Bamboo Gardens

My Japanese friend Sayuri, took me to Kamakura. Her mother-in-law lives there, and offered to pick us up by car and take us to 3 special spots. This first picture was a place was called Jomyogi temple which was originally a Tantric Buddhist temple. She showed us the bamboo laying on it's side that you can put your ear to, and hear the water dropping in the rock basin many feet away. It was music to my ears, and the area turned out to be a great place to meditate for awhile. Next was Hokukuji temple which is a Bamboo garden. It was a sweet walk through a Bamboo forest which led to a special spot to have green tea. We ended the tour in Tsurugaoka-hachimangu Shinto Shrine which had a special outdoor building for dance performances in the spring. There was a very old Gingko tree there that had been killed in a storm. The people were very sad about it, and there was a sign with prayers written on it to encourage the regrowth of the tree. Momma-san (Sayuri's mother-in-law) says that an American President visited this shrine in the past during a bow and arrow festival. President Obama was visiting on Saturday (the day after I was there) on his way to the APEC conference. At this temple they had a fortune telling box that told me I had good luck. I tied it to the fortune tree. Mine is pink since it was in English. Also, it is the year of the Tiger, and I bought a plague with the picture of a Tiger on it and I could have written my wish on it, and hung it at the temple, but I decided to keep it as a souvenir, since I am a Tiger.