Tuesday, June 18th, 2013 - Kamakura and My Beloved Daibutsu . . .

Tuesday we had planned on visiting my FAVORITE place in Japan, Kamakura. Kamakura is a small ocean town famous for ajisai (hydrangeas) and the Daibutsu (great Buddha). It is about an hour and a half south of Tokyo and it was very, very hot when we went. Kamakura is kind of split into two parts - there's the main part of the city by the Kamakura train station, and then there is a little train that goes out to the area around the big Buddha (Hase station on the Enoden line, it's still a JR line, your Suica will work). My plan was to run out and see the big Buddha (straight shot from the station, follow the signs or the masses) and then head back into the main part of town for lunch. What I had forgotten was that most of the things you go to Kamakura to see are on the route between the big Buddha and the tiny train station. Mc is pretty easy-going, so we changed the plan to get a snack and drink at a konbini while we were sight-seeing and then eat at a restaurant when we got back to the main area.

Did I tell you that there are konbinis everywhere in Japan? What I meant to say is that you can't throw a stone without hitting a konbini unless you are specifically looking for one. Then they disappear into the mist, like a 24-hour ninja. There were zero konbinis between the station and the Daibutsu. However, I had read that sweet potato softo-cream (soft-serve) was specific to Kamakura and so Mc and I got a sweet potato and vanilla swirl cone instead at one of the many stands, which was delicious while at the same time surprisingly sweet-potatoey. (If you don't read Japanese, just look for the purple ice cream cone, there's pictures and giant plastic ones everywhere).

*SuperNova Travel Tip: Every area of Japan is known for something. If it's outside the city, it's usually a fruit or vegetable. You'll know it because EVERYTHING in the shops near the station will be selling products with that flavor. The ice cream shops will almost always feature that flavor in a soft-serve, and if ever there was an excuse to buy ice cream at every destination . . .

The Daibutsu is a 44 foot tall bronze statue of Buddha (2nd tallest bronze statue in Japan) in Kotoin temple. He used to be housed in a great wooden building, but it was blown away in a typhoon/tidal wave more than once (as I will go into more later when we go to Kyoto, the Japanese are a bit like ants when it comes to doggedly insisting on rebuilding the same thing) and he survived each time. Eventually, they gave up and he has been in the open air since the late 1400s. The Daibutsu is one of my favorite sights in Japan because he is impressive while at the same time peaceful. He was built in the 1200s, which means for more than 700 years he has stoically, literally, and peacefully weathered every storm.

When you buy your ticket (only 200¥), you walk through the ticket gate to the washing area where you rinse your hands with cool water you scoop up with a long ladle from a fountain, so that you are cleansed before going in. The path to the big Buddha is L-shaped and as you begin to round the corner, you can see his head just above the foliage. Then as you walk further his entire body is revealed, towering above the tree tops and the tiny people crowded around his base futilely trying to take pictures that encompass his size. He sits there among the frenzy, cross-legged, head bowed in meditation. For an extra 20¥ you can go inside the Daibustu to see how he was put together. It is very cheap to go inside, probably because he is a giant oven and you can only spend a few minutes there. Next to the Buddha is a long stand selling Daibutsu-themed good luck charms and souvenirs, we bought a Daibutsu traffic safety charm for Mc, as mine has served me well over the years.  You will find omamori (good luck charms typically made of fabric with a loop at the top to hang from your car mirror or handbag, never open an omamori or all the luck will come out!) at every shrine or temple you visit. There are omamori for all different types of luck - from making your wishes come true to passing an examination to falling in love. I love good luck, so I love these. After purchasing our omamori, we sat on a large stone near the Daibutsu and people watched, enjoying the calm the big Buddha has always provided.

Daibutsu with a kite (type of bird), see how he towers above the trees.

