♥怡: Kamakura

Kamakura is a city south of Tokyo, in Kamakura Prefecture. It was Japan's capital from 1185 until 1333.

Hachiman-gu
鶴岡八幡宮

Our first destination at Kamakura was Hachiman-gu Shrine, which is a shrine located at the center of the city.

The shrine is dedicated to the god of war and also a guardian shrine to the Minamoto clan, the founder of the Kamakura Shogunate.

sake barrels

Within the shrine, there is also the Kamakura National Treasure House Museum, which contains a wealth of temple treasures. Unfortunately, in order to protect the treasures, no cameras were allowed.

Within the temple, they sold various snacks.

cucumbers and candied grapes, sold at a ridiclous price of ¥100 for one grape

roasted gingko

goldfish fishing

Lucky for us, we were able to see a Shinto wedding (Japanese traditional wedding ceremony), which basically has seven rituals:

1. Purification Rite - Shubatsu 修祓
- all in attendance stand and bow to be symbolically purified
2. Prayer- Norito-sojo 祝詞奏上
- Shinto priest announces the marriage of the bridal couple to the shrine altar
- All attendance stand and bow

3. Exchanging of Sake - San San Kudo 三献の儀（三々九度）
- The bride and groom take turns sipping 3 times from cups of 3 sizes: small, medium and large
* The first two times, the cup is raised to one’s lips. The sake is only drunk at the third sipping.
4. Wedding Vow - Seishi Sodoku 誓詞奏読
- The bridal couple approaches the altar and groom reads the wedding oath with large voice
5. Presenting the Sakaki Branch - Tamagushi Hoten 新郎新婦玉串奉奠
- Ritual representing the safe end of the ceremony
- Bridal couple receives the sakaki branch from the shrine maiden and places it at the altar
- Bridal couple bows twice and claps twice

6. Exchanging of rings - Yubi-wa Kokan 指輪の交換
- Groom gives bride ring
- Bride gives groom ring
7. Guests drink Sake - Shinzoku-hai 親族杯
- All in attendance drink sake in celebration

the musician

a strangely shaped tree

Next, we went to the shopping street and looked for a place to eat. There were sooooo many shops and restaurants @_@ we didn't know where to settle for.

A traditional storage house, kind of like a garage.

Ironic how the store doesn't sell plants.

Honey flavored ice cream

you can see the honeycombs

And finally, we decided on this restaurant, specializing in Shirasu-don, which is a Kamakura delicacy.

There was a long line..

..but it was worth the wait. ^^

Tempura, shirasu-don, matcha soba, some seafood soup, and pickled vegetables.

dried fruit--so expensive!

and then a store called mame-ya (selling bean snacks). It was like a まめ食べ放題 all-you-can-eat-beans because there were so many samples.
If you ever visit Kamakura, be sure to visit this store; the stuff was delicious.

and for desert, I decided on tofu with brown sugar.

train tracks

and the beautiful flowers of Kamakura.

After lunch, we went to Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine, which is a shrine where there is a money-washing tradition. It is said that if you wash your money in the spring water, it will multiply and you will become rich. The tradition began in 1257 when the Kamakura ruler Hojo Tokiyori went there to worship the god. He told his people to wash their coins there, saying that by doing so the god Ugafukujin would reward them and grant their descendants prosperity. Hence, the name of the shrine zeniarai 銭洗, which means "money washing".

garage in a mountain

There were so many of these caves and tunnels.

All the houses in the area were so nice, and every one of them had two or three cars parked in the driveway, which makes me wonder what kind of people live there.

銭洗弁財天宇賀福神社
Zeniarai Benzaiten Ugafuku Shrine

Zeniarai Shrine was founded in 1185 by the first Kamakura shogun, Yoritomo of the Minamoto Clan. He had a dream one night (on the day of the snake in the month of the snake (lunar calendar)), where the kami Ugafukujin told him to search for a spring in a valley in the northwest. He was told that if he went there and worshipped the Shinto kami and Buddhist hotoke, peace would come to the country. Thus, this shrine was built to worship Ugafukujin.

a nice small waterfall; the koi (carp fish) were huge!

incense

There is a money washing tradition at this shrine: if you wash your money and coins in the spring water, it will multiply. It sarted in 1257 when the then shogun Hojo Tokiyori came to worship. He told people that if they washed they coins here, they would be rewarded by Ugafukujin; they will become rich and their descendants granted prosperity. Hence, the name of the spring zeniarai-mizu 銭洗水, which means "money washing water".

baskets

There were some people who took this tradition so seriously. I saw people who had stacks of bills and bags of coins, and were washing them intently. While I was washing my bills, some guy next next to me and accidentally dropped his entire wallet into the water -.-`.

Oh, and perhaps you may be wondering, "Won't the bills rip?" The answer is no; Japanese bills are extremely sturdy. I would say, perhaps even more than American bills. However, Japanese bills are a lot cleaner and handled with more care. Not to mention, their bills start from ¥1000 (~$10), so since they don't have ¥100 or ¥500 bills, which are probably the most commonly used, it seems as if Japanese bills are cleaner. I like the concept, though, because it's a lot less wasteful, since coins are not easily destroyed.

