Kamakura: Zen Temples

Our wonderful day was topped off by the view we had of the sunset over Mount Fuji, the top of which was visible above the clouds. Again, we feel incredibly fortunate to have seen it now three times, when it is usually shrouded in clouds.

We met our guide, Ken, yesterday afternoon at 12:30 just outside of the Kamakura train station. I had discovered only a few days before that the organization to which Ken belongs offers free tours of 3-5 hours, tailored to the specific interests of the clients. It's unbelievable that more people don't know about this service. They primarily do it to boost tourism in Kamakura, which is less well-known than other tourist attractions around Tokyo.

Ken, at a Japanese Zen tea ceremony that he arranged for us

We had communicated our desire to see Zen temples, and Ken had lined up three, plus a visit to a famous shrine here in Kamakura.

A bit of background. Quoting from Insight Guide's Japan: 

"Cradled in a spectacular natural amphitheater, Kamakura is bordered on three sides by wooded mountains and on the fourth by the blue Pacific. From 1192, when Minamoto Yoritomo made it the headquarters of the first shogunate, until 1333 when imperial forces breached it's seven 'impregnable' passes and annihilated the defenders, Kamakura was the de facto political and cultural capital of Japan. During those years, the military administration based here built impressive temples and commissioned notable works of art, a great deal of them Zen-influenced."

Portion of a rock garden at Hokokuji Temple. The gravel represents the ocean, the small boulders
the mountainous sea coast of Japan and, further "inland" the forests, represented by moss

From another guidebook comes the following information about the founding of Zen in Japan during the Kamakura era:

"A series of Zen temples were created in the 1200s under the Hojo regents, acting on behalf of the Minamoto shoguns. These regents were to favor the Zen teachings that refugee Chinese priests were bringing from the mainland as they and other Chinese intellectuals fled the persecution of Kublai Khan and his Mongol forces, which were conquering the Song dynasty of China. Zen practices and doctrines had a great appeal to the Hojo regents because of Zen's simplicity, its disciplined training and its reliance on one's inner self."

Our first stop was Hokokuji Temple. There, Ken explained the significance and meaning of so many things of which we would have been ignorant. I, for example, had heard of Zen rock/gravel gardens, but did not know their meaning.

Ken explained that this monuments reflect earth, water, fire, air and, at the top,
the Zen concept of "nothingness" or Nirvana

Monuments to unknown soldiers that were once found all over Kamakura. Ken told
us that people still find these occasionally in the ocean or in the hills around the city.

The bamboo forest at Hokokuji

From Hokokuji, we walked a short distance to Jyomyoji Temple for a tea ceremony that Ken had arranged before-hand. This was not the "high" (extremely formal and ritualized) ceremony, but there was still some formality to it. We were in a tea house overlooking a Zen rock garden. Ken explained, after ritually cleansing ourselves, that we would eat something sweet prior to drinking the tea in order to cut the bitterness. )Apparently in years gone by, the tea was indeed quite bitter.) Then would come the tea. We were to pick up the bowl with both hands, turn it slightly clockwise for three turns, then drink. When finished, we turned the bowl back and set it down.

From Jyomyoji, we back back to the center of Kamakura, where Ken guided us around Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a very large Jinja (Shinto) shrine. Along the way and throughout the afternoon, he explained that Japan had a natural religion for centuries, which is now commonly called "Shinto" - but Ken preferred the other term, "Jinja." When the shogunate ended around 1870 and the powers that be reinstalled the emperor to full power over the government and military, they carried out a war of sorts against Buddhism. 

Formerly, Jinja shrines and Buddhist temples had existed side by side and were, in some senses, one and the same. But the Meiji government made the emperor himself a deity, and this is what ultimately led to the full flowering of emperor worship directed toward Hirohito. When Hirohito was forced to announce that he was not a god but a mere human, Ken explained, many people were devastated.

Sake barrels, one of three stories of such barrels on the grounds of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu

Our final stop of the afternoon was Kenchoji, another Zen temple. Lonely Planet's guide describes this temple:

"Dating from 1253, Kehcho-ji is Japan's oldest Zen monastery. The central Busuden (Buddha hall) was brought piece by piece from Tokyo [then known as Edo] in 1647. Its Jizo Bosatsu statue, unusual for a Zen temple, reflects the valley's ancient function as an execution ground (Jizo consoles lost souls). There's also a bell cast in 1253 and the juniper grove, believed to have sprouted from seeds brought from China by Kencho-ji's founder some seven centuries ago."

