Kamakura- The Story of a Big Buddha, Temples and Karaoke

Yesterday we decided to go to Kamakura, which was the administrative capital during the first Shogunate (Samurai warrior lord guy) whilst the Emperor was being ignored in Kyoto. Because of this history it has plenty of temples and other things to see and is only about 2 hours away from where I live.

We were going with our Japanese friend Yohei who is really nice- he makes me feel good about my Japanese because I can have a conversation with him without him doing the usual Japanese thing of going on about how talented I am in Japanese which is a blatent lie. He is one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. Unfortunately he didn't wake up until we were at Kamakura station, where we were supposed to meet him at 10am. We woke him with our phonecalls to see where he was. This was not a problem though as we decided to go sightseeing on our own and he was still coming so we just met him later.

The most famous thing here is the Daibutsu (big buddha) which is very impressive and you are allowed to go inside it for a mere 20 yen to touch it and get good luck.



I also discovered another buddha, this time made of gold and was in a temple a short walk away. I think I much prefer temples to churches but my favourite has to be a good old shinto shrine. I didn't go to any shrines here but never mind.
As you can see there is a no photographs sign at the bottom. Being foreign I am unfortunately unable to understand signs with or without a picture of a camera (along with the Japanese tourists who definitely could read the writing and see the fairly obvious picture.)
My doubts about being in Japan seem to wash away when I see nice things like this as I could not be doing this back home.
We took a little rest after climbing a hill to see another temple where winter daffodils and cherry trees bloom.
I thought this looked particularly Nihon-poi (japanesque:)
After that hard work we thought we deserved some oishii aisukuriimu and had sweet potato and matcha half and half. Berry Derishasu.
There were lots of pretty lanterns guiding our way back to the station which was nice.
On the train home we suddenly decided to stop off in Yokohama on the way to have fun and maybe do Karaoke. It was so dead despite being Japan's second biggest city- I was very dissappointed. It is incredibly huge but just empty and lacking in atmosphere (and people walking around.) I took this photo just so I could say it wasn't a wasted journey:
Then we began our quest for Karaoke. Not possible in Yokohama, the only one we could find signs for in the fun district kept leading us to the following carpark which was not so fun until we eventually found it. It cost 2500 Yen for one hour which is Incredibly expensive so we decided to escape Yokohama never to return and go to Shinjuku in Tokyo where we knew that Karaoke is everywhere and the atmosphere is brilliant.
Before karaoke we were quite hungry so we went to a good indian restaurant which was really nice (I have been craving Indian food so much, I might start going here regularly.)

It was a very very very long day, but really nice- a nice way to end the year.

Merry Christmas Mr. Fuji

Christmas day began with pancakes eaten in the traditional manner (with chopsticks of course, we don't have enough knives and forks for the people in the flat let alone our visitors.)

Actually I got up 2 hours before this to revise and so I ate my special breakfast of honey nut cornflakes. Thank you all for my Christmas gifts and cards and thoughts, everything is very much appreciated, especially being so far away the little things really do help.
After that we went to do Karaoke for 3 hours so we could sing Christmas songs to our hearts content. I did take some videos but I don't think people would be happy if they found their way onto the world wide web via my blog so I will just upload a photo instead.

That was really fun and the we all ate together - we made Nabe (Nah-beh) which is like a big pot which you put loads of stuff in together and it's sociable food. This procedeed a party where I met the following character who described himself as "The Christmas king" although his nickname was "Haemoglobin" apparently.Last night some of my friends came round for a food party which involved everyone bringing some different food. I made two dishes from my new Japanese Veggie Cookbook (courtesy of Father Christmas) and We had many other delights. I forgot to photograph my own but here is Okonomiyaki (like a cabbage pancake with brown sauce and mayonaise on top) and Chijimin which is Korean Okonomiyaki. Actually you can see the remains of mine on the right of the photo- it was seared Japanese pumpkin in a sweet and salty sauce, although it looks rather bad.I fell out of love with Japan really quickly the other day which has probably taught me a few things- a. that I take things in Europe for granted (i.e. individuality) and b. I need to start thinking what I can do after my degree. Also that I am at least gaining experience being in Japan.

