JAPAN-2018

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Today Michael decided he wanted to go to Kamakura. This is a beautiful little town outside of Tokyo with many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines. Most of these were built centuries ago when Minamoto Yoritomo seized political power and established a shogunate government in Kamakura in 1192. He wanted his base to be as far from Kyoto which he felt was corrupt. He selected this spot because it was easy to defend. This shogunate was powerful only until1333 when the emperor in Kyoto sent troops to crush the shogunate government. Unable to stop the troops, 800 shogunate soldiers retired to the Toshoji temple where they disemboweled themselves in a ritualistic suicide known as seppuku.

We left the hotel at 8:30 and caught a taxi to the Shimbashi train station. After a few missteps, with Dennis and Michael putting their heads together and speaking to a few Japanese, we found our train and boarded it. The ride to Kamakura took a little over one hour. The Japanese train service is terrific. The stations are clean as are the trains, They ride almost silently over the rails so it is a very pleasant way to travel. When we arrived at Kamakura the wind was already blowing strongly. We walked up Komachi Dori, a pedestrian walkway lined with shops and restaurants. At the end we turned right and found ourselves in front of the big red Tori gate which was the entrance to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This was built in the 1100's by Yoritomo and remains the spiritual heart of Kamakura still today.

Even though the wind was still blowing fiercely, we walked back down Komachi Dori and found a very small restaurant that specialized in pork katsu. We went in and had a delicious lunch which Dennis declared was the best meal he had in Tokyo. Michael and I then went and bought some Japanese sweets as gifts and some Japanese cards. The Japanese sweets are so beautiful, they are works of art, not too sweet.

Then off to see the Great Buddha called the Daibutsu in Japanese, located at the Kotokuin Temple. It is 36 ft high, weighs 93 tons and is the third largest bronze image in Japan. It was cast in 1252 and at first sat inside a temple. A huge tidal wave destroyed the temple and since that time the statue has been outside in the weather..

We had taken a taxi to the Donbutsu but decided to take the local bus back to the Kamakuru Station to catch the train back to Tokyo. We made an error in getting on the wrong train, but it was not so big a problem as we were going in the right direction. Some people on the train heard us discussing our dilemma and immediately offered suggestions for getting back to our hotel. We ended up taking a taxi back from the Shinjuko station to our hotel. What a great day!

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