115: No Go-Ko – Kamakura
I changed plans a little and went to Kamakura today rather than going to Fuji Go-Ko. Kamakura is a small costal town with lots of temples from around the 12th century.
The town is small enough to walk to all the temples. Ideally it would be a one-day trip but I only left Tokyo around lunch time because I had a few logistic* things to sort out first so I did not see as much as I hoped. Kamakura had indeed a nice quite feel to it despite of plenty of people on the streets.
It was a nice spring day, sunny and inbetween cool and warm depending on the amount of sun you had..
I actually got off at Kita-Kamakura, one stop before kamakura. Kita-K. is really part of Kamakura and just some 20 mins walk maybe from the main village.
The Temples/Shrines I managed to see on the first day were Engaku-ji Temple, Meigetsu-in Temple and Toke-Ji. All were within a few hundred meters from the train station.
The railway cuts through Kita and you can cross the two tracks of the small railway to get to either side of Kite Kamakura Village. It seems like the rail track is in the dip of a valley as the temples on boths sides of the tracks are agains some hills. Its rather nice to walk there, also due to many blossoming Cherry Trees on the area.
The Temples that I saw had typical Japanses buildings with elaborate curved roofs, wood carvings on doors and pilars etc and surrounded by japanese gardens. Some had pertty impressive (or should I say massive) Gates that looked like they could the the main attraction by themselves (and some are).
Japanese do follow Buddhism though it seems rather different from the way how people practice it in SE Asia.
They still have their incense sticks, offerings, extensive prayers with some gestures but not as elaborate as people in Thailand do it. While peole in Thai have a lengthy ritual when performing some quick prayers at a temple, the Japanse burn some incense at a cleansing area in front of the temple, do symbolically wash hands and rinse out their mouths before heading into the temple/shrine. There they usually make a little offering by throwing a small coin into a wooden box, then clap their hands once or twice and say a silent prayer before leaving. It seems less effectionate the way how people in SE Asia do their prayers.
One other thing I noticed again (as I had previously when going for walks in parks elsewhere) was that the Japanese people really do appreciate the nature around them. As I said above it was a lovely spring day and plenty of people out there going for walks and exploring the area. Noticeably Japanese love their cherry trees and you see many people taking pictures of cherry blossoms and/or trees, often with friends/familiy standing underneith the trees. About 60-70% of the people were using their mobile phone cameras đŸ™‚ Still everybody was taking time to leasurely wander about and watch spring time do its thing and bring all those plant to life… I have not seen　this kind of appreciation for the little details by so many people elsewhere and it is quite nice to watch people act like this.
Personally I love spring time here. I guess I have been missing this for the last 11 years really since Scotland does not really have a proper Spring Season and I do really enjoy going for walks here in Japan because of the Season.
Weather wise it has been pretty nice. Cool and at times windy but mostly clear sky and sunny. This plus the beginning of the cherry blossom time makes it a very enjoyable period to be here..
Coming back to Kamakura… I did not manage to see even half of what I wanted to see so with any luck if weather is ok tomorrow in Kamakura (I might just take a trip down there to see what its like) I will spend another day exploringthe area.
If it pours down then I will be happily spending some time catching up with “admin stuff” such as banking, emails, blogs IF I can get online. If its nice there are plenty more temples so see and Kamakura is also along the coast and there is a peninsula nearby that is supposed to be very nice.
*:If you wonder what I mean by logistics it has to do with my luggage. I left my big backpack at my hotel when I went up to Nikko (I only took a small day pack with me) and on my return to Tokyo I did not go back to that hotel but rather stayed at a Capsule Hotel (Ryoken) which has an excellent Onsen plus Sauna etc. I was wiothout my luggage for a few days now and got quite used to not having to carry 20kg with me all the time so I decide to try and leave the luggage at the hotel for a few more days whilst heading off to Kamakura and/or Fuji Go-Ko. After sorting out the luggage details I spent another hour reading up about Kamakura and Go-Ko and checking weather forecasts before I eventually decided to go to Kamakura. The forecast is Rain for tomorrow and since the main day for exploring Go-Ko would have been the day after arrival (i.e. tomorrow), it didn’t seem such a good idea to go there today. The forecast for Go-Ko weather after tomorrow is good agaih so I reckon I make my way there on Sunday afternoon or early Monday morning.
Tags: Japan, Kamakura, RTW 2005/2006
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