Oo-ame (Rain, Rain, and More Rain)
Jun. 22nd, 2008 09:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flameravenI woke up earlier than I expected (or wanted) to on Sunday... the futon was thin and uncomfortable, the room was too bright, and for some reason the two Japanese girls I was rooming with put the heat on, so the room was sweltering... and then after I turned it down a bit it was freezing. Needless to say, I didn't sleep well at all.
After a rather low-key breakfast, we packed up and headed off again. This time we walked to the nearest bus station, and took that to the train station. Of course, the bus was pretty full already by the time it got to us, so it was rather interesting getting an additional thirty people on... but we managed it somehow. We got Holiday Passes at the station, and took the train to Kamakura.
They'd been promising a lot of rain for Sunday, but the morning started out clear. However, as soon as we stepped onto the temple grounds, it started raining. I'd brought my umbrella, but it didn't keep me completely dry, and the rain definitely hampered my ability to take pictures. Not only was the camera having trouble with the rain throwing off the light meter, but I couldn't hold the umbrella and steady the camera at the same time, so a lot of the pictures blurred really badly. Still, there was a Shinto wedding going on when we got there, so we got to watch a little of that in the center pavilion, and the temple itself was rather cool.
(Pictures: The bride, entering the shrine)
(RAIN)
(MORE RAIN)
(the temple itself)
More here, here, and here.
Unfortunately, the mismanagement of time and general disorganization that had shown up Saturday was even worse Sunday. I wandered off for a bit at one point, going up the steps to the temple to take some pictures, and trying to find the rest of the group, who I assumed would be heading for the temple. But nobody was up there, and when I finally came back down and found them, I discovered we'd been sorted into groups. I was supposed to have a group, but I didn't know who was in it-- yet neither did anybody else, when I asked them. It really didn't matter anyway, because instead of having us wander around in our groups, we really all just marched up the steps, looked at the temple a bit, and then marched back down together. After which we all headed back to the station (again, together) via a small shopping district.
The shopping was... more of a hassle than anything. There were some cool shops, but it was a narrow street, and full of people-- all with umbrellas. Trying to move through them was awful, and I kept getting splashed as people knocked my umbrella, or almost whacked me in the head with theirs. There was also a pressure from the teachers and the various assisting students (like Ijima) to keep moving and stick with everybody else. In the end I got totally lost from everyone when I stepped inside a store for a moment, and then passed up one or two interesting shops at the end, because I felt like I was late and needed to catch up.
And for what? When I finally did get to the station at the appointed time, everyone was just standing around, and continued to do so for probably fifteen or twenty minutes, before they finally informed us that we should take an hour and go have lunch. We'd been planning on going up to see the Daibutsu (large Buddha) that was nearby, but everybody was so wet and tired at this point that nobody wanted to go, so we dropped that part. I ended up going to Saizeriya's with Katrina and Maddie, where I attempted to dry off my feet, at least a little. I'd only brought sandals, and they'd been wet since the first trip to the beach the night before. They were still damp in the morning, and all the rain that morning had basically erased any hope of them being dry anytime soon. Still, at least I wasn't as miserable as Maddie or a few of the others, who didn't have umbrellas and had gotten completely soaked.
After lunch we met up again, and got back on the train to go to Tokyo. We actually lost a fair part of the group there, though-- Keleih went off to meet with some friends, and Brian and several other of the Hakuoh students opted to go home to Oyama, basically because they were tired of being cold and wet. I thought about it, but I figured I might as well not waste the Holiday Pass Hakuoh had bought, even though I wasn't that excited about going to Harajuku, which is where some of the Hawaiian students wanted to go. It was apparently more shopping, which didn't sound that interesting to me. But, I thought, I'd never been there, and maybe it would turn out to be more interesting.
It wasn't, really. It was much like the shopping street in Kamakura, only with even more people, and fewer shops I was actually interested in. Maddie and Katrina were really excited, but I just couldn't get into it, and it seemed like we were always either being herded along one shop at a time, or else waiting for someone to come out so we could continue. It was an incredibly slow process-- we spent two hours there and only covered one block. Finally I broke off into a smaller group, but when it became apparent that they didn't have any real plan either, and were just going to keep looking at nearby stores, I left. I was tired of all the people and the noise, my feet were soaked and hurting, and I couldn't deal with anything anymore. I went home. I got back to Oyama around eight, took a taxi home, and collapsed.
It was really quite disappointing because I'd thought that things were going to be much better organized. I talked with April about it a bit today, and as she pointed out, if we were going to do groups, it would have made much more sense to let us actually scatter and wander around. Particularly in Tokyo. When I'd talked to Miller last week, before the Hawaiian students came, we suggested several places to go in Tokyo-- we could go to Harajuku and Akihabara for the fashion-inclined, go to Asakusa to see the temple, and maybe go to Tokyo station to see the Imperial Palace, or Tokyo Tower. If we'd figured out what everyone wanted to see, and then broken off into groups across the city, I think it would've gone more smoothly. Yes, we'd have to make sure that people stayed together, or at least with the person who had a cell phone, but even so, I think it would've turned out a lot better than just throwing everyone in Harajuku, when not everyone was interested in that.
It just...everything felt rushed. I had no time to enjoy anything, because we were always worried about moving on to the next place and making sure nobody fell behind. True we had a large group, and traveling in tour groups is always harder than traveling alone, but I still feel like things could have been handled better. I was glad to go and see those places like Yokohama and Kamakura, because they're a bit far and I might not get a chance to go again, but at the same time, I feel like I didn't really see them at all, because I only got a glimpse.
