If you meet Buddha... (image intensive)

Take his picture of course! That's why I bring my camera to these things ^^

There is a Shinto shrine on the way to the main street of Kamakura, just to shake things up a bit amongst the Zen temples. While the atmosphere at all the temples so far is mostly one of quiet contemplation, the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu is a lot more festive, complete with fortunes, charms and barrels of ceremonial sake on the side. The place is decidedly commercial, with a really swish airconditioned cafeteria area for visitors to chill out in. It was there that I came upon a an actual Shinto wedding ceremony, with traditional musicians, shrine maidens and the customary exchange of sake cups between the bride and groom.



The shrine occupies pride of place at the end of the shopping strip alongside Kamakura station, and opens out onto the main street, lined with shops selling souvenirs, groceries, clothes and food. I stopped by a random noodle joint for some very welcome cold kishimen, sort of like flat udon.

I've taken a sudden liking to cold noodles because of the heat. I've probably eaten more cold soba in the last month than in all my time here.

A quick bus ride from the station took me to the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha Statue. The big guy stands about 11 metres tall, exposed to the elements because the folks in charge gave up on rebuilding the surrounding temple after it got washed away in a tsunami five hundred years ago. The upside is that the lighting for photographic purposes has improved a lot.

I paid 20 yen to go inside the statue for a look. Apparently the statue is made up of 30 individual pieces cleverly interlocked in 3 different ways, without the use of high heat welding. Lego never had it so good. The statue survived a number of natural disasters as well as WWII, and now stands on an earthquake-proof base. Take that, Mother Nature!

For trivia freaks, here's a rundown of the Great Buddha's stats:

A short walk from the Daibutsu is the Hase-dera, which houses the eleven-faced statue of the Hase-Kannon, or Goddess of Mercy. I wasn't allowed to photograph the statue, but it was very impressive. The temple also houses a large collection of small Buddha statues. There were literally thousands of them in the Hase-dera, from specially constructed terraces to low-roofed caves, which I could walk through without stooping (yes, I'm short, dammit). I'm told they were put there as offerings to "water children", or babies who were not carried to term because of financial, familial or medical circumstances.

I liked this guy the best:

Being close to the bay, the temple also features a lookout to the sea. I thought the view from the lookout was distinctly un-Japanese for some reason. Must be the sailboats and windsurfers.

A return trip to the shopping town beside the station yielded a few Japanese rarities, including this old style post box, which was surprisingly still in operation. These are being phased out by the modern cuboid models with a retractable drawer, which admittedly have a bigger capacity for mail, but look a lot less cute.

There was no way I could have thoroughly explored the shopping area, partly due to the rapidly fading daylight, but mostly because my feet couldn't take it anymore. It seemed a lot more friendly and down to earth than a lot of other places I've been though.

And just to show that the fashion industry is ruthless and cutthroat...

All in all a very culturally rewarding day out, which is way better than staying at home and wondering if there's stuff out there I might be missing. Trips to places further away might take a bit of planning and saving, but I reckon now that I'm in my second year I'll be better placed to take advantage of my work schedule and days off. Now what's this about that penis festival in Kawasaki?