My Dad's Visit - part 2

On Monday, April 2nd we woke up early again so that we could catch a train to Kamakura (about an hour south of Tokyo).  Anne loves Kamakura so she was our tour guide and showed us some of the major sights.  Kamakura has many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines and while it was never a capital of Japan (like Kyoto was) it had nearly as much power as one during the Kamakura Period (1185 CE –1333 CE).  Upon arrival at the station we got bus passes for the day and our first stop was Kotoku-in, a Buddhist temple with the third-oldest daibutsu (large statue of Buddha) in Japan; the oldest is only 2.75 meters (9 ft) tall and is located inside the Hoko temple in Nara, the second-oldest is located inside the Todai temple also in Nara.  The statue we saw was outside though so I think it must appear more impressive. 

The bronze statue was made in 1252 CE and has a height of 13.35 meters (43.8 ft).  It has survived numerous earthquakes, storms, and even a tsunami (several hundred years ago) but is still in good condition thanks to several restorations. 

For 20 yen we were able to go inside the statue; it was then possible to see all of the plates that were welded together to create the whole figure.  We also saw some people rubbing the inside of the statue's belly for good luck.  Rubbing any Buddha statue's belly is good luck but I wonder if it's extra lucky to rub the inside... ha ha. 

After visiting the giant Buddha we went to the Hasedera temple down the road.  The temple buildings are on the side of a hill and once one climbs high enough there is an observation platform from which the Pacific Ocean and a large chunk of Kamakura city is visible.

This is one of the temple buildings which I thought was nice since it was next to a koi fish pond and flowering bushes.

Down near Tokyo there were definitely more flowers in bloom.  I think this is a magnolia tree but I don't know for sure.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of these cute statues.  Many of the statues at the temple are of Jizo, the guardian deity of children. 

Further inside Hasedera temple there are several places where wooden plaques can be hung.  People can buy a plaque, write their prayer on it, and leave it hanging with the other prayers.  It is believed that your prayers are more likely to be answered if you leave them at the temple.  It reminded me a bit of leaving a lit prayer candle at a church.

Usually people write prayers about more serious things like "Please, let me and my husband have a baby" but there were some other, more humorous ones as well like the one above asking for Mariners tickets (the Mariners had their first games of the season in Japan and the games corresponded with our visit to Tokyo).  I think I saw another plaque where someone (presumably a kid) was asking for Pokemon to come to the real world.

Tucked away behind the temple was a cave important to the Shinto religion (we could tell that we were entering a Shinto area due to the red torii, see an example below).  The cave contained many statues and burning candles that people had placed to bring good fortune.

A torii is a divine gateway which my dad claims looks like the 'pi' symbol.  This one led down one of the sakura tree-lined main streets in Kamakura.

We had some really good Korean food for lunch.  I think the meat I ate was some of the best meat I've ever had in my entire life.  I asked them what kind of sauce they used but they just told me, "meat sauce"... (they probably didn't want to give away their secret recipe).  After that we went to one of the main Shinto shrines in the area, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu.  The shrine is really an impressive sight, especially if one walks down the long, straight road in front of it.  There is a structure filled with barrels of sacred sake from all over to the left of the path and a wide stone staircase leads to the main building.  I got an omikuji (strip of paper that tells your fortune for the year) at the shrine.  According to my fortune (from what I can translate) I'll have good luck!

After doing some souvenir shopping and sampling some sweet potato ice cream (which was AMAZING), we headed back to our hotel in Shinjuku.  Anne decided that she wanted to return home sooner rather than later so she packed up and caught the shinkansen back to Miyagi.

I thought that I'd be able to wrap everything up with this post but I guess not.  So... look forward to the conclusion!

Also, this is just a side-note, but if you look at a Google map location of Kamakura you may see symbols that look like inverted and rotated swastikas, but that's just the map symbol for a Buddhist temple (and has been since at least the Middle Ages).

My Dad's Visit - part 1

So my dad arrived without a hitch, I was quite impressed actually since he was able to find the right trains and travel all the way to Kurikoma-kogen (the closest shinkansen station) without getting lost.  I picked him up around 8:30 PM and we got back to the apartment around 10.  The next day I was excited so I woke up earlier than usual and my dad was already awake (he's an early bird); so we ate breakfast, talked for a while, and I showed him how to turn on the shower.  After that we decided to take a walk, so we went to a new nearby cafe and had some coffee then I brought him down to the coast so he could see more of the area (and the tsunami damage).  Though the scenery was bleak, the weather was very nice and walking was pleasant.  We headed back around noon since my dad suddenly felt very hungry due to jet-lag.  Anne came with us for lunch and we stopped by a new restaurant near our neighborhood which was pretty good.  After that I took my dad for a car ride and showed him where my schools were.

