Temple

Ignore this, it's first just so it's the pretty picture you see for this task...

Starting point.

Ignoring the pull of the main exit, I spy the gate to the shopping streets. Gates always exert a strong pull on me, for a number of meta-psychological reasons, and are also a VERY efficient predictor of cool stuff... if you look to the left of the gate, just above the bus, you will see...

Mascots

The ridiculously cute mascots of this sweet shop. Or at least I assume it's a sweet shop, the ground floor is baskin robbins, and I didn't need sweets enough to go up.

My neighbour.

Across the street, my attention was caught by a shop selling nothing but Totoro merchandise designed to hold plants. SO cool. I resisted THIS time, but next time I think I'll buy tons...

Clean living

Smelling the delightful stench of fish, I followed my nose down an alley, and discovered a sign advertising "Clean Living". On closer inspection this turned out to be a dry-cleaners. SUCH a disappointment, I could really have used some clean living...

No, YOU'RE a fishmonger!

Actually, this guy is, which explains the smell of fish.

SHINY!!!

Noticing something shiny ahead I discover a magical jewel guarded by dragons.

GATE.

Spotting another gate, I head towards it. There are a nice pair of temple-dogs across the street too. Some riksha drivers are touting for business...

Cute

On closer inspection, one of them turns out to be a cute girl. Hmm, and she looks bored. Now, I've never really had the spare money to take a ride on one of these (they're pricey), but it just so happens that this time I do. Oh, and did I mention that the girl was cute? Maybe this derive would be easier if I got her to strand me somewhere...

Ready to roll

Apparently it's compulsory to be tucked in like a ague ridden grandmother, even when it's 39 degrees and the blanket is made of rubber... Look away from my naked face. I'm in-cognito as a man with no beard...

Dodging traffic.

What surprised me was just how fast she had this thing moving. On main roads, and amongst normal traffic. I'd never really thought of that before when I saw them go past... It's surprisingly unnerving weaving in and out of moving cars.

Fortress

Passing some dark fortress of doom.

Street

A pleasant tree-lined street. And much fewer cars, GREAT!

Signposts

As many signposts as you could want. Which way shall I go? Oh wait, I don't have to choose...

Ajisai

Unfortunately I missed the Ajisai season by about a week. They were all dead except these ones, and they weren't far off. Beautiful in bloom... As an aside, how embarrassing is it that I can't remember the english for "ajisai". We even have them in our garden at home in NZ... Bah. At least it's not as embarrassing as forgetting the english for "cell-phone".

Tomb

The tomb of some important shogun. I was surprised, because I've been to his grandfather's tomb and it takes up three hill-sides and half a forest.

Good luck

The good luck charms available at the shrine dedicated to the god of passing exams. Guaranteed to help you get into uni.

Oooh, another gate.

The tree there was cool too, it's actually 2 trees they've fused to make another gate.

Bad timing.

As usual, my timing sucks. A week from now these bushes will be covered in flowers... sigh.

Time to get off.

So, this is where I got dumped at the end of my trip on the rikisha. Oooh, a bridge, lets go there.

Hammering?

I'm drawn to the distant sound of power-tools and hammering. Not really what you expect in a world heritage site... On the way I am distracted by lotus flowers. I didn't realize at the time, but you can actually see the building site in this photo. In the gap at the left.

Pretty

Time to stop and admire lotus flowers. Those and Irises are my favorite flowers. This continues for some time, and many photos, but I won't bore you...

Construction

Huh, THERE is the construction site over there....

Turtles.

As I head towards the site I hear loud "gyaa, gyaa" screams. The kind of screams made by girls touching slugs... Turns out it's several half-dressed women feeding turtles. It was interesting to watch actually, as they were the sort of ultra-fashionable city-girls that are more usually seen strutting along the streets sneering at the little people. Quite nice to see them acting like 6 year old kids. For some reason I only took photos of the turtles... Baffling.

Flapping.

