Wednesday 8 June 2011

Emperor Akihito wishes me a happy birthday

Jonny took me to Kamakura for my birthday to do some sightseeing. This started off rather badly with a bus that moved nowhere in traffic. We angrily asked to get off after about 200m, and had a long conversation about how ridiculous the traffic lights were and how awfully controlled the traffic was considering it wasn't even the weekend. Even more bizarre were the large numbers of security men with earpieces. Seemed a bit excessive for a few temples, but who were we to judge.

And then there was the massive crowd waiting at the bottom of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, and we remarked on how busy it was during the week and how well we did not to come here at the weekend. And then the crowd started making a lot of noise and I saw a face through all the heads that looked vaguely familiar from the television a couple of months ago. And then it dawned on us that everything must have been because the Emperor was visiting the temple...

I couldn't take any photos while he was close to us, as I had just switched lenses to my massive telephoto paparazzi lens. I don't think Jonny managed anything decent over all the heads. But just as he was leaving the area I switched to a hopeful manual focus distance (the camera couldn't focus quickly through all the heads at different distances away) and exposure, lifted my camera over my head and hoped for the best. So here they are, viewed from above a lot of heads!

Waving me a happy birthday

Sunday 5 June 2011

Enoshima

Had a great day out in Enoshima yesterday. Enoshima is South of Yokohama, it is an island a few hundred metres off the coast but connected by a rather ugly looking causeway. The nearby Shonan beach is extremely popular with surfers and windsurfers. Enoshima, like any dignified tourist attraction in Japan has its own collection of temples and shrines, stretching up and over the steep sided island. But fear not! Multiple escalators will whisk you to the top at a cost of what looked like around a 150 yen / approx £1 each. We took the stairs, which enabled us to feel less guilty about essentially only eating donut based snacks for lunch.

It is said that on a clear day Enoshima has a view of Mt. Fuji, however it was pretty hazy so were lucky just to see back to the mainland. There's a big tower that you can go up, you have to pay 500 yen for the pleasure, but you do get entrance to the Samuel Cocking Garden too (we were too busy sniggering to bother finding out whether that was worth it). We didn't really see the point of paying that money to see nothing in quite heavy wind, so spent more than twice the amount on beer and deep fried potatoey things.

Prayers or wishes, either way the Japanese pay good yen for bits of paper to write on and tie to a fence. I don't know what happens if you write on your own bit of paper and tie it to the fence. Maybe it will be removed. Maybe they get removed at the end of the day anyway. Or when it rains.
Thousands and thousands of padlocks of love, we didn't have a padlock to signal our undying love, but we did ring the bell (very romantic, both held on to the rope, swung it, and winced as it was a lot louder than expected). Discussed what it signified that I had a padlock at home that I didn't know the combination for, and what happened when these people split up, or what it meant if you attached your padlock to another padlock.



Tokyo sightseeing on my own

On Tuesday I rewarded myself with a belated UK bank holiday and went into Tokyo for some more sightseeing, without Jonny as he had to work. I only did a half day, which tends to be as much as my back can cope with. I visited Senso-ji and had a brief look at the Imperial Palace grounds.


Senso-ji is a temple which is best approached through a gate (pictured) and then up along a long corridor of stores selling just about anything that could be remotely classed as a souvenir or tourist fodder. You then pass what looks like a wishing well with incense that is apparently the 'breath of the gods' before passing the trinket / prayer paraphernalia stalls and then up the steps into the temple itself. There's not all that much to see in here as I think the statue of the deity is too sacred to be seen by the public. I then had a little wander through a little garden next to it, with petite ornamental bridges spanning a pond full of Koi Carp with very green foliage interspersed with small shrines.


It's an odd atmosphere for somewhere that is supposedly a temple, but (I'm told) the Japanese are not particularly religious so temples seem to  be more to do with upholding and respecting traditions than any belief in a God that we might be able to identify with in the UK. This perhaps should be my cup of tea - although I don't classify myself as religious, I do enjoy visiting churches / cathedrals / mosques / temples. This is perhaps largely to appreciate the architecture but also experience how their design can create a place that feels extremely still and spiritual. The Taj Mahal is a perfect example of a complex in the middle of a dirty noisy city that as soon as you enter makes you feel like you're in a different world. Senso-ji felt like it was struggling to escape from the horrible mass of tourist stalls on the route up to it. I was reminded of the Bible story where Jesus went into the temple in Jerusalem and overturned the tables of everyone buying and selling in the temple.


As I was hungry I decided to leave the tables be. I looked around trying to find somewhere to eat for quite a while and in the end settled on a ramen place on a street parallel to the main corridor. The menu promised noodle soup with a 'lot of fish with pork and chiken and pork', which would have sent warning signals to someone less hungry than I was. The dish arrived and I ate the large amount of noodles and the three fatty pork slices, but couldn't face finishing the soup or eat too many of whatever the other things were, fish? dried fish? potent mushroom? (certainly not chicken)
The gate, looking toward Senso-ji
Past the gate, walking through the crowded stalls
 After my lunch failure I headed in the direction of the Imperial Palace, but after reading the guidebook realised that the garden closed at 4pm so I hadn't enough time to see that. So I walked up to what is one of the most famous views in Japan and took a few photos in really bad light for photography. It seemed quite a long walk to get to this point and would really only be worth it if you could actually go to the garden... The Imperial Palace is a large green area in the middle of the city, where I entered (Ginzo ish direction) is mainly large corporate skyscrapers with expensive shops and restaurants on the ground floor (called first floor here), so not much else to see. I think a bit further up are the government buildings and art galleries. I headed back to Yokohama on the jam packed commuter trains, luckily managing to get a seat in the ladies only carriage. (30 minutes standing on a train would be enough for me to have to lie down for the next 48 hours, but thankfully have not yet had to flash my scars to get a seat).
Imperial Palace view