I should also point out that Saturday was the first day I could consider warm. It seems spring has at last arrived. When the ceremony was over the sun was still shining. I thanked them a hundred times, got changed and rushed to the train station for an evening trip to Yokohama. One of my favourite places to go to Japan at night is Chinatown. Mostly because of the lanterns but there is also this really cool vibe about the place that I always imagined a city at night would have. There is so much activity, the lights are so bright and the people are always in this mode of festivity. The two temples were locked up for the evening but that made them no less beautiful in the golden light. I did a bit of shopping and bought a furoshiki purse which I’d been coveting for two years. It’s a Japanese cloth that can be tied around two wooden rings and made into a bag. I’ve always loved them and now I have one of my own. There were so many cool shops that sold everything from incense to weird food I wouldn’t even dare smell let alone try. As the night wound down, I bought a bento and retired to my shabby little hostel for the night, watched some TV and went to bed.
The next day was easily one of the luckiest I’ve ever had. I woke up early ready to start the day only to find that the single shower for the entire hostel had a reservation list a mile long. I waited outside trying to figure out what to do. I could wash my hair in the sink but after iaido the day before I was badly in need of an actual shower. So I waited patiently and as luck would have it, the person finished their reservation early and I slipped in before the next one. Clean and very happy I set out on my adventure to Kamakura. I’ve been many times now as it’s kinda like the Kyoto of Kanto. When I was trying to plan my one last hoorah it was the place that most called to me. When I got there that morning I would understand why. It was warm, sunny and a few of the early morning blossoms were in bloom. I was simply giddy to see my favourite pink flowers gracing some of the trees. Despite most of them still being a few weeks away I had my fair share of sakura considering it’s so early in the year still and the snowpocalypse threw things off a bit. The Hachimangu shrine was brilliant in the morning light and I flitted around from one blossoming tree to the next like a humming bird seeking sugar. At the shrine I prayed and thanked the kami for three magnificent years and then went to get my fortune. It told me my luck was good and that my wishes would come true if I was patient.
I headed back to the station via the lovely little shopping street to
look in all the quaint little stores. Everything one would want to buy
from Japan could be found along that street and I could have filled a
suitcase with all the treasures I wanted but settled instead for a cute
little handmade bracelet with a dragon coin. Back at the station now the
second lucky thing happened. I have this terrible system of putting
things in my pocket with my phone and then whatever is with my phone
always falls out when I take it out. It happens time and time again and
still I don’t learn. Well out fell my suica card and off I walked only
to reach into my pocket and discover it missing. I spun around and raced
back the way I came. The strange thing is my gaze caught on a
reflection in the glass next to me. It was my card but when I looked to
my immediate left I saw nothing. I spun around and found it laying some
way off but a trick of light made its reflection first visible. I nearly
cried with relief as I picked it up and held it to my chest thanking
whatever had helped me reunite with my expensive little train pass.
After this terrifying but very fortunate experience I walked towards Hasedera. If the best shrine in Kamakura is the Hachimangu shrine then the best temple is Hasederan. Built up on a hill, several paths snake around a garden which on this magnificently warm day was blooming with flowers. Not only were there plum blossoms, which are actually a little late, but there was sakura! The kuwazu type from Izu. I was so happy I could have just stood there next to the little goldfish pond staring at them in awe forever. Instead I wandered around, hopped some stones across a little stream, listened in on a Buddhist prayer ceremony and meditated in a peaceful bamboo grove before reaching the top and gazing out on the horizon for a long time. It was perfect. Another reason I went to Kamakura was that after two years with my first daruma doll I felt my wish had changed a little and thus I burned it at the New Year’s festival so I was in need of a new one. I had bought the first one in Kamakura and found the second one there as well in a little shop selling all sorts of handmade trinkets. I can’t wait to make my new wish and colour in one of the eyes as if the tradition. The second is coloured in when the wish comes true.
There is a fine line between sometimes between staying and over staying.
It’s like the games I play with my students. I want to stop a game
before they are tired of it but not before they have at least had their
fill. It was noonish when I got back to the station. I could have stayed
in Kamakura longer but the morning had been so wonderful I did not want
to blemish it with staying longer just to force myself to fill the
time. In the end I boarded a train back for Yokohama along the fine line
that was perfection. Other than Chinatown I’d never really been to
Yokohama and got off at the main station to look around. Didn’t find
much other than a strange shopping centre on the bay, an Animate where I
was super lucky in getting my favourite character key chains and a
McDonald’s for lunch. (Don’t judge they have this amazing sakura drink
right now that I’m in love with!) However, one station south was where
the real excitement was. There, quite by accident, I stumbled upon the
tallest skyscraper in Japan. Or it was until this month actually when at
300 meters (4 more than the Landmark Tower) a new skyscraper opened in
Osaka. Well I was quite content with my 296 meter sky garden. At the
base was an amusement park and the retired ship the Nihonmaru from the
1930s which was reminiscent of the first ships that came into play in
the Meiji Revolution. Looking back to the skyscraper behind me I
wondered what the ship would look like from up there. I was coming under
budget so I thought why not find out. The view was very rewarding and
by a third stroke of genuine luck, just as I was rounding the corner to
the café, one of the luxurious leather couches looking to the west came
available and I was able to curl up with the skyscape and my skyfloat, a
blue soda with ice cream. It was one of those moments where you feel
like the richest person in the world. I had no worries, no cares, just
the simple happiness that comes from seeing the world from hundreds of
meters up. Nothing like a little distance to gain some perspective.
The day came to a pleasant end around four, just as the sun was hitting that golden time of day. Keeping to my fine line of the perfect amount of time spent enjoying myself, I headed back to Yamanashi. I got back just in time for dinner and Kevin and I went out to one of our favourite katsu place. It was the best ending to the best day because we told them we were leaving and they were genuinely sad. I never thought three years ago that I would become family to a local restaurant. It was so endearing how much they wished us well and thanked us for our time in Yamanashi. I’ve truly been touched by these three years. Now I know at the end of three years I’ve found that fine line. I’m not tired or Japan but I have gotten my fill. It's knowing when is when.
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