Cherry Blossom Adventures

Well I went to Kamakura on Wednesday for the whole day. I got up early and Shumpei got off at Shinjuku to make sure I got on the right train so that I wouldn’t have to change too many times and I finally made it to Kamakura. I think I walked about 15km or so on Wednesday (that is a lot for me!) and I was exhausted but yesterday I loaded up my photos and thought I would share a little bit of Kamakura’s magic with blog world…(I took over 300 photos…almost 100 are up on flickr- It was a great time to go because of the Autum leaves also!)

******Educational information and photos follow-Be warned that my explanations and photos do not do the place justice. Also apologies if any of the information given is incorrect******

I arrived at Kamakura St at 10am and got an English Map and Japanese Map from the Tourist Information Center and had a coffee while I figured out my plan of action.

First I headed to daibutsu , the great Buddha of Kamakura standing at just over 13 meters tall. I had seen many pictures of Daibutsu before but had never seen it in person and it really was amazing…It was cast in 1252 and originally had a temple which housed the Buddha but a tidal wave washed it away. There is another great Buddha in Nara that i hope to see one day!

After Daibutsu I left the grounds and walked down the road leading to (kaikozan) Hase-dera. It was one of my favourite places of the day and I really want to go back because I fear I missed some sections. The main attraction of hase-dera is the 11 headed kanzeon Bosatsu statue which is known as Hase-Kannon. I personally liked the gardens and also the jizo-dou area. Jizo figures are laid out to comfort the souls of unborn children. I don’t know a lot about jizo much like I do not know much about Buddhism and while Jizo is an earth deity he is most known for as the guardian of mizuko, meaning still born, aborted or miscarried children. Within the grounds of hase-dera there were many small areas that had statues or buildings representing different things. It was the first temple I have ever been to that had a cave….I am not exactly sure what the cave was for except that it housed some carved statues. (If you put your cursor over the photos it will tell you what they are)

While walking back towards Kamakura station I stopped off at a small shrine that was up one of the side streets. There are a lot of shrines in Japan…If I walked outside my apartment now I could probably find a couple within a kilometer radius but that doesn’t mean I go very often. When I moved to Kichijoji again I went to one of the larger shrines in the area and threw some money in the box and asked for a happy time while living here. This is tradition. When Shumpei moved in with me he did the same thing. When I first arrived back in Japan and was living with Shun’s family he took me to a local shrine to do it there also. I do not know much about Buddhism or certain customs in Japan but I know that this is a fairly important one, well it is to Shumpei. The shrine I wandered into was very small, had a million steps and had a cool bell which I imagine doesn’t get used much except at new year (everyone goes to their local shrine in the new year period). Kamakura has over 70 shrines and temples at it isn’t a very big place but that gives you an idea about why it is a bit of a tourist attraction…Mainly because of Daibutsu but it also has many famous shrines and temples.

Once back at Kamakura station I headed East and stopped off at a couple different places. First stop Daigyoji. I admit I did not know much about the places I visited until I got there. Daigyoji was free to enter and it was actually near a main road but was very quiet inside. Due to a female ghost siting in the Kamakura period near the area (Kamakura period was 1185-1333AD) the temple is now known as a place of worship for those that are pregnant and they come to pray for an easy childbirth. I headed down the main shopping street (and I was so good I didn’t buy anything) until I got to Tsurugoaka Hachimangu which is the main shinto shrine of Kamakura. I must admit I know nothing about this shrine except that there was an assassination a long time ago under a ginkgo tree which still stands today.

I headed to Hokaiji after walking around Hachimangu for awhile and I was really lucky that there were a lot of signs around pointing in the correct direction of different places because otherwise I would have been in trouble. Hokaiji was quite small, similar to Daigyoji, but I was allowed to go inside the shrine. There was a monk praying when I walked in kneeled down with his hand on the floor and his head also pretty close. He did not move the whole time I was in the shrine walking around…I felt a bit bad (I was the only one around visiting) but the man on the gate invited me in and let me walk around. There are lot of jizo statues (like I mentioned earlier) and also many other statues and figures. The alter was beautiful, and I wish I could of taken a photo but photos are forbidden inside the shrine (understandable especially with someone praying inside). There was a graveyard attached to the grounds and also some jizo statues outside in the grounds.

I continued on from here towards kamakura-gu. Kamakura-gu (shrine) is actually one of the newer shrines and temples in the area built by emperor Meiji after the Meiji restoration in 1869. It was built to preserve the memory of Prince Morinaga who had lived in the 14th century. Prince Morinaga had fought for peace and succeeded in a war againzt the samurai. He was killed really young and at the time the people did not realize the extent to what he had done for them but he is now a symbol of bravery 500 years on. The main section of kamakura-gu is the shishi (lion) which is a figure that fights of evil and bad fortune and apparently Prince Morinaga carried one with him during his fight. So people come to kamakura-gu to see the shishi so that it can swallow their bad fortunes and get good fortunes in return.
There was also a little dancing shisi and when you put money in he danced for you…He was really cute!!

Next stop, Zuisen-ji (If the post is getting dull feel free to skip through it and maybe just look at the photos…I am getting sick of my own voice.). Zuisen-ji is a temple from the zen sect originally founded by a famous zen priest who was also one of the greatest garden designers in Japan. So he laid out the garden and used the natural features of the site to do it. To tell you the truth I didn’t think the garden was the great but maybe I caught it on a bad day…There was also a cave that had been dug out of the huge rocks behind the temple above a pond.The walk up was pretty cool though…pretty much through a rain forest. What amazed me is that I was probably the youngest person around and the trek up was hard and when I was heading down there were elderly people with walking sticks and those that needed to be helped up who were climbing up so it must be pretty important place.

The next two places I visited Sugimotodera and Hokokuji were recommended by James who had visited Kamakura earlier in the week to see the leaves. Sugimotodera is several famous kannon are kept. My understanding of kannon is that it is an image of Buddha…There were three famous kannon here and the story goes that apparently when a fire broke out in 1189 the three images of Buddha mentioned above hid themselves under a huge ceder and therefore were saved. This temple had about a million stairs leading up to it. I am not entirely certain but I think Sugimotodera is the oldest temple in Kamakura. Hokokuji was amazing due to its bamboo forest. I have never seen anything like it..The history behind this temple though is a little confusing so if you are interested check out the link provided above.

The last place i visited was engakuji which is one of the five main Rizai Zen temple in Kamakura. It was originally a place for zen monks to pray for soldiers who had lost their lives defending Japan against Kublai Khan’s invasion attempts (Mongolia). Most of what stands today is not the original but I think the only part that still stand that is original is the temple bell which is a national treasure. There are many smaller halls inside the grounds which are there for different purposes for example the hyaku kannon which holds a hundred stone sculptures of kannon from the edo era. and the Shari-den which is where Buddha’s tooth is enshrined. The gardens in here were also pretty spectacular.

There were many other places I wished I could of visited but I ran out of time. I hope to go back maybe during cherry blossom season with Shumpei and visit my favourites again as well as places neither of us have been before. I took so many photos on the day and I really enjoyed my day out actually. I Would do stuff like that more if I had the money but at the moment I don’t. Hopefully next year on weekends I will be more organized and head on day trips around and just out of Tokyo. While I was by myself it was kind of fun to walk around and take photos all day. I didn’t eat until I finished around 4:30 (All the temples are closed by 4 in the winter as it is already getting dark…and very chilly) so was starving by then but hadn’t really realized since I was moving all day.

Ps: I have been called back for a trial day at the school I interviewed with earlier in the week. So happy that at least something is happening!!! I can not wait to be earning money again and not spending all my time in the apartment!

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