a weekend by the sea

the saturday morning started in a bad mood. I got a couple of bad news from work (nothing serious, but yet upsetting), and then I missed an appointment. I had set to meet a japanese friend, Kimi, at the police box in Shibuya... well, I got it wrong, and waited for an hour at the police station nearby, while she waited for an hour at the police box. so we missed each other, and I was even more upset.
the rest of the weekend, however, was nicely spent by touring around Kamakura and Enoshima island, right on the coast south of Tokyo and Yokohama, and sampling some new food specialties of this amazing country.

on saturday in Kamakura, I firstly stopped at a tiny kiosk which was crowded by young students from a nearby scondary school. an old thin man with a long beard was selling takoyaki (fried octupus balls) over rice, for 300Y apiece... delicious. then, in the gardens of the Engaku-ji zen temple, I tried the fabulous plum-cake, a little mold of transparent, yellowish jelly with a dried plum inside. it comes with a green tea and a small round wafer with the symbol of the temple stamped. later in the afternoon I also tried the sembei, traditional rice crackers that are sold wrapped in nori seaweed, or battered in sesame seeds, or kombu (kelp). I tried the nori one, very salty and crunchy (modern and westernized variants admit also cheese, chocolate etc.) I walked around the Amitabha Daibutsu, a gigantic statue of Buddha dating the year 1252, all in cast bronze (15mt height by 120 tons weight). Kamakura was a temporary capital of ancient Japan, in the short time window between the Kyoto and Edo age. Yoritomo Minamoto chose this site as his new capital after defeating the Taira rulers of Kyoto, and he was the first shogun to govern Japan.

on the sunday I eventually met Kimi, and she took me to a great restaurant on Enoshima island. there we had a great sashimi in king-size portions, and we shared a dish of tempura. all the dishes were largely based on shirasu, a tiny white fish (the thing that in Italy we call novellame or bianchetti), which there in Enoshima is a local specialty. well... it was absolutely beyond expectations, so gooooood and tasty :) we had a very nice hiking on the cliffs, but the day was cold and lightly sprinkled by rain, so I got home a little sore and dizzy from cold. but, to finish the day, I ate some take-away sushi (with a glass of sake) from the Tokyu foodmart!

highlight of the day: the vile character of some men, women-only rail cars, and the mistery of the Keio train.
A short story from a tourist leaflet. "Japan being a geographically small country with a large population, it must deal with a stifling overcrowding for every activity or function. Taking public transportation at rush hours can be an appalling experience. (I can confirm: not only the military-dressed inspectors push people in the cars, even the people themselves enter the cars with full energy, and push in with their backs, squeezing their fellows passengers like sardines in a tin can). This overcrowding unfortunately affords men of vile character (...) to take advantage of the situation and, as painful as it is to admit, it happens that women are victims of sexual molestation. As a counter-measure, the railway companies have lately offered women-only cars. The schedules and destinations are well marked and if a man should inadvertently find himself in one such a car he should immediately move to another one."
Now I understand better the peculiarity of my Keio Line train from Todai to Shibuya... why it has pink-coloured cars, and the "stand back from the door" warning sign is a cute Hello Kitty with a bandaged finger... it must be a women-only train! Should I get off the cab then?