#Japan16 Kamakura and night time Tokyo Bay

hi Today was the first that I ventured outside of Tokyo. I wanted to leave early so I could return to the city for the evening, but woke much earlier than intended at 5.30am (that's 8pm Sunday UK time) once again unable to return to sleep, so I headed out at 6.30. This meant I had the pleasure of seeing the Japanese businessmen hurrying into work. They looked so stuffy, I was very happy to see the stereotype fulfilled. Many of them fell asleep on the train. I also saw more Japanese schoolgirls, in blazer, shirt and tie, with invariably short pleated skirts and knee high socks. My trains were never too busy, but I also witnessed the famously crushed commuter carriages, which put London's 8.30am central line look like first class!

An unhappy Sardine., and a curious advert!

I was on my way to Kamakura, but disembarked at Ofusa to see an immense white statue of the head of Kannon (goddess of mercy), which looks down over Ofusa town. The Ofusa temple is known for its roses and wqind chimes, and has a lovely back story, but I have read that it is only really worth visiting Autumn-Spring. My Ofusa train station stamp featured the statue, I was very pleased with that - my first stamp of the day! I also got myself breakfast for the first time - sushi cucumber rolls! I miss my muesli!

The main reason I stopped here, however, was to change to the Shonan Monorail, a suspended monorail which actually serves a purpose for local residents instead of a tram or train. I was really excited to ride the suspended monorail, and it was very interesting to see a normal (i.e. nopt touristy) Japanese town from such an unusual angle. I was disappointed to find, however, that the carriages didn't swing out at the corners nearly as much as I'd hoped they would!It looked a lot more exciting on Rollercoaster Tycoon...

My view out of the back of the monorail.
Apparently it's over 45 years old!

The Monorail terminated at Enoshima, and I caught my first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean, and noticed tsunami evacuation direction signs printed in the pavements. That made me pause for thought.

Then I collected my Enoshima stamp and boarded the Electric railway (basically a tram) for Kamakura. The electric railway was fun! the seating was (like the Tokyo trains) two opposing benches, so passengers can see out over their opposites heads. I moved sides so I could see the beach! The sand there was volcanic grey, and at the time there was a blanket of white cloud, so none of my photos of it came out right! As the two previous days though, the sun did come out with a vengeance later, luckily for me just in time for the important photo opportunity, at Hase Dera temple!

The temple was set in beautiful grounds, with a large Koi pond, a number of incense and candle shrines including a natural cave, a fantastic sea view, and most importantly, an immense collection of Jizō statues. Jizo is the god of travelers and of unborn children. These statues have been placed over centuries to commemorate children lost to miscarriage, abortion, or stillbirth. There are thousands of them, placed by grieving parents. There are also a lot of bunches of flowers, it was as very special place. Here's a link for more information about Jizo: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2012/03/31/our-lives/a-guide-to-jizo-guardian-of-travelers-and-the-weak/ 

Next I wanted to visit Hokokuji Temple, also known as Bamboo temple, for it's magical bamboo gardens. Although the complex was only small, there was a fantastic serenity and calmness to the place. It was a much needed break after the 45 minute walk from Hase Dera, and I sipped my bottle of cold green tea and munched on pastry fish (my lunch, and a Japanese specialty)

Bamboo gardens

I mooched back to the station enjoying the glorious sunshine. My feet were hurting though, so I decided to head back to Tokyo. Getting the JR train all the way back, I got back to Ofusa in less than half the time, and effectively for free on my JR pass. Feeling pleased at having made it back so much earlier than planned, I elected to walk from the station back to Asakusa. Again I was deceived by my map. By the time I returned, I couldn't face anything more exciting than waiting in the hostel for my new Partner in Crime (the other British girl, we'll call her Tsusonoka) to arrive back.


She appeared at exactly 6pm, as planned, and we headed out to Tokyo Dome for the arcade, which I had come across by sheer  accident the previous day. in the arcade was an exciting photo booth called 'Heroine Face', with the enticing caption 'I want to be the last heroine'. It makes literally no sense, but that was part of the attraction! Tsusonoka and I scrabbled together 400 yen, and our Heroine Face experience began! We struck a few ridiculous poses involving Tsusonoka's cuddly rabbit (we'll call him Stuart 2) but managed about two photos before collapsing in giggles. When our photos were done, we were directed to a second booth, where we customised the photos with stars, crowns, kisses and sunglasses, besides such poignant poignant captions "Secret face", "Happy Date" and "Chu!". We might have gone a little over the top, but we had so much fun, the funniest moment of my trip so far!

We didn:t even come close to keeping it together,
we were in hysterics!

Tsusonoka (definitely not her real name) customising our Heroine Faces

Next we decided to hunt down a famous fifteen metre tall robot in the dark, by route of a rainbow bridge! Unfortunately this involved shelling out for a specific ticket (500y) and when we arrived at the distinctly underwhelming rainbow bridge, we were four minutes too late to cross it on foot, so I had to lay another 500y to get across it on the train! (Tsusonoka had a Pasmo card, which is basically a Tokyo Oyster card) the rainbow bridge took us onto a man-made island in Tokyo Bay, which is pretty cool. This raised all kinds of questions about engineering and sea levels (why did this not flood Tokyo?) which I will have to ask Wikipedia about later! It did remind me of the last Superman movie, and I was telling Tsusonoka about how the baddie had made an island and put kryptonite in it. Tsusonoka said we were obviously not superheroes, as the island was not making us weak, but I advised her not to fall over or injure herself here as a precaution.



The robot was pretty cool. Unnervingly, as we approached, he turned his head and followed us with his gaze. This was totally coincidental, but being Tokyo I actually believed for a moment that it had detected our presence with some kind of motion sensor! we took some photos with the robot, then moved on to Palette town, of Pokemon fame! Unfortunately this had nothing to do with Ash Ketchum's home town, I don't even think it's spelt the same, but to make up for this disappointment, there were some uplit arches with water vapour that appeared to glow in the light. Tsusonoka and I struck some inspiring poses I the lights, some of which looked genuinely cool, and wandered to the nearest station which wouldn't require spending any further yen. This caused all kinds of confusion and although the ticket inspectors were very helpful, they didn't understand English, or even my efforts at Pictionary! However in the end we sorted it out, and limped (literally in my case) back to the hotel, collecting some interesting food on the way.


Both Tsusonoka and I bought the traditional Japanese omelette and rice. It looked vegetarian! A mound of link sticky rice was snuggled under a plain omelette, with a dribble of gravy over the top. We decided to eat it cold rather than use the hostel microwave, as we couldn't tell if the Japanese packaging said it should be warmed up. Unfortunately hidden in the pink rice were tiny balls of meat (not fish!) the exact same size and colour as the rice grains. We were ravenous though, so we picked out the meat and ate the rest. For desert I had a sort of egg custard/omelette type thing (theme unintended) and Tsusonoka had a delicious custard and cream pastry! We had half of each, then went to bed. It was long past midnight by the time I got to sleep.