A lantern in the juniper grove

Mark talking with Ken

The Jiza statue

Pine behind the temple and its reflection in a small pond

It had been another wonderful experience. More temples today ... Off to Kyoto tomorrow.

Kamakura: Daibutsu and Hasedera

It was awe-inspiring. I literally had goose bumps. To be in the presence of the Great Buddha of Kamakura was an experience I will never forget. I count it as one of the great spiritual experiences of my life because of the presence that was there.

To give one a sense of the size of the statute, I am including the picture below. The Kaibutsu sits in a large courtyard at the base of a hill. The Buddha, constructed almost 800 years ago, was at one time in a temple complex, but those buildings were washed away in a typhoon over 500 years ago. Since then, it has sat on its base in the open air.

We were fortunate to get there early in the morning before the tour buses started arriving. As we walked back down the street to the train station, we saw several of them plying their way up the hill. People come from all over the world to see this amazing work of art. Later in the day, we saw three Thai Buddhist monks in their saffron robes who had come to see the Daibutsu and were then seeing other sights in the city.

On the way back down the hill to the station, we decided to take an unplanned side-trip to see the Hase-Dera Temple, which belongs to the Jodo sect of Buddhism. (We have learned that there are a number of sects of Buddhism in Japan.) The temple is most famous for its huge wooden "Kannon," said to be the tallest wooden statue in Japan. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but this is one I picked the one below off the Internet. The legend is that the image is over 1000 years old and washed ashore at Hase, where a temple was subsequently built to house it.

We took dozens of pictures on the temple grounds. The following are a sampling of them:

Small stone images of Jizo. There are said to be 1000 such statues gathered around the statue of the Mizuko Jizo, who looks after still-born and aborted children or children who died at an early age.

A view out over Kamakura and the ocean

The temple's sutras are stored in a rotating drum known as a rinzô, the largest such rotating sutra storehouse in the region. It employs a concept central to Himalayan Buddhism; by turning the wheel, one gains the spiritual benefit as if one had read all the sutras (Buddhist texts). This is not seen nearly as commonly in Japan as in Nepal and Tibet, but the belief and the practice do exist in Japanese Buddhism as well.

The rinzo

Sutras

It was an amazing morning, and the day was not even half over. We would be meeting our guide at 12:30 and spend the afternoon at three Zen temples and a Jinga shrine - subjects for the next post.

The train we took back and forth between our hotel, Kamakura and Hase

Today's Engrish-ism

From Hakone to Kamakura

One of the memories that stands out from Mark’s childhood in Japan was his school field trip to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha of Kamakura (pictured below). Perhaps ever since then, he has dreamt of returning to Kamakura to see not only the Daibutsu, but many of the other temples and shrines that are found in the seaside town that was once, throughout the 13th century, the de facto capital of Japan, the seat of shoguns.

That dream is now being fulfilled.

We left Hakone yesterday morning, getting on the bus outside our Fujimien lodge at 9:30 for the descent to Hakone-Yumoto rail station. On the way down, it started raining, a steady but gentle rain. We were grateful that we had had a nice day on Tuesday, starting with a clear view of Fuji. We had met a couple of Dutch brothers from near Arnhem the night before in the onsen (bath) who were on an 10-day visit to Japan; they would not enjoy the same good fortune of seeing Fuji because they had arrived the day before and were leaving yesterday for Kyoto. No view of Fuji for them. (Koen: I didn’t ask the name of the town, but they said they were 5-10 kilometers from Arnhem.)

We started texting with Aaron on the way down to Yumoto, and before we knew it, he had sent a FaceTime request. We went ahead and answered, even though it was a “no-no” to do so in a public transportation vehicle such as we were on. We were able to have a brief conversation with Levi, but I felt very self-conscious, plus the connection wasn’t that good. But it was still remarkable that we were able to do that on a bus heading down a narrow, winding mountain road in Japan, talking with our son in Bountiful, Utah.

The rain was still falling when we arrived at Hakone-Yumoto. We had purchased our tickets (or so we thought) when we were still in Tokyo for our return to Shinjuku station. I had the feeling, however, as we were sitting on the platform waiting for our train, that we perhaps needed to purchase additional tickets. I still haven’t figured this out, but there are two layers of tickets on some trains. We had been issued the first layer in Tokyo, and I wondered whether we needed to purchase the second. It later turned out that my hunch was proved correct. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, a few pictures from Yumoto station.