Leaving the girls to it, I went off to find that building site.... unfortunately I was in a hyper-distractable state, and, when I heard a distant flapping, went off to investigate...

Good luck

Ahhh, it's those prayer flags I heard. The items to the right are good luck fortunes... well, actually, they're BAD luck fortunes. You avoid the bad luck if you tie them to that frame and leave them. I sometimes collect them and put them in people's bags when they aren't looking, but I was too busy today...

Prayer flags

Closer look at the prayer flags. The big black writing is the name of the temple. The Marker parts are the names of the petitioners and the date of erection.

Enma

I heard a wooden clatter sound from round the corner and went looking. These are Little wooden prayer discs called "Enma". You write your wish on them, hang them up, and the little horse picture (usually) on the other side takes them off to the gods. The weird thing is that in tourist areas, about 60% of them are from foreigners, 30% of them are from kids (things like "make me a fairy princess when I grow up"), and only about 10% are from "normals". You're not really meant to read other people's, but I snoop terribly. Nothing SO interesting in this batch, mainly wishes for world peace. The best I've seen was the one wishing god's assistance in delivering a crushing defeat for Chelsea in last years euro-cup.

Working hard? Or hardly working?

It's quite cool in a world heritage type area to see people just adding to temples like they were any other building. After all, they are. You think they wouldn't have used power tools back in the day if they'd had them, instead of having to weave ropes out of the hair of virgins? I had to jump up onto a wall to get this shot and the guy snarled at me, so I had to pretend I was going away...

Sign

As I did, I spotted this sign. I love signs like this, because they tell you clearly what kind of stupid things people do. If noone lit bonfires, they wouldn't need this sign. It's like the sign I saw recently in a Sydney restaurant window saying "please don't lick our windows". You can GUARANTEE they had someone do it first, probably a few times...

Back to work

Back to the building site again. I hope they put a pointy roof on it. Nothing says temple like pointy roof...

Crying child

In the distance I heard the sound of a child being messily murdered... or being denied something it wanted. So hard to tell. Went for a look. The still sobbing child was being sent off to find it's mother. Apparently it shouldn't touch pigeons because they are dirty... Ohhh, a drink machine. Did I mention that it was 39 degrees this day? I got home and there was all this salt in my clothing. I drank 15 or 20 bottles of drink during my wanders.

Geluk?

What kind of drink is Geluk? I was hoping for something weird (always a good possibility in Japanese vending machines. Tomato flavoured jelly was probably the best I found this trip). Unfortunately it was just normal Coke in a weird can. Realized after looking carefully that it was different languages wishing the Olympic athletes good luck. Tricked again.

The pigeon man.

THIS is the cause of the small child's crying rage. Seems he was attracting pigeons and handing them to small children. Weird, because they're not keen on people and wouldn't go near anyone else.

Crane

Wouldn't you know it. Between the last picture and this a crane came flying past, landed right next to me, and.... my camera crapped itself ;-/ Typical. My crappy zoom didn't make a good job of this long-shot, but really cranes are rare south of the snow-country... It was great to see one.

Gate

Right, time to go.... Ohhh, another gate.

Leading to a little forested temple.

Follow the path to the little temple. Throw in money, clap, pray. the usual.

BIG TEMPLE

Ahhh HA! Now I know where I am again. One of the 2 or 3 main temples in Kamakura. The tree at the bottom left is the scene of a famous assassination back in the 1100s. How cool is that. We really miss out on history in New Zealand.

Dark hole...

Hmmm, what's that behind the big fake rice bales? A small dark hole in the hedge... They usually lead somewhere random and interesting.

Small gate

In this case, it leads to a small gate in another hedge... Keep on going....

Huh.

Huh, a kind of shell temple. Nothing here but a money box, a particle-board screen and a roof over a dirt floor. Still, throw in money, clap, pray. Not even a fox idol in evidence so I can pray for confusion to my enemies (and a bountiful rice harvest).