Kosoku-ji

On the way back to tiny Hase station, there are a number of signs telling you to go this way (right, if you're walking from the big Buddha to the station) to see this or that. We followed one and ended up in a lovely ajisai garden in Kosoku-ji. It was very quiet and shady and beautiful. Another sign led us to one of the main temples of Kamakura, Hasedera. At the temple we were given a handout in English and on one side it stated the main summer events. One said that there was a Inari Festival on June 18th, which it happened to be. Mc and I saw nothing all day that would imply that there was a festival going on, except for the fact that it was more crowded than I had ever seen Kamakura regardless that it was a Tuesday. There is part of the gardens of Hasedera where you walk up a hill to better view the ajisai, and there were so many people that as we walked up we were given a number that corresponded to a huge board. The group with our number had to wait 45 min. for our turn to wait in line to get to see the ajisai. While we were waiting (and sweating), Mc bought a steamed man (of undetermined flavor in the middle) and Ramune (Japanese soda with a marble in it) by himself, I was very proud. Once we were in line, it was basically just staying in line till the trail ended. As we inched along, admiring the ajisai in slow motion, I thought that this was probably for the best as standing in line is a large part of the Japanese culture. Welcome to Japan.

The line to view the ajisai at Hasedera

There is a lot to see at Hasedera, there is a 30 foot golden statue of Hase Kannon, a cool cave with a carving of Benzaiten (one of the 7 Japanese Gods of Fortune, the only female and the god of music and art), a statue of Daikokuten (another one of the 7 Wise Guys, he is the god of wealth), and Mc's favorite - the Kyozo Sutra Archive. The archive is stored on a rotating rinzo (book racks) and it is said that if you turn the rinzo you can earn the same merit as reading all the sutras. You can only turn the rinzo on the 18th, so it was worth wading through the masses.

After Hasedera, we rode the train back to Kamakura station and went out the wrong exit (it had to happen sometime). I knew we were on the wrong side of the station because I'd been to Kamakura before and didn't think Kamakura had changed that much in the past 9 years. So we walked around the station and it started to look much more familiar. We went to the Komachi-dori, a very popular shopping street marked by a HUGE vermillion torii gate and my favorite Studio Ghibli shop (which was still there!). 

Then we went hunting for food, as 4pm was a very late lunch. I will admit that as experienced a traveler as I am (and as much as I LOVE food), my kryptonite is restaurants. It's the one place where if they don't have a picture menu, I don't feel confident that I can point and grunt my way through. However, and I think this has changed since I lived in Japan, many restaurants offer English menus. So we picked the first place to claim that they had an English menu and sat down. Turns out we picked a Chinese restaurant and while flipping through the menu Mc was delighted to realize that he would finally get to try shark fin. He had the option of soup or dumplings and he chose dumplings (the cheaper option), which was a good thing because shark fin is not good. Check that off the list!  Linner was average and we decided to try to hit one more temple before we went back home. There are a TON of temples in Kamakura (like Zenairai Benten Shrine, where you can wash your money in hopes that your money will double), but it was getting late and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine was at the end of Komachi-dori and we figured it would be easy to find.

To this day, we have no idea how we missed it. We caught our mistake in time to enter the Shrine from some sort of tiny side street. It was closed (most shrines and temples close around 5pm), so we walked the grounds and then headed back.

view from Zenairai Benten Shrine, see the torii gate in the distance

SuperNova Travel Tip: Omiyage doesn't really have an English translation. We would say "souvenir" but it's not really the same. Omiyage is a gift you bring back from your trip for your coworkers and family. Every time you go to a popular tourist spot, you will see little shops inside and near the train station selling decorative boxes of individually wrapped cakes/cookies/treats, often featuring the local taste of the region-specific fruit or vegetable if they have one or pictures of whatever thing they're famous for stamped on each treat. When you get back to work, you put one (or a few) individually wrapped treats on each coworker's desk. If you are staying with people, it's polite to bring them back omiyage from wherever you are. If you don't know what the local specialty is, watch people. You'll start to notice that everyone is carrying the same bag from the same shop, and that's probably what you want to bring back for people. If you'll notice, the price of each item is always listed on a sign, not on the omiyage itself, so there's no price tag to spend hours picking at because it's all meant to be gifts.

As we walked around Kamakura, we kept seeing people carrying yellow bags with the same bird on them. I saw a school group carrying them and knew that was the popular Kamakura omiyage. We finally walked by the shop selling the contents of those bags by the train station (of course). The store was Toshimaya and they are famous for selling large butter cookies in the shape of a pigeon. Yup, a pigeon. No further explanation offered. R, you're welcome.