Day 60 - Kamakura, Buddhist temples and statues

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well!

There has been quite an unexpected amount of snow in Tokyo these last two weeks. Tokyo is not particularly used to snow so transport has been effected quite a bit, with some friends becoming unable to take planned trips due to cancelled flights or buses. One day it snowed the heaviest in 20 years! Compared to some other countries or even other areas of Japan it was not so much but coming from London I know the effects of snow in cities that aren't quite used to the white stuff!

On November 10th a group of us took a day trip to Kamakura.

Kamakura is a City in the Kanagawa prefecture not far South of Tokyo. It is close to the mountains and lies on the coast. It is well known for it's Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples, but the most famous attraction is it's bronze statue of Buddha (大仏 dai butsu).

We took the train from Tokyo, you can take a train that goes directly to Kamakura from Tokyo station so the journey is not too difficult.

Mmm love me some domestic ham & sausage!

Around the station there were a few restaurants so if you are hungry when you get off the train, have no fear! We found this little restaurant with the rather amusing sign "Domestic Ham & Sausage". 

A mikan tree!

We first made our way to Hasedera (海光山慈照院長谷寺 Kaikouzan Jishouin Hasedera) one of Kamakura's famous Buddhist temples.

There were some pretty amazing trees in the temple gardens

The gardens were gorgeous. There was a pond with huge Koi, statues, lanterns, beautiful rock formations, flowers and some spectacularly gnarled and twisted trees. The gardens were clearly maintained to perfection.

Some temple-goers having a go at temizu

Before going up to the temple you should wash your hands. This is called Temizu (手水), the Kanji mean "hand" and "water" respectively so it is pretty self-explanatory. Temizu is performed at a chouzubachi 手水鉢 which is a basin that is used for the purpose of temizu. chouzubachi often has a little fountain of water running into it and is usually provided with ladles with which temple visitors can carry out temizu.

Temizu is the ritual act of washing your hands in a certain way in order to cleanse yourself before entering the temple. This is carried out in the grounds of both Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples in Japan.

To perform Temizu you take the ladle in your right hand and fill it with water. You then pour some of this into your left hand. Next you take the ladle from your right hand, into your left and pour some of the water onto your right hand. After this you return the ladle back to you right hand again and pour some of the water into your cupped left hand, from which you sip water into your mouth. Without drinking the water, you swill it around your mouth and then without making much noise spit the water into your left hand. Rinse the left hand again as before, and then holding it with both hands, tilt the ladle until it stands vertically so that the remaining water runs over the handle. Replace the ladle and you are done! That didn't sound complicated at all, right?!

After walking up a fair few steps you make it to an area with the temple's buildings which are just as beautiful as the gardens. Hasedera is famous for it's hydrangeas and its huge statue which is housed in one of the temple's buildings. The statue is one of Japan's largest wooden statues, it is gilded in gold and depicts Kannon, a bodhisattva (enlightened being). 

Around the temple area there were displays of some beautiful flowers. They all looked so perfect, some of the flowers even had some supporting structures to hold the weight of their heavy bloom.

Outside the temple was a bronze cauldron inside which you could burn incense. For 50 yen you could take a stick of incense, light it with the burning candle to the right of incense and place it into the ashes of the cauldron. After letting it burn for a few seconds you extinguish the flame by fanning it with your hand. After this you can waft the smoke towards your body. The smoke of the incense is believed to heal ailments so if you have any injuries or sickness you can fan the smoke to the inflicted area. 

Jizou statues

The temple grounds house hundreds of Jizou statues. These statues are small depictions of the divinity Ojizou sama, who is a guardian of children. They are often placed by parents of children who died due to miscarriage or stillbirth. In mythology, children who die before their parents are unable to cross the Sanzu river to get to the afterlife as they haven't been able to performed enough good acts before death and also due to causing their parent's suffering. Parents place these statues to protect their children and shorten their suffering in the underworld as it is said the Ojizou sama protects the children's souls.

Offerings such as the handkerchief in the above photo are often placed by parents to help their lost children or by parents thanking Ojizou sama for saving their children from serious illnesses.
Not only is Ojizou sama protector of children but he also is believed to be a protector of travelers so it is possible to see jizou statues on the roadside in some places.

From the temple area there was a rather spectacular view of Kamakura which on-looked the sea. It was pretty windy though so keep a-hold of your hats!

After we had seen enough of the temple and surrounding area we went back down the stairs for another look at the gardens.

Can you see the stack of coins on his fingers?

A cute little pond

In the garden is an underground cave called Benten Kutsu. It was dark and the candlelight and statues only added to the creepy feeling. The statues inside are for Benzaiten who is the goddess of flowing things, in this case she would be worshiped in the capacity of sea goddess.

Sorry for the blurry photos, it was pretty hard to take a good one due to the low light and I also did not want to be left alone in that creepy atmosphere!

Slightly less creepy was this zen garden pictured above. You couldn't enter but you were able to look through see it well enough. It was really pretty, it would have been nice to be able to get a closer view.

After Hasedera temple we went to see the famous statue of the Amida Buddha at Koutokuin.

Koutokuin is another Buddhist temple. It houses the famous bronze Daibutsu (Great Buddha) statue.

For around 20 yen you could enter the hollow statue and take a look inside. It is not all too thrilling inside but it is interesting to see the structure from within. 

The main attraction to this temple is quite obviously the Buddha statue. It was pretty spectacular but it is pretty difficult to get a good photo as naturally, pretty much everyone else is trying to take photos too! The temple grounds is full of people with their cameras out taking photos of friends and family standing in front of the statue. Oddly enough I think a stranger actually took a photo of my friends and I while we were standing together for photo.

The inside of the Buddha 

Buddha's tasty salt, 5 piece set!

Of course no trip to anywhere in Japan would be complete without a trip to an omiyage (gift) shop. Conveniently there was one located in the temple grounds so we stopped by to take a look. As usual they had phone straps, socks and boxes of baked goods such as cookies and cakes all themed for the area, in this case there were a lot of Buddhas! One thing that caught my eye that I have since seen pop up a few times in other omiyage shops, were sets of flavored salt.

Kamakura train

We were all getting hungry so we took the tram to another area of Kamakura, where we could find a nice place to eat.

The trams in Kamakura were really cute. The outside as well as the inside had a colourful design with a character called Enon kun.

We went to the coastal area so we were able to see the beach. It was a bit overcast so definitely not a day for swimming but the view was still very dramatic. I unfortunately couldn't go onto the beach as I wasn't wearing good shoes so if you want to take a stroll on the sand then make sure to wear something sensible!

The weather took a turn for the worse so we hurried ourselves to found a place to eat. We settled on Bill's, an Australian-based restaurant known for its breakfast. It was a bit more expensive than the restaurants we usually patronise but the food was very good.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was really nice, and after the weather had cleared up a bit we were lucky enough to be at a table with a great view of the sea.

I went for the ragu with parmesan. The flavours were really rich and the meat was really melt in the mouth. Just thinking about it is making my stomach rumble!

For dessert I had brownies! I love brownies but, these were a little disappointing. If I went again I would definitely order their speciality - ricotta hotcakes (pancakes) with banana and honeycomb butter. My friends shared a plate (it was definitely a two person job!) I was able to try a bit and I can confirm that it was heavenly! The pancakes were wonderfully fluffy, if you ever have a chance to go to Bill's, do not pass up on the hotcakes!

I hope you all enjoyed this post!

Keep warm!