Family Trip Day 6: Kamakura

After 5 days in the big city of Tokyo, my family wanted to venture out into the suburbs a bit. I took them to the historical and beautiful city of Kamakura. Kamakura was the center of Japan during about the 1200s during the Kamakura era. First, we made a stop to Enoshima Island. I had never been to Enoshima before so I was very excited to see what people love about it. We had to walk a bridge to get to the island.

The bridge

The island

The streets were narrow and just lined with small restaurants, tourists shops, and fish markets. We walked up the main path and ran into a temple.

 From there we had a choice to: take the escalator (a paid service) or the stairs to explore the island. My Dad's knee is a little out of whack so we chose the escalator. It was a good life choice. We went up about 5 or 6 steep flights of escalators to get to the main attractions of the island. After two flights of stairs, we came to the main temple. The god at this temple is supposed to bring special luck to those in love. There were a ton of red and pink votives hung all over in trees as prayers for love.

There was a line to get in and pray as it was the day after New Years

There were dozens of these racks all filled up

We then made our way up higher to get to the gardens. We stopped on the way to sit above the sea and have lunch. Also, there was a comedy show going on in front of the gardens so we stopped to check that out. Japanese humor is so funny! They do a lot of slapstick and facial expressions.

The view from lunch

After our detours, we got to the gardens. Needless to say, in the middle of winter there were some plants and trees but most were dead. It was still interesting to see though! The garden dead ends into the Sea Candle an observatory deck for Kamakura. On really clear good days you can see Fuji and sometimes all the way to Tokyo. Lucky for us, it was actually a clear day! Mom was ecstatic to get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji! It was super windy up there though but way worth it!

The Sea Candle

Kamakura

Mt. Fuji

We glanced down at our watches and panicked a bit because there was still one thing that we had to see before leaving Kamakura: the Daibutsu (Great Buddha). See, almost all historical places here close by 5 and it was already 3:15 and we still had to get back to the train and take the train to Hase. We sprinted to the train. We got on the train just in time. We took the historical rail line called the Endo line. We got fantastic views of the sun setting over the island and Fuji.

Enoshima Island

Fuji

As soon as the train hit the station, my brother and I literally ran to get some tickets to see the Daibutsu. We got there just in time! They told us we had 10 minutes which was fine by us! My family gasped when they saw it. It really is awesome to behold. It was especially interesting for me too since I'd never been there at close. We were the last ones there. It was so cool to be the only ones with this massive presence.

The family with the Great Buddha

Not a soul there except us...

We headed back to Fujisawa to catch our train and had dinner at an Italian restaurant where I proudly was able to read about 85% of the katakanna for the family. It was a very fun and educational day for the family.

My brother with the Endo line historical train :)

Japanese style New Years Day

Wow! Things got very crazy at work and I've been sick lately so I'm very sorry that there's been such a lull in the updates. I'll finish writing about my family's visit...eventually... So anyway, my family was here to help my celebrate New Years Day Japanese style. Traditionally, the Japanese celebrate New Years Day and don't emphasize New Years Eve like we do in the States. Most people will go to a temple to celebrate the day by praying, getting a fortune, and eating some good food!
We started the day by going to church in Roppongi. Then, since the we hadn't seen it yet, we headed off to the Tokyo Tower. I had never been to the top before so I was very excited to see what Tokyo looked like from the observatory. Unfortunately, it was not the clearest day so while we could see the awesome layout, we couldn't see all the way to Yokohama or even Mt. Fuji. Still, we all looked out enjoying the view of Tokyo. The view that got my interest was that of Zojo-ji temple. It's a temple right next to the Tower. From above, you could really see the magnitude of the amount of people there. It was incredible.

Why hello there Tokyo Tower

The family with the Tokyo Tower mascot. I have no idea what it's supposed to be...

Look at all of the people!

After our stop to the tower, we quickly headed over to one of the most famous temples in Japan: Senso-ji. I knew it would be crowded but I was not prepared for the crowd that we encountered. Now, I have been to Senso-ji many times before. Never had I ever seen a line. But that's what we encountered when we first got there (well that and the Sky Tree in the skyline).

Hello Sky Tree! I can't wait until you open in March!

Hello line of unexpected people in front of us.

Hello people behind us in line...

We waited in line for about an hour and a half. It wasn't too bad. We munched on snacks and shopped. The main road up to the temple even after you pass through the first gate is lined with tourist stores so we took advantage of that while waiting.

The main temple gate

I also spent my time trying to ninja pictures of girls in kimonos...

Once actually inside the temple, we said a New Years Day prayer. Basically, there is a grand and beautiful statue that you admire. In front of the statue, there what looks like a wooden table with slits in it. You take coin money and toss it in as an offering. Everyone tossed a coin in. True story: my coin actually ricocheted off the back of a temple employ...pretty sure that's some kind of bad luck...so I tried it again successfully with a  100 yen coin. That should balance everything out...right? After the long wait in line, we were all starving! Since it was New Years Day, the temple grounds were packed with street vendors selling all kinds of traditional Japanese food. I made my family try a little bit of all my favorite things! We started with takoyaki (fried octopus balls) and BBQ pork. Then we all split off and got different things: okonomiyaki (a savory pancake), yakisoba (fried noodles), chocolate bananas, and candied fruit. They all really enjoyed the food! Which was awesome because these are some of my favorite Japanese foods.

Enjoying some yakisoba!

After dinner, we got a New Years fortune! I have gotten my fortune before at Senso-ji so I knew that there were English translations of all of the fortunes. You pay 100 yen (about $1.15) and then you shake a metal cylinder full of sticks with Japanese numbers. There's a little hole in the bottom that one of the sticks slides through. Next to the shaker is a small wall of drawers that all have numbers labeled on them. You match the number on your stick to a drawer and there's your fortune! Jenny, Tommy, and I all got good or normal fortunes. Chris got the best fortune. But, my poor mother, she got the worst fortune. When you get a bad fortune, you need to tie it and leave it at the temple to make your luck change.

Poor mom!

Chris is super pumped about his awesome fortune!

After that, we just walked around Asakusa enjoying the scenery and shopping. We had a great time experiencing a Japanese New Year!