Saturday, January 30, 2010

Tien-en hiking course: Kamakura









I started the day at Kenchoji (the last picture), which is the oldest Zen temple in Kamakura and an impressive wooden temple complex. The trail started up behind the temple climbing steeply straight away via a long sequence of stairs to a temple which had a lookout to view towards Fuji-san. As you can see the day was pretty clouded over and I only got glimpses of the very base at points during the day. It was also very windy making recording hard. I have found that the weather forcast changes pretty rapidly here with what is predicted for tomorrow in the evening being different to what was said in the morning. Rain was forecast for Friday- that is why I had headed out of town on Wednesday and Thursday. It held off till I got to Zuisenji (first picture) and then started to rain, making me head off before I wanted to really. Zuisenji is the oldest original garden in Kamakura and was filled with ancient blossom trees that needed to be propted up. It poured the whole way back to town and meant I took pretty straight route and didn’t see that many temples.
The hike was a good long walk with some steep climbing. It was mostly through deciduous forests, so lots of bare trees and then cedar (?) or some kind of pine (?) in the shaded gullies (4th from top- for Felicity and Lyndon). I love the straight trunks that don’t get foliage till near the top. The hike got a bit confusing in places with many trails cris-crossing and after a while the English directions disappeared from the signs, after about half way. Also I only saw about 10 other people on this walk over 5 hours. Some serious runners in special gear and other wanders like myself. It was a really nice change to be out and alone and will be a good place to make some recording on a less windy day.
The trail gave fantastic panoramic views of the coast (which photos don’t quiet capture), and that coast view with the space of the ocean made me think of home and I thought about lots of people as I walked along. The shrine cave above is one in a group in an area which where empty (there where lots of little ones along the walk) and made me think of Sarah doing an installation there. The camellia’s are for Haico; I understand the way he prune trees after seeing the gardens in Kamakura.
Of course half way back to Tokyo it cleared and the sky cleared as I passed Yokohama and I got a view of Fuji-san from base to top, much like the blue evening view the day before.
More shots here on flickr

1 comment:

  1. I can't believe that shot of the tree tops, stunning! Oh gosh, and the little old couple...how lovely. And the picture on the balcony? So beautiful.
    I want to be there!!!

    ReplyDelete