Kamakura

Peeking into a temple. The little cards on the left are wishes and prayers that people leave for the spirits. Each temple / shrine has it's own speciality. So in some places people wish for academic success in other for love.

A National Treasure.

The entrance to ENGAKU-JI. This is the temple complex that houses a national treasure. Can you guess what it is?

I am back among the living and am finally eating solid food again. Yummy. On Sunday I took a day trip to Kamakura with some other interns. Kamakura used to be the capital of Japan and home to some very powerful clans. Each clan left it's mark by building a temple or shrine, and all of them are really pretty. Most often the temples that you see today are replicas; the originals were washed away by Tsunamis, bombed by Americans or destroyed in earthquakes.

Some people get really excited about seeing and photographing each and every one of these 100 temples scattered around the Kamakura area. Personally, I am kind of a 'Banause' and frankly they all look the same to me. One of the other interns put it quite well: 'To us these temples all look the same, but when we go to Germany, we get very excited about the architecture of every little chapel. We also expect everyone to be excited about these buidlings.' So, maybe the Japanese think that our cathedrals all look the same. God forbid!

Anyway. I went to see the (or a) National Treasure of Japan. You would never guess what that is. A tooth. A tooth from Buddha. That's right. A tooth. From Buddha. Amazing.

I asked Ambera what she thinks will happen to my tooth when I die. Her answer:
"What will happen to your tooth when you die? I'm either going to put it into a ring, root side out, and use it to open envelopes, OR, I'm going to grind it up into a fine powder, stir it into a glass of wine, and drink the tooth slurry."

Priceless.