So it was raining this morning. Me and a fellow traveller, whose name I will now get wrong: Hooshan, were sitting in the lobby wondering what to do. So he googled 'tokyo in the rain and out popped a review of the ancient capital of Japan, long before Tokyo, and before Kyoto even, this place, 'Kamakura,' was where the seat of power was placed. The review stated that Kamakura is a nice place to visit in the rain, and upon loudly debating this in the same lobby, a German piped in saying, 'I'm sorry to have eavesdropped, but I hear Kamakura is really nice in the rain.' So almost entirely swayed we asked the receptionist to give us directions there.
In a bizarre twist it transpired that our receptionist was born there, and recommended that the previous reviews, both electronic and personal, were complete bubkus.
Undeterred we forged ahead into several fascinating areas. Generally the two most impressive features, a giant bodhivista (Spelling?) and another giant buddha thing were indoors, while the gardens took some (hopefull) great photographs, because the lighting wasn't too harsh to become overpowering, or too dull to render photography impossible. Therefore, two plucky tourists gambled on the weather machine, and ended up winning.
It did however rain buckets on my way back, after I had parted from my travel companion. As an interesting side-note, the raindrops here are fingernail sized, and carry an improbable force, dissipated in a violent fashion upon anything that may dare stand in its way. I was drenched after ten seconds, and despite wearing a waterproof jacket, my trousers and bag contents were soaked. Maybe some waterproof trousers and a waterproof bag container are in order at some later stage.
My favourite part of the day was a 10 metre tall wooden statue of a goddess. It's the biggest in Japan and is absolutely amazingly decorated in gold leaf, with extra sprinklings of vanity all over the place. It's made from a single tree, the name of which eludes me at the moment, although it's quite a well known tree. It must have been monumental as well, because this thing was about 2 metres wide, as well as being 10 metres tall. Unfortunately no photographs were allowed.
Onto the pictures:
The Japanese style full English breakfast contains many odd accoutrements. Cucumber and what is possibly mashed potatoe, with (offscreen) oddly cut toast. As usual, portions are quite mean. Free coffee/tea refills are a nice american style touch though.
Cool looking bus with supporting pole type things on the front. I'm not sure if that would pass a pedestrian impact safety test in Europe though...
It was a little gloomy at this stage in proceedings, but this temple marker was huge and well deserving of a picture.
At certain religious festivals people wish upon a rock, and try to throw it on top of these markers. I'm not sure if they get what they wished for, but I'm certain that a lot of people get headaches.
As I understand it, these structures mark the beginning of temples or shrines, but this one led onto a big shopping street. God is in the dollar I guess.
Perfect lighting! I hope the rest come out this well.
The submerged plants in the picture to the right looked like some kind of lilly, but they stood up to a metre out of the water with no support. May any horticulturalist know what these are?
There are also 15 pound (estimated) carp swimming around in there. They looked pretty common to me.
This place proved to be the first of a number of traditional looking Japanese gardens, the likes of which is universally reckoned within the hostel, to exist only in the movies and an extremely small percentage of upper class, private Japan. I guess it's not surprising to understand that what we know of another country, may turn out to be misrepresentative of the truth!
Terribly blurred picture of the carp. Doesn't really do justice to it's size. Although I guess the old joke goes that it was th
iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiis big.
Looking out of the lily type plants, onto the mountains that permeate this town. The mountains are as much a feature of the land as the plants that grow on them.
More of the same view.
The younger brother of the one that got away.
The path leading towards the main temple area. Line of sight is difficult to recreate with a photograph, but it was impressive to see the temple in the distance, it's a lot bigger than it looks here!
This all looks traditional and quite nice, until you see the
bloody kid, on his
bloody scooter!
Sans
bloody kid, unfortunately still with
bloody scooter.
This is on the steps leading up to the main temple. It's kind of like the scroll containing area in asakusa.
The design of the eaves alone is intricate, before you take into account the paintings on the roof of most of these structures, or the construction of the roof itself.
I guessed that this raised platform was for some kind of performance. No English speakers were on hand to prove or disprove this theory, so it stands as a tentative reasoning behind this structure.
One guard dog stands with his mouth open, the other closed. One represents life, the other death. Their proximity defines the co-existence and intimate nature of both aspects of our existence. Plus they look mean.
I've sifted through some 150 photos so far, and there are about 200 more to go, so I'll finish the rest up tomorrow.
These must take a long time to paint... I wonder why all the end parts are yellow?
This is the kind of classic design feature I always associate with Japan, it's nice to see it actually exists over here, albeit in a tourist form.
