(a very touristy entry, containing snippets about divorce, dead children & studio ghibli.)
so my cousin rachel was in japan, visting a friend of hers whose partner got headhunted by a japanese law firm (they live in an apartment with the nicest shower i have ever experienced.)
so i went to see her, which was great, and we went on a daytrip to Kamakura, which was great.
we visited Tokei-ji, which for 600 years or so was a nunnery known as 'divorce temple'. women who wanted to leave their husbands would run away to the temple, and they could stay there for 3 or so years, and then they were considered divorced. this was the only way women could get a divorce at the time. it's said that locals would point the way to any woman who seemed to be in a hurry.
the temple had the nicest cemetery i've seen: shaded by the hills and tall straight cedar trees, low mossy graves, cedarwood incense.
our major motivation for visiting Enno-ji was the line about the statues of the judges of hell: 'presiding over them is Emma ... a Hindu deity known as the gruesome king of the infernal regions.' we each have a sister called emma, and there are many other emmas in the world, and we hoped to get postcards to send them. there were no postcards but the statues were scary.
Daibutsu is the big buddha. like many australian big things you could climb inside. (for only Y20.) unlike, say, the big merino, you couldn't peer out of his eyes. it was very crowded. getting into the tourist spirit, i bought a hello kitty phone dingle of kitty sitting in the lap of Daibutsu.
Hase-dera. there are hundreds of small statues of figures who help the souls of dead babies & miscarriages & abortions. women dress the stutues to keep them warm, in red cloaks or in baby clothes, and leave offerings of kids food and toys. there were hundreds of them, in quiet rows.
we saw the sea and went into a cave with more statues and got a bilingual fortune. (mine included the line: 'LIFE/DEATH: you will be alive', which was a relief.
our day also included a long meandering walk trying to find a tofu restaurant, which turned out to be closed.
then, when we were heading home and looking for a shop that sold souveneir beer, i saw a big wooden totoro and then a big stuffed toy of the cat from kiki's delivery service (what is his name?) and a giant stuffed catbus and i realised it was a studio ghibli merchandise shop and i got very excited and almost hyperventilated. much to the confusion of rachel. though she had seen spirited away so understood a little, once i could form sentences. and it was really cool, expensive but so exciting. i bought some badges and a catbus and kittenbus on a string.
so my cousin rachel was in japan, visting a friend of hers whose partner got headhunted by a japanese law firm (they live in an apartment with the nicest shower i have ever experienced.)
so i went to see her, which was great, and we went on a daytrip to Kamakura, which was great.
we visited Tokei-ji, which for 600 years or so was a nunnery known as 'divorce temple'. women who wanted to leave their husbands would run away to the temple, and they could stay there for 3 or so years, and then they were considered divorced. this was the only way women could get a divorce at the time. it's said that locals would point the way to any woman who seemed to be in a hurry.
the temple had the nicest cemetery i've seen: shaded by the hills and tall straight cedar trees, low mossy graves, cedarwood incense.
our major motivation for visiting Enno-ji was the line about the statues of the judges of hell: 'presiding over them is Emma ... a Hindu deity known as the gruesome king of the infernal regions.' we each have a sister called emma, and there are many other emmas in the world, and we hoped to get postcards to send them. there were no postcards but the statues were scary.
Daibutsu is the big buddha. like many australian big things you could climb inside. (for only Y20.) unlike, say, the big merino, you couldn't peer out of his eyes. it was very crowded. getting into the tourist spirit, i bought a hello kitty phone dingle of kitty sitting in the lap of Daibutsu.
Hase-dera. there are hundreds of small statues of figures who help the souls of dead babies & miscarriages & abortions. women dress the stutues to keep them warm, in red cloaks or in baby clothes, and leave offerings of kids food and toys. there were hundreds of them, in quiet rows.
we saw the sea and went into a cave with more statues and got a bilingual fortune. (mine included the line: 'LIFE/DEATH: you will be alive', which was a relief.
our day also included a long meandering walk trying to find a tofu restaurant, which turned out to be closed.
then, when we were heading home and looking for a shop that sold souveneir beer, i saw a big wooden totoro and then a big stuffed toy of the cat from kiki's delivery service (what is his name?) and a giant stuffed catbus and i realised it was a studio ghibli merchandise shop and i got very excited and almost hyperventilated. much to the confusion of rachel. though she had seen spirited away so understood a little, once i could form sentences. and it was really cool, expensive but so exciting. i bought some badges and a catbus and kittenbus on a string.
2 Comments:
the cat in 'kiki's delivery service' was called jiji, or jigi, can't remember the spelling. the bit where they walk into a shop and jiji spots a coffee mug with a black cat on it and squeaks 'kiki! it's me!' at the mug is the funniest bit in the film.
I wish we had a studio ghibli shop here in oz.
I wish I had a cat of my own.
the other night I slept on the couch at tom and lou's house and their black cat fergus (who is a girl and has one eye) slept on my feet. that made me happy.
a (xo)
oh oh oh oh my god that is so exciting!!!
i need a moment to recover.
i miss you.
love shannon xo
Post a Comment
<< Home