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There's no easy way to confront turning 30, especially when you work with kids and are continually reminded of the excesses of youth. It also doesn't help when the day coincides with the town's famous fireworks festival and the date you start your descent into the age of responsibility and home loans is plastered all over the city. I suppose I can tell everyone that the town put on the pyrotechnics for my special day. Just so I could celebrate in style, or at the very least distract myself from the horrible truth, I decided to go to the festival in a new yukata I'd bought for the occasion. No pics, sorry. Poor lighting and all, you see.
Talk about raining on my parade. The festival was fairly damp from the light rain that continued throughout that night, but that's not going to stop the townspeople from having their festival. Aside from the usual chrysanthemum fireworks, there were ringed planets, pokemon balls and my favourite, goldfish. Yes, literally goldfish-shaped fireworks that were totally cute. I wish I could have taken some decent photos, but the lack of a tripod or anywhere dry to stand it prevented me. The largest individual fireworks were last, but the smoke from all the previous charges started drifting downwards because of the rain, and so all we saw was a diffuse glow instead of the actual fireworks. Shame, really. I made up for it by downing a couple of beers and tucking in to some delicious festival food.
Speaking of food, what's a birthday without a bit of cake, eh? In the year since my last, the branch of Fujiya I got my cake from the last time packed up, so I reckon I'd make my own. So here are the cream puffs I made after scouring the net for recipes.
When I was a kid I thought adults had all the answers, that at age 21 a switch in their brains automatically flips and they all suddenly know what to do in any situation. Over the years that philosophy has mutated somewhat. Now I firmly believe that adults are but children in a larger size. There have not been any illuminating epiphanies or sudden surges in wisdom, only a persistent feeling that nothing I've experienced so far will truly prepare me for tomorrow. It sounds rather trite I know, but right now, it's surprisingly apt. It's not all that gloomy though; after all, I made it this far, right? Based on my own rate of situational survival I suppose the odds of making it out of most sticky spots is in excess of 50%, which is as good as it gets, really.
While on the subject of "as good as it gets", I do sometimes worry that this is all there is to life, and that at 30 I really should have more to show for it than I do now. But it's never too late to start planning I suppose, and since I'll probably be staying here for the next couple of years it's an excellent time to think about all the other things I could get to doing after this extended working holiday. Hopefully I've actually learned something about teaching in the last year so i can deal with the next two better. Good students are a joy to teach, but where there are terror tots (14-year olds also count), it takes a lot of patience, Panadol, and as a last resort, apathy, to deal with them.
Meanwhile, I suppose the goal this year is to get out of my cosy one-room apartment more often and see more of this country's sights before I have to pack up and go back to the real world. Travelling within Japan can get frightfully expensive, but there's no better time than now since I'm actually here. Better start saving.
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?
On a whim, and inspired by one of my student's speeches, I decided to go to Kamakura to have a look around. The place is just an hour or so out of Tokyo by train, so it was perfect for a day trip. The Lonely Planet guide suggested that I stop a little north of Kamakura station and work my way south so I could cover a lot of temples, and it seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately the day I chose turned out to be one of the hotter days of the season, so it wasn't as comfortable as I would have liked. But if there's anything I've learned from being here, it's that you roll with the punches.
The Kamakura area is populated mostly by Zen temples, which means most places you come across are likely to be quiet and tranquil. After a while, all the temples start to look really similar, which is my excuse for not being able to remember where I saw what, but there were a few sights worth making a note of.
I found a statue in the one of temple grounds that was supposed to be a god of happiness, and a random visitor there told me that you rub his belly for good luck. I include a pic of the statue here because I thought he looked like he was pulling a one handed Fonzie ^^
Along the long trek to Kamakura station, I came across a stall by the road selling a local specialty, sweet potato flavoured ice cream. I'm not one to pass up a cold soft serve, especially on an extremely hot and humid day, so I stuck around the stall and ate the thing with a goofy look on my face.
I probably spent the most time at Kenchouji, which had a small lotus garden in bloom and some nice architecture.
That was by no means the reason why I stayed so long. I was about to walk out of the place when a saw a sign at the entrance about the area to the rear of the temple where you could see Mt Fuji. Lured by the promise of seeing the great volcano, I decided to give it a go. After all, it looked like a short walk on the map. Half an hour later, I was still climbing up the side of a frigging mountain and wondering what possessed me to attempt the hike in 36 degree heat. I didn't get to see Mt Fuji once I got to the top since it would involve walking a hiking trail without a guide, but I did get a cool mountaintop view of Kamakura and a flock of stone tengu for my efforts.
What's the collective noun for a group of tengu anyway? A patrol, maybe?
To be continued!
Talk about raining on my parade. The festival was fairly damp from the light rain that continued throughout that night, but that's not going to stop the townspeople from having their festival. Aside from the usual chrysanthemum fireworks, there were ringed planets, pokemon balls and my favourite, goldfish. Yes, literally goldfish-shaped fireworks that were totally cute. I wish I could have taken some decent photos, but the lack of a tripod or anywhere dry to stand it prevented me. The largest individual fireworks were last, but the smoke from all the previous charges started drifting downwards because of the rain, and so all we saw was a diffuse glow instead of the actual fireworks. Shame, really. I made up for it by downing a couple of beers and tucking in to some delicious festival food.
Speaking of food, what's a birthday without a bit of cake, eh? In the year since my last, the branch of Fujiya I got my cake from the last time packed up, so I reckon I'd make my own. So here are the cream puffs I made after scouring the net for recipes.
