Autumn in Kamakura - Temple Day!

Today I went to see temples in Kamakura. My friend and coworker Randy is in town from Seattle and knows all of the great tourist places in the area. He was my tour guide for the day. Kamakura is a city about a 20 minute train ride from Yokosuka. We started at North Kamakura at Engaku-Ji, which is a huge temple area, thingy. The fall colors were incredible and today was Jodo-e: The memorial of Buddha's enlightenment, which means the temple grounds were ridiculously packed with people. Regardless of a bit of overcrowding, the temple grounds were still very quiet. The day couldn't have been more beautiful, bright blue sky, red, orange, and yellow leaves vibrant against it.

After spending a few hours exploring the vast grounds of Engaku-Ji, we walked a little further down the road to Meigetsu-in, another historic temple site. This one was founded in 1160 AD. The buildings have been rebuilt, but some of the tombs and statues are centuries old. A bit further down the same road, which I am beginning to think of as North Temple, is the Kencho-Ji Temple. This place is the top-ranked of Kamakura's top Zen temples. This place was exceptionally notable because past the beautiful temple buildings there are stairs and a trail leading up to the top of the hillside overlooking Kamakura with panoramic views. Lovely! It was a super steep short hike, but totally worth it. The staircase led up to a few buildings comprising the protective shrine of Kencho-Ji. The shrine is surrounded by statues. Lions guard the stairways and bird-men-warrior statues.

The fourth temple was a Shinto temple right outside downtown Kamakura. I seem to have lost the ticket stub for it so I have no idea what it is called. It is quite lovely though. There are frequently weddings there and was one going on as I walked past. I tried to watch, but it seemed like a very solemn affair and I had no idea what the rituals meant. So, I moved on to look for food. We picked a restaurant with a pretty generic menu. The little old lady almost through us out for not speaking Japanese even though they have a plastic menu. Then she ignored us the entire time we were there. Randy tried three or four times to get her attention to try to get a drink. I think its the worst service I have ever received and VERY out of character for the Japanese. However, she managed to get in a yelling match with another patron who was highly entertained by the whole transaction among the three of us, so I think she was just having a bad day. Randy was wearing a shirt that says "I am a serious foreigner." It made all the Japanese people laugh. Tons of them wanted pictures. So I hope that it doesn't have any weird connotations.

After the bizarre dining experience, we hopped a local train to Hase where we visited the Great Buddha. Turns out there are lots of big Buddhas, but this one is pretty great especially surrounded by all the fall colors. For 20 yen (23 cents ish) you can climb up into his chest. With my indecision, by the time I decided it was worth it, the line was nearly 100 people long. So, I gave up and we came home.

In other news, strawberries are just coming into season and they are AMAZING here! Also, I created a flickr account so I could show more of my pictures. I just started uploading pictures, but check it out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelseyintherain/