We went to Kamakura on a day trip with CIEE. It's roughly 2 hours by train from Tokyo. It's a beautiful city, where the new weaves its way though the old. I want to live there if I am ever filthy rich...
We followed a path of torii through the city. There are three leading up to the temple. The streets are on either side of the path. The shogunate in charge had this path leading to the temple (of course flanked by cherry trees) for his wife when she was pregnant, so that she could stroll back and forth as she pleased.
This bridge was closed on the day that I went because it was a rainy day and it's very steep. It was supposed to make you work to get to the temple.
In addition to that bridge, you get a nice flight of stairs leading to the temple. More work.
I saw this cool cat next to a ramen shop. I asked if I could take the picture and the guy who owned the shop was really nice. This cat is a maneki neko (beckoning cat) but not as cute as I've grown accustomed to seeing them... He looks like he's calling you over so he can kick you in the face (O.O)
Jouji and me during lunch at a restaurant. I didn't want to be in this picture alone and he wa nice enough to act like he wanted to pose for me. Yay, Jouji! Btw, his name is George. My friends Geri and Korin and I decided we would use his Japanese name b/c we all like Paradise Kiss (>.<) and he is prolly the opposite of that Jouji.
Aaah. Daibutsu. This huge Buddha is the second biggest in Japan but he has held up better than the first one, because that had to be rebuilt at some point. So, though he isn't the tallest, he is the strongest. He used to be in a temple and covered in gold but during a tsunami, his temple was washed away, leaving him out in the open (which is why he's lost his gold). You can actually see the bases of the posts that used to hold up the temple (no in the picture, though).
He looked amazing and I took too many pictures of him.
Me in front of a the Hase temple entrance, sporting my okaasan's umbrella.
The flowers at Hase temple were amazing. They plant different types of flowers so that there are always some in bloom, no matter what season it is.
More flowers.
At temples, for 100 yen, you can buy fortunes. When you get a bad fortune, you hang it up on this thing and pray for the gods to change your fortune/ luck.
This area of the temple was beautiful, but very sad. Couples who suffer a miscarriage or the death of a child buy little statues, place them here, and pray for them. Anyone who comes here can pray for the children's safe passage to their resting place. You use this ladle and pour water over the statues head 3x and pray for the children.
Little buddhists.
This is the same area from before. All these are statues for the children. There are so many.
More statues for the children.
and more still.
Outside of the temple for Kannon, the Goddess of mercy. She is portrayed with eleven heads, each with a different emotion so that she can empathize with whatever we are feeling when we pray to her.
The view from the temple was awesome, even for a rainy day. And it was the first time I'd seen the ocean since I flew over it for 14 hours to get here.
The temple again. With some school boys that wouldn't get out of my shot.
Another buddha. This one was so cute I had to take a picture with it. I didn't see any signs asking us not to take pictures of it, so I thought it would be ok.
MORE FLOWERS! it has a really cool statue in the background but it is artistically blurred out to show off the flowers (^.^)
This temple also had a really beuatiful cave with more statues. The ceiling was crazy low!
There was one room in the cave that had all these little figurines in it. This is just a small part of the room. There were hundreds upon hundreds!
Here's a close-up. She's one of the seven lucky gods of Japan. Her name is Benzaiten, or Benten; she is the goddess of feminine beauty and wealth. The cave, Bentenkutsu, is actually a cave used to honor her.
Kamakura is also home to an AMAZING Studio Ghibli store where I wanted to buy everything. But I came to my senses and forced myself to leave (it's ridiculously expensive).
We were excited so we ended up taking the train to the beach, even though it was NOT a pretty day, it was chilly, and it was getting dark. But my friend, Korin, who's from Denver, has NEVER SEEN THE OCEAN. So, this was a necessity. This is her first picture at the beach. Worth the trouble.
Me at the beach.
Kamakura beachside homes... The train actually runs right through there so you can see the beach from it. It reminds me of Kiki's Delivery Service, this area.
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