We walked to the train station from a friend's house on a quiet street in Zushi City, which is about two hours south of Tokyo by car. The day before, we had visited Tokyo, Japan's largest city. Below the city streets there the subway trains are stacked five high. The Japanese are notorious for "packing" people into their trains so much that it has created a problem between the sexes. So much unauthorized groping occured that some trains are now gender specific. One of the most interesting behaviors I observed was a Tokyo traffic jam! Everything came to a complete standstill. Slowly, vehicles began to move like a giant knot untying itself, and traffic was flowing again without a policeman's whistle or a horn honking! We did a little sight-seeing in the city and had lunch in a hotel which had a beautiful garden quite reminiscent of the Japanese garden at San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. This one did have a twenty-foot high waterfall though... and a calico cat. The most memorable thing about this was seeing Suki call the huge beautiful koi in the pond. It took me a while to catch on as she snapped her fingers a few inches above the water and uttered a few words in Japanese I did not understand. (Actually, my Japanese vocabulary is limited to five words.) But the fish knew. The water seemed to boil as the large colorful fish surfaced with mouths wide open. The light bulb flashed in my head, and I knew that that was the way they were normally fed. Today we were away from the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and bound for one of the most popular tourist attractions in Japan, Kamukura.
We entered the railway station and bought tickets from the vending machines. It seems almost anything is available from vending machines in Japan. Always a good idea to use the bathroom before beginning any trip. The toilets are some western and some Japanese. Japanese toilets are an oblong hole in the floor that you stand or squat over, not unlike those in rural France. Maybe I'm a bit jaded, but I prefer to sit down while I tend to business. The train was a quiet electric model, not a bullet model, since those are used only for long distance travel. After we're seated and the train begins moving Suki asks if we would like to move into the first class section. She pays the conductor a few extra yen, and we move into the larger more comfortable seats. I comment to Claudette about the reserved seating for pregnant women, the handicapped and elderly. Just as we had seen yesterday, people are standing and those seats are empty.
Claudette got off the train first, and we began our walk toward the shrine. The streets are narrow and lined with small shops and businesses. There is a myriad of utility wires overhead like a giant spider web.We stop and get some snacks from a street vendor. He's frying what appears to be gyoza wrappers in hot sesame oil. They are delicious! In a small restaurant we opt for counter seats rather than "family style" seating, which is on the floor. The space behind the lunch counter is so small that the cooks have to turn sideways to squeeze by each other while they work. The cooks are using giant chopsticks to stir and prepare the food. I have a bowl of ramen noodles, and they are fantastic. It is not considered rude to slurp your food in Japan, and noodles are made for slurping. The raw fish and octopus require a little getting used to.
After lunch we continue toward the temple and shrine. This shrine was built in 1063 A.D. and is dedicated to the patron god of the samurai. The temple of red and gold sits atop a hill with hundreds of steps leading up to it. There are shops from which you can buy offerings to lay in front of the shrine. We don't buy any, but we do wash out our mouths at the covered trough of flowing water. A communal long handled copper dipper is used. Tradition dictated that you should wash out your mouth as to speak no evil while in this place. My Mom always told me she would wash out my mouth with soap and water if I said a bad word, but I was a little boy then. There were monks about in brilliant orange robes. After the shrine we moved on to the the giant Buddha. The buddha is from 1252 A.D. and has been replaced several times. Initially it was of wood, but the current one is of bronze. It once stood in a temple, but in 1498 A.D. the replacement temple was destroyed. It is a truly remarkable structure. An Indian prince is depicted sitting in the lotus position with his hands folded in prayer. It was quite interesting in the interior of the sculpture; it was fun to climb around inside the 44 foot tall 93 ton behemoth. However, I must hasten to note that I observe a more revered state in religious places of the non-Christian, and I expect the same of them. At the entrance we find these words:
Stranger, whosoever thou art and whatsoever be thy creed, when thou enterest this sanctuary remember thou treadest upon ground hallowed by the worship of ages. This is the Temple of Bhudda and the gate of the eternal, and should therefore be entered with reverence.
Later in our visit, Suki's father would introduce us to the traditional tea ceremony. The tea was awful and I almost gagged on the pickled cherry blossom. However, it was a beautiful ceremony, and it was quite interesting to learn the etiquette of this ancient tradition.
We enjoyed our visit to Japan very much and would like to return again and visit some of the rural areas.
My Japanese vocabulary:
- Konnichiwa...Hello
- Sayounara...Good-bye
- Arigatau...Thank-you
- Hai...Yes
- Mushi-mushi...(I don't know what it means, but it's how you answer the telephone.)
