Wednesday July 20, 2016
The final stop of the day was at the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine followed by a walk through a shopping area of Kamakura. The shrine dates back to 1063 and although the guide gave a lot of history involving shoguns and empresses, I knew I wasn’t going to retain it. This was my second shrine and I was beginning to notice a couple of activities that go on at shrines. One of them is to pick a stick out of a metal box after shaking it. On the stick would be a number that corresponded to a drawer that contained a fortune. Not all fortunes were good. Not sure if you tied the good fortunes, bad fortunes or both but after receiving the fortune you would tie it to a wire to either make it come true or to prevent a bad one from becoming true.
Another item is to buy a plaque where you can write your wish. You can hang that wish in a designated to pot to come true. I had seen similar kinds of activities in other countries. They help raise money for the shrine or temple while providing a fun activity along with hope to the people who engage in them.
Afterwards, we walked around the town, I thought I could spend a couple of days. There were several streets filled with shops and restaurants. It had a nice feel to the town. It seemed to attract young people on holiday who loved to dress up in traditional clothing and to pose for pictures. I never did see the beach and although there was a touristy vibe, it didn’t feel like a “beach” community. I didn’t see anyone in beach attire.
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