I brought a long jacket to Tokyo (the white one), a short grey jacket and a black hoodie. During the day, the temperature was between (I think) 17-20°C and at night the temperature drops even lower. Mostly, I wore the long white coat (loaned from my sister) because it was the most stylish of the three and sometimes I'm vain like that and I want my photos to look good too. I brought the black hoodie because it made me look hip but I should've left the grey jacket at home though because I didn't even wear it even once.
And that's all fashion-related thing you'll get from me, people because like everything that matters in life like make-up and socialising, I'm hopeless in fashion too.
Let me tell you a little story. In Kamakura, there are 2 treasure displays that are held for only 3 days per year for the airing of the treasures (in Japanese, this treasure-airing is called Homotsu Kazeire). One display is in Engakuji (the first temple we explored) and in Kenchoji. These treasures are owned by the temple and are guarded by the monks-in-training (if I'm not mistaken, because they look so young. I even caught one of them sleeping on the job). Oh I forgot to add in my first post about Kamakura that Engakuji is one of the biggest Rinzai (one of the three Zen sects in Japanese Buddhism) school and they train hundreds of monks there though fire in different periods of time have destroyed most of the original buildings and re-built after that. To my untrained eyes, I could see that Engakuji shows some Chinese influence in its buildings. We went through the treasure display in a hurry because we were very hungry because we didn't eat much before we left the hotel and we skipped dinner because both of us went to bed directly after checking in. We bought some pastries from the train station and we munched all the way but we were still hungry. So we quickly concluded the touring and went on to hunt for something to eat (I ate shrimp salad and potato salad. Can't remember what M ate though).
Yeah I know. Totally uninteresting.
I can tell you more Kenchoji, as we spent hours in there.
The treasure display was in the Hojo, which was once the head monk's residence. I don't know Hojo is used for what now though, I think it serves as the main hall for various functions? No camera was allowed in Hojo, but I took some photos of the Zen Garden behind the Hojo and the building (well, part of it) while I was outside.
I edited this photo last night before I went to bed.
This was edited this morning before sending my youngest sister to PLKN gather spot. Totally forgot which tools I used for that first photo.
And I edited this photo just now. Obligatory creepy, stalky shot of Japanese boys.
Can't remember whether that pond was really hijau or it became hijau because I photoshopped the photos too much.
The man in the middle is a monk, I think. This is the entrance to the Hojo building. It's massive and very beautiful.
I thought this golden gate was the gate to the Hojo's entrance but it wasn't. There's a big courtyard behind this gate so I think it's place for the monks to do some Zen exercise? (FORGIVE ME ZEN BUDDHIST MONKS IF I'M WRONG).
I think we spent more than an hour in Hojo alone. Oh and we went from room to room looking at the treasures (among the treasures displayed are from the Kamakura period, Muromachi period and Edo period, very impressive) and were served green tea and lotus seed cookies in the monks' eating room. It was so quiet in there you could hear someone farted in that room (it wasn't me, I swear).
I don't think that guy is a monk, I think he's just an employee because, 1) he's not bald and 2) he wore jeans. And he was holding plastic bags because the floor in Hojo is covered in tatami mat and you have to open your shoes and put it in the plastic bag given by him.
I'll stop here. Bye. Getting lazy.
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