We went to the small city of Kamakura, the birthplace of Zen Buddhism, yesterday (Sunday) to watch yabusame , archery on horseback, which we saw one year ago in Sumida Koen in Tokyo. Lucinda's P.E. teacher, Mr. Tan, recommended the event and we decided to make a day of it. Kamakura is just 1 hour away on a very speedy train from Shinagawa Station.
But the archery, which was great fun last year, wasn't so pleasant in Kamakura. The course and viewing terrain at Tsurugaoka-Hachimangu Shrine were completely flat; it was very crowded; and after arriving early enough to land a spot near a target - but still packed into a crowd - we had to wait for 2 hours before the contest began. And this was pretty much all we could see:
The better part of the trip was our first stop, to see the Daibutsu, the Great Buddha of Kamakura, a massive bronze sculpture that was built 750 years ago, around 1250 AD. It's usually very crowded there, too, so we left our house early and reached the Daibutsu by 10:30 a.m. The kids were fascinated by its largeness and enjoyed going inside to see how it was fitted together.
As part of a weekend festival there, including the yabusame, there were nodate (outdoor tea ceremonies) at the same temple. We watched a teenaged boy and girl make matcha (green tea) using powdered tea and a bamboo tea whisk, before several women in kimono served tea to onlookers.
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