That's a damn big drum. I think they're called taiko, but I'm not sure. This type of drum is the same kind that reach house sized proportions during the big festivals, and I assure you, having experienced the noise from a variety only four or so feet wider than this, the experience is physical.
This is the facade of the main shrine, no pictures were allowed inside so I tactfully took this shot of the outside.
This is a little way off to the right, and is a modest shrine to (presumably) a separate deity. It has its' own water dispenser/human soul purifying unit, but I didn't manage to get a decent shot of that. In this one area there were lots of these separate shrines.
This is a different shot of the same thing.
I've no idea what these are, or what their purpose is, but you see a number of them around the place, and they look pretty cool. Incense can be burned around the area, or inside the two taller structures, but I've also seen figures inside them instead. So, basically, they could be anything.
There were a number of these elongated paths with a single focal point in the far distance. On the one hand they looked quite spectacular to the eye, but not to the camera...
Sometimes these gates have golden suns on their faces - this represents a royal tie, and usually means the shrines' upkeep is handled by the royal family.
A common problem?
There were a thousand photo opportunities a minute in this particular area.
These things also appeared to be markers of some kind, as they were everywhere in this particular area, and can often be seen in other shrine areas.
The old trees seem to define what makes a shrine area, and what makes these areas different from other areas. Although it may sound ridiculous, they look to me like full sized bonsai trees, all gnarled and ugly, but perfectly shaped.
These shoes are actually for fully grown adults...
This impressive structure marked the entrance to shrine number two!
A close up view of the detailing in the supporting beams. That big roof was supported, as you can see from the picture above, on a frame that all bore the detailing on the left. Again, it must have taken quite some time to construct this.
This is one of several bells around the area. This one is not used anymore, it's too old. The sign even says, do not touch, this is a national treasure! It looked so old that a stiff breeze might disintegrate it.
Another temple structure, bearing many similarities to those found all around this area. It feels like the same designer worked on all the structures around here!
Inside was another ornate, gods abound festival of sobriety. The gods on display looked buddhist, but I can't say for certain.
I'm sure Tokyo-ites visit temples and shrines as much for the greenery as the religious aspects.
This view looked pretty so I took a picture... There's nothing more to be said really.
These sites are still actively used for devout worship, and this area is for private prayer. It also houses a gift shop of sorts, for all your praying needs; including: paper to write wishes on, that can then be tied to a special rope, in a certain knot, that will therein grant the wish; a wooden slate that ambitions can be written upon. Once tied to a special rack, these dreams will come true. And of course, incense; for all your smelling needs.
This is a comparative shot. The people also give it a sense of scale, albeit a skewed one, because native Japanese really
are that small!
Welcome to the third site! This one has some particularly nice gardens, for all the horticulture buffs out there.
This is the first example (I think) of a proper Japanese style garden, and came at the foot of a peculiar shrine. It's interesting to see how few of these there are around Japan.
The water contains a number of goldfish, and a massive number of coins, many copper based. How are the fish not poisened? Or maybe that's why they're such a bright orange...
There's an awful lot happening in this picture, and I included it to show everyone that the 'style' they have over here isn't always minimalistic!
Lots of these little statues arrange all over the place. The patience to set these up in orderly rows like this is something only a monk could have.
That's going to make a hell of a noise when it's struck...
The view on a cloudy day, across the bay, where we did stay, hooray!
A slightly different take on the same view.
One hundred pounds to anyone who can identify this bird of prey. There were waarning signs up saying these things eat your stuff, so be careful, and we got a really good look at it, but not with the camera so we're certain it's a bird of prey. Which kind, however, remains a mystery.
This building is at the top of the gardens as seen before, and houses an incredible 10 metre statue of a deity. The largest in Japan, and made from camfer (sp?). It must have been a hell of an undertaking to create that statue from a single piece of wood.
Close up of the little figures, placed all over any non-walking area in the shrine.
A really evil looking guy with a cool sword and flames behind him. Message: Don't annoy this guy.
Normally these gateways are well above head height, something that is not always the case as I found to my detriment. The headache inducing height of this example is aptly demonstrated by my colleague in this picture. He is roughly 5 foot 8, so I was perfectly placed to tackle this particular obstacle head on.
This cave was carved into the mountain, and was a shrine of sorts. This tunnel is actually around four feet high, and is quite claustraphobic, and also quite a strain on the back!!!
These small figures were placed all around, on any surface that would hold them.
More of these cleverly placed figures. They even put them on the power cables supplying lighting to the cave!
At this stage my camera ran out of juice, but we did see a number of other things, so when my travel buddy gets back home and uploads his photos, I'll put them on here.
