Kamakura 鎌倉

My dad came to visit Japan! It's been two weeks now since he and my mom returned to the U.S., but I have a few great travel posts from the fam's visit to share. It was my father's first visit to Japan, so we hit up a bunch of the big sites, and did a bit of traveling. First up, Kamakura.

On our way to Tsurugaoka Hachiman Jingu.

The sakura were just blooming out during our visit, but a few flowers were still around on the street leading up to the Hachiman Jingu. After a quick tempura rice bowl lunch, we headed into the shrine itself. It was great to visit Kamakura after being away for four years; I have many happy memories of visiting the city when we lived in Yokohama, so a return was definitely in order.

The guys near the entrance to the shrine.

 

Candied grapes as sampled by little man.

The shrine is nearly one thousand years old, and until March of 2010 had a huge thousand year old ginkgo tree standing in front of it. We had visited the shrine only a few days before the tree fell, and I can remember the strong winds of the storm rattling our windows in Yokohama all night. I also recall how shocked I was to learn that the tree had fallen, and how glad I was that I had the chance to see it. The stump of the tree is still there, and is visible in the bottom left corner of the photo below. There are shoots growing around it, so life goes on, but it is also a potent reminder of the loss of what once was a truly magnificent tree.

 

Ema at the shrine. People write their wish on the ema and leave it at the shrine.

 

Sakura on the shrine grounds.

 

One of two weddings we saw at the shrine.

When we left the shrine, we headed back to Kamakura Station with a brief stop for ice cream along the way (sweet potato for me, vanilla for the fam). By this point the day had turned from a sunny one to a downpour, but we soldiered on. We took the Enoshima Dentetsu, an adorable little old railway, over to Hasedera to view the sites there, including Hasedera and the Daibutsu (great Buddha) at Kotokuin.

 

Enoshima dentetsu.

 

It stopped raining for long enough to take this photo.

 

Sakura daibutsu money shot!

Dating from the 13th century, the daibutsu is over 35 feet high. Visitors can go inside of it, which little dude thought was amazing. At first he asked where the bones of the Buddha were, and then moved on to comparing it to a hollow chocolate bunny. There truly is nothing quite like the art historical analysis of a four year old.

 

Our next stop was Hasedera, and it really started to rain hard on the short walk between temples. By this time we all had wet socks and were feeling a chill, but powered through for one more temple.

Rain, rain, rain.

 One of little dude's highlights from the day was the cave at Hasedera, or the Benten-kutsu Cave.

 

Entering the cave. 

 

Benzaiten and her biwa, carved into the cave walls.

 

Hundreds of tiny Benzaiten in one of the caves. Visitors can purchase the mini statues to wish for good fortune.

 

Flowers at Hasedera.

 

The Kannon hall. Inside are three 30 foot high sculptures. We spent some time lighting candles inside and "making wishes."

 

Outside the Kannon hall.

 

At this point in our rainy adventure my feet may have been damp and near frozen, but the rain did make everything look quite beautiful!

 

Jizo at Hasedera.

 

More Jizo.

 

Back in the cave for another visit. Seriously, it was the best part. This photo also shows how many of the tiny Benzaiten there were.

 

More flowers!

At this point in the afternoon the rain began to clear up. We made a brief refreshment stop and walked over to the nearby beach to gaze out at Sagami Bay.

 

Sandy.

 

Entranced by the waves.

 

The fam on the beach!

 

 

A parting shot of the Enoshima Dentetsu on our way back home.

Kamakura Coast 鎌倉海岸

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Busy day.... our friend Aiko is up from Himeji for a visit, so we spent the afternoon in Kamakura visiting shrines and temples and relaxing on the beach in the early evening (above). Good times :)

Time flies....

The last two months have been quite busy, leaving little time for blogging. After a while I fell behind on posting things that I wanted to say and felt overwhelmed by the task of catching up, so I have decided to post the super-condensed version of the last two months in an effort to be current.
In August we spent three weeks back in the U.S., mostly visiting with friends and family in the Chicago area, but also taking a three day trip to Michigan with Joe’s family. I’m including some photo highlights of the Lake Michigan beach near Saugatuck, Michigan, the new wing of the Art Institute, and Millenium Park. We also spent a great deal of time just relaxing, hanging out in the backyard with the dog, and enjoying the lovely weather.
When we arrived back in Japan we spent a few days getting over jet lag and organizing our apartment before I had to start back to school at the IUC. School has been fantastic, I can’t speak highly enough of the program here. It is crazy intense and leaves me little time for anything other than studying, but my language is progressing really quickly, and I’m thrilled to have this opportunity.
September flew by and was mostly uneventful, but we did enjoy some time off during the Silver Week holiday. We spent one day visiting the Shin-hanga special exhibition at the Edo-Tokyo Museum, as well as walking around the electronics district of Akihabara so I could replace my broken headphones and another day visiting the National Museum of Modern Art and exploring Jinbocho, the used book district of Tokyo and my new favorite neighborhood. We also spent a lovely afternoon walking around Ginza.
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Lake Michigan near Saugatuck, Michigan.


