I have developed an ability over the years to recall names and events - some of which I'm sure people would rather I forgot (!!!)
I guess over time unless these are things which come into your mind quite often, it's really hard to imagine that some of the smaller, less insignificant moments my existence will stick in my mind. I must admit that sometimes becomes a worry when I think about what will happen at the end of these travels.
I'm always interested to learn about the brain and how it works. One thing which has always baffled me is how I can remember the most obscure song lyrics from year's past, but ask me something I did last week, and I'd have to spend some time pondering a response.
I guess it has a lot to do with the different ways people's long and short term memories work, but it is a fascinating subject.
I feel like part of the advantage of me taking lots of pictures whilst being away is so that if I do have struggles to remember things I saw, or places I've visited then I can use my photos to help jog my memory. They are a great way of making memories and connections with events over my time in Asia, and it's clear to see from the amount that I've taken that it is something which I not only like doing, but also feel is an important part of this process.
I do worry though that with all the tremendous things I've seen in the last couple of months that some of the finer details will be forgotten. Until I went to Beijing and saw people dancing in the park, I'd forgotten that I'd seen exactly the same thing in Ho Chi Minh City, and I meant to write something about it in my blog, although I don't remember if I did or not.
It's obviously not a huge deal, but I think these smaller moments are part of what makes up the longer narative of my journey.
Sometimes it can be hard not to be prisoner of the moment, and as I've been to so many places, the immediacy of my recent visits might well be causing them to be looked upon more favourably because they are more visible in my memory, and perhaps I will have clearer memories of them.
I feel like it's important to remember that prior to wonderful experiences like Busan and Taipei, I'd enjoyed the time I spent in Malacca and Kuching just as much. Although when it comes to describing my favourite parts of the trip I'm likely to gravitate towards the two former destinations first because I visited them most recently.
Perhaps when I'm getting all my photos printed, or I'm creating things for my scrapbook then some of these memories will be reignighted. I just don't want the time I've spent to basically boil down to one or two huge events which dwarf the rest and make parts of the journey seem inconcequential.
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Although I like to have some sort of plan, I tend to work things out the night before I go out and do things, that way it stays a bit fresher in my mind.
With a few of the bigger cities I've visited like Bangkok and Shanghai, I've made a list of everything that interested me, or that I'd like to do, and then grouped these things together so that I can visit all of the things which are close together on one day.
The example of Shanghai doesn't quite work so well because of the time constraints, but having it all set out was helpful for sure. As I was only in China for a couple of days it meant I had to prioritize where as somewhere like Bangkok I was able to manage to find time to literally do everything I'd written down on my list.
These type of conundrums tend to be more of an issue when I stay somewhere for more than three of four days, so I find it better to make a plan of what I'd going to do in order to make sure that my time is spent equally among each day. Obviously having longer also means that if I don't get to do something one day then I can perhaps add it on to the activities of the following day.
Laying it all out like this is pretty useful when I have more time, because that way I can prioritise the things I want to do, and then also look to see if I need to add or remove anything from my itinerary.
Thankfully it's not something I've had to worry about too extensively because it's rarely been an issue, but having longer in one place lets me work around the weather a bit more as if needs be I can swap my days around to suit what it's going to be like outside.
I had an attempt at figuring things out for Tokyo last night, and with five days here I was actually able to include a trip just outside of the city in order to get another different perspective on Japan from a different angle.
I mentioned yesterday how Tokyo has a large metropolitan area, but it also has many interesting cities close by which have value in their own right.
Somewhere like Yokohama or Chiba might lie in the shadow of the Japanese capital, and if you came to this country but didn't have time to spend a few days in one of those cities then there are excellent transport links from Tokyo which means it's possible to visit on a day trip.
Originally that's what I'd planned to do in Busan, using the city as a base and taking day trips to nearby Daegu, Pohang and Ulsan, that was until I was made aware of how much there was to do in Busan itself, and that made me elect to see what was in front of me without needing to venture out to other places.
Not that there are a lack of things to do in Tokyo, but as I'd managed to schedule everything I wanted to do into other days during the week then I thought that it might be nice to spend a day in the nearby city of Kamakura.
It had been somewhere I'd initially thought about staying, and although there is lots to do there from my perspective I could quite happily achieve everything I needed to on a day trip there.
Although it is still extremely confusing to me, Tokyo's rail system makes it relatively simple to get to Kamakura, although I certainly double-checked my route a couple of times before setting off.
My limited knowledge of the trains in Tokyo is developing as I have noticed that there are certain stations around the edge of the capital which seem to be satellite stations, and give you access to pretty much everywhere else in and around the area. Ikebukuro is my closest one.
