Symbolic Reflection
This is a picture I took which I felt was both aesthetically pleasing as well as thought-provoking. I'll give you a second to pause and examine the picture for any noticable oddities..... As I was walking by this pool which is near the source of a small pond, something caught my eye in my periphery. Turning back to see what it was, I noticed it was the reflection between the statues. The twisted iron cross of the Nazis had leapt out at me in a sort of subconcious horror. I have, like most, been taught that the swastika is a symbol of evil. However in my later years I came to realize it was a perversion of a Hindu/Buddhist/Jainist symbol which is for good luck or blessings and it is still weird to see them displayed all over holy sites and maps which indicate where temples are. Anyhow, I thought it was interesting...
Narita
As I often do when I'm bored, I get on the train and go somewhere. A coworker mentioned a temple and park in Narita (where the big international airport is) so I decided to go. Turns out its a huge temple complex, with buildings ranging from ancient to under construction. There I saw some really important guy, (bishop?? lama??) and his entourage walk across the square to the chimes of a bell. Very cool experience. Also in the extensive park there were numerous Buddhist gravestones, an old teahouse, a calligraphy museum and lots of other surprises. It was a stunning place and I took about a million pictures. The park was of course totally landscaped so it was actually more akin to a massive garden. I even saw a man on a cherry-picker trimming an evergreen tree with a pair of hand-shears.... damn. There was a little girl having her picture taken by her parents wearing a pink kimono, it was adorable but I felt awkward taking a picture, so I quickly snapped one secretly.
Towering over the ponds and gardens was an enormous pagoda, larger than any I have seen and brightly painted red and gold. Wicked place to take a date for a stroll... but, first things first...
The Wee Little Buddha of Kamakura
Kamakura is about 1 hour on the train from Tokyo station, just south of
Yokohama. For being so close to the two largest cities in Japan, it has a quaint, tourist/surf town feeling to it. It was formerly a capital back-in-the-day, (during the aptly named Kamakura period) and the town features about 60 temples and 20 shrines. The day I went was a national holiday and so unfortunately there were throngs of people navigating the streets forcing us onto the road frequently. However, the crowds couldn't obstruct the massive Daibutsu, or Buddha. He was formally chilling in a large and likely very impressive temple but a few hundred years ago a tsunami flattened the wooden structure and it was never rebuilt. So now the big guy its an outdoorsman and is just as or more impressive. Reeshma and I paid the extra few cents to go inside, just because we could. It was surprisingly roomy although the Japanese were packed in there like sardines like elevators and trains generally are. Anyhow, we also saw the largest wooden Buddha statue which gave me an eerie, tingly feeling. Then we chilled by the beach and had some drinks at a particularly cool California Bar overlooking the bay.
