Daijoubu?

Let me start by saying that this past weekend has been full of so much excitement and sightseeing that I have opted to take today's national holiday of Marine Day and do what many of the locals do: absolutely nothing! With so many things and all that walking, I find that each of my days are full but can often be tiring. Accordingly, a nice day to just take it slow, write a little and enjoy the beautiful weather on this Marine Day is exactly what was well needed. Incidentially, Marine Day is not an old holiday at all. 海の日(umi no hi) was only established in 1995 as a day of gratitude for the blessings of the oceans and for hoping for the prosperity of the maritime nation that is Japan. Originally held on July 20, in 2003 it was changed to the third Monday of July in accordance with the Happy Monday System - which literally was a move by the Japanese government to move a number of national holidays to Mondays to promote a nice, long and "happy" weekend. Thanks, Japan - it has indeed been a good weekend!

I was lucky enough (let me say that a different way - exceptionally fortunate) to attend a birthday party at the Izakaya in Itabashi on Friday night with our friend Yuuske, his friends and my pals Dave and Nick from school. To say that it was a feast would be to understate the sheer magnitude of the amount of food and drink present. Although it is customary to order a lot of food at the Izakaya, this was a special occasion as we were celebrating three birthdays of people that were present. Accordingly, they pulled out all the stops, including a private reserved room for us to dine in. As guests of Yuuske, we were also equally part of the celebration and my chance to talk and meet many new Japanese friends was a great highlight of the evening. The party was quite funny and we laughed and talked and joked for several hours in both English and Japanese. All of the food, of course, was thoroughly Japanese: the main course featured a pot of oil that we would boil various meats and vegetables in as well as entire trays of fresh sashimi, sushi, maki, teriyaki, tonkatsu and more! The most bizzare part of the night, however, came when the restaurant offered to us a plate of it's most unusual delicacy: live prawns. Yes, live. They had taken the back tail, split the shell off and left the upper part (and head) on the prawn shrimp. I could not take myself to take a photo as it was, well, still moving. However, as Yuuske delightfully pointed out much to his amusement, we simply had to eat it as guests of honor. Looking at my two classmates, we took a hefty swig of our beer and politely asked how we go about doing this. Kyo, one of the other guests, showed us how as you twist off the top and, quickly, eat the tail meat. Without being then too graphic or gratuitous about the experience for those that are a little squeamish, I will simply say that I ate it and that, indeed, it was surprisingly delicious. I guess that's about a fresh as it gets, huh?

On Saturday, our class set out for Kamakura, Japan - which is about a two hour bus ride outside of Tokyo. Kamakura is a coastal town sitting in the Kanagawa prefecture just east of Tokyo. It is a delightfully older city and once, for a period of time, sat as the capital of Japan before the capital moved to Kyoto. During Kamakura's height as the center of government founded by Minamoto Yoritomo in 1192, Kamakura became the host of many old and varied Buddhist and Shinto temples and shrines. Today, Kamakura is mostly a simple coastal town, but the original shrines and temples still exist.

Our first stop in Kamakura was to the Hasedera temple in Kamakura. Hasedera is home to the Kannon-do, the Shinto goddess of mercy (although, strictly speaking, it is without gender). The statue shows Kannon with eleven heads, each representing a characteristic of the goddess. The tall, gilded wooden statue is regarded as the largest wooden sculpture in Japan, and can be viewed in the temple's main building. With impressive views of the bay below, the temple is known as being one of Japan's most sacred areas.

The next stop was to the impressive Daibutsu (Great Buddha) in Kamakura. The statue towers over the entire site, which is also home to several other shrines and temples. The Daibutsu of Kamakura was built in 1252 and still stands today with only the original base being destroyed in the great Kanto earthquake. It was an incredibly impressive area and absolutely worth getting outside of the city to view and enjoy.

After a wonderful lunch in Kamakura, it was time to head out and back for the frenetic pace of Tokyo, but not without rounding out the temple experience on Sunday with a visit to Ueno in Tokyo with some friends. Ueno, which is home to the expansive Ueno Park, houses a number of temples and sights to enjoy. We first set out for the pond in Ueno Park, made famous for renting a small boat, canoe or paddle boat to sail across the pond for an hour under the sun. After some rest and relaxation (as well as a small canoe race) we settled town for a light lunch at a tea house on the other side of the pond which was overrun by thousands of lillies on the water in Ueno. It was an excellent experience to enjoy the majesty of the tea house, which only opens for two months of the year in Ueno, for an authentic tea experience.

After a quick detour to the Ueno shops (notorious for cheap wares) we went and visited some of the other Shinto shrines in the area, largely dedicated to the Shogunate of ancient Japan that ruled the land for centuries. It was an unusual and humbling experience to walk along some of the original tiles, stones and areas that centuries of Japanese people, samurai and others have undoubtedly walked along. All in all, a day in Ueno was quite tiring, and it was nice to come back to Narimasu and hang out with some of the others as they played guitar and enjoyed the open night air.

Although class resumes tomorrow, I for one will be blissfully enjoying my holiday catching up on some much needed rest and relaxation!

Mata Ashita!