After a rather low-key breakfast, we packed up and headed off again. This time we walked to the nearest bus station, and took that to the train station. Of course, the bus was pretty full already by the time it got to us, so it was rather interesting getting an additional thirty people on... but we managed it somehow. We got Holiday Passes at the station, and took the train to Kamakura.
They'd been promising a lot of rain for Sunday, but the morning started out clear. However, as soon as we stepped onto the temple grounds, it started raining. I'd brought my umbrella, but it didn't keep me completely dry, and the rain definitely hampered my ability to take pictures. Not only was the camera having trouble with the rain throwing off the light meter, but I couldn't hold the umbrella and steady the camera at the same time, so a lot of the pictures blurred really badly. Still, there was a Shinto wedding going on when we got there, so we got to watch a little of that in the center pavilion, and the temple itself was rather cool.
(Pictures: The bride, entering the shrine)
(RAIN)
(MORE RAIN)
(the temple itself)
More here, here, and here.
Unfortunately, the mismanagement of time and general disorganization that had shown up Saturday was even worse Sunday. I wandered off for a bit at one point, going up the steps to the temple to take some pictures, and trying to find the rest of the group, who I assumed would be heading for the temple. But nobody was up there, and when I finally came back down and found them, I discovered we'd been sorted into groups. I was supposed to have a group, but I didn't know who was in it-- yet neither did anybody else, when I asked them. It really didn't matter anyway, because instead of having us wander around in our groups, we really all just marched up the steps, looked at the temple a bit, and then marched back down together. After which we all headed back to the station (again, together) via a small shopping district.
The shopping was... more of a hassle than anything. There were some cool shops, but it was a narrow street, and full of people-- all with umbrellas. Trying to move through them was awful, and I kept getting splashed as people knocked my umbrella, or almost whacked me in the head with theirs. There was also a pressure from the teachers and the various assisting students (like Ijima) to keep moving and stick with everybody else. In the end I got totally lost from everyone when I stepped inside a store for a moment, and then passed up one or two interesting shops at the end, because I felt like I was late and needed to catch up.
And for what? When I finally did get to the station at the appointed time, everyone was just standing around, and continued to do so for probably fifteen or twenty minutes, before they finally informed us that we should take an hour and go have lunch. We'd been planning on going up to see the Daibutsu (large Buddha) that was nearby, but everybody was so wet and tired at this point that nobody wanted to go, so we dropped that part. I ended up going to Saizeriya's with Katrina and Maddie, where I attempted to dry off my feet, at least a little. I'd only brought sandals, and they'd been wet since the first trip to the beach the night before. They were still damp in the morning, and all the rain that morning had basically erased any hope of them being dry anytime soon. Still, at least I wasn't as miserable as Maddie or a few of the others, who didn't have umbrellas and had gotten completely soaked.
After lunch we met up again, and got back on the train to go to Tokyo. We actually lost a fair part of the group there, though-- Keleih went off to meet with some friends, and Brian and several other of the Hakuoh students opted to go home to Oyama, basically because they were tired of being cold and wet. I thought about it, but I figured I might as well not waste the Holiday Pass Hakuoh had bought, even though I wasn't that excited about going to Harajuku, which is where some of the Hawaiian students wanted to go. It was apparently more shopping, which didn't sound that interesting to me. But, I thought, I'd never been there, and maybe it would turn out to be more interesting.
It wasn't, really. It was much like the shopping street in Kamakura, only with even more people, and fewer shops I was actually interested in. Maddie and Katrina were really excited, but I just couldn't get into it, and it seemed like we were always either being herded along one shop at a time, or else waiting for someone to come out so we could continue. It was an incredibly slow process-- we spent two hours there and only covered one block. Finally I broke off into a smaller group, but when it became apparent that they didn't have any real plan either, and were just going to keep looking at nearby stores, I left. I was tired of all the people and the noise, my feet were soaked and hurting, and I couldn't deal with anything anymore. I went home. I got back to Oyama around eight, took a taxi home, and collapsed.
It was really quite disappointing because I'd thought that things were going to be much better organized. I talked with April about it a bit today, and as she pointed out, if we were going to do groups, it would have made much more sense to let us actually scatter and wander around. Particularly in Tokyo. When I'd talked to Miller last week, before the Hawaiian students came, we suggested several places to go in Tokyo-- we could go to Harajuku and Akihabara for the fashion-inclined, go to Asakusa to see the temple, and maybe go to Tokyo station to see the Imperial Palace, or Tokyo Tower. If we'd figured out what everyone wanted to see, and then broken off into groups across the city, I think it would've gone more smoothly. Yes, we'd have to make sure that people stayed together, or at least with the person who had a cell phone, but even so, I think it would've turned out a lot better than just throwing everyone in Harajuku, when not everyone was interested in that.
It just...everything felt rushed. I had no time to enjoy anything, because we were always worried about moving on to the next place and making sure nobody fell behind. True we had a large group, and traveling in tour groups is always harder than traveling alone, but I still feel like things could have been handled better. I was glad to go and see those places like Yokohama and Kamakura, because they're a bit far and I might not get a chance to go again, but at the same time, I feel like I didn't really see them at all, because I only got a glimpse.