We stopped by Hashi middle school since the teachers had seemed interested in meeting my dad.  As we entered the teachers' room, all the teachers turned to look, so I said, "This is my dad," and I told him to introduce himself.  My dad said, "Hello.  Call me ___.  Nice to meet you." (in Japanese of course since he's been learning with language CDs).  All the teachers were very impressed.  I heard some say, "He's good at Japanese!" and others say, "He's so young!"  It was pretty funny.  Next, since my dad was technically a guest, we went to the principal's office to say hello (one of the English teachers came too).  So, we had small talk with the principal for a while as we drank tea.  Luckily I was able to understand most of it (since the questions were fairly predictable).  I told the principal that we were planning to go to Iwate prefecture to see Geibikei Gorge, and Hiraizumi/Chusonji.  He told us to be careful not to go to the wrong place since there was a gorge in the same area called Genbikei, and then he and the English teacher were trying to decide if there were any delicious foods in the area; they said to try the soba noodles.  When he heard we were going to Chusonji he gave us a clay sake cup that he got in Chusonji before it became a World Heritage site.  He said that before battle samurai would drink from the same kind of cup and then smash it on the ground to bring good fortune.  After a while we were running out of things to talk about so it was lucky for us that another guest came (one of the new teachers) so we hurriedly left the office.  I said a quick goodbye to the teachers and then we left (since I didn't want to be in the way).  Outside the school we met some of my students so I introduced them to my dad as well.  Afterwards my dad said that the students' English had been good so I was happy about that.

My dad and I headed back to the apartment and relaxed for a while (my dad took a nap too).  Then my dad and I skyped with my brother.   Next we headed into Tome city with Anne for a sushi dinner and karaoke.  We went to a conveyor-belt sushi place so we got to try a large variety of fish.  Karaoke was fun as well (my dad was very surprised by the Japanese-style karaoke where we had our own individual room with all the necessary equipment).  My dad doesn't often sing but even he tried some songs with us after a few beers.
... It was a busy day.

On Saturday we went to Iwate with Anne as our guide (she lived in Iwate five years ago).  Geibikei Gorge was really pleasant.  We took a boat ride up the river while the tour guide explained the various rock formations and scenery in Japanese.  I couldn't understand most of what was said but luckily we had been given an English pamphlet beforehand.  It was a bit cloudy but the temperature was perfect.

"Plum tree stream"  I thought the rocks were pretty.

Further up the river we got out of the boat and walked a little bit to see the "lion head" rock formation; Geibikei actually means "lion's nose valley" so it was named for this formation.  If you can throw a special pebble into the lion's mouth (or was it his eye?) then you will have a year of good luck.

The rock formations were really amazing, and I imagine that in a few months it will be even prettier when all the trees have leaves and the flowers are in bloom.

As we rode the current back to the start of the gorge, the man steering the boat sang a song about the gorge.  Unfortunately he had a cold so he couldn't hit all the notes but according to Anne the song is usually quite beautiful.  Next we went to Hiraizumi town and ate some soba before climbing up the hill to see Chusonji (the golden temple I visited before).  It was a bit drizzly but it was still nice to visit.

On Sunday morning we caught the shinkansen to Tokyo and left our bags at the hotel.  We walked to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building so that we could go up to the observation deck to take pictures (which is free unlike for the Tokyo Tower or Sky Tree).

This is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, and I was really excited to see it since I recognized it from anime I have seen, especially Digimon Tamers (one of my favorites). 

From the 45th floor we were able to see the new Sky Tree tower which just opened to the public recently.  We were able to see Tokyo Tower as well.

Outside the Government Building there was an amazing building (in the background, the curved one) called the Cocoon Tower.  Its name made me smile.

We were in Tokyo at the beginning of cherry blossom viewing season so there were a few trees which had already bloomed but most were still closed.  The trees with opened blossoms were always surrounded by people taking pictures though.

Even these pigeons look beautiful when surrounded by sakura (cherry tree) blossoms.

At the end of the day we decided to go to a German beer hall for dinner and on the way we stopped to see the famous Hachiko statue.  Hachiko is known to be one of the most famous meeting spots in Japan and even in the afternoon Hachiko was surrounded by people meeting up and people taking pictures.  It's basically impossible to take a picture with just Hachiko in it...

Part 2 coming soon!