Ha Se Temple & Engrish

The next day, my roomate 'Jen,' another guy 'Shane,' and I took off to do some touring of temples in the area. Jen was such a great person to meet - not only was she really nice, she knew the area well & didn't mind acting as part tour guide. It was right up my alley. Here's a picture of her:


She also introduced me to some fabulous folks out here, but I'll get to that in another post.

So this day we went to several temples in and around Kamakura. I had previously toured a large temple in the center of the city the last time I was here, but Jen knew some others we could hit too. One of them was the temple at Ha Se, which was surrounded by beautiful gardens. The thing about 'temples' here in Japan is that they're everywhere. I mean everywhere you turn, you're bound to run into one. Another thing is that they are known as individual temples -- for example, the temple at Ha Se -- but there is usually more than one temple located in a complex. Here was no different.

While we were touring the grounds, I noticed a place where you could get your fortune. It was a box that contained pieces of paper folded up & you could take one if you donated 100 yen (about a buck). So we all got one. They were hilarious!

First I need to explain & define the term 'ENGRISH.' I didn't know there was a word to describe how Japanese use English, but there you go. I find the word itself funny. It references the way Japanese people do not use the letter 'L' in their pronounciation of English words. Well, for varied reasons, Japanese have bastardized English words & phrases to use on their advertising & products. Sometimes it's because they don't completely translate. Other times, I've been told, it's because they just like the way certain English words look together in a sentence. So all over Japan you see funny phrases in English that hardly make any sense. Anyway, we pull out these 'fortunes,' and here is what mine said (verbatim):

"Praying to God of rice and Believing in the Divine. ILLNESS: You will recover. PREASURE: Good. THE PERSON YOU AWAIT: He will comes. LAW SUITS: You will win. Hardly. QUARREL: You will win. LOST ITEM: You will find it late. BUYING/SELLING: Changeing of your mind. Good. BUILDING/MOVING: Good. LOVE: Go well. LIFE AND DEATH: You will be alive.If you are not honest person, you will not be alive. TOOL: Books, clothes, sword are good items."

HAHAHA Well, I HOPE I will be alive! What a trip. And 'preasure?' I can't stop giggling about that one!

There's a great website a guy put together & people send him examples of Engrish that he posts online. Check it out & get another good laugh: http://www.engrish.com.

Okay, so back to the temple...Let me wipe the tears away...So there are these little statuetes that represent prayers for people who have died. There seems to be a strong tie with buying stuff & being able to send prayers up...Hmmm...Sounds like quite a lot of religions, huh. Anyway, so you can buy these statuetes & put them around a shrine for dead people. Here's a pic:


And the big urn with the ashes? That's all ashes from incense that has burned.

Another thing you can do is buy prayer cards that can be hung up on a big posting board. You write your prayer on the back. Here is one that moved me:

No more war and sadness. If only...

Later on that day, we went to see the Great Buddha. I have seen it before, but Shane had not & it's not something one should miss. These women stopped & asked us to take their picture with their camera, so I got one off to the side. They are laughing b/c Shane was having trouble taking the picture: