Day 4

Day trip to Kamakura!!!!! We got ourselves down to Asakusa station and got the train to Akihabara, then Tokyo (central), then Ofuda, and finally Kamakura itself. The place gets a lot of local tourism and its a national holiday right now. The platform at Ofuda was absolutely rammed. The whole journey took an hour and the rain clouds looked a little ominous though finally the sun was out and it was pretty hot (time to crack out the aviators and make myself look like a douchebag). People watching on the trains can be pretty good, I've seen a lot of school boys wearing uniforms that look almost like formal military garb, a lot of young ladies wearing long socks and short shorts, and a lot of adults falling asleep on the trains (how do they know they won't miss their stop)? On the way to Kamakura I was standing near an old Japanese guy dressed in casual clothes reading a manga comic reminiscent of Dragon Ball Z. Awesome.

We got in and the throng of people was immense. Heading immediately for the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine (one of the main attractions). To get there we had to travel through "shopping street".

Call me un-English but I dont want to queue!

Along the sides of the street were all sorts of souvenir shops selling clothes, fans, and toys, as well as a slew of food stores selling rice crackers, (real) crepe glaces, pastries, chocolates, ice creams, and the more traditional Japanese sweets. Following the crowd we eventually emerged out of shopping street and found our way to the shrine.

Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine. Ed will be upset I put this in before he could touch it up.

At the base of the shrine stall vendors sell toffee apples, as well as toffee strawberries, and anything else they can cover in melted sugar. After climbing the first set of stairs the ablution station can be found along with a row of giant casks of sake (I think).

You can never have too much sake. Fact!

 The shrine is extremely handsome, like most I've seen, and the crowds and the masses outside clamber around stores selling wooden boards on which to inscribe their wishes. Just inside the shrine is equally busy with 'customers' (of a sort) throwing coins into a grated box before clapping and making their prayer. This place, busy and loud, had none of the serene charm of the Meiji shrine.

don't be fooled by the bowed heads, this place is NOISY!

We had actually intended to see the star of the show first, the Daibutsu (big/great buddha), but we kind of forgot to do our research and weren't really sure were it was (other than somewhere in Kamakura and not inside a building). Using a photo of a sightseeing map we headed east towards the tomb of Minamoto Yoritomo who apparently established the foundations of the Samurai system of government. On the way we walked down some back-streets and saw a local school and some houses and generic small town stuff. It actually seemed a lot nicer than the packed main streets. We also saw some guy polishing his, admittedly beastly, American muscle car (sorry Asal I should have taken a photo!). And I saw this tree the U.K. donated to Japan. It was about my height.

You're welcome, Japan. You're welcome.

We got to the tomb, which is pretty and small, and I finally noticed that the photo of the sightseeing map I had been squinting at actually does have a picture of the Daibutsu on it. We had been heading in the exact opposite direction. Subarashii!!!!! Okay, new plan. We spotted a hiking route which we could use to bypass a certain amount of the centre of Kamakura, and set off to find the start of the trail. On the way we stopped off to buy some fruit. Ed bought an apple (lame), and I bought these things, whatever the hell they are. When I went to buy them the store owner took them from me and grabbed another pack then proceeded to check them for fimness and put all the best ones in my pack, before charging me 200Y despite the pack clearly marking them as costing 300. What a dude! then again, for all I know he gave me all the crap ones and felt bad so gave me a discount. Sa ne!? Anyway they tasted kind of like a clementine but sort of mushier and with really thin skin so you can eat it, which you might want to do if you're too lazy to peel it, which I am.

Mmmm..... mystery fruit!

So after a bunch of further wrong turns, (my fault), we got to the start of the hiking trail and made our way. It was pretty treacherous in places, and the forestry is really stunning. This kind of thing was a pretty common sight:

Yay trees!

I like how tree roots seem to make a natural staircase :)

Half-way through the hike we saw a sign with a picture of a bee on it and some kanji which presumably said "Abunai" or "kiken" (they all tell you not to do something basically). Ed reminded me about nasty Japanese hornets and it gave me the creeps for a bit. The hike was around 1.5k and we decided to take a short detour to the viewing point before heading for the Daibutsu. The viewing point turned out to be a crest with a break in the trees that gave a stunning view of Kamakura and the south coast of Japan.

Kamakura, south of Yokohama

After Ed spent a little time geeking out with his camera we descended from the hillside back into Kamakura. I was getting pretty hungry by now and before we got to the Daibutsu we planned for a food stop. We passed plenty of french style patisseries and such like (we even saw a Swiss restaurant :s ) but I was hoping for something more Japanese. Eventually stumbling across such a venue, we found ourselves ordering Miso Ramen for Ed, and Sankai-men (fish & vegetable Ramen) for me, as well as some Gyoza (which I had been craving), and a couple of Kamakura beers. Mum would like the Sankai-men which seemed to feature something like cockles or winkles (I never remember which is which). The Kamakura beer was sort of a light fizzy ale, or maybe a dark lager, depending on your perspective and was served accompanied by green beans, naturally.

Amazing lunch, as usual. English food is gonna suck when I get home!!!

It was getting into late afternoon by now so we paid up and headed for the Daibutsu. Following the crowd again, we fell in line at a big queue at what seemed to be some kind of shrine of import. Paying the 300yen each entry fee we entered and immediately realised that this shrine was not the home of the Daibutsu. Indeed we were in Hase-dera temple. A rather stunning buddhist temple. We slightly rushed this area wanting to press on. There were two large, gold-painted statues. The first was a 3 metre buddha in the side building. The second was inside the main hall and was extremely large and intricate. It was a huge gold-painted wood carving of Kannon (the goddess of mercy). No photography was allowed however. I was tempted to take a photograph, nonetheless, because I felt that depriving the wider world of such beauty and craftsmanship is an appalling shame. I told Ed this, and thus following ensued a lively debate about respecting the beliefs of others vs. the avoidance of harm. This debate continued while we ducked our way through the adjacent caverns, sans-english signs unfortunately. The debate continued further out into the pouring rain and through the crowds until we finally arrived at the Daibutsu.

The main hall at Hase-dera. Inside is a magnificent gold-painted statue of Kannon, of which photography is forbidden.

Wishes outside the second hall at Hase-dera. Of these wishes one moved me: middle on the 2nd row from the top.

The giant green (presumably copper or some copper alloy) buddha sits above the crowd surrounding. The rain and crowds did not provide an atmosphere conducive to truly appreciating such work however. From behind the joints are visible, revealing that the statue was built in pieces and connected at the site. We did not, unfortunately, go inside the Daibutsu because the queues were very long and I was impatient.

The Daibutsu, on a rainy day.

Leaving the Daibutsu under the, still, inclement weather, we had to decide what to do next: see more temples/shrines, or follow one of the hiking trials. While the weather was poor, we were not especially interested in seeing more, slightly less impressive, shrines and temples. We headed west to search for a longer hiking trail. We found it, after some wrong turns and misdirections (as usual), and set off for some seriously treacherous hiking after the rain.

Let's go!!!

We started on the trail and quickly took a detour heading towards the Daibutsu Kiridoshi, which is a valley where cubes of stone seem to have been removed from the mountain-side. It was a nice place to go for a bit of a challenge though, and I found myself occasionally using the crook of my umbrella to hold myself to the treeline beside the slippery valley floor.

If you look carefully, in front of that square of rock removed from the mountain you can see a poser.

Returning to the forest path we passed the occasional ill-equiped local (seriously, heels? deck shoes? come on!). I wish the photos I took could even begin to capture something of the essence of this place, but I fear I have fallen far short.

Another stunning mountain path (I'm only showing the easy ones though!)

After 2km of hiking, some photos of squirrel-like creatures, and a short discussion on directions with an elderly Japanese gentlemen we found our way past two more smaller shrines, and finally at Kita-Kamakura station.


While resting our feet sitting on the platform benches we noticed a mother, son and daughter purchasing drinks from a nearby vending machine talking (at least partially) in English. It was a bit unusual. They sat near us and rather quickly the little girl came over and introduced herself. We were so unused to expect people to speak to us in English that we didn't catch her name, although she told us she was 6 years old. She then began to practice her, really rather excellent, English with us telling us she went to an international school, and telling us about her garden and her toys, and how she was in a Kyoto English speaking competition and that she loves speaking English. Her younger, three year old, brother spoke the occasional word of English and laughed hysterically. "Stickers!" he yelled, pointing at his sheet of pokemon stickers. He then proceeded to plaster his bottle of 'pocari sweat' (a soft drink) with the things. When he had finished his sister laughed and playfully laughed "Jotto!", meaning 'a little bit', here with the inference of 'you fool'. She was subsequently more direct "Baka! Baka! Baka!". The whole charade was very sweet, though I'm sure the mother must have been exhausted when she got home.

We took the trains back, thoroughly drained and pleased to once more make acquaintance with the showers. A bit later we went out to our current favourite izakaya in Asakusa for yakitori and Asahi. The nice waitress lady has treated us kindly and we are inclined to possibly return once more during our adventures if possible.
 

Now we're packed and prepared for the long journey ahead. Tomorrow brings the path westwards across Honshu and down through Kyushu to the city at the south-westernmost tip of the main Islands: Kagoshima! Wow, sorry for the long blog today! hontou ni arigato gozaimashita for following our weird, wacky, and witless adventures across Nippon! Oyasuminasai!