Sunday, January 31, 2010

My first solo expedition

First off, I should apologize that the cord connecting my camera to my computer is currently MIA.  I will find it soon, but until then you'll just have to put up with my words.
Okay, you all have heard me say time and again that I would be going out somewhere one of these days.  Well, last weekend I finally got to Tokyo for the weekend.  That was cool and I met a guy who seems to want to get me out of my neighborhood more often so I may have a friend to show me through the train system here.  Yes, that means more blogs, but it still isn't quite the same as being able to get around on my own n the system.  I have a map to show me routes and the system is English friendly, but I've been putting off travelling because it scared me.  Honestly, new things are scary to me, I like to be on familiar ground and hate getting lost or crowded so the train system was rather daunting.  I've put off using it for about three months, prefering to hide in my neighborhood or the town I can walk in (I've been told I have an uncanny sense of direction when walking so it's hard to get lost here).  Well, last weekend I went by train to and from Tokyo, but I went with friends who knew the way.  I just followed them and found it surprisingly easy to travel.  However, it wasn't the same thing as travelling the system on my own, neither would going with a native who is probably very comfortable on the trains.  I needed to go somewhere by myself to prove to myself how simple it is, no one to lean on, no one to blame if we got lost.  I needed something to be able to say I'd done it once, I could do it again in the future.  I told myself all week I'd go on the trains Saturday and finally decided to go to Hase and see the Great Buddha, the second biggest one in Japan.
Well, when Saturday came around, I needed to do some stuff for work that morning so I finally got to the station about 1:30 in the afternoon here (for those of you back home, that would have been about 10:30 Friday night).  I had plans to visit a friend that night between 5 and 6 so I knew I'd wasted a lot of time and hoped I'd have time.  The first thing I did was put more money on my Suica card, which is a card that works like a bus pass did back home.  Put a certain amount of money on your card and you don't have to worry about if you have enough money for a few trips.  One can also use the Suica as a prepaid card at most convienience stores, especailly the stores in the stations.  There is also a card called Pasmo that can be used to pay bus fares.  I'm not sure the Suica can be used on buses nor do I know if the Pasmo can be used in stores.  I should do more research...  Yeah, another time.  Anyways, I filled up my Suica and went through the turnstyle-like thing used here to stand on the platform and wait for the train from Yokosuka.  It was three stops before I got off at Kamikura Station and transfered to the train to Hase.  The smaller train was stuffed, standing room only.  It was then that I started to question the wisedom of going to the major tourist sight on a Saturday: there were a lot of kids on that train.  I realized my mistake when we got there and the train nearly emptied (or so it seemed) at the Hase station.  Anyways, I got there at about 2 pm and walked about ten or fifteen minutes to the temple.  As I walked the main road I felt like I was back in California walking down Fisherman's Wharlf.  The main street of Hase seemed to be souveniour shops of some sort or places to buy some sort of food.  It was definitely somewhere to spend a whole day instead of a mere hour, but the point of the trip was kinda the trip, not so much the destination that time so I tucked the info away for another day and kept walking.
The Great Buddha sat in the center of stone paved courtyard with his eyes mere slits looking down or closed, his hands folded on his lap in a way so that his palms faced upward.  Older than the US civilization, he is the older, dignified version of Buddha, not the jolly one that you can rub his belly.  No, this Buddha seems like a serious Asian, more like a god then the jolly laughing statue so popular in the US.  The Buddha sits on a platform where peoples' heads barely reach the top of the platform.  He is clearly visible to all in the temple and on the hills behind him.  He is built of a form of terracotta that stood up both times the house around him blew over in the 1300s and now he's weathered enough to remind me of weather-beated copper, you know: the faint greenish-gray with brown streaks of rust.  He stands at 11.3 metters tall, which looks, to my inexperienced eyes, at least three stories high, conservatively, 13.4 meters with the platform.  Hmm, if 2.1 meters is about the height of a person, that would make him about 6 people high.  (yay, my teachers would be so proud.  I can still do math!!!)  An interesting thing about the Buddha is that he's hollow and for 20 yen (about 25 to 30 cents) a person can climb the stairs and look out something high up.  (there are shutters on windows out his upper back but I seem to recall some of my friends saying they looked out his eyes, I may be wrong.  Obviuosly I didn't stand in the rather long line, I was running out of time.) 
I walked around the grounds some but the peaceful mood that accompanies most temples or shrines or churches I visit was rather difficult to find among the screaming kids visiting with their parents but it was the weekend and they were outdoors so one can't really blame them.  However, I found a small shrine, I think that would be the accurate word, that was tucked around the back wall that was built and had stood in Korea for a number of years before it was transported to Hase.  The building was decorated in blue and red (I believe), the colors of the royal family there.
Hmm, it's kinda late and I'm running out of steam.  That's all I can think of in Hase.  I got back in time to get to my friend's house for supper and to become a jungle gym for her little boys.  It was a good thing I hadn't gone to the gym that day as I definitely got a good arm workout and my legs are a little sore too.  I will have remember that a day spent on my feet is not a good way to prepare for a night at their place.  :)
Well, this is Li'l B signing off and wishing you all a lovely week.

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