November 20 - November 29

Shortly after the Oberlin University festival and the Aikido Yoshinkan Enbu Taikai, I joined some friends on November 20th to eat some Korean food. As Shin-Okubo in Shinjuku is well-known for its "Koreatown", we chose a restaurant there that offered the tabehodai (all you can eat). Although some of the sauces and kimchi weren't as spicy as I liked them to be, I still thought that the food was delicious.


Compared to the rest of Shinjuku and Tokyo in general, Shin-Okubo had a unique atmosphere; there were far more darker alleyways, and was generally less crowded. Since I was only able to experience it briefly during the night, however, I can't say I know the area in its entirety.


On November 26th, I celebrated Thanksgiving at an Outback Steakhouse in Minami-Machida with several friends. It may seem a bit odd that we would choose such a seemingly casual restaurant, but few of us had eaten steak or other Western-styled dining food for a while, and wanted a short break from the usual meals (it had been around 2 months for me). Although the restaurant itself and the menus were similar to the other Outback restaurants back in the States, it was staffed by Japanese personnel and felt rather similar to the other Japanese restaurants we had visited. We didn't have any problems since our Japanese had reached a point where we could comfortably survive in the city, and the food was similar enough to the steakhouses back home. This was my first experience in a Western sit-down restaurant chain in Japan, and aside from the slightly high pricing, I was happy with my service and food.


On November 28th (the Saturday afterwards), I traveled to Kamakura in the Kanagawa prefecture. A friend of mine lived here, and showed a group of us around the local market and the famous temples that were located in the hills around the town. Among the two famous ones we visited include the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine, and the Zeniarai Benten Shrine.

The Hachimangu Shrine is Kamakura's iconic landmark; it has a large territory with vibrant buildings and trees that are tended to daily, and is often too crowded to move around comfortably. Crowds aside, I think that the Hachimangu shrine is a place that foreigners should absolutely visit, even if it is a bit far from the train station.


The Zeniarai Benten Shrine can be seen as the opposite of the Hachimangu Shrine in several ways; where the Hachimangu Shrine is bright and vibrant, the Zeniarai Benten Shrine is hidden behind a rather obscure tunnel. Most of Zeniarai Benten's buildings aren't colored the same bright red color, and the temple grounds are much smaller and surrounded by trees and high cliffs. An interesting contrast is that the Zeniarai Benten has a combination of Buddhist and Shinto designs and aspects (apparently, shrines were supposed to remove Buddhist influences during the Meiji era, and this particular shrine managed to avoid persecution). The well-known part of this shrine is the money-washing tradition; people come to dip their coins in the water, which will cause them to "multiply".