I Like Pigeons Because Nobody Else Does

The Toshogu Shrine area in Nikko is always a great place to take visitors and I have learned to never put off a visit because of rain. I consistently get great shots there when it’s wet because the colors are so saturated and overcast skies create a wonderful and diffuse light. We were lucky enough to happen upon a wedding taking place but shots were tough because they were inside a dark building.

All of my pictures are starting to look the same so I reluctantly dug out the lens that came with my camera when I bought it. It’s perhaps the shittiest lens ever and is totally cheap but it does go down to 18mm which is a great focal length for wide angle shots. The problem is that the photo quality is abject crap. I really need to get a wide angle lens before I leave here. It sucks having an expensive hobby.

Nikko’s rough if you have a problem climbing – there are stairs everywhere. My mom couldn’t handle it anymore so she took a break:

After Nikko, Heike Village. This place was an aggregation of original Heike buildings for public viewing. Inside were all kinds of tools and implements used in everyday life in that time period. None of it was fake…at least it didn’t look like it to a tourist like myself.

By this time I was beat down tired and was ready for an onsen. We found our hotel, checked in and went to the onsen…but on the way there we were waylaid by a group of people playing Japanese darts. We joined in the fun for while but needed to get moving since we had dinner reservations for 6pm. Photos from that experience will come later since Rieko was the only person with a camera and hasn’t yet sent me the photos. 

The Bankyu Hotel spanned a creek and to get from the guest house to the dining area visitors had to cross a rope bridge that wasn’t all that stable. We tottered across the bridge in our yukatas (which amounts to nothing more than a cotton bath robe), haoris (old-style Japanese jackets), and geta (traditional shoes) surrounded by snow and ice with the wind crawling up our yukatas and freezing our bare asses.  But it was worth getting scared shitless and frozen when we reached the other side – a seat on a pillow next to a pit of hot coals that was warming skewers of fresh fish and hot sake, a personal table loaded with enough food to feed even an American, and an enka performance by Ms. Heike herself was waiting for us. Dinner was a vast menu of more things than I can even mention but it consisted mainly of mountain food which I really enjoy. It was a ridiculous amount of grub but I was able to eat almost all of it. 

The next day we went to a waterfall and then to Edo Wonderland. The Edo period in Japanese history was an important period for a number of reasons.  In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu was appointed Shogun by the emporer and established his government in Edo, now called Tokyo. The Tokugawa shoguns continued to rule Japan for 250 years. During the Edo period most of what people consider traditional Japanese culture was born and flourished; kabuki theater, tea ceremony, literature, painting, martial arts and other popular culture endeavors. The reason Japanese culture is so unlike anything in the rest of the world was because in 1633 shogun Iemitsu forbade travelling abroad and almost completely isolated the country from foreign influence. Contacts to the outside world were reduced to very limited trade relations with China and the Netherlands in the port of Nagasaki only and, in addition, all foreign books were banned. In this isolated and stable microcosm, Japanese culture was able to become highly specialized and refined producing a unique style that is recognizable by almost anyone. And then in in June 1853, the U.S. East India Fleet, commanded by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, entered Uraga Harbor (which is just down the road from us) and brought with him McDonald’s and KFC which is what actually killed off the samurai – they all got coronary artery disease. Anyway, it was the end of the Edo Period and the beginning of the Gaijin Invasion.

So, Edo Wonderland was modeled on this period and all the employees walked around in appropriate costumery and staged a number of plays. We watched a play about poor farmers and ninjas that was excellent, but unfortunately there were no subtitles for the two Americans in the crowd. We enjoyed it anyway.

So my mom got a gutload of culture packed into a very short time and we took it easy the rest of the week. Here are some photos from Kamakura:

We went out for dinner last night with friends and are now suffering the consequences of the Japanese custom of your neighbor pouring your drink for you. When other people keep refilling your glass it’s kind of tough to track your intake. And of course there’s always the issue of being polite – if someone gives you something it’s a little rude to refuse – in any culture - so you just keep downing whatever’s in front of you. And that has resulted in disaster for me on more than one occasion. But don’t take that as a complaint, because we had a great time, as usual.

Friday’s weather was about as perfect as it can get; not a cloud in the sky and very low humidity. It was a great day for ume (plum) viewing, so I went to Zuisenji in Kamakura to enjoy the afternoon in the plum garden. Unfortunately, bright sunny days are not the best for photography because of the harshness of the light and I’ll need to go back another day next week for some better photos. I wish there was a way to capture the smell of an ume garden in full bloom because it is a singular and wonderful experience that can only be found here in Japan. The air is perfumed with the sweet smell of the blossoms, but not so much that it is overwhelming. It’s a fragrance that I will always associate with Kamakura.

For those of you in the northeast USA suffering in the ice, snow and bitter cold, here are some springtime photos:

I went to Kita (north) Kamakura station today, had a bowl of soba at a small restaurant and then walked to Kamakura station, stopping anywhere along the way that looked interesting. My intent was to see if there were any ume blooming in any of the temples. The white ones were in full bloom, but many of the pink trees had yet to reach their peak. In just a couple of days they should be open. I really love this 100mm lens. 

The squirrel is not like the north american gray squirrel. It is an invasive species from Taiwan and there are no native squirrel species in Japan. Believe it or not, there are also north american raccoons in Kamakura too. That information comes from a friend of mine who is a very reliable source. They rifle through his trash cans at night and are a serious pest. Both animals are escapees from the pet trade.