So, I'm finally filling in the Kamakura details. This post will not have pictures, as they were included in part one. Where to begin...well, to start with, there were four of us. Two of us arrived geared for hiking, including boots, backpacks, and water bottles. The other two were dressed for more touristy things. Our first stop was the Kamakura daibutsu (giant Buddha statue), which truly is an impressive sight to behold. It stood alone in a courtyard, at the end of a long, wide path; tall, and peaceful. Upon entering the sanctuary, one can immediately feel the sense of awe--the palpable faith--emanating from this space. And yet, for its size and majesty, the daibutsu is rather plain at first glance. Only upon a closer look can the observer see the telltale detail of the robe and the fine, almost impossibly thin wisps of facial hair. Truly, this is a work where faith and art worked hand in hand, and I got to go inside of it.
That's right, for the price of about twenty US cents, you too can enter the daibatsu. I have no idea how often this kind of thing is permitted, or even why, but on the day we went, it was. And why would anyone pass on this kind of experience, I must ask? I don't know, but it must be a compelling reason, because only I went inside. What did I find? It's really dark in there. The entrance is in the pedestal, and the stairs are really dark. It's not much better inside the main space, though. The entire statue is hollow, with only a few gaping holes in its back allowing the entrance of any light...well, in addition to the small back-illumination of the explanatory sign which details the restoration project of the 60's to strengthen it against earthquakes. Those who have read part 1 will note that, aside from the sign, there are no pictures of inside the daibatsu. It's not that they weren't allowed--there were plenty of people with their phones out--but that it somehow felt wrong to try to capture such a special thing with zeros and ones. To be honest, the inside is exactly what one would expect: a lot of bronze. Sure, you can touch the bronze to find that it's warmer on one side than on the other, but at the end of the day it's just a few big, bronze sheets. That's not makes it so special. What gives it the atmosphere is both the reverence that it brings to believers--regardless of what one believes, seeing a true believer in worship at a truly sacred space does give a tangible feeling of the other--and the history. This statue has stood for over seven-hundred years. It has weathered tsunamis, storms, and the open air. It used to be in an enclosed space, but every enclosure was destroyed by the elements. This connection to the past, this brave and majestic ability to boggle the mind, can little be expressed by such small things as words: the most base expression of thought. How, then, could they be expressed via image? Ergo, no photographs, though perhaps my words may paint a vivid enough picture.
After the daibutsu, the sun was getting low in the sky. It's starting to set at about 4:45ish these days, and it sets pretty fast. However, we decided that we had enough time, if we were quick, to get to another, "must see spot!" on the map. So, we started walking along the road. And we walked, and we walked, and we were starting to wonder if maybe we had been walking the wrong way, when we saw them: the stairs. No, malls have stairs. Schools have stairs. Houses have stairs. These were not stairs, these were an apparent trail of doom laid out to foil the unwary. Thankfully, I had on hiking boots, so I was fine. As such, so was another. For the other two, however, a slight difficulty lay ahead; one, because he hadn't been expecting to do any hiking, the other because she is a bit vertically challenged. And these were tall stairs at times. Don't get me wrong, they led to beautiful views, wonderful wildlife, and fantastic conversation, but they were still hard going if you weren't ready for it. Still, it was relaxing to get out into nature again after such a long absence...at least for some of us.
When we finally got to the end of the trail, we all breathed a sigh of relief. However, that relief was quickly muddled by the fact that we didn't know where we were. We could only follow the signs and hope for the best. Along the way, we asked a nice old man to take a picture of all of us. He took one picture with my friends camera, and 29 with mine (no big deal). He then went out of his way to walk us to the temple we were going to, and even introduced us to the stray cat that he looked after. The temple itself was really fun and absolutely beautiful. All in all, I'm glad that I got to go with such amazing people and at the time of year that I did. With all of the fall colors, even though the going might have been harder than anticipated, we all still had a blast (I hope).
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