Kamakura!

So yesterday I went to Kamakura with some people from my Japanese literature class. Kamakura is about an hour away from Tokyo, so we all had to wake up pretty early and catch a special train that goes down there. We met up in front of the station and there were 12 or 14 of us. First we went to Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu. To get to Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu, you have to walk up this main street that goes straight from the ocean. You don't notice it at first, but the street gradually gets narrower to make the shrine look farther away.

So we get there, and we're walking up the main path with food vendors and the center actually has stones instead of just gravel. Nanao said that this was the path meant for the gods, but now... no one really cares. Everyone just trodded all over it. People often bring their children to shrines (I think in general, but I'm not sure if it was this shrine in particular) when they turn 3, 5, and 7 years old as a celebration that they're still alive (hooray high child-death rates of the past!) and to wish for good health in the future, so we saw lots of adorable Japanese children in fancy kimono (girls) or hakama (boys).

We take a few pictures standing around, purifying ourselves, annnd my camera's battery promptly dies. Until I get pictures from other people whose cameras didn't die....

CRAPPY CELLPHONE PICTURES FOR ALL

I am too lazy to post thumbnails when I have explanations on the pictures on flickr, but here are some fun stories:

We got fortunes at Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu. You pay 100yen and shake a stick out of a box, and the number on the stick corresponds to a paper fortune you get. I got "sue-kichi" which means I can expect good luck in the future. It has subcategories too like wish, marriage, relationships, illness, business, and exams. We all laughed and said THAT'S NOT GOOD LUCK when we noticed my illness said "It will be too late. Take care" but now a day later the slight cough/drainage I've had for like a month is starting to get worse. Freaky! I'm stocking up on orange juice and going to bed early writing this report lol I HOPE YOU APPRECIATE THIS YOU GUYS.

After that we wandered around to some of the sub-shrines, pictures, bladdy blah blah. We went to Motohachiman which is what Tsurugaoka Hachimanguu was based on. It was really small. We sat around and ate snacks before deciding we should head for lunch.

We got bento and ate on the porch of one of Nanao's dad's shops (Nanao was our tour leader :3), and then we went to the literature museum. It was all carpeted and we had to take off our shoes. It felt like a slumber party except it was kind of boring. Maybe literature museums are more interesting if you can read any of the displays and are familiar with the authors besides "oh yeah we had to read a story by him... I think." But the place was gorgeous! It used to be somebody's summer house (I forgot who...) before it was convered into a museum. Lots of gorgeous trees, and you could see the ocean! It was nice seeing the ocean after not seeing it for a few months. :D

After that we went to another smaller shrine for Amaterasu, the sun goddess. She's the ancestor of the Imperial family I believe, so she's very fancy-pants except this shrine wasn't. I wish I could remember the name. Anyway, it was very, how can I say this... vertical. It was on a hill and lots of stairs were involved. Someone found a path leading into the trees so we all climb up thinking we'll be able to get a nice view of Kamakura... haha no. TREES EVERYWHERE, CAN'T SEE DIDDLYSQUAT. We were all huffing and puffing and trying not to slip and die as we came down.

After that we went to see the Daibutsu! It really was humongous. You could pay and go inside him but the line was really long :/ Apparently Obama went there a few weeks ago and had some macha (green tea) ice cream, so now everything macha-flavored there is called オバ抹茶 or Obamacha. It wasn't SUPER AMAZING but pretty tasty~

I probably cut out a lot of yesterday's trip from this post but it's late and I'm tired lol. Oh, after we got back from Kamakura a few of us went out for dinner in Shinjuku. We went to this cheap Italian chain I can't remember the name of, and got soup, salad and a personal pizza for only 680yen. It was fun and DELICIOUS. I've really missed pizza here (ESPECIALLY WITHOUT CORN ON IT. ALL PIZZA HERE APPARENTLY HAS CORN UNLESS IT'S PRETENDING TO BE FOREIGN) and I got delicious dessert om nom nom.

Then I came home and did homework. Gross.

I'll end this post here, but I have a three day weekend so hopefully I'll get caught up on posting. I saw Alice Nine for free last last Saturday, and then last Tuesday I went to a free Momoclo event in Yoyogi park. I really want to make a post comparing the two, the fanbases are so different yet similar. It'll make a really interesting post. :)

Until this weekend when I'll actually have time to sleep~
-Blondie