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Lake Michigan.
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Stormy day on the lake.
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Beyond Golden Clouds, the special exhibition of Japanese screens at the Art Institute.
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Millenium Park.
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The new Modern Wing of the Art Institute. Yes, I am wearing a jacket in August in Chicago, it was chilly for most of our visit. Talk about climate change...
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Back in Japan, the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
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Bikes parked in the Ryogoku neighborhood of Tokyo, near the Edo-Tokyo Museum.
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Kinako ohagi flavored Kit Kat that we had with our lunch of onigiri. This surprisingly tasty Kit Kat was emulating kinako ohagi, ohagi is sweet a rice ball with bean paste and ground sesame, and kinako is soybean flour. I'm not sure how the two come together, if the kinako replaces the sesame topping, or is just added to it, but either way this was one of the better special edition Kit Kat flavors, and was super tasty.
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National Museum of Modern Art.
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A theatre building in the Jinbocho neighborhood of Tokyo.
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Books! Lots and lots of used books! All in tiny shops that specialize by subject matter. Block after block of books for me, mixed in with a few record shops and music stores for Joe, some cafes for both of us, and a great natural food shop that sells wheat gluten "meat". So wonderful....
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Shops in Ginza.
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Ginza.
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More Ginza.
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India- Mumbai

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On Friday morning we took a quick 45 minute flight from Aurangabad to Mumbai, arriving at our hotel at around noon. We checked in, relaxed for a few minutes, and headed out for lunch at Pizzeria, a popular and tasty spot on Marine Drive with a view of the Arabian Sea.

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The view from inside of one of the thousands of black and yellow taxis that cover Mumbai's streets. After lunch, we rode from the Churchgate area over to the Colaba area on the other side of the peninsula that Mumbai occupies.

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We walked around near the Taj Hotel (above) and the Gateway of India (below). The gate was built to commemorate the visit of King George V in the early 20th century.

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Our next destination was the Colaba Street Market, where we did some last minute shopping. Along the way we walked through neighborhoods with tree-lined streets and taxi drivers napping in their cars.

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Back at our hotel near Nariman Point, a view of the Queens Necklace, the strip of Marine Drive that hugs Back Bay, so named for the lights that at night look like a necklace of jewels.

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Drinking mango juice by the pool.

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Sunset over the Arabian Sea, a perfect last night in India.

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Dinner at the India Jones restaurant in the Trident Hotel, Nariman Point. The name may be cheesy, but it suited our Indiana Jones theme, and served delicious pan-Asian food in a beautiful decor.

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Dessert.

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The beautiful yellow rose that graced our room.

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On Saturday morning we had a slow breakfast at our hotel before heading out to the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, formerly known as the Prince of Wales Museum. The museum was opened in 1923 to commemorate the visit of King George V when he was the Prince of Wales.

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The Indo-Saracenic architecture of the museum was beautiful, and the interior spaces were designed in a very old-fashioned museum style. Fortunately, some of the exhibits had been recently rennovated, but others were in need of some updating. The most tragic thing about the museum was the lack of air-conditioning. Mumbai is a very hot and humid city, and the windows of the museum were open to the pollution outside. As we climbed to the third floor the heat became unbearable for us, and we did not linger for long in the museum. I was heartbroken to see works on paper, paintings, and metals housed in such stressful conditions.

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After the heat of the museum, we headed back to the hotel to have an iced tea in the lobby and cool down a bit.

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Late in the afternoon we went up to Chowpatti Beach, a popular gathering spot in Mumbai.

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Boats on the beach. The water is far too polluted to safely swim in, so we just walked through the sand and did some people watching.

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Our last stop of the day was Samaat Restaurant, back in the Churchgate area.

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One of my favorite things about India was the easy accessibility of vegetarian food. Every food product came with a small green or red dot on it telling consumers if it was suitable for vegetarians or not. Also the wealth of pure veg restaurants was wonderful. Samaat was a fantastic restaurant, and a perfect end to our trip.

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After dinner we picked up our belongings at our hotel and headed out to the airport. We caught an evening flight up to Delhi, where we had to wait for a 1 a.m. flight to Seoul (which was of course delayed). The Delhi airport was easily my least favorite part of India, it was crowded, dirty, and felt very insecure. By the time we boarded our flight we were exhausted enough to sleep the entire way to Korea, and from there we only had a short layover before the final leg of our journey, the hour and a half flight back to Kansai.

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Overall, our journey through India was amazing, and a true feast for the senses. Everything seemed to come with extra intensity, be it the intense colors of women's saris, the intense beauty of the monuments, the intense spices of the food, or the intense population, pollution, and poverty. Time felt different to me, and our 11 day trip felt like much longer. Even though we took over 970 photos, I have so many more snapshots in my head, and I think the visual aspect of India was my favorite part. While I thought that our journey was the perfect introduction for us, I would love to return someday to tour the Buddhist sights in the northeast, as well as Darjeeling or the foothills of the Himalayas.