Each journey I seem to need to take runs through there which works well for me in case I'm ever not sure about how to get back to where I'm staying. At least I always known I can try to get there if Tokiwadai isn't a direct option.
Perhaps for the first time on my trip to Japan the language barrier tried to interviene as I was faced with a large map with a list of train stations on, none of which were written in English.
The ticket machines only display fare prices like the ones in Yokohama, so you need to known how much it is to where you're going in order to pay.
There was an attendant at the gate who I asked to help, and she gave me instructions about which platform I needed to be on and also how much a ticket was. Once I had that information I was good to go.
I found the right track and waited for the Shonan-Shinjuku train which is the same one I'd taken to get from Yokohama to Tokyo yesterday. It was quite busy at first, but soon cleared out as we went past Shibuya and Shinjuku where the majority of people made for the exit.
The journey to Kamakura took just over an hour; it's a little past Yokohama, but once I'd gotten a seat it didn't really bother me as I was quite happy listening away to my podcasts. In fairness it was probably quite a nice rest for my body which takes as many restful moments as it can gets during these busy days.
The amount of people on the train had built back up, but it soon emptied out again at Kamakura as people clearly had the same idea as me and spend a day visiting the former Japanese capital.
These days Kamakura has become a quiet seaside resort, although sadly it didn't look like beach weather as I exited the train.
I'd written down ideas of places I'd thought about visiting, but I knew that Kamakura was full of places to go so I thought that getting a map might be wise.
Although it's not a massive behemoth of a city like Tokyo, Kamakura was certainly big enough for me to get lost in, and although the sights were pretty forthcoming, a visit to the tourist information centre proved to be an inspired move as the ladies in there helped to give me directions to each of the places I wanted to go.
The first was just down the road from the station, and was highlighted as a 'must see' attraction in the city.
As a former capital of Japan, Kamakura has it's fair share of religious sights, and its fair to say that it uses this to its advantage. On my way to Tsurgaoka Hachumangu Shrine which is where I was going first, there was a large high street with plenty of souvenier shops down it which I'd imagine are well positioned to do good business during the months of heavy tourism activitiy.
Tsurgaoka had a large red gate at the front which you could see from the top of the street which the station sits on. Between the gate from a distance you could see a pagoda at ground level and then a shrine building just above it which was surrounded by lots of trees.
I headed down the main path of the shrine first which had some excellent traditional scenery with bridges, lillies and water features galore.
With its position on the top of the hill, the shrine seemed quite imposing, but it was sytlised with the traditional Asian architecture I like so much:
The smaller pagoda was the first thing which you came to, and there appeared to be some kind of ceremony taking place when I arrived. Naturally, I had no idea what was going on, but it appeared someone in traditional garments was reading scriptures or a passage of a prayer:
I pressed on up the stairs towards the main shrine where I saw some very similar sights to yesterday in terms of the rituals, and the blocks of wood with messages on, but also noticed that at this shrine people were writing messages on paper and wrapping them around some wires which were assembled like an abacus:
There was a small temple looking building behind the main shrine at the top of some stairs, but it appeared to be closed and potentially unused altogether:
I decided to go and take a look at the scenery that I'd spotted on the way in as I headed back to the entrance. On the right there was a bridge to a huge pond with lots of lilies on, and to the left there was a large area which was similar, but you could walk around this one, and there was a small inlet which people were taking pictures from:
It gave off a very peaceful, and relaxing vibe, and I imagine if you came here in the summer, that the sun would make it look even more beautiful.
I studied the map carefully to see where to go next, and although there were a large trail of temples nearby which I could have gone to quite quickly and easily, I decided to take a bit of a walk, and visit the temple I'd researched a bit into last night which was about half an hours walk away.
Surprisingly for me I haven't mentioned important little details like paths and traffic since arriving in Japan just yet; maybe because I haven't experienced any issues with them just yet.
In Kamakura, it's the same as in both Tokyo and Yokohama where there are regular paths on quite large and wide pavements, and then some smaller ones separated from the road which are usually painted green or red to distinguish them from the rest of the road. These are prioritized for pedestrians when there is no actual curb to walk on. Whilst were on the subject, I have to acknowledge in a good way my surprise at the amount of people I see cycling around everywhere. There aren't specific cycle paths or anything, but I find myself constantly having to watch out for people riding around, and occasionally they'll pull up next to you as a crossing.
Whilst we're talking bout vehicles I noticed these entertaining things today which I think are in keeping with traditional Japanese travel:
There were quite a few of them around town, but I didn't see where their point of origin was or how much they cost. It's a convenient way to travel between places especially if you don't want to pay for the bus and you need something slightly faster than walking.
