Tokyo Temples - Away from the city

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I think I figured out the bath thing: I need to take my shaving gear in. The 10 minutes it takes gives me time to cool down before the next dip. I must also be doing something else right if when I walk in a guy nods at me (now just wait a second before you get the wrong idea there!), gives me a big smile to say hello, and after I've been washing a while grunts and smiles again, gesturing to the bath, trying to tell me that's enough and I can go in the water now.

Population, Earthquakes, Architecture and the Japanese Character

I think I can explain why the Japanese are so polite. I can't be the first one to think of this I'm sure, but it sounds plausible. Japan has always been geologically active; there are natural hot springs everywhere, active volcanos and frequent earthquakes. In Europe we built houses from stone but if they did that here, people would have died in great numbers every time there was an earthquake. With wooden houses and paper screens, they stood a chance of being dug out alive afterwards, and a wooden/paper house could be re-built in a fraction of the time. The paper had a side-effect though: everyone in the next room could hear what you were saying. So; hundreds of years of this and they have evolved a way of talking in which things are expressed indirectly but also quietly. Try getting a japanese businessman to say "No". It's pretty hard, but they find other ways to decline that can be maddening.

The over-population adds to the national character. When you're living on top of each other, absolutely everything you do must have some effect on those around you. Japan is one of the most overcrowded countries in the world: 127 million people in 146,000 square miles (870/square mile). In the UK we have 61 million people in 94,000 square miles (640/square mile) but 70% of Japan is mountainous or heavily forested and difficult to build on, so that 870 should be a lot higher.

I can see it on the trains. To sightsee out of town I joined the Tokyo rush-hour before 7am. The station supervisor had a microphone and 3 other guys spaced out down the platform, and when the train arrived it was packed tighter than I've ever seen the London underground. The windows were steamed up not from rain, because it wasn't raining, it was condensed breath from too many people. It took longer than normal for get everyone onboard with the supervisor on the tannoy cajoling people to make space and his assistants directing people around. I thought it's okay, I'll wait 10 minutes for the next one. But as it pulled away I could see the next one already there, stood still 500m away, waiting to come in. It too contained more crammed bodies and more steam on the windows and even somebody's palm flattened to the glass to keep their position. After I got on, just to see if it worked, I removed my hand from the overhead hand-strap and the crush actually kept me from falling over as we accelerated. Was glad I rememberd to use de-odourant that morning.

Kamakura

So after changing trains at Tokyo central, I got to Kamakura, an hour South. Lots of temples and it has the 3rd biggest Buddha statue in Japan. Everything here dates to the 1200's starting with the Engaku-Ji temple. Kublai Khan attempted to invade Japan twice in the 1200's but he failed on both occasions because great storms blew up, sinking much of the invasion fleet. The Shogun at the time established the Engaku-Ji temple in 1282 to commemmorate the soldiers killed during both invasions.

Having paid my admission fee to the Engaku-Ji, I walked in and was immediately distracted by a dojo off to one side in which there was a Kyūdō session going on. Kyūdō is the 'way of the bow' and one of the highest regarded of the martial arts as originally the Samurai were mounted archers before they became famous as sword fighters. These days it has ceased to be about killing people and is now practiced as a means to achieve a mental state. It's just like meditation but you learn to shoot at the same time. The place was an oasis of calm, silence and practice, and after I'd watched for about 45 minutes I found myself briefly irritatated to be surrounded by crowds again.

Down the road was the Tōkei-ji, famous as a nunnery and refuge for battered women, and in the middle of town the Kamakura Daibatsu: the statue of Buddha and also the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū temple to the god of war, Hachiman. Kamakura is a little bit of a tourist trap unfortunately, and expensive. Back in Tokyo I could get a bowl of noodles, tea and some side-vegetables for ¥1000, but here the noodles alone were much more than that. The shopping streets were full of touristy, gifty stuff, some of which was quite nice, but it gets maddening sometimes. My whole world is on my back and, despite what I said when I started this blog 2 months ago, I don't have that much space to carry extra things, let alone anything fragile. I am travelling, I am not on holiday - it's different. There's a state of mind I have to keep as I go. When I see prices I work everything out in 'hostel-days' and anything I buy means I have to go home that many days earlier. So most of the time I resist and window-shop, sometimes wishing I was here for a 2-week holiday instead with spending money.