Having said all that, this is one of the prettiest sunsets I have seen for a long time with Fuji-san in the distance. Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Happy Birthday, Mr. Emperor

Today is the Emperor's birthday, which means I get the day off to spend however I choose (revising- yesss!) I also decided to go and check out a super cheap supermarket (shorterned in Japanese to Super.) When I got there I found that most Japanese people also choose to celebrate his birthday by doing their shopping. It was very busy but the Christmas music really got me in the mood (not.) They played Winter Wonderland but they always choose the least christmassy orchestrations. This one sounded like country and western music played at 2x the speed.

Then I came home and rebelled by eating a matcha treat instead of revising.
Yummy.

I also decided to buy special things for a nice Christmas breakfast as I find this is essential for having a nice day. For that I bought some cereal and real milk which will certainly be special!
I also found some other English treats: (no doubt something else for the Germans to moan about, I wish they would shut up about how amazing they are and how rubbish other countries are.)
Then I thought I need something to munch on whilst trying to study so I went for black sesame seed crackers.
And of course, it wouldn't be Christmas without a toblerone. This one was imported from Thailand, I bet you all thought it was a European chocolate didn't you.
Whilst I was in the supermarket I did consider buying some illegal drugs:
But then I realised it was actually cheese...

Then I was quite shocked at the spaghetti. (I couldn't decide if it was supposed to be "Oh my, Spaghetti!" or "Oh! My spaghetti!")

Well, that is the end of this mostly food based post (I'm really settling into a food obsessed Japanese lifestyle.)

Kyoto Story

Minna-san, Konnichiwa!

At the weekend I decided to finally go on the trip I have been itching to go on for years and years- to Kyoto. Kyoto (Japanese for capital city) was the capital of Japan for around 1100 years, before it was moved to Edo, which is now known as Tokyo (eastern capital.) Although it was officially the capital, during large chunks of this time, samurai lords (shogun) held administrative governments in other cities such as Kamakura and Edo. Kyoto managed to escape heavy bombing in WW2 and has not suffered a major earthquake in recent history, so much of the historical architechture remains, leaving an amazing place to visit, and somewhere I want to live. I have tried to keep the following writing to a minimum because I think

the pictures do the talking. Thankfully it did live up to my expectation.

In order to save money, I booked my tickets on the night bus which leaves Tokyo in the evening around 11pm and arrives in Kyoto at 6 the next morning. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep because I was just so excited about what was to come. When I arrived, nothing was open but

I sat and read my book in the station until the sun came up then hopped on a train at 7.15 to start my intensive sight-seeing. My first and main plan was to go to the Inari shrine, for the god of rice, because this was the one thing in Japan which I knew I wanted to see before learning Japanese. It is famous for its 10000 torii which are the gates which always precede a shrine. These ones preceded and followed it. It was really moving to finally see it in person and actually walk through there. There were nearly no people there so I had plenty of time to get the perfect photo:

There are lots of nice little streets (once you get away from the station which is nice, but like any other city anywhere.) I had lots of free samples of matcha green tea flavoured things which was excellent because it is my new favourite thing.

These girls were deciding what to eat and settled on this restaurant here (yes I was eavesdropping but they didn't know because they assumed as a westerner I don't understand Japanese.)
After I got to the end of that street I came across 2 Geisha who were on their way somewhere. I had read in my book that it is really bad to ask geisha-san for a photo because they are so busy, so I took photos from behind them, but then a Japanese person asked if he could have his photo taken with them, so I naturally did the same (forgetting that Japan is a 'do as I say not as I do' country when it comes to foreigners.) These were actually Maiko rather than Geiko (Kyoto dialect for Geisha.) Maiko are trainee Geisha, and are usually the only ones who wear the white makeup on their faces. I think they were newly qualified as well, because their collars had turned from red to white (I saw that on TV.) I thanked them very heartily (very low bowing) and couldn't believe I'd finally got the much coveted Geisha photo.
Then I did some more sight seeing (i.e. more shrines and temples, of which there are many photos, but too many for here) and it started to rain. I then had a choice of finding my hostel and sleeping for 2 hours before going out to meet my friend, or taking a bus to go and see Kyoto's most famous sight. Deciding sleep was for the weak I kept on going, to find the bus stop. I wanted to go via Gion, the geisha district and old town of Kyoto, but took a wrong turning, still finding the bus stop, but missing the nice part. I took the bus, chatting to an old man on the way. The people in Kyoto are much more friendly in Tokyo and have a lot more time to chat and give directions and be helpful. They also speak more English so I had to be careful to speak as much Japanese as possible. Eventually I arrived on the other side of the city (all the things worth seeing are around the city rather than right in it.)

