Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine

This temple is a Shinto temple which located in Kamakura City, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.

To reach the shrine, we can use train to Kamakura Station. From Kamakura station, the gate of the shrine can be reach within 15 minutes by walk.

Some interesting view that you can find in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine is as follow:

Front gate (Torii) – which is the sign of the existence of Shinto shrine which can be built in various material and color.

Torii gate

Komainu – A pair of guardian dog can be found in both side of the entrance to the shrine. The pair is not always dogs as they can appear as lions or foxes.

Komainu

Main and Offering Hall – Depends on the architectural style, the main and offering hall sometime built separately or become one building. The innermost part of the main hall is filled with shrine’s sacred objects.

Offering Hall

Purification through – Shall be found near the entrance. The water flow out from the fountains is used to purify. We can clean our hands and mouth before get in to the main hall.

Purification through

Stage – This stage can be used for bugaku dance or noh theater. I was quite lucky, when I came to the shrine, there’s a marriage celebration on stage.

Stage

Ema – It is a wooden rectangular plate in which visitors can write their wishes, and these Ema shall be leave at the shrine, hoping that their wishes become true. Mostly, the visitors wish for good health, success in business, passing exam, love and wealth.

Ema

Omikuji –  Is a piece of paper drawn randomly from a box which contain the fortune of the one who drawn them by pay it for 100 yen. The paper contain prediction from good fortune (daikichi) to bad fortune (daikyo). By tie it up in the three branch, the good fortune hopefully become real and the bad fortune can be averted.

Omikuji

Shimenawa – Is a straw rope with white zigzag paper. The purpose is to mark the boundary of sacred place, which commonly found in torii gate, around a big trees or stones. This rope also worn by yokozuna, the highest ranked of sumo wrestlers during ritual ceremony. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any picture of this 😦

The giant ginkgo – This giant tree is a very famous tree in Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine as it always appear in every old print of the shrine. Unfortunately, the tree already rotten when I came and greatly damaged on March 10, 2010 at 4:40.

Giant ginkgo

Well, that’s it! If I have time, I try to visit another tourism spot in Japan 🙂

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10% – 90% of Your Life

I remember a time when I read an article about how the action you take will affect the rest of your day. It said that 10% of event that happen to a person is beyond someone control and the rest of 90% is depends on how we react to the 10%.

The article shown a good sample of what is mean by the 10-90. But here I’ll not repeat the same sample but to show you the similar think as what was happened between Manchester United vs Liverpool on December 11, 2012, especially about the decision made by Luis Suarez.

Suarez came to Old Trafford after completing his sentence suspended eight games due to case racism against Patrice Evra. This time both player will face each other for the first time.

For sportmanship’s reason, all games shall be started with handshake between player of two teams. This event is part of the 10% that beyond Suarez control, and his reaction to this handshake will lead how the rest 90% will be ending, which is will be good or bad ending.

As we all the football lovers knew very well, despite the statement of Liverpool’s manager Kenny Dalglish that said Suarez would shake hands with Evra, Suarez unexpectedly refused to shake hands. This action then lead Suarez to the chain reaction as follow:

1. The tension of the game was increased.
2. Little accident between players during halftime when heading to changing room.
3. Evra did an excessive celebration for mocking Suarez, which