My last day in Tokyo, though I didn't really spend much of it there. I tried to wake up and get going early, but it didn't quite happen that way. Eventually though, I got all packed up, checked out and headed to Kamakura. Kamakura is a city about an hour away from Tokyo by train. It was briefly the capital of the shogun government- from about 1100 to 1300. Because of this little flash in the sun, Kamakura has many, many temples, shrines, and other historical stuffs. most of the buildings were destroyed at one point or another by fire or storms or earthquakes. Nothing is really original, but as soon as something destroyed a temple, they rebuilt it exactly as it was. Some of the reconstructions are still pretty old. Some are from the 1400s, 1500s, 1600s. I wanted to go there to experience more of Japan's traditional past.
I also managed to somehow avoid the modern efficiency of Japan's present. I somehow got away with only paying $1.30 for an hour train ride. Anyways, I started off at Engaku-ji temple. Engaku-ji is a zen buddhist temple. Its a large complex of buildings. Its got a lot of trees surrounding it, so there is a nice atmosphere. A two-story pagoda-ed main gate lets you know you are entering a holy space... or maybe thats the foot-high wooden floor beam you just tripped over. I encountered some monks up in a high, out of the way garden. There were little statues nestled in the rock face in tiny caves. Some had tiny flower offerings. In the main part of the grounds there were white lilies growing everywhere.
The most important building here is the one that contains Buddha's tooth. yes, Buddha's tooth is enshrined here. The tooth is much too holy to be seen by us secular types, so you could not go inside the building. But I felt all tingly anyways, knowing the Buddha tooth was only a dozen yards away. There was also a collection of stone figures, which I assume were either deities or grave markers of famous people. Some had coin offerings. Some had coins stuck all over them, in any available crevice- the crook of a stone arm, in robe holds, on feet, on heads.
The literature on Engaku-ji touts its temple bell as the best site in the temple. Its a national treasure. It was made in 1301 and pretty much the only original things left of the shrine. The Japanese are very good about letting you know when you are about to see something important because they make you climb a ridiculous mountain or 200 flights of stairs before you can get to it. As you huff and puff your way up you think, man, this must be some awesome thing. It was a nice bell. Big and heavy-looking. I don't know much about bells, but it looked nice enough. In case the sight of the bell wasn't enough to reward the long hike up, they also had a little hut that served shaved ice with flavored syrup and sweet beans. As good as those beans on ice looked, I had lots of other temples to see that day.
Next up was Tokei-ji temple. It used to be a nunnery. Its also known as the divorce temple. Back in the old days, before there was legal divorce for women, mistreated or unhappy women used to come to the temple. They could seek refuge there from their husbands, who couldn't come on the grounds. If the woman stayed there for three years, she would be granted a divorce.
The place itself is small. It had an intimate little garden with a buddha statue. Most of the grounds were taken up by a large cemetery full of old nuns.
Nearby was Jochi-ji. Jochi-ji was also small. Its highlight was a set of three wooden statues. They represented the deities of past, present, and future. I am glad I have pamphlets for these kinds of things because they all looked like buddhas to me.
past present and future buddhas. There was a large Japanese style house with a big garden out front. Lots of butterflies were flittering about. There were also some crazy possessed cats running around, fighting each other in the garden. They had no tails. I think in Japan, bad luck travels on the tail of cats- so no tails, no bad luck. Much to my amusement, the god of happiness was lurking in some cave. He was an old man, and looked oddly deranged, being so happy in this dank, desolate cave. I guess the god of happiness is not picky.
At this point I stopped in a little restaurant and had some cold soba noodles, which you dip in soy sauce soup with onions and wasabi. Then I came to Kencho-ji, the granddaddy of Kamakura temples. Its the first ranked of the five great zen temples of Kamakura (I think I hit the other four as well). It is also the oldest zen training monastery in Japan. It is huge. There were more big gates and more big temple buildings. The coolest thing though, were the cypress trees. They were grown from seeds here, 700 years ago. So walking around in the middle of huge, gnarled 700 year old cypress trees was a nice sensation. There was another old bell from 1255. This bell was also nice, but I was much more excited about the pots of lotuses. Some of the lotuses were beginning to bloom. They were big. The entrance to one building was lined with dozens of big pots, full, of water, and growing lotuses. I took lots of pictures. There were buds, and opening flowers, and lots of the pod things with the seeds. I figured I couldn't spend all my time with the lotuses so I took off my shoes and went inside a big temple building. Around back was a little japanese garden with perfectly sculpted miniature hills, a pond, a few trees, and a meticulously clipped carpet of grass.
My last temple was Enno-ji. This was a teeny tiny one. It only had one building. That building, however, housed some awesome old statues. The main statue is of the god of hell (buddhist hell that is). His ten cohorts are also represented. These guys are responsible for determining what level of existence you will be reincarnated in, after you die. Basically they decide if you deserve to move up the reincarnation chain and start your next life over as something pleasant, or if you deserve an awful next existence. The statues have terrible, scary faces. They are supposed to scare you into being a better person. We'll see if it works.
After having walked across half of Kamakura, I hopped a train and went to another nearby town. This new place is home to the Great Buddha. He is a 40 foot bronze statue of Buddha that looms over pilgrims in his serene, beneficent way. Great Buddha was cast in 1252. The shrine that used to cover him got blown away by a tidal wave hundreds of years ago. They kept trying to build new ones to protect him, but they kept getting destroyed. Buddha himself is pretty resilient. Now they just let him hang out in the sunshine. I think its a good place for him to be. His dark green patina looks very nice against the blue sky. There were lots of people there to admire him. I made some of them take my picture. There were also some offerings of oranges and kiwis and flowers. It is also possible to go inside of the great buddha. His inside is hollow. I however did not go. The cost was high, and I can only imagine that it would be similar to being inside a dark, buddha-shaped submarine without any of the comforts.
After big Buddha, I bolted out of the Kamakura area. i wanted to catch the last bus out of Tokyo to Tomioka. I had allotted myself two hours, which I thought would be sufficient. However after many annoying snafus, including not being able to find the locker where I had left my bags, I missed the bus. I thought I was really in the shitter because I was under the impression that taking the train back using local trains, as opposed to the much more expensive bullet trains, would take around 5 hours. As it was already past 7 pm, I was a tad worried about this. However, I was very determined to get home. Mostly because I had nowhere to stay in Tokyo. The train information guy directed me to the Takasaki bound train. When I asked a guy waiting on the platform if the train he was waiting for was going to Takasaki he said no and then left his place in line, went downstairs to ask when the Takasaki train would come... all just for me. After he left I was a bit anxious about how long the train would take and if there would be any connecting trains still running to get me from Takasaki to my village once I got there. But since Japanese people are ridiculously nice, another man, who I asked about it reassured me that it would only take 2 hours. The first 30 minutes of the train ride I was smashed in among a gazillion other commuters. I am sure they hated me because I had my huge red hiking backpack, my laptop bag, and my huge canvas purse-bag. I took up so much room and my backpack kept getting in the way of the door. After a while though, i muscled my way to a seat and waited my two hours. I arrived back in Tomioka finally. I was exhausted, but glad to be home. 6 days in Tokyo is really exhausting. I waddled with all my bags to my apartment. I piqued the interest of some quasi- english speaking business men on the way. They wanted to know what the hell some american girl was doing with these huge bags slung all over her, walking down the street of some nowhere town at 10 at night. I tried to explain to them that i live here. They didn't seem to get that though because they kept asking me if i was walking to my hotel and were amazed that I had backpacked all the way to Tomioka for god knows why. I finally made it home to my own little child's bed though. It was a good feeling.