Nikkō and the tomb of Tokugawa Ieyasu

Another easy day-trip from Tokyo is Nikkō, 2 hours North on the train. Tokugawa Ieyasu, the man who united Japan, is laid to rest here. There are a bunch of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, a picture-perfect bridge and this area mostly dates from the mid 1600's.

I now know how to say to a bunch of girls "You are all very beautiful" by the way. But of course like most things in life you only think of what to say after you needed it. So my resolve for not buying things didn't last and on the way to the temple I blew over £90 on the most beautiful kimono (3 hostel-nights). Like I said, I am trying not to buy things, but am open to the idea if I see the right thing. I try to tell myself it's only money. So: I walked into this shop and dammit if the girl didn't charm me into trying on a couple, one of which was a close enough-fit, so now I too can make like Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice as the too-tall Westerner looking all wrong in a kimono. But whilst I was in, there was a bunch of girls getting done up in traditional dress to visit the temples. No big reason for it, they just fancied the fun; a bit like the guys in their kilts going down to Murrayfield I suppose. So I watched for a while - another mystery is solved: of what's wrapped in the knot in the back of women's obi: it's just padding for decoration and the knot is called a taiko. Anyway, I paid for my kimono and left, waving goodbye whilst the assistant was still halfway through dressing the girls and two hours later I ran into them again at the temple and was suitably gobsmacked. They were young, pretty and obviously any girl in fancy clothes wants a compliment, but I couldn't remember what to say, so had to speak in English and hope my face said it all. I downloaded a bunch of podcasts a year or so ago from japanesepod101.com and wasn't diligent to listen to them anywhere near enough when walking to work. But I remember that one of them was "Pickup Lines" so on the train back I flicked though them all trying to find it, cursing. I have of course been practising ever since.

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Photos

Engaku-Ji Temple I
I know Aberdeen's had it's first snow, but it's still Autumn here. The temples smell of incense even if none was burning at the time and it's all remarkably pretty.

Engaku-Ji Temple III: Kyudo
In traditional hakama (black trousers with legs so wide it looks like a skirt) and gi (the white top) each archer took - I timed it - 2 full minutes to loose an arrow. A step forward, then notch the arrow, look at the target, look back and slide the right foot back to a stable stance, then they would relax their right hand back to their side. Pause.
Then: look at the target again, raise bow above the head; push the bow out, then pull back the arrow. Pause again,
Then loose. All in total silence.

Kamikura Daibatsu
This guy's 18m tall, 10 years to build and was finished in around 1262. He used to be inside a building, but it was destroyed twice by storms and wasn't rebuilt again.

Tōkei-ji temple cemetery
The Tōkei-ji was founded in 1285 as a nunnery, and though women had no right of divorce at the time, any woman spending 3 years here could ask for one. Locals would yell the directions to it at any woman spotted running in the area, assuming she was being chased by her husband.

Women's Kimono, with belt (obi) and taiko (the big knot on the back)
I'd always wondered what the knot contained, being so big. Thanks to the girls in the kimono shop, I now know the answer.

The main gate to the mausoleum of Tokugawa Ieyasu
It's a little over the top, there were others less ostentatious, but I suppose he did complete what two previous guys failed to do, and unite the country, bringing peace to Japan in 1600 for the first time in over 650 years.

Main gate roofline and Tokugawa mon
The mon is the symbol of a clan, and the Tokugawa used three Hollyhocks in a circle.

The man himself: Tokugawa Ieyasu's tomb
As far as the Japanese are concerned, [i]he[/i] was the greatest. He sits in a quiet spot now, up a staircase at the back of the decoration of the temples, surrounded by trees.

Comments

[Paul Campbell]

Green
Thanks for the updates. I am extremely jealous of your trip and also extremely impressed by your narrative. You are, by far, the most literate Engineer I know! Of course, I guess writing the journal makes for very cheap entertainment in terms of 'hostel days'. Keep up the good work. Update from here (if you can remember any of us poor sods back in UK) is that Shona gave birth to Emily on 28th Oct - all well, and Emily came in at a whopping 9lbs 14 oz. She is 6 weeks old tomorow and at the last weigh in, was already over 12lbs. Hope to see you when you get back to hear all about the stuff you don't dare put into the Blog ! Paul

[Dovie]

Great writing...
Martin, you crack me up. Love the style of your writing, and am growing more jealous with every entry!

[Jarrod Johnson]

PRETTY!