The next temple I was headed to was called Hokokuji and was located East of where I'd just been looking around. There were a few other smaller ones along the way but it was actually relatively easy to find.
Part of the reason why I wanted to visit Hokokuji is because I'd seen a description of it online which said that as well as a beautiful authentic temple there was a traditional bamboo garden which was a great place to walk around.
True to the descritpion's word, Hokokuji was authentic and excellent to look at, and paying an extra Y200 got me access to the bamboo garden which is one of the most fascinating things I've seen.
Aside from associating it with panda's I don't actually think I've ever seen bamboo before, and I know that I definitely haven't ever seen anything like it growing in the wild. Some some reason I imagine it would be just about head height but was quite surprised to discover walking around the corner towards the garden that it was huge:
There was quite a queue of people because every was taking lots of photos of the shoots growing pretty much never-endingly towards the sky:
Just towards the back of the garden you could pay an extra Y300 to have some traditional green tea which is made in Kamakura, and there was a quaint looking stand where people were sitting and enjoying it whilst taking in the view.
The gardens of the place itself were beautiful, but the bamboo out of the back and the small curated trees were fabulous:
Just at the exit there was a garden that looked as though it was very carefully looked after and I marveled at how peaceful the whole thing seemed.
The weather was starting to turn a bit grey and grim at this point, but I ploughed on as I still had a couple of things to tick off my least.
When I read about Kamakura the name stood out to me for a reason, but I couldn't figure out why it was; I'd definitely heard of it before. Looking at the map and some of the road signs it jogged my memory that the reason the city is famous is because of the giant Buddha that is usually shown on pictures.
That was my next port of call and for this I had to walk back towards the train station and then along diagonal road which eventually led to a street with some more temples on and within a short walk I was at the entrance to the place where the giant Buddha was constructed. The road that I'd walked along to get there, like the road to the first temple was doing a good trade on souvenirs and it was quite busy with people but I have to say that even though I thought it was going to be horrendously busy, it actually wasn't too bad when I got to the Buddha.
I recognised the Buddhist icon straight away from the pictures that I'd seen, but what I didn't realise is that for an extra Y20 you could go up inside it and look around. It was a dark cramped space with not much of a view inside the hollowed out statue, but still quite a unique opportunity to go there:
The last thing I wanted to do in Kamakura was spend some time near the beach. It obviously wasn't very nice weather so my original plan of sitting on the sand in the sun and reading some of my book went out of the window, but following the path in the opposite direction from Kamakura I headed towards the coastline which starts with Yuigahama Beach.
Japan isn't one place that you particularly associate with sand - unless you visit the Okinawa Islands, but you can see how it would be appealing if the weather was a bit better:
There were lots of people surfing and enjoying the waves which were actually pretty calm considering that there was a bit of a breeze blowing.
I walked along the sand of Yugiahama as far as I could before then taking to the path and continuing around to Inmurahasaki and Shichirigahama both of which were covered in dark volcanic sand:
From Shichirigahama on sunny days you can sometimes see a view of Mt. Fuji, but it was obviously far too dark and cloudy for that today as I walked as far as I could, and saw nothing of the iconic peak. It was a nice walk though, and despite the weather it was enjoyable to walk along the sand.
One thing I did notice as I was walking on were the tremendous number of hawks that were soaring in the sky. They were swooping and hanging in the air looking for fish to be brave enough to stick there head out of the water.
As I crossed the road to head back down the main street to go towards the station there was even a sign which said "Beware of hawks" which I imagine is reference to the fact that they would be quite happy to swoop down and steal food out of your hand at any moment.
These are the kinds of things I referred to in the introduction about small details. When it comes to telling stories about Kamakura, I'm more likely to remember about the bamboo garden or the giant Buddha than I am for seeing hawks in the wild for the first time. Now that I've highlighted it perhaps I'll have a better memory of them, but all the same these small details are what is going to make up the legacy of my trip.
It will definitely be interested to see what little pieces of information I'm able to recall as time goes on.
From the beaches I took the long walk back Kamakura train station where I had to wait about thirty minutes before the correct train came along. When I got back to Ikebukuro I had to get my usual Tobo-Toji line train back to the hotel, although as I had been concentrating on writing parts of this blog I hadn't noticed that it was raining outside so when I got back to my station I had to dig deep into my bag to grab my coat and dodge the puddles back to my hotel.
I enjoyed spending the day in Kamakura, and I'm glad I made the decision to go out of the city for a little bit and visit a different one. I can see the appeal of the former Japanese capital, and I bet it thrives on sunny days as people look to escape the current capital for the day.
Escapade
Janet Jackson (1989)
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