Travel Blog: Kamakura (December, 2004)

(This entry was originally posted to my Yahoo!Groups travel journal group.)

Temple Trudge II: Return to Kamakura

Imagine this: a grove of giant bamboo, wrapped in late-afternoon shadows and deep stillness. A small tea-house set in the midst of the grove, looking out over a tiny spring trickling down over a nearby cliff face. Bowls of deep green, frothy, bitter hot tea served on a lacquer tray, accompanied by two exquisite spun-sugar sweets in the shape of lotus flowers and a calligraphed poem with a brush painting of bamboo.

This was the Zen garden of the medieval Hokuku-ji Buddhist temple,set like a jewel in the hills at the outskirts of Kamakura, and it was a far cry from the hectic bustle around the Kamakura train station and the hordes of schoolkids on field trips to the main shrine.

There were only a few other visitors to the temple, and a couple of elderly women diligently raking up fallen leaves and sweeping the walkways. All was wrapped in contemplative serenity and quiet reverence for the beauty of the place...until a couple of high-school boys arrived.

They gravitated immediately to the giant bamboo, but being kids, instead of appreciative murmurs, they yelped with amazement and started whacking and pushing at the thickest stems, testing their strength. The bamboo was mostly unmoved by their efforts, which I suppose was a Zen lesson in and of itself.

Kevin had to work today, so Elke and I ran a couple of errands in downtown Yokosuka in the morning, before picking up sushi bento lunches at the local fish market (which turned out to be of unparalleled freshness and tastiness--I'm really going to be spoiled for sushi when I return to California), and heading over to the train station. We were hoping that Kamakura on a weekday would be less of a zoo than it had been during our weekend trip. The gardens at the Hase-dera Kannon-ji Buddhist temple had impressed us, and so we planned to visit a couple of temples, located further away from the train station, which were renowned for either their antiquity or their gardens.

Things went very smoothly--after arriving at the Kamakura train station, we boarded one of the local buses (following the instructions in the Lonely Planet guide), and perked up our ears for the stop announcements. Though the bus stop signs and the destination signs on the buses are all written in Japanese-only (unlike the train stations, which have signs in both English and Japanese), they do have pre-recorded announcements for each stop, probably for the benefit of the blind. So we listened hard, and managed to get off at the correct stop on a very busy, very narrow road on the hilly outskirts of town.

As with most Japanese streets, we saw bicyclists of all ages, from first-graders to senior citizens, fearlessly riding on the shoulder of the road, seemingly unconcerned by the cars and trucks roaring past. Bicycles are a very popular form of transportation in the Tokyo-Yokohama area, and one lady was telling us that the decline in the popularity of kimono as women's garments was due in large part to the fact you can't ride a bike while wearing one. Many of the train stations have multi-level parking garages for bicycles only, and all the bicycle parking lots we saw on our various expeditions were always crammed full.

In any case, the streets in Kamakura have excellent sign-posts with directions and distances to nearby temples and shrines, so we were able to find Hokoku-ji with no difficulty. It was tucked away in a charming neighborhood off the main drag, and after touring the gardens (and snapping lots of photos, of course), we retraced our steps to Sugimoto-dera, an ancient (1,400 years old) temple next to the bus stop. Along the way, we encountered quite a few local senior citizens coming home with their shopping, and we cheerfully exchanged bows and greetings with them as we passed by.

Sugimono-dera is located at the top of a wooded hill. We climbed narrow stone stairs straight up the hill, the treads hollowed with the countless footsteps of the faithful, the way lined with dozens of banners snapping in the brisk, cold wind from the sea. The shrine buildings and gates were wooden, elaborately carved, and they had thatched roofs. Everything was worn, and mossy, and very peaceful, and the view over the houses and hills was wonderful.

We returned to Yokosuka as the sun was setting, and ventured into a local grocery store to buy food for dinner. That was an adventure in and of itself--while my sister moved briskly through the store, selecting the fixings for a pork chop dinner, I wandered the aisles in a daze, vainly trying to identify fascinating packages of...well, stuff. It's tough being illiterate in this country, and having to guess at 90% of all written materials--or having to ask passers-by the most basic questions. In this case, we couldn't figure out if the package of meat we were holding was chicken or pork, so we were forced to throw ourselves on the mercy of another shopper, and ask her.

Though the restaurant and take-out food has been very reasonably priced, I've been having heart attacks at the prices listed at the greengrocers: $5.00 for four apples; $7.00 for a pint of strawberries. They're perfect, of course, but even so, my frugal heart is appalled. Even local produce, in season (such as Fuyu persimmons, which we see hanging on backyard trees everywhere) is outrageously expensive when compared to the cost of produce in California.

Tomorrow morning, I'm taking the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kyoto.

I'm planning on staying at a traditional Japanese inn (a ryokan) until Friday. I'll bring my little laptop with me to keep writing my daily journal, but I'm not sure I'll have Internet access again until Friday evening or Saturday morning.