High tech

The high tech fire suppression system. The box behind the buckets is a control box for the high-tech fire sensors in the shell temple. There were SEVERAL of these for some reason. Then if it DOES go on fire... 2 rusty buckets and a well... I LOVE Japan.

Festival

Oh I see, there's a huge festival called the Bonbori festival... It runs for a week and it starts... TOMORROW!!! BAH for bad timing.

Kimono

Oooh, people in Kimono. Maybe if I follow them something interesting will happen....

Amish.

No, nothing... except... What's that? The Cafe Amish?!? MUST check that out.

Menu

Interesting. On closer inspection of the menu it appears that Amish cooking consists of Coffee (are they even allowed to drink that), and several kinds of toast.... Unfortunately I was unable to scope out the decor inside as they were closed. Thus I was unable to confirm that THIS is where Flat Stanley ended up after his Rumspringer...

A SIGN!!!

I saw a sign!!! It told me about a new children's art museum exhibition coming soon. The slogan was "That colour, that sound, that light (shininess? Sparkle? Something like that)". It sounds cool, and it opens... Oh I see, NEXT WEEK!!!! Still, a sign is a sign, off in the direction off the museum.

Historical dog?

While walking past a historical villa (300 years old) I heard a whining. Hanging out a window is... a black lab. Cool. Actually, it's surprising how many temple families have a dog or 2 on the premises. One of my favorite temples you have to pet your way through a dozen of them before the grandma in charge will let you in the gate.

Owls.

Spot an owl on a cross-street. I love their cartoon owls. Unfortunately it doesn't look like there's anything special on the menu inside, but you have to give them points for the owl. Oh, and what's that...?

Cooler.

Huh, beer and lemonade (the old-fashioned kind where they use a marble as a bottle-cap) sitting in a water bucket to keep it cool. AND it's an honesty box!!! Grab some lemonade, drop my coins in the bucket and head on drinking.

Pink.

Huh, what's that pink lump down the street...? Oh, it turns out that it's Mongolian rock-salt. 250 gram lump for sale for 525 Yen. As much as I would have loved to buy some I would never have got it back through customs ;-

Cool

Still, there's another cool shop, oh, and it has a cool statue in front of it. Is it a bee? Some kind of disguised Doraemon? No idea.

More owls.

But THOSE.... THOSE look buyable. I am now the proud owner of an owl encrusted vase.

STICKERS!!!

Oh yeah... Stickers to pimp out my cellphone (now that I've been forced to get one again). I got the stone priests and sparrows combo. And what's that over there...

Cat

Cool, a money beckoning cat. And he has a money box. Add money, take photo... Hmmm... I wonder... WELL! It turns out that he IS an anatomically correct money beckoning cat under that loincloth... well, for certain values of "correct" anyway, cats aren't usually that proud. What's he beckoning me into anyway... Oh, I see, A CAKE SHOP!

Afternoon tea.

Well, it would have been rude to ignore a nice cat like that. Besides, it was WELL time for Afternoon tea. I love the little design touches in Japanese cafes. A little egg-timer so that your tea steeps just the right amount. The fruit sponge roll was delicious.

Purple.

A tip for first time visitors to Japan. Purple ice cream like this is NOT blueberry. It is in fact purple potato flavour. It is NOT delicious. The interesting thing about the sign is that the inside is made from newspaper and chicken-wire. Kind of surprising.

Ultra

Ultraman salutes you traveler.

Parade

A wall mural draws me back towards the tunnel to the station. That's one weird parade though, what are those blobby things at the back, and why is one injured...

What's that smell...

The smell of Yakitori draws me across the carpark and down a side street. Turns out that while the festival hasn't started yet, today is street stall day. The lanterns are a type of colouring competition for local children. The theme is "Summer", and it's fun trying to guess why each image is connected to summer...

THE WINNER

Actually, I don't know if it is or not, but it was definitely MY favourite. And with that, we come to the end of my Derive. I had to Jump a train back to Tokyo at this stage. It was a fun way to see Kamakura though, it definately made me think more about my senses, and little things going on around me. Well worth the doing.