Temples round 2!

Of 4000...

Jimm and I went down to Kamakura today for some hiking and a lot of temple viewing. We woke up early for us, 9.30, and hit the road by 10. A noonish arrival at the first temple was ours. A very spacious temple area with a large path from the train up through the the belltower and in to the main worshipping area. I dutifully threw in my coin and made my prayers to the local gods enshrined there.

After that was the 'lunch soba noodles' race. Jimm told me that he has sat down in a noodle place, gotten his food and then while waiting for it to cool, a local has come in, ordered and eaten before Jimm even starts. I barely beat Jimm in the race today, so its not like he can't handle hot food, locals just destroy their noodles.

Then we went on a 3 mile hiking trip through the gorgeous Kamakuran woods. We got lost, found a shrine, jumped over stuff and had a good time clambering up mudhills. Of course the local guy behind us laughed as he walked two feet to the right and then up the stairs, but we had more fun getting dirty.

And then the Daibutsu. The Daibutsu is the second largest Buddha in Japan. Dude is like 20 feet tall and that is while sitting! Or meditating. Or getting ready to float. Or whatever he is doing. He is large. Otherwise, the Daibutsu area was kinda boring. Luckily, we had one more temple to go.

The Last temple of note had a 9 headed buddha. There was one normal head, and then a crown of heads, then another group of heads above and inside the crown. It was very, very strange. But cool. There is a story to this buddha. It is made of wood and washed upon the shore in Kamakura like 1500 years ago or something. The locals, thinking this a random act of the gods, praised the heavens and erected the absolutley magnificent temple in which this buddha is housed. Eventually times pass, seasons change and communication increases. Turns out, there is an identical buddha in Kyoto. There was a buddha maker down there who made two, enshrined one and sent the other into the sea, where it washed up in Kamakura.

Then a quick train ride to an island in the bay where we saw a bunch of closing shops, a guy saying the evening prayers in the temple and got down on the some rocks by the sea. Then a very pleasent cup of coffee on a deck in the setting sun with the sea right next to us. Very relaxing after a hard day of climbing up and down hills.

Some of you are, I am sure, wondering why I am not abusing photos as I have been. There is a good reason for this. I tried to plug in my camera and do some computerized magic. However, when I plugged said camera in, it crashed the machine. So, no pictures today, but I assure you, they are quite good.

Tommorow is the Ghibli museum where I get look at animated, dorky and possibly small stuff and then Friday is just bummnig around Tokyo until I hop on the sleeper car to Kanazawa. And just when I had a basic idea of how to get around Tokyo on the trains. Oh well, onward I march.