Waking up bright and early for what would be a handful of a day at Kamakura, the city-town that is home to a dozen of famous Zen Buddhist temples and shrines that are a located within a near vicinity of an all-natural beach. As Morton in his book, Japan: Its History and Culture defines zen Buddhism as type of Buddhism where those who practice this belief will try to reach or have a breakthrough in some enlightenment and release that will suddenly come to them only through discipline and constant inner control on oneself.
The day started in Sunshine City, Ikebukuro again, but this time there were no stops for breaks, we headed straight for Kamakura by train. The subway station where we got off to switch trains before Kamakura had a food shop were the vendor was selling fried food and yakitori. I stuck with the Yakitori because of my sore throat. As we took that short snack break, Jayson hurried us off to the train that just pulled up to take us straight to Kamakura.
When we reached Kamakura, we were all surprised at what we saw. We understand Kamakura being a beach-town, their shops would have a near-the-shore feel with seashells and all, but instead of just seashells we found shops selling Hawaiian crafts and products like the ones you would find at Hawaii's Waikiki International Market Place with the many shops here replacing the many shop cart-stands back in Hawaii. As Jayson explains it a lot of Japanese people, especially the locals who do not have any chance to make vacation-getaways to the Hawaiian Islands and so they would settle for less, settle for a town-model of what they see Hawaii as. Hence, the numerous Hawaiian signs and shops we saw.
Making our way through these shops, we finally made it to the entrance of the famous Kotokuin Temple where the Great never-relenting Amida Buddha statue that although rusty and green with age had for the most part braved-through natural disasters like ancient tidal waves, and the like. If we were to go to Nara, we would find Buddha statues of greater sizes there, but Kotokuin's one is probably the most photographed and alluded to. I regret not asking someone to take some pictures of me and the Buddha, now it seems all the pictures I took of the statue were like postcard selections instead. As Judy-chan and the others explored the inside of the Buddha statue for 20 yen more, I decided to venture to the back where I spotted a small temple shop that was to my amazement selling green tea and vanilla ice cream. Of course, I had to satisfy my palate just for a little bit with a green tea and vanilla ice cream cone against the protest of my straining and sore throat. While I was enjoying my frozen treat, Kathy found me and we stroke up a conversation. Kathy end up eating ice cream as well as I treated her to one in return for her company. I found out that we both got sick on the trip, and she offered some Japanese throat lozenges for Judy-chan ( she joined us out of nowhere LOL, I guess she answered to my mental-call for her) and I to take which did the trick, made our throats feel ten times better.
After visiting Kotokuin temple, we were given some free time to have lunch or shop around the area. Judy-Chan and I decided to join Terri, Shawn, Vince, Travis, Charlie, Roxanne, and Skye for lunch at a ramen restaurant right across the street. It was already starting to rain heavily, so we were not picky on where to eat, but if we followed Jayson we supposedly would have been able to go to the best ramen shop in Kamakura or something like that. Oh wells, I guess it is our loss, mind you the ramen we had the restaurant was not bad, it was decent. JUdy-chan and I had the udon, but I ordered a bottle of hot sake ( Kamakura was known for their microbrewery and their crackers) which I nearly drank all of it, but I think either Charlie of Travis took pity on me and helped me out a little. It was after we left the restaurant to head back to station to meet up with the others, when my stomach was aching up, I suppose a combination of ice cream and hot sake did not sit well with it. DOh! I am such a baka!
The next temple, we visited I already forgot where or the name of it as at that time (Hase Kannon Temple, was it?) all I cared about was if the temple had a Western toilet or not. So, you can guess how much I could not really focus on the regal beauty of the temples' artifacts and statues. But there are pictures to prove that I was there. Ha-HA!
The next place we went was the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine which was pretty interesting in which at the foot and to the side of the stairs before leading to the temple there were rows of barrels of various kinds of sake (for sacrificial purposes, I forgot?) stacked at least three-story high and stretching at least several hundreds of yards. I never got to test my theory whether those sake barrels were empty or full. Another interesting thing about the shrine was there were kawaii (cute) miko, shrine maidens walking around with their red and white miko outfits. I caught a glimpse of a heavily-made-up miko with shimmering eye shadow on and I just wondered for a minute was that part of her work-get-up or was she trying to impress somebody?
At the top of the shrine, there was some wooden slabs where you can write down a personal wish of your choice and hang up with a small fee. I think Roxanne was the most self-less of all of us, she paid 500 yen to wish that we all had a great time. I could not contain my gratitude towards her that I just suddenly 'bear-hug' her with adoration, I think she was not expecting I'd do that, but I did. Hee-hee... erm, I hope you don't mind Roxanne and I am kind of bummed I never got your number too.
It was right after we left the shrine when my stomach started acting up again, and I had to make everyone wait for me once again as I took a detour to the shrine's dirty and poor-facilitated-restroom . I want to apologize to all of them for making them wait, I hope you guys forgive me, and most of all I apologize to Jayson and Judy-chan for having them worry about me. I felt like such a black sheep or bad egg of the group.
Tonight was also the night of our farewell dinner at Ikebukuro. So, we as a group boarded a subway train back to Ikebukuro where we met up for dinner at the Shirokiya restaurant. We all paid for the "nomi hodai' (all-you-can drink) deal as Jayson covered the rest of the meal. The rest of the night was a drunken blur of awesome teri-chicken wings and various alcoholic beverages of kahlua milk, "fuzzy navel", mixed drinks, and of course copious amounts of sake that never seem to stop coming. It was also my first time trying calpis milk, which I will be sure to buy again when I get back to Hawaii. After what seem to be an un-ending night of drunken stupor, some of us were sober enough to go to karaoke, and of course I will never deny myself a chance of a good session of karaoke.
When Judy-chan and I got back to the hotel, this time around let's just say I passed out on my bed instead.
1 comment:
Are you lactose intolerant? Maybe that's why you stomach was upset. It could be that you had warm sake. If your body isn't used to the alcohol, it will easily reject it. As long as you were alright. That was the main concern of everyone. I felt really bad. I know how it feels when your stomach acts up during the wrong time.
It's too bad you couldn't enjoy all the sights of the temple. I enjoyed it a lot. I just wish we had more time at each area. It seem like when I was just feeling at peace, we had to go to the next place.
Yoko was really worried about you. She was hoping that we'd come to a drug store so she could get you some medicine. Isn't Japanese medicine great? It's so much better than home. I wish I bought some, especially that shot with cabbage so you don't get hangovers. Japanese think of everything. I guess they have to when they work hard and play hard.
The last dinner was a blur for me. I can't believe I passed out. I remember talking to Barbara and then blacked out. Too much sake, never again. Well next time I'll eat more and drink more water. That's what I usually do at home when I go out clubbing. I wish I didn't pass out because I wanted to go to karaoke. Maybe when I'm in Oahu we can go!
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