Hello again! This will be the penultimate GW episode, with a hodgepodge wrap-up coming! For the last day of GW,
Claire and I chose to go to Kamakura. I had just recently been to Kamakura for the
Yabusame horseback archery (check that out!), but I didn't have any opportunity to take a look around the impressive shrine complex or surrounding area that day. I had also been during my 2011/12
AFS exchange to Japan (check out that old blog here), but I was eager to go back with more experienced eyes (and a better camera). Indeed the last time I had been there (Yabusame notwithstanding) was with Claire as well, so it was hugely appropriate that we went there together.
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| The Troy we know and "love"... |
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| ...used to be this Troy we knew and actually loved! |
Kamakura was once the de facto capital of Japan, being the most populous settlement, during the Kamakura Period (1200-1300AD). It is famous for its own Daibutsu (Giant Buddha), but unlike the one Claire and I visited a few days prior, this one is sitting down, and thus not quite as big (but far more famous). We had visited this one on our 2012 adventure, and having just visited the Ushiku version, we elected instead to take a look around some of the other places.
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| The start of the long walk towards the main Shrine complex and beyond |
Having discovered that places close at unreasonably early times, we plotted our scheduling a bit better, and discovered two other shrines worth visiting, that both closed before the more famous Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (the site of the yabusame). With this in mind, we walked right past the main tourist spot, taking a ~20 minute amble to the right, straight towards Hokoku-ji temple. This temple is famous for its bamboo grove, giving rise to the nickname of "Bamboo Temple". This temple was built to commemorate a shogun in 1334, and has plenty of relics and remains of famous monks, samurai and shogun, as well as some name seals and paintings.
The actual temple didn't grab me (suffering from another temple sickness at this point perhaps), but the bamboo grove was incredibly pretty; I could have spent a lot longer in there, such was the tranquility. I also noted a lot of the bush on the fringes of the grove resembled the bush we find in New Zealand, so there was a (sorta not really) feeling of being home - not at all what I'd expect when visiting a 700 year old Japanese temple!
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| Some famous samurai have their ashes interred in these caves apparently |
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| Reminds me of that scene in the House of Flying Daggers |
On a slightly tangential note, as we headed to our next temple destination, we came across a sign that was unreasonably funny to me with the oxymoronic nature of it:
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| Pretty useless pass then, isn't it? |
Our next destination was the Meigetsu-in Temple that was at one point part of a much bigger Buddhist temple called Zenko-ji, but during the modernisation of Japan when there was a whole lot of anti-Buddhist sentiment, the larger complex was closed down. Now Meigetsu-in is famous for hydrangeas, a special well, a moon shaped window, and some graves of famous people in some caves.
While that was all well and good, the thing that caught the majority of my attention was the resident squirrel population. I understood there to be rabbits around (Japanese believe there is a big rabbit on the moon, as we see a man), so with a moon window it is appropriate to have rabbits. While no rabbits were found, there were some feeding stations which squirrels were quite fond of. Needless to say, being from an island country where there are no squirrels (I don't think our zoos even have them), I was infatuated with the furry things. No doubt rolling her eyes at my reaction to what sparrows or piwakawaka are for us, Claire left me to take more photos than I care to admit of squirrels....
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| They are SO cute, omigod |
Once the squirrels had eaten their fill (and the Japanese who were watching them had had enough of laughing at my reactions to them), I moved to catch up with Claire. There I saw the moon window, which was quite pretty to be sure, something worthy of going back to once a season to catch the changes of colours within the same frame.
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| If there was something that summed up Japan, I feel it would be something like this |
The caves and such like were interesting too (I didn't get any photos as I had totally the wrong lens on my camera and didn't want to change it in case there were more squirrels), but the grave of Uesugi Norikata, the presumed founder of the temple, is there. These cave graves are also the largest in Kamakura, so apparently fairly significant! There is also a well there which is one of the Ten Wells of Kamakura (so named because of the relative lack of subterranean water in Kamakura - consistent supplies being very valuable).
Having seen all there was to see, we then moved towards the main shrine, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. This is a huge red building, set on a large staircase, with views down a very straight road down to the ocean. If my memory from when I was guided around there in 2011 is still accurate, the hill was a strategic one for the Kamakura shogunate, as they could see any approaching enemy fleets well before they made landfall.
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| The next in the Claire and Troy GW series, with Hachimangu above and behind us |
Walking around the gardens, Claire spotted a crane in a pond, which immediately grabbed my attention for all the photographic potential. As with the squirrels I became one with my camera as I took an inordinate number of photos of the bird as it waded through the water hunting fish (successfully too, that beak is not something I would like to be at the wrong end of!)
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| Also found this photo bombing pigeon to be hilarious |
Having photographed the resident wildlife, we started thinking about wrapping things up for the day, and for GW - but not before a hot chocolate! Claire has a thing for coffee, and while I cannot match her in terms of passion or knowledge, I do love a good hot chocolate. So off we went to Dandelion Chocolate in Kamakura, where I had a "European Hot Chocolate", which is as close to a Scopa (a cafe in Wellington, New Zealand) hot chocolate experience as I have ever had - basically like drinking a rich, not too sweet Nutella - fantastic!
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| The marshmallows and cookie were pretty awesome too |
With a little sweet treat done and dusted, so wrapped up our final day of GW, and the reality of going back to work/uni (and 5.40am wakeups for me) dawned....
As I said, this isn't the final GW blog; there is one more of random tidbits that will wrap everything up nicely - so keep your eyes peeled for that!
Stay frosty out there (seriously New Zealand, it looks kinda cold now, snow on the Crown Range road and all!)
Troy :)
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