Countries Of My Life: Kanakura: Everytime something new

Random People
on a Random Street ;)

This day, I went on a trip to Kamakura with the Maruta family and Oliver. So right now, this is the 3rd time I went here. But as usual, there are everywhere new things to discover. So also today:

We started with a tour to a temple within a mountain. It was a very small one, but that doesn't mean anything in Japan. Everyone who was in a Japanese building, know that especially shops fill every square inch of a room with stuff. Okay, here it wasn't so tight :D

At the temple, Mr. Maruta told Oliver and me about the ritual washing of the money. This is something that seems to be one of the popular rituals in Japan. First, you have to put your money and every money card into a basket.

Of course, you can get them and every further item within the temple itself. After this you light a joss stick and put it into the proper place. Then you go to the water basins were you wash the money by putting water on it with a scoop. I hope, I didn't forgot anything :D

"Money Laundering" in Pictures

After our money, we walked a bit through the area. Some little shrines and statues awaited us. I have to say, this one has fewer things than the ones I saw before but because it is surrounded by stone walls and has many plants and water, it has an astonishing peaceful atmosphere. If less people would be there, this would be a wonderful place for meditation, I think ^^

Seems like many wishes will come true and much bad luck was hanged ;)

Now, we headed for lunch. And because we were really hungry and also the Maruta family didn't want to wait long, we walked into the nearest restaurant. There were no guests besides us, that was a bit suspicious. We guessed it was because the prices were so high. But anyway, the food was good. I just knocked my cup of tea over and caused a bit chaos. Actually this was the 2nd time in 2 days, that didn't feel right oO

The Lunch

Besides bad omen, everything was alright and we continued our travel. Now we went to maybe the most biggest Shinto shrine in Kamakura. And we were lucky, today was a Buddhist festival. It was called 七五三 (Seven-Five-Three) and is dedicated for the children. Girls at the age of 3 and 7 and boys at the age of 5 wear traditional Kimonos / Yukatas, go with their parents to a Shinto shrine and pray for their health, luck and future.

Young Girl wearing traditional Kimono

Why these numbers? As in most countries, specific numbers symbol certain things. In Japan the 5 for example symbols luck. So if you get a 5-Yen coin, keep it ;) As I heard, many of these meanings comes from Buddhism. If you want to know more about this, your favorite search engine will find it :D

The crowd

Because of this day, there were dozens of people. But we found our way through and visited the shrine. To be honest, it's called shrine if you take the Japanese word 神社 (jinja), but I think this building here can be called temple. It's just too big ;)

Seriously, the whole area is "just" a shrine?

After the visit, we just walked a bit within the streets and bought soft ice cream. Pretty ironic, isn't it? It's November but it's was so warm here that we ate ice cream. Don't know if I really want to cold because I have no heater at home. But if it stays so warm all the time, I won't be able to see the red maple trees because the leafs would still be green.... Dammit :D