to rain all day in the forecast but instead was a gorgeous day, a little rain was fine.
Go figure, I go to pretty much the most gorgeous place I have been while in Japan, and my battery dies. It may have been because of that flash shot in the cave when no one was looking. Oh, karma.
posted by Scot @ 20:59
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