Last Friday, July 25, 2014, I headed to our local beach at Chigasaki – see Chigasaki I and Chigasaki II posts. On the way, I thought – dammit! Let’s see where the train line down the coast takes us. So off to the Tokaido Main Line I flowed, with the crowds constantly heading that way within the station. This post is about where I ended up. As always in Japan, what a great outcome!!
What a scorcher!! Wilting tomatoes and peppers watered, household chores done; clean undies all round for another day. Japan life-hack basics checked off; cash, phones, id, camera, just-in-case cash. Throw a towel in just in case a swim or sunbathing takes place
On the bus then the trains to Chigasaki. Enough time to read the news from BBC, Stuff and NZ Herald on my phone. News articles corroborated between news sources and pretty much all bad. But as re-iterated by my good friend Mike Hedley, unless we can/want to influence it, it is what it is [thanks for introducing me to that profound statement April S]. I positioned myself on the train to be looking coastward. Every train stop, and the rapid transition between, is a tapestry of changing scenery, sights. There are pockets of boring urban buildup, given that this area is called a “bedroom” district for Tokyo. Apartments, rice fields, shops, houses
By train, we pass through and travel with, all of these people. Our train eventually pulls into the sea side town of Hayakawa, Kanagawa, Japan.
Inland boundaries of steep hills, coastal boundaries of a well walled harbour. I walked through some damn narrow streets to head to the water with interested anticipation. Overhead, a suspension highway facilitated a clearly constipated traffic flow and the ground-bound traffic idled along as both merged at a hopelessly narrow road ahead, allowing my jaywalking to go well rewarded. God bless a traffic jam
To the water. This harbour was busy. Boats moving in and out. Wharf-based folks fishing vigorously for what looked like sprats. Nosey people other than me just looking. I perused the activity on the waterfront, meandering past the berthed boats, crews sedulously scrubbing, satisfied fishermen being disgorged from their charter vessels, bowing vigorously. I’m yet to see any fish flesh from these trips but everyone was obviously happy
The harbour is well sheltered from inevitable bad weather. The design of the Japanese boats can be seen in various Asian waters, with the long bow
Harbour, Hayakawa, Kanagawa, Japan
All of the activity in and on the harbour was new to me. Therefore interesting and obviously I was happy to expend observing time
Time was spent watching the folks fishing. And in true Japanese style, they watched the foreigner, carefully
All part of the collective distrust of foreigners, but again it is what it is. Past the robust lifting gear that facilitates dry docking of the boats
Hayakawa, Kanagawa, Japan
Then into the town proper. As always, the delightful stumbling across temples. In this situation, the great thing is that the signage allowed my participation via english. Was nice to see and rare but the onus is on me to translate the native language
The temples, adjacent to each other, sat at the base of the hillside that ran behind Hayakawa, right beside the Shinkansen line. As I strolled around the cemetery associated with each temple, taking in the spirituality and the history of the serene environment, a Shinkansen would rumble its approach, thunder past metres away and as quickly, disappearing, giving me back the cicadas chirrups and peace
So a lot of time was spent walking in and around the grave stones, multi-generational representation identified by the visible age of the stones. Newly crafted marble structures versus very aged carved stones, often side by side on a plot. And in one place, some lotus shaped stones tucked away in a corner, in solitude and discrete isolation from the wider grave site
The first temple is Shinpukuji
The second is Kuo-ji
Near the temples is a massive statue. Unfortunately, attempts to access the statue were unsuccessful and sadly aborted so viewed from the station. Unfinished business
Anyway, enjoy the photos from an interesting place on the Pacific coast
baldmanblog 
Love this weaving of words and images; it kept me engaged right to the end and I have a notoriously short attention span!
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Many thanks. I appreciate that
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