Continuing my little adventures in Japan back in 1964, after returning to Tokyo I began revisiting what were my favorite daytrip or weekend destinations when I was stationed here in the U.S.Army in 1957-1959. The easiest place to reach was Kamakura, home of the Great Buddah.
I had visited this bronze giant (photo, above) several times in 1957-59, and even brought back a haniwa burial figurine made by priests at the adjacent temple. The giant statue dates from 1292 and is known as Daibutsu. This time I climbed up inside his belly. To get there, I took a commuter train to Yokohama, then another to Kamakura town, and finally a one-mile walk through the town.
Kamakura would be worth visiting even without the Buddah. From 1192 until 1333 this was the seat of the Shogunate government, which kept the emperor in Kyoto as a powerless figurehead. Its days of glory ended 141 years later as the emperor regained his power and Kyoto reigned supreme. A dozen or so temples dot the surrounding land along with two museums and a lively old shopping street.
Not far from the Great Buddah is the ancient Hasedera Temple, overlooking the sea. It was here, six years earlier, that a priest gave me my prized haniwah figurine, which still graces my living room.
By seeing only the Great Buddah and the nearby Hasedera Temple it would have been possible to make an abbreviated trip to the next destination, but I wanted to spend an entire day there, so it was not until the next day that I revisited one of my favorite spots in Japan:
Hakone is a popular resort area encompassing mountains, hot springs, a spectacular lake, and glorious views of Mount Fuji. Although there was a more direct train out of Tokyo's Shinjuku Station, I took the main line express from Tokyo Central to Odawara, then the private Odakyu Railway and a series of cable cars, boats, and buses to circumnavigate Hakone National Park, resulting in a really full day of exploration.
The switchback railway from Odawara is an unusual experience as the train changes directions several times while working its way up the mountain, with hair-raising views at every turn. The end of the rail line is at Gora, where I switched to a cable car for the climb to the top at Sounzan. From there it plunged over a valley of volcanic activity emitting clouds of sulfurous steam from the very bowels of the Earth, truly a scene out of Dante's Inferno. A stop was made at Owakudani, where visitors can walk among the many hellholes of boiling activity and breathe in that rich sulfur odor. There's a fabulous view of Mount Fuji from here, weather permitting.
A further descent is made by cable car to Togendai at the northern end of Lake Ashi, where you board a boat for the half-hour ride to Hakonemachi. This popular resort town is famed for its great lakeside torii and the historic Hakone Barrier, which for centuries controlled the movement of people between Kyoto and Edo (now Tokyo) on the old Tokaido Road.
It was then a one-hour bus ride back to Odawara and a train to Tokyo.
The last daytrip out of Tokyo that I took was to another old favorite of mine, Nikko. This time I took the private Tobu Railway out of Tokyo's Asakusa Station instead of the National Railway, on which all seats are reserved and are especially comfortable. The walk from Nikko Tobu Station is straight uphill on the main street, passing several inns, shops, and restaurants.
At the top is the famous Sacred Bridge (photo, above) spanning the Daiya River. We mere mortals cannot use it as it is reserved for rulers and gods, but there is a plebian bridge right next to it.
Incidentally, the photos of Nikko used here are not my own as I was using my new Mamiya medium-format press camera that day, which produced color transparencies much too large for my scanner — instead of my new Canon 35mm SLR.
Across the river and into the dense woods rises the incredible Toshogu Shrine, a vast complex of temples and other historic structures. An old proverb goes "Never say magnificent until you've seen Nikko," and the setting is truly that fantastic — even if some of the buildings are a bit overdone in both scale and decoration (photo, below).
Perhaps the most famous sight here, however, is quite small and almost hidden. This is the relief carving of the three monkeys — "Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil," (photo, below).
Any trip to Nikko should really include a little side trip to Lake Chuzenji, reached by bus on a scary road with steep hairpin turns. From the top, at an altitude of over 4,000 feet, visitors descend by elevator to the bottom of a narrow gorge to view the stunning Kegon Falls.
Back in Tokyo, I had a few days left before returning to New York. These I spent exploring parts of the city that I had missed during my army days. I now wish that I had revisited my old posts at Oji and Asaka as well, but at the time I simply was not interested in them.
So I made a pre-dawn visit to the Tsukiji Fish Market instead. Activity begins in the wee hours of the morning as trucks bearing the day's catches from ports all over Japan begin to arrive. Thousands of people work here, spread over some 50 acres next to the Sumida River, just blocks from the heart of the city. Wholesalers race around the slippery alleyways, frantically shouting their bids to the sellers. By 6:30 a.m. it's mostly over, but the neighborhood remains a colorful place where visitors can get a glimpse of real life. As the sun rose, I headed back to my hotel for a shower and breakfast.
Another outstanding day was spent in the Asakusa District. This is a bit out of the way, but easily reached on the Ginza subway line. According to legend, a miracle occurred here in the 7th century when a statue of Kannon — the Goddess of Mercy — was found nearby in the Sumida River. A temple to it got built, which in turn was rebuilt and expanded over the centuries. Known as Sensoji, its latest reincarnation dates from the postwar years of the mid-1950s.
A busy avenue of merchant's stalls (photo, above) leads up to the present temple, throbbing with street life and commercial activity. Oddly, this is one temple that you can enter without removing your shoes, as its floor is concrete. Sadly, the sacred statue itself has been missing for centuries, supposedly buried under the floor — if it ever actually existed at all.
There's much more to Asakusa than just the temple. This has long been a pleasure quarter offering everything from brothels to theaters. It is still home to Japan's oldest bar, opened in 1880 and still going strong. There are flea markets, a huge department store, and shops selling the strangest things — such as those plastic reproductions of food dishes you see in the windows of Japanese restaurants everywhere. In short, this was a great area for just wandering about, drinking in the atmosphere.
Another day or so and I was off to my normal life in New York.
RETURN to Part 1 of Japan Revisited.
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