Okay. I had to take a picture of this guy because of his hat. It was obviously very well-worn.
I couldn't help wondering if he knows what the word means in English. ;-)

When we arrived at Shinjuku station in Tokyo, we fed our tickets into the turnstile that one passes through on the way out. I started through, but the gates popped shut on my bag. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong, so I simply extricated my bag and went on. The same thing happened to Mark. It was then that he commented that my hunch that I needed to buy additional tickets was correct, pointing out that we were undoubtedly on some security camera footage and an all-points bulletin will probably be issued.

We had a bit of a travel experience when we went to purchase tickets to Kamakura. We went to a Japan Railways information center and were assisted by a very helpful young woman who spoke good English. She told us what amount we needed to pay, when the next train left and that we could purchase our tickets just around the corner at a bank of ticket machines. 

We went to where we were directed, did as we were told, then inserted our credit card. Nothing happened. Then it became apparent that I could not extricate my credit card. A slight feeling of panic arose within me. 

After a couple of moments, the part of the machine holding my credit card was pulled out from behind, then a head popped out of a little door next to me. (For some reason, it reminded me of a scene involving Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.) A very pleasant young man tried desperately to communicate to us in English, searching for words. It finally became clear that the machines were cash only and that we would have to go to the ticket office just beyond the machines. We thanked him profusely, me desperately glad to have the credit card back.

Fifteen minutes later, we were on a commuter train to Kamakura, which is about an hour south of Tokyo.

On the train to Kamakura

When we arrived in Kamakura, we knew that, in order to reach our hotel, we would have to get on a little electric train (the Enoden Line) that runs back and forth in the little communities along the coast between Kamakura and Fujisawa. 

We went in to an information office just outside the train station and were assisted by a very helpful middle-aged woman who spoke excellent English. She told us exactly what we needed to do, which machine to use to purchase our tickets and how much they would be. Just to be safe, an older man standing there offered to escort us over to the machine, about 20 meters away, and help us.

As if on cue, the sun came out about this time, welcoming us to Kamakura.

This map shows the route between Kamakura and our hotel, which is located approximately where the number "12" is.

Twenty or so minutes later, we were at our hotel, which is on a rise above the ocean, giving us a very nice view of Enoshima Island, pictured in the lead photo above. 

And now it is time for today’s English-ism. My brother-in-law informed me via email that the correct term is “Engrish,” so from now on, I’ll refer to “Engrish-ism.”

When I opened the door of the closet in our room, the following scene greeted my eyes:

Note the message at the bottom of the card: “The slippers are finished with cleaning.”

The place we are staying here is much different than the previous two hotels. It was intended to be our little indulgence in some luxury while we are on this trip. The room is western and, by Japanese standards, spacious. The beds are extremely comfortable, and I had an excellent night’s sleep last night. We didn’t even get out of bed until around 5:30 – which is very late compared to what we’ve experienced so far here – enjoying the floor to ceiling window that let in the rising sunlight.

We were also treated to another view, albeit only dimly, of Mount Fuji in the distance.

A picture of our hotel taken this morning from a tiny balcony off our room

Being in such a “nice” place, however, has come with a few disadvantages. The first is that there is no WiFi – at all; not even in the lobby. We could hardly believe it. The hotel only has five WiFi modems “for rent,” and all of them were rented out. We have been promised the first available one. 

The second disadvantage is the cost of things. Breakfast is $24.00/person. Accordingly, we planned to take the Enoden train into Kamakura this morning and have breakfast at McDonalds, then head across the square to Starbucks, where I hoped I would be able to upload this post.

Not having access to the Internet, however, does have its advantages. It forced us to do other things last night, like write in our journals, play scrabble and try to watch Japanese TV – which didn’t last long. We had eaten in Kamakura before coming out here, so that helped. Then there is a large 7-11 just down the street (Yes, they have 7-11 stores everywhere here), and we went down there last night to stock up on coffee, ice, Coke Zeros and other items.

So, I wrote the above while still at the hotel. We followed our plan and it worked beautifully. We had breakfast at McDonalds ($9 vs. $48), then headed over to Starbucks. It has been fascinating to sit here while watching Kamakura come to life, people walking back and forth, opening of their flower stands, etc. We now have an altered routine for here in Kamakura.

Shichirigahama Station, near our hotel

Our new Internet connection

We will leave here in a few minutes for Kotokuin Temple where the Daibutsu is located. Incredibly, we found a guide service that provides free guides for several hours, and Ken – our guide – will meet us at 12:30 just outside the train station. He will take us to several Zen temples and has also arranged for us to be part of a tea ceremony at one of the temples. Should be fun!