Sarah Goes to Japan: A golden weekend to remember

This weekend was the beginning of Golden Week; a series of holidays which when all works out gives one a five day weekend! This year it’s kind of weird as I got a three day weekend, then I work one day than three more days off, then another day at school and then my normal weekend. Anyways, making the best of it, Rhee and I headed to Yokohama for the weekend! From Yokohama we spent two days in Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan from 1185 until 1333, and it’s also where some of the country’s oldest Buddhist temples are. It has 65 Buddhist temples and 19 Shinto Shrines. We just made it to a few!

The first day however we stuck around Yokohama, the second largest city after Tokyo and just south of Tokyo, and went to the Sankeien Garden. The garden is well over a hundred years old and was once owned by a wealthy silk merchant who brought in historical buildings from all over Japan to be placed in this gorgeous valley of green, flowers and ponds. At first the inner garden was private for him and his family but eventually it was opened to the public. It’s amazing how in such a big city you can find a place where all you here is the rustle of leaves in the wind, the tickle of waterfall and the bird calls; it was absolutely lovely! Then after the garden, Rhee and I found a vendor that sold SAKURA ICE CREAM! Yes, I love the flowers so much I felt the need to eat them! It was pretty good but there were still bits of flower in them lol.

In the evening we went to Japan’s largest Chinatown and had dinner which was more like the Japanese version of Chinese food, but good all the same! And walked among cheesy stalls selling cheap Chinese goods that were flashy and fun to look at.

The next day was off to Kamakura. I won’t bore you with lists of temples and shrines but let’s just say I went to so many and everyone was amazing in a new way. We walked through one built up a mountain with these gigantic flowers and this gorgeous garden and part of the shrine was in a cave we could go into and admire these carvings in the wall. Then we went to see the second largest bronze Buddha in Japan and WENT INSIDE it! Okay, so there wasn’t much inside but how many people can say they’ve been IN a Buddha. Next we walked along this gorgeous trail hike to the next series of hikes. One was dedicated to a snake goddess where in a shallow cave you can wash your money in the water that comes through the rocks and it’s said to double your money! There were these ponds carved right into the rock with pretty koi fish and the charm I bought there was purified by the miko by flicking it with a flint, so cool! We had to walk through a cave tunnel to get to it lined with tori gates. Back up the trail we came to a series of very old Buddhist temples that are still in use to this day and are the exact image of tranquility I’ve always imagined. We also had some sweet potato ice cream. (Noticing a trend here?) We finished the day at one of main shrines that leads from kamakura’s main street through a row of sakura trees (sadly no longer pink) and tori gates. It was fantastic and I caught a glimpse of a beautiful heron in a koi pond. Okay so basically everything was awesome.

The last day, today, was magical though. We set out in the opposite direction exploring some of the less known shrines and hiking one of the other trails as we went temple hunting. But it was dreary weather, and my feet were aching, and we had been anticipating warm weather so I was cold and a little hungry and starting to under appreciate what I was seeing. ‘Oh look, this temple was also erected in honour of, oh wait, I can’t read Japanese. This shrine was built in… it’s dedicated to…’ So where does the magic come in? Well, We saw these people coming in and out of this little grassy alley like ants from a hidden ant hole. We stopped and I was fiddling with my phone and Rhee was reading a sign and then this wonderful Japanese lady stopped and pointed down this tiny path between two walls that looked like nothing special and said “there is a tiny festival that way.” Rhee and I thought we’d check it out and it was truly the best thing ever! It was very small, in someone’s house really and yard. They were selling lots of homemade crafts and a choir was singing and just when we were beginning to think maybe we didn’t belong we saw the best sight ever! Pizza! Honest pizza with cheese and meat and tomato sauce and corn (which I could forgive XD) and it looked so good we had to buy some. They made it right in front of us and cooked it in the gigantic outdoor fire oven. While we waited for it to cool yet another lovely lady came over and asked where we were from and when she heard we were English sensei she invited me to try the lemon sake she was drinking (which was amazing) and then darted off and returned with two light green ribbons to pin on our shirts. The ribbons as it turned out represented gingko tree leaves and the significance is that a gingko tree grew in that big shrine I mentioned earlier for 1000 years. It survived earthquakes, tsunami, typhoons and everything else nature could throw at it; however, last year, on March 11, a snow storm did it in. Then this year on March 11… They were holding the festival in honour of the disaster and the people who had lived, it was amazing and we got to be a part of it because we stumbled on this little world that was completely off the road and in a place no one would think to look. All the money raised was going to the relief fund. After our pizza and sake, both which were amazing, she invited us to paint on Japanese scarves and send a video message up North which we eagerly did. Rhee and I even created out own little fan club of ladies who thought we were just the funniest strangest little creatures lol. I painted Rhee’s hands so she could put prints on her’s and they all took pictures and we laughed so hard. I thought one lady had painted a bunny when really it was a dog and I laughed and said that’s what we called dog’s in Canada, and she caught the joke and there were tons more of laughs! I even had the chance to browse a stall selling second hand clothing and bought a hoodie (that fit and matched my outfit!!!) for 100 yen!!! About $1.20! Everything was so perfect and then it was time to carry on so we bid our farewell and left he little world fed, warmer because of my hoodie, my feet didn’t hurt anymore because we had sat down for most of the time and thoroughly happy, it was so incredibly rejuvenating, all our ailments were truly healed! It runed out only an hour had passed even though it felt like we had been there hours I giggled and told Rhee that if we went back I was sure it wouldn’t exist anymore it was so fantastical.