Next, we hiked the Great Buddha Hiking Trail. It was a nice easy hike, full of trees and birds. Along the way, you could see a view of the entire city of Kamakura.

The hiking trail; all these tree roots show us how many people have walked these trails.

an unknown berry we picked (left), butterfly! (right)

And at the end of the forty minute hike, I rewarded myself an ice cream cone. The lady was so nice, she was willing to help me customize it. ^^ So the bottom is apple/mango and the top is green tea/vanilla.

And finally, we reached the Daibutsu.

It was a large Buddha, but not the biggest I've seen. It stands 13.5 meter (44 feet) tall, and has survived tidal waves, fires, earthquakes, and typhoons over the years (since 1252).

Amitabha

The interior of the Buddha is actually open to visitors for ¥20. There wasn't much inside; just a terrace and two plaques explaining the history of the statue.

balcony (left), the head (center), body (right)

Buddha's slippers

And after, we headed to the train station for Enoshima. Along the way, there were a bunch of souvenir shops.

samurai?

KNIGHT ¥76000.

so many!

Well, Enoshima is a small island connected to Kamakura but a 600-meter long bridge. It's a fairly small island, about 4 km in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River, which flows into Sagami Bay. To get there, you can take the train. The island is full of tourists and couples. Bezaiten, who is the goddess of music and entertainment is enshrined on the island, in other words, the entire island is dedicated to the goddess. In 1880, after the Shinto and Buddhism separation order was placed in effect, a lot of the land was made available, and thus, a British merchant, Samuel Cocking, who was one of the first to arrive in Japan after the Opening of Japan, purchased a lot of the highlands, including derelict Buddhist shrines in his wife's name. With the land he purchased, he built a large greenhouse (which takes up 660 square meters, or 7,100 square feet), a garden (now known as the Samuel Cocking Garden), and a power plant (which is the origin of the Yokohama Cooperative Electric light Company). Aside from those, he also had a company during his time, The Cocking Trading Company, which specialized in art, antiques, and specialty plants. However, what really made his company boom was the importation of carbolic acid (phenol), which was used as a disinfectant, particularly against cholera.

nice vandalism?
Well, there were these birds on the gates outside the train station and someone creatively decorated them with knit goods.

The path to the island. You can see the island in the background, as well as the observation lighthouse.

Katase Beach

The door of the island.
soooo many people!

There were many souvenir shops, selling various things from seashells to snacks, to dried fish, keychains, etc. And there were just as many food stands.

grilled clams (this one is for display purposes, but they actually had freshly grilled clams on kebab sticks)

Tako Senbei, a Kamakura specialty snack. I've never seen anything like it. (Pictures of the actual thing below.)

Of course, I tried a lot of stuff, such as dango, mochi, etc., but I also decided to try sazae, which is the horned turban, a type of sea snail. It is a delicacy in Japan.
It was huge (the size of my palm), but the taste was so-so. Maybe it was just plainly grilled; there was not much flavor.

and some superstition for the day.

a huge blowfish for sail.

cute decorations made from coconut shells

Enoshima Shrine
The Enoshima Shrine consists of three different Shinto shrines dedicated to three sister goddesses,: Okutsunomiya, Nakatsunimiya, and Hentsunomiya.

The view from the top of the stairs.

step through for good luck

and on the other side, there is a small fountain, where you could wash your money.

this women had two huge bags of coins! @_@

A lot of people want to be rich..

Handprints of famous Enoshima kabuki actors.

a turtle!

another city view, taken from the Miami Beach Plaza (NOT Florida :))

Nakatsunomiya

and her shrine.

An area for couples. Couples buy these wooden blocks and write messages on them, as proof of their eternal love.

And here, is the view from the highest point of the island.

tako senbei

Closed for the day..Oh, no! They didn't let us get on line. D=

Samuel Cocking Garden

The flowers were really pretty.

Boryeong Plaza
Plaza with trees names by the sister city in South Korea.

And I finally found out what this tree was.
Remember back in Yokohama, I was wondering where it came from because it didn't seem like the type of tree native to Japan? Well, it turns out it is. It's called the Japanese Sago Palm and comes from southern Japan.

I proceeded up the observation tower.

and this is the view of Kanagawa from above.

and a night view

Konmei Plaza
A small arbor built in a Chinese architecture style known as Teihekitei.

details of the ceiling

First time I've ever seen a capsule toy machine so empty.
(By the way, it's actually called a gashapon, and the idea came from Japan. The name is Japanese onomatopoeia, with "gash" being the sound of the turning of the crank on the machine, and "pon" being the sound of the capsule dropping into the receptacle.

We left tower and proceeded to leave the island. On our way down, fortunately, one of the tako senbei stands was still operating!

They also had whole jellyfish senbei, which definitely would have been good. However, there are limited quantities, and it was sold out by the time we got there.

Lobster senbei
It was an entire lobster flattened paper thin.

Tako senbei
My choice. I definitely liked this more than the lobster. The lobster one made me feel like I was like eating egg shells.

Finally, we went to look for place to eat. Enoshima shuts down pretty early, even for a weekend. It was only around 8:30 when we decided to eat. After fifteen so minutes of searching to no avail, we went back to Kamakura and ate at a place called Kajiya.