Having gone in December, there were not many tourists which was certainly nice, because my friend who went a few weeks earlier said she couldn't move for all the people who had gone to see the autumn leaves. The one place which is apparently busy every day of the year is the Kinkaku-ji or Golden pavillion which was burnt down by a mad monk in the 50s but rebuilt to the exact same design and covered in gold again. It was breathtaking.

Whilst I was there I bumped into a school trip who asked me some questions for their questionaire and then bought me some wasabi peanuts (wasabi is the spicy Japanese horseradish.)
That evening I met Yuri-san, my very first Japanese friend, who I met in my first year at Newcastle. I had not seen her for a year and a half so it was really nice to meet her again, and we went for Karaoke which was great fun and something we talked about doing back in England.
The next day we went to a place called Eiga-mura which literally means film village, which was set up like a Samurai town from the Edo-period. We got attacked by Samurai but luckily had swords with us so it was ok.

We also saw the Loch Ness monster.

This bar is a place where enemy troups often stayed but their whereabouts were revealed so the place was raided and many people killed. It happened a lot so I'm not sure why they kept on staying there and didn't go to the nearest travel lodge.

After that we went to a castle, built by one of the many Shogun of Japan. It was huge, and equipped with "nightingale floor" which squeaks when even something light touches it, which was to prevent enemy ninja entering. Ninja have become my new favourite genre of tv because the Japanese don't seem too keen on modern spying, so I make do with old spying which is just as good.
Then we went for kaiten-zushi which is the sushi on conveyor belts. I also tried nattou which is infamous for being disgusting to foreign people. I would love to say it was nice, but it was disgusting so Yuri ate the rest for me.
This was some of the grounds to the castle. The buildings are part of the central palace.
After that we cycled to Gion, which is incredibly beautiful, especially in the evening, but very difficult to photograph in the dark. It seemed like a film set because it was so surreal to imagine that in the olden days the entire city looked like that.
That evening, we made Japanese food, watched a samurai film which featured locations I had seen in the day and things we had seen in Eiga-mura which made everything link in together. The heating wasn't on but we sat under Yuri's kotatsu which is possibly the best thing I have ever seen (exaggeration.) It is like a table, but surrounded by duvet, which you sit under, and it is heated. It basically keeps you warm as you eat and is traditionally used at new year. I really want to buy one so we can use it next christmas- apparently they are quite cheap.

Then I had to go home which made me very sad as I didn't want to return to Tokyo with lessons and work and stressed out commuters and jam packed trains. Never mind though, I had such a lovely weekend (I'm trying not to think about the cost,) and I think it will be one of my fondest memories of Japan.

Matcha, Fireworks and catchup.

Dear Diary,

Hisashiburi! (Long time no see) So, as you can see from the photos below, I did tea ceremony. This is a very old Japanese tradition which takes time and is not at all about the tea drinking. Then we got to have a go at making it ourselves.
It was difficult as can be seen from the amusement of our honorable Sensei who lead the ceremony.
Here is a Fan on the Tatami mat. Very pretty but also completely Gaijin. The fan is never opened during Tea ceremony, but instead used to signal that someone is going to talk (usually the tea master is explaining something.)
Here she is, very friendly and nice. Here is some tea information. In Kyoto, if someone offers you more tea if you are at their home, it is a way of saying it is time for you to leave. You should take the hint. 30km away in Osaka, the people are very different and would probably tell you to get out.
Here is her Kimono, it is a very formal one that she might wear to her sons graduation.
As it has been autumn (although still in the 20s some times) The leaves have been falling. There are so many ginko leaves, because it is the sign of the government and they plant them everywhere. In autumn they turn a pretty yellow, but in summer, the fruit that falls to the ground smells so disgusting, I'm glad I arrived towards the end.
Then on Friday, I went to Chichibu Night Festival (Yomatsuri) The photos are generally bad because it was so busy I couldn't keep a steady hand.
I had Hiroshima style Okonomiyaki (Like a cabbage Pancake with whatever you like added.) Hiroshima style means you get an egg and noodles included (and bacon but I asked for her to make me one without ^_^)
There were fireworks, but my photos didn't work very well but they were very pretty and went on much longer than anything I have ever seen before (i.e. 2 hours.)

To finish off I have tried to upload a video, I hope it works. It kind of shows the business and crazy atmosphere (The people are interacting with us because we were probably the only non asians there.)

On Friday I am going to Kyoto, so I am very very excited. I don't think I can wait!