Saturday, March 21: Kamakura

I start this story with one of the first important lessons I have learned about myself via travelling with my family: I get HANGRY, and in order to prevent ‘hanger’, I need to have access to food at all times. Perhaps you have heard of this term, “hangry”? It’s a combination of “Hungry” and “Anger”, as in you get especially angry WHEN you are hungry. This caused a wicked mood swing that could have completely derailed our entire day and possibly the whole trip because Adi was not quite sure how to respond to my hungermence (“Hungry-vehemence”) and for almost a week was afraid I would lash out during my times of foo-eed (“Food-need”). I had learned my lesson and had started stashing snacks (which are much yummier in Japan!) and felt I was doing a great job of keeping my energy and blood sugar at an even level, but I suppose we were not able to really talk about how my “Hanger” had affected him, and how disorienting it was for him when suddenly my mood was better. (Though, this happened often while I was breastfeeding, so I thought that we had established a year ago that this happens to me! I guess out of sight out of mind, but then once IN sight it’s absolutely terrifying…) In any case, we have mutually decided that food is an important part of our preparation during travel, and before I even get to the point where I’m starving I can eat something small (or not so small) to tide me over until we are both ready for a meal. Turns out the snacks are a bonus for Anderson too, because he needs nourishment almost as often as I do, but he has absolutely no buffer if we can’t offer the goods immediately… so when I buy food to avoid my own twentysomething meltdown, I am also avoiding meltdowns from my two-year-old. Funny how there can be decades between and yet the same behavior.

SO. We slept through the night and then some, and Anderson did not wake up for a total of almost 17 hours, so we felt ready for a big adventure. After a delicious buffet at our hotel (soup, eggs, French fries, hot dogs, salad, pickled vegetables, rice, fish, toast, cereal, yogurt and fruit, plus coffee, tea, water and juice) we braved the windy and steep streets of Akasaka to our first Metro station. The Japanese are EVERYWHERE, as in there are always STREAMS of people going in every direction at a pretty fast pace. As if driven by silent motors which also have magnets which repel them from touching anyone as they move. It’s pretty remarkable. We decided on going to Kamakura, which required a long train ride with one transfer.

I LOVED how easy it was to find how to get to your train line. There were markings and arrows on the floors, walls, AND ceilings. As long as you knew where you needed to end up, you didn’t have to know how to get there, just follow the signs! Some stations even had a distance tracker, like M line 570 m, then the next sign said M line 430 m, so you know you’re getting closer.

I DISLIKED how difficult it was to find elevators that got you to the correct line. We preferred to use the lift whenever possible because we always brought our stroller. If the lift was out of reasonable walking distance, or we simply could not find it, we had to either bring it on the escalators (which isn’t allowed, but everyone was doing it. We found going down was more challenging than going up) or carry it over the stairs (in which going down was easier than going up! And also easier if Andy was not in it…) and sometimes there would be a LOT of stairs.

We eventually made it to Kamakura and found a volunteer information table, and a nice man told us the best way to get to the Great Big Buddha Statue was to take a bus. We told him we wanted lunch first (here we go…) and he suggested just up the way in the shopping alley were some great restaurants, but his personal favorite was in another alley. We got excited and I took the lead, and we went down not one, not two, not three, but FOUR alleys looking for this place, which only had Japanese characters and no English translation of the name he told us. I knew we were in the right place, and there were a few restaurants there but NO ONE else was around so we didn’t know if they were closed or open. Finally a nice old lady walked by and pointed us to the right one. GREAT. I’m hungry! I open the sliding door and start to bring in the stroller, and the host says to me, “Sorry, this place is for adults only.” I look at him in disbelief, trying to silently convey, “You’ve got to be effing kidding me!” so I began my hangry retreat and told Adi I can no longer think for I am TOO HUNGRY AND TOO ANGRY to look for a new restaurant. I asked him to find us a place because I no longer cared. I was so pissed that the nice old man did not mention that his favorite place did not accept little kids (he may not have known, but I was still steamed) but then I got even more pissed that Adi did not choose a restaurant along the way back to the main street… could he not see how HANGRY I was???

When we finally settled on a place Anderson was in quite the mood too, and happily banged on all the dishes and made so much noise that I thought we would get kicked out. Luckily we had our own little room, but we didn’t know there was a bell to call in the waiter, so we decided what we wanted, and waited, and waited, and WAITED (omfg, I am SO HUNGRY) until I went to get someone so we could order. Andy did not want to eat the noodles or the tempura, he just wanted to hit plates, and I was too exhausted to stop him. The food was fine but not great, but it did revive my spirit as I tried to shake off the disappointment from the past hour. We made our way back to the bus station (and got some chocolate cookies on the way) and caught a #6 to the entrance of the park. Okay, now we are back on track.

The Buddha statue was fine, it was a great big statue of a Buddha, just as advertised! A friend pointed out we have one in Golden Gate Park, but we had to travel to Japan to see it, haha. Tons of tourists, but I was surprised how many Japanese residents were there too. I guess it's not all foreigners who enjoy the awesomeness of the country. What I really liked was how joyful Andy was just running around in the rock garden behind the shrine. Reminded me of the beauty in simplicity: we don't need a fancy faraway place to be happy, we can enjoy and be so content with the pebbles beneath our feet.

The nice volunteer who had ruined our lunch also suggested we check out Hase Temple, so we walked there from the Buddha shrine. We got some green tea ice cream on the way, and I think it was my absolute favorite treat of our vacation so far! Andy ended up stealing my cone, so we got one for each of us (the old man selling it was confused, thought I had dropped my cone and that's why I was back for more, and tried to give it to me for free! I paid him anyway, a treat that good deserves to be paid for!) and relaxed on the steps of a shop watching everyone walking by.

We liked the Hase Temple even more than the Buddha park! There were nice koi ponds and a zen rock garden at the ground level, then a bunch of stairs to about 4 different levels, then shrines and different temples at each level of the park. It was theory that if you make the journey all the way to the top and see the waters of the ocean at Kamakura Beach that you will reach enlightenment... Adi and I did it each holding the kiddo and the stroller, so we decided we reached that "extra special" level of Buddhahood! So, we got our exercise in, it was a little less crowded (maybe because it started raining?), and it was so beautiful. Andy and I lit some incense and a candle for "Happy Family" for a few yen, and he liked seeing the wax burn. There was even a cave we explored a little. There was just so much variety within one park, and it only cost 3 yen per person to get in.

Overall, the day was successful, and Andy was a very happy camper at the parks, which made us very happy. And I am trying to have foresight the rest of this trip and NEVER get too hangry again...!