Kamakura (Mike)

Nicki had her chance to explain the delicious side of Kamakura over the weekend, now I figured I'd add my own tasty version. I have to agree, though, the grape treats at Hachimangu Shrine are incredible.

My goal for leaving the warm confines of home on such a cold day, though, was to take photos with the new 50mm lens that came in the mail last week. I got some great action shots along the pedestrian friendly street that leads to Hachimangu, as well as quite a few great shots on the shrine grounds. We were fortunate, because of New Year's there were decorations all around and the crowd was friendly. Also, I found out that today is Coming of Age Day, a Japanese National Holiday, which probably helped add to the crowd. Coming of Age Day is significant to 20 year olds in Japan, because it's the day when one becomes a legal adult and is able to drink, smoke, and do all kinds of fun adult things without having the Japanese police on alert.

The streets were very active, as Nicki mentioned, with vendors along both sides of the streets selling everything from potato ice cream to mochi, and from sushi to sausage. The lines for free samples were long, but the rest of the food wasn't too expensive, so we took advantage whenever we saw something tempting. At the sausage stand, the vendor got a kick out of my ordering technique. I asked for "Ni", which is the number "2", and pointed at a sausage. The problem is that the Japanese use quite a few different words for different counting situations, so I really wasn't using correct Japanese in my request. But she got a good laugh and then asked me something in Japanese, which she quickly figured out I didn't understand, because then she said "spicy or regular". Knowing that Japanese "spicy" is generally fairly tame, I went with spicy. Turns out that Josh liked the sausage a lot, so I had to go back and order another. This made the vendor laugh even more, because when I got back, I still used the same technique, but said "Ichi" (the number 1) then "spicy".

On the shrine grounds, we were amazed to see that the ponds had a thin layer of ice on them. I knew it was cold over the weekend, but I didn't think it was that cold! Quite a few decorations, flags, and paper prayer notes decorated the trees, grounds, and buildings. We even caught a group of four men dressed up in traditional warrior outfits, which I was lucky enough to photograph because Nicki hollered to me as they were passing by.

All in all it was a great time.

In other news, Nicki and I are ever so much warmer tonight. Laura and Louis sent us a Hanukkah package that arrived a few days past the end of the holiday (from the writing on the box, it looks like it may have been shipped several places before it got to us), but it was filled with goodies and clothing to help keep us warm in our house. This is a good thing, and is received with many thanks, considering that our most recent electric bill was over 35,000 Yen (about $300 US), and I can almost guarantee that 90% of the cost was attributed to our electric heaters and our precious kotatsu.

I've posted several pictures here, but there are other great ones in the Gallery under today's date, 01/09/2006. Off to bed now, goodnight!