Kamakuradventure

Kamakura... wow!

So today I headed off bright and early (well... at 8:00) to Kamarkura, the town that preceded Kyoto as Japan's capital. It was, to put things mildly, brillaint!

The place exuded Japanese elegance from every pour. Every wooden roofed house, every exquisitely carved temple and every serene garden was brimming with style, beauty and grace. Prone to hyperbole as I am, I make no exaggeration when I say Kamakura is the prettiest place I've ever been. Good work Japan!

I owe most of this to the fantastic Koike Kei-san, my guide today and the hard-labored founder of www.j-os.com, an online school where I've been studying Japanese for the last year. (Kei-san, if you're reading this, dōmo once again!)

There's so much I could go into detail about, but I'll try to keep this entry structured and give you the highlights.

Tsurugaokahachimangu
鶴岡八幡宮

I'd challenge you all to say that nine times fast but I don't want you to do yourselves any injuries. Tsurugoakahachimangu is Kamakura's most famous Jinja. People come here to pray, get their fortunes told and even to get married. I was lucky enough to see a wedding in full swing- as we arrived a procession of delicately 'kimonoed' men and women trooped past in a line towards the central-court shrine. A monk from Tsurugaoka proceeded bless them as they took their vows, waving a ceremonial fan at them and taking them through the Japanese wedding ritual.

A quick climb up some stone steps took us to the main shrine where Kei showed me how to pray Shinto style. You face towards the shrine and toss in a five or ten yen coin, bow twice (making sure to bow with your full body, head included), clap twice and then make a wish with a final bow. In my typical 'gaijin' style I messed this up splenidly, somehow managing to clap three times and bowing with my body but not my head. The Shrine was so striking that to look away felt like doing it a disservice!

Outside hundreds of wooden blocks were tied to ornamental racks, each block with a wish written on it. Kei-san translated a few of them for me and the denizens of Kamakura, it turned out, had been wishing for everything from peace and prosperity to a win for their favorite baseball team.

Daibutsu: The Great Buddha
大仏

He was big! He was Buddha! What more can I say?

I'm sure many of you have seen the picture of this giant bronze Buddha statue, located at the Kōtoku-in temple. On Japanese guidebooks he often features prominently, his giant eyes tight shut, deep in content meditation. The temple in which he once sat has been washed away by a sixteenth century tsunami and years of weathering have turned his bronze a copper oxide blue, but nothing can disturb this 93 tonne giant.

He has meditated here since 1252bc and will continue to do so long after you and I have shuffled off this mortal coil and joined the great party in the sky.


Lunch
昼ごはん

At 12 we headed out into the suburbs and lunched in a small Sushi restaraunt about twenty minutes walk from the sea. Kei had sashimi and I had a Kamakuran specialty the name of which I can't remember. Hundreds of tiny tiny raw fish stared up at me from a bed of rice and I must confess the staring eyes of a thousand tiny eyes almost put me off eating it- the first few mouthfuls filled with guilt. The taste, however, was superb and I soon forgot the fishy gaze and wolfed them by the mouthful.

Kei-san generously served me three pieces of his sashimi which was the freshest and tastiest I've had anywhere. For those of you not brave enough to give sashimi a try, you don't know what you're missing it out on. It beats fish and chips hands down!

Kenchōji
建長寺

After an iced coffee in a comfy Starbucks (the nicest Starbucks I've seen) we trotted off to Kenchouji, a Zen temple and the final and biggest of the day. It was of course superb, with an impressively huge ceiling painting of a dragon and a tranquil Zen garden where we sat for half an hour and listened to the birds sing their little hearts out.

Our visit to Kenchōji sadly concluded we quietly walked to the station, my mind digesting everything I'd seen as we went.

Kei-san, ありがとうございます for a truly wonderful day. Tonight I think I shall sleep well!