Kamakura

We decided to go to Kamakura, a small town some 50km south of Tokyo, bordered by mountains on one side and the open water on the other. It is easily accessed from Tokyo by train and it makes a nice one-day trip. It hosts a remarkable number of temples and shrines, some of which are as old as 1200 years, but which are all but overshadowed by the main attraction - Daibutsu - a 12 meters tall bronze statue of Great Buddha.

The first temple we visited was Tōkei-ji (東慶寺), located just outside of Kita-Kamakura train station. Giles Milton describes this temple in his book Samurai William, which I am currently reading (and which I recommend to all who would like to get to know the Tokugawa Ieyasu Japan through the eyes of first Europeans to sail to Japan).

"One of the city's strangest sights was a 'monastery of heathen nuns, being shorne, all the haire off their heades as the papist nuns are'. This was the famous Tokeyi temple, which had been founded more than three centuries earlier as a refuge for battered wives. Women who stayed for more than two years were considered legally separated from their husbands, and it was said that 'no man may take any woman out of that place by force.' Yet men, and even lovers, were free to come and go as they pleased, for the nuns 'hold venery nether sin nor shame, but live at their pleasure'."

The second temple we visited, Jōchi-ji (浄智寺), is famous for the moss-covered entrance. There is a graveyard inside, which I found very interesting. Purpose and content of wooden sticks with Kanji symbols in some graves still remain a mystery to me.

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As temples in Japan are nowadays tourist attraction people want to see, there is usually a small fee of about ￥300 to enter (~3 eur). Japan's two main faiths are Buddhism and Shintō. In contrast to Catholic churches', where the purpose is praying and worshiping, the purpose of Buddhist temples and Shintō shrines is safekeeping of sacred objects. 

What is even more surprising is that most Japanese are followers of both Buddhism and Shintō, which can be dazzling to Europeans, as we are familiar with exclusive monotheistic faiths like Christianity's this-is-the-only-true-religion paradigm. Shintō is the religion of this world and this life, whereas Buddhism is for matters of death. There is a saying that "one gets married in a Shintō shrine, but gets buried in a Buddhist temple."

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After that we took the Daibutsu hiking course, which zig-zags through the forest and allows for an hourly walk with some interesting sites located on the path. I now regret that we did not stop to see some other shrines on this path, but at the time we wanted to come to the Great Buddha in time and were not sure how much time this would take us.

The Great Buddha (大仏) in Kamakura was cast in 1252 A.D., 500 years after the one in Nara. It is a 13 meters high statue lit from copper and weights 121 tons. It is hollow so the visitors can enter for a small fee.

I did not go in as I rather enjoyed the view from the outside and there was a long queue of people waiting to go inside. I was pretty impressed by its sheer size, because it is bigger in person than it appears in photos. Is it truly magnificent!

The last temple we visited was Hase-dera (長谷寺). I liked it better than previous temples, as it has buildings with beautifully ornamented roofs and is very big. The temple's roofs, which are curved upwards particularly impressed me and from being wary when I'd started out in the morning, I found instead I'd enjoyed the experience in Kamakura very much. The temple houses a magnificent 9.18 meters tall wooden statue of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, but cameras were unfortunately forbidden in the temple so I could not take any photo. In one of the temple buildings there stands also almost three meter tall golden statue of Amida Buddha.

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Tokyo Gardens

I needed some quiet, relaxing time so I went to two gardens in central Tokyo.

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Since Kiyosumi Garden was on my way, I decided to hop out in Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station and take a short walk to the garden. The surroundings are grey buildings, heavy traffic and neon lights. However, as soon as I entered the garden, I knew I will not regret to have made this trip. That such an exquisite spot sat in the middle of ordinariness was something that a random passerby would not expect. I found myself in a dream-like world, with green crystal lakes, green trees, stepping stone paths that are set in the water (磯渡り - isowatari) and beautiful fishes of rainbow colors. The garden is remarkably peaceful and tranquilizing. The birds sang their songs and on the nearby benches three Japanese pensioners just opened their painting boxes and started to paint a horizontal tree hovering over the green lake with their oil colors. In the distance, a house appears to hover over the water. Photos are worth more than a 1000 words, so please see the photos.

Still being dizzy from beauty of the last garden, I entered Hama Rikyu Garden. It had much more space than Kiyosumi Garden and is located in a much more prosperous district, giving one a pleasure of contrasting sights of beauty: beautiful garden with lake and bridges in the front and Shiodome's skyscrapers in the background. Spectatular!

After a while I sat on a bench and admired the Tokyo Bay for quite some time. Too soon, the voice from the speakers began to thank the visitors for coming and urged us to return to the gate, since the garden was closing, they said. I sat for a minute or two more, trying to absorb the last drops of peace, before hurrying out with other visitors. At exactly 5 o'clock, the gates closed.