Kamakura Temples

Kamakura is about an hour from Yokohama Harbor and in a lovely setting.  Rather than an underground there they have a monorail, kinda cool.  We stopped first at the Hase-dera Temple.  Just a note here, the temples in the city are Buddhist while the shrines are Shinto, where deities are  all living things.

You can see Karl is ready with his 360 camera so I needed to get a quick shot of the both of us before he disappeared filming.

Our guide, Mochi, wasn't the most informative so we mostly just wandered on our own.  Occasionally I would hear something he mentioned about what we were seeing but in reality he was less of a guide than our non-English speaker Yamada-san.

The grounds here were lovely and peaceful.

More colorful flowers

that I of course loved.  I would definitely recommend coming to Japan in Spring.

I just thought this sign was pretty cute.

This little guy was a happy looking buddha.

The only place I saw peonies was here in Kamakura and they were glorious.

One of the spots we entered was inside a small cave where you had to bend over to maneuver in and out of it.

More buddhas inside with candles or incense.

You can see here how low you had to bend over to get in or out of the cave.

Small icons were set in carved out niches,

and in the large opening of the cave was an army of these tiny buddhas, there to grant wishes or prayers when purchsed.

At another spot in the garden you could purchase one of these Prayer Tablets for 300 Yen, about $1.95, to have one of your prayers granted.  Each slot had a different prayer on it, these are for "Easy Delivery", "Fulfillment of Your Wish", and "Be Blessed with a Child" prayers.  I bought one of the middle ones, not going to tell you what my wish was though. :)

These next two photos just made me sad.  Each of these little figures represents an aborted baby.  They are placed here by the almost mother so that they will not be forgotten.  The idol in the stream next to the dipper represents all of the other idols.  The dipper is for pouring water over it so that the babies don't get thirsty.

We weren't sure if there was any significance in the size of these small statues.

Yet another Buddha,

a lantern, and a statue of Sho-kannon Bosatsu, one of the most beloved deities of the old times in Japan, one known for its mercy and compassion.

This beautiful structure contains a Golden Buddha which you aren't allowed to photograph, but the building itself is marvelous.

Another lovely spot in the garden.

There's a nice view of the sea from here, and yes, I had lost Karl so it's just me in the photo.

There are some large birds called Kites, who fly above the mountains and sea here.  Apparently they like to steal food and can scratch you, the warning sign says to "Please be careful".

Another view of the beautiful setting for the Golden Buddha's Temple.

More scenes from the gardens.

Absolutely loved these gorgeous flowers.

More scenes from the gardens and the city.

Lots of wind surfers and sailboats out in the bay that day.

These are the Gods for Good Marriage.

And look who I found to take a photo with before we left.

One more happy Buddha.

Walking down the street we saw this shop with all the cats for sale.

Coming to the Kotokuin Temple we saw this bamboo fence which I thought was interesting.

And off goes Karl through the temple entrance.

One of the guardians of the temple.

A picture here of our guide, Mochi.

The sight to see at the Kotokuin Temple is the Great Buddha.

And he is definitely big, more like huge. The Buddha, known as Kamakura Daibatsu, sits at 37 feet high and weighs about 121 tons.

The bronze Daibatsu was cast around 1252 so he's been around for quite a while.

Also at the temple are these huge sandals, hanging on a wall.  Not sure if they'd be big enough for the Buddha or not. 

I noticed that the Buddha vents in the back and wondered why, until I found out that for 100 Yen, or about 65 cents, you can climb up at narrow, curving stairway to a platform inside the statue.

Here's a view from inside the Daibatsu of some of the welds..

And just a photo of me with some of my beloved blossoms.  Fun fact, there are 15 different kinds of cherry blossoms that you can find in Japan.  Most are just flowering trees that don't bear fruit. 

Here are some of the kites that I mentioned earlier, flying around the beach as we drove by.

I knew that sooner or later I'd want to find a picture of the flag with the rising sun.

This tori gate goes to a shrine where a large festival was going on that day.  Our guide didn't want to go there because the festival going on and he thought it was too crowded, which was unfortunate because we found out that were some great cultural dances going on.  This walkway with the blossoms was quite beautiful anyway. 

And notice that the entry is also guarded by shisa, female on the left and the male on the right.

We went to a street nearby to get a snack and do a few minutes of shopping.

I still wasn't sure about my stomach so I didn't try anything but Karl tried these beef sticks and said they were really good.

Our final stop was the Bamboo Temple.

Another cool door.

One beautiful scene after another greeted us there.

More bamboo pipes.

Another unique sign to warn against graffiti and carving on the bamboo.

More statuary to make offerings to.

I wish I could have known exactly what we were seeing.

Inside these small caves were more small statues for worshipping.

The bamboo forest was nice,

much different than the pine forests we'd seen more recently.

It appeared as we drove around that Sunday was laundry day, I saw so much of it hanging on balconies or over railings.

We had hoped to go to a Japanese baseball game, as there was the stadium for the Yokohama Bay Stars close to the port.  Unfortunately for us the game was a sellout that day and unlike at a park in the U.S. there weren't any hawkers trying to sell tickets before the game, and the ticket offices weren't even open.  There were definitely crowds there!  I checked later and found out they all went home disappointed as the home team got trounced!

After the tour finished we decided to walk near the port in Yokohama to try to find some Japanese food for lunch...again.

In our wanderings we walked past the Arts Center where Phantom of the Opera was playing.  It was pretty crowded as we walked out and about.

And where should we end up but...wait for it...Chinatown.  It was Chinese food in Japan once again.  It was pretty good but I still didn't have much appetite.  Karl enjoyed it.

On our way back to Srenade we passed the Yokohama sign.

This statue faces the bay and is the Guardian of Water.

A quick photo of Serenade on our way back.

The walkway was a pleasant way to stroll back to the pier on a lovely Spring day.

I saw this guy watching a street magician and it made me smile to see all the weird spellings on his shirt but I did like the message.  Is there a reason words were spelled that way?

So many lovely flowers to take photos of!

And it made me happy to see the tulips that I am missing at home.

Look at these cute little planters hanging on the railing in front of this shop.

It was good to know we were almost back to the terminal, only one more kilometer, and I appreciated the reminder to beware of splinters, although I'm not sure how many people would be walking into the cruise terminal barefoot.

The sun set on our visit to Tokyo and Yokohama.

One last view of the Yokohama Bay Bridge, sister to the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco.  Thanks for more good times Tokyo!