The first time I went to this place — 1 year ago
We went to Kamakura, where I always wanted to go when I lived
in Japan but never made it before.
Since we were already staying in the south end of Tokyo, practically in Kawasaki, it really wasn’t that far as a day trip. It was raining early in the morning and everything felt damp and leafy green when we got out to the Kita-Kamakura station. The cicadas were buzzing loudly.
We then visited two Zen temples and monestary complexes, established in the 1200s. I associate Kamakura with Jodo-Shinshu because of the presence of the great Buddha there, and didn’t think about the fact that the Kamakura Shogunate’s official religion was Zen. Both were definitely active; at Engakuji, we saw a line of monks walking from one hall to another for chanting; at Kenchoji, some sort of lecture was going on in one of the buildings and there must have been at least 50 people there in attendence on a Saturday. At Kenchoji, I sat for a while with David and the girls looking out over the garden. Then I walked around and sat in the small section open to the general public of the great meditation hall. As soon as I knelt on the tatami, I could feel myself going into a state of meditation. There is something that feels just right to me about that Zen environment.
We then had lunch at a noodle shop, and went on to a Shinto shrine dedicated to the god of war. This place was quite busy, not because I think the Japanese people are so interested in waging war, but in competition, maybe? I read the prayer plaques and there was definitely hope for success in business and in school.
We continued walking into the center of town. I managed to figure out that it would be easier for us to take the bus to see the Daibutsu rather than take the train, figured out which bus was the one for us to take, and what the fares would be. I’m personally proud of being able to do this sort of thing.
It was a bit of a thrill to see the Daibutsu at last. David told me that there were people lining up to go inside and I thought he was making one of his usual jokes, but it turned out to be true. For an additional 20 yen (about 16 cents), you could go inside the bronze statue! I would not recommend this experience to clastrophobes, as there is not a lot of room in there and it was very stuffy. I thought briefly about what would happen if I passed out inside the buddha, and decided it was time to get out of there.
We then went down the hill from there to the Daibutsu’s related temple, Hasedera. This was a Jodo-Shinshu temple, not as much my style as the Zen ones. But it did have a wonderful view.
We retraced our steps by taking a train back to Kamakura, another to Yokohama, another to Kamata and a final train back to our Tokyo hotel.
