Fall has finally come to Japan! For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been constantly talking to friends and family back in the U.S., wondering if there was some mistranslation of the word “Autumn” I should know about in terms of the Tokyo Region, but at long last, my fears has been dislodged! Look!
Hooray! So, to enjoy the Autumnal Air, I’ve taken full advantage of the Campus Festival occurring over the past few days (which means no classes), and gone out to explore more of Tokyo! I even managed to leave the suburban area and go to an entirely different city – wonder of wonders!
Last week, I visited Ueno, which is situated in the North-Eastern part of Tokyo, and is perhaps most famous for its park, temples and museums. It’s also part of the historic “Shitamachi” or Lower-Town where all the merchants and city-folk lived during the Edo Period, so it’s got quite the cultural history. Even now, when you visit the areas around Ueno and to the East of the Yamanote Line, there’s just a more culturally rich feel than you get in most of Tokyo; there’s less of that hectic, downtown city vibe. It’s quite nice.
The Ueno museums are also very worth seeing, especially the National Museum, which houses about every piece you’ve every seen in an Asian Art History book. And if you’re not the museum type, wander around the temples dotting the park. I kept wandering into them accidentally and then hoping I wasn’t breaking the rules by being there…Anyway, it’s a very nice area with a very chill vibe.
Then, yesterday, Ms. Miyake, a graduate of Georgetown who currently resides in Tokyo, organized a trip for the exchange students to Kamakura. Once again, for the non-aficionados of Japanese History, Kamakura was the town founded by shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo in the 12th century to get away from all the madness of the court at Kyoto. He went away to the east and set up the military capitol of Kamakura to balance out the cultural capitol that was Kyoto. Whereas before the Kamakura Period, Japanese history is pretty straight-forwards (Emperor ruled, some aristocratic influence, lots of land policy), during the shogunate eras, things get really, really convoluted. There are more factions, power-plays, mass-suicides, split-courts and drama than anyone could shake a stick at. Suffice to say, Kamakura was the kind-of military/shogunate capitol from 1192a.d. to 1333a.d., and therefore has a lot of cool stuff there.
The Georgetown group, only having half a day, focused on seeing the main city (there’s also a Northern City, where lots of Zen Temples are located) and the two most famous sights found within: Zeniarai Benten Shrine (which is a mouthful for everyone, believe me), where everyone goes to wash their money, and the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
The above were taken at Zeniarai, which was founded about the same time as the city, so it’s roughly 800 years old. It’s a bit different from other shrines because it’s not based on a man-made temple complex, but a series of caves, and is only accessible through a tunnel. Despite it being very crowded due to the fine weather and the next day being a holiday, the entire experience was very peaceful and nice. Kind of odd to see people wandering around soaking their money, though.
Next up, after a hike through the mountains, was the Great Buddha. There are Great Buddhas everywhere, most famously at Nara, but this one is quite special in that, after being built in the mid-13th century complete with surrounding shrine, the statue survived a tsunami wave that destroyed the surrounding buildings when it hit in the 15th century. Pretty cool, no?
As you can see, there isn’t as much philosophizing as in my past few posts, but I figured you would enjoy pictures more than an essay on my experiences. In the next few days, a couple of my friends were planning to explore the growing market of “Nekobukuro,” where you pay to go pet cats for a couple of hours, and missing my own feline friends back home, I was thinking of indulging.
