Day 3: Kamakura

Now I know why I don't write much about my Euro trip, keeping a travelogue is hard work.

If you're a history geek like me, you'd know that the establishment of feudalism in Japan (in other words, samurai) happened during the Kamakura period so Kamakura is nirvana to me. Spending a day in a small city that has lots and lots of temples and shrines is better than eating the best chocolate to me. Yes, I know I'm that boring haha.

We went to Kamakura on Nov 3rd because Japan was celebrating Culture Day that day so I knew we would find some gems along the way, but even the genius me under-estimated my well-crafted plans. We witnessed 2 weddings, went to see 2 treasure displays that were only displayed for 3 days a year, also witnessed some kind of an amazing ritual that had cute kids garbed in kimonos (Google gave conflicting results so I still don't know what it was), drank many cups of free green tea and ate free interesting biscuits that I refuse to know the ingredients of, and saw a lesbian couple. I *think* they're lesbians because one of them was carrying a rainbow-coloured small backpack and another had rainbow-coloured hair. That was the first time I saw an out and about lesbian couple in my life so woo-hoo go lesbian couple!

To say that I was in ecstasy is the understatement of the year.

Note: Many festivals in Kamakura are held in January. I'm already planning my trip haha.

We stopped at Kita-Kamakura station instead of Kamakura because Engakuji, one of the Five Great Zen Temples is only a 2-minute walk (I think) from Kita-Kamakura. Even the railway tracks cut across the formal entrance to the temple, it's that close. (tip: get a detailed Kamakura map from the station).

Haha sorry, very bad photo but hey, it's art. The temple's entrance stairs were shrouded by the trees.

I just realised that I didn't take many photos of Engakuji because I was eating bread the whole time I was there and we weren't there that long. I took this masterpiece though.

We arrived at Kamakura around 7am and this champion (zero sarcasm) was already up in his kimono (that takes hours to wear) playing his flute. Amazing. And if you're wondering, the people behind him were selling hand-made crafts, vegetables and flowers. I was tempted to buy a few interesting-looking tomatoes (no photo, sorry) but I'm proud to declare that that was one of the very few times when Satan failed to tempt me.

After that, we went along a trail and arrived at Meigetsuin Temple, also known as the Madonna-hater temple...I mean, Hydrangea Temple. We didn't go in though because there was an emergency or something. All I could see was an ambulance arrived to take the patient, who I believe was a visitor from China. I took a photo of the ambulance because I am morbid that way.

You can exhale a sigh of relief now, because I didn't take any shot of the patient. I'm morbid, but I'm not that morbid.

At this point, we realised we were at the wrong track and then we went back to where we started and just went forth. And that was how we arrived at Kenchoji Temple, the Greatest Zen Temple in Kamakura.

This photo is heavily photoshopped.

And this is the shot from the entrance.

And I'll stop here because I need to sleep. I'll tell you more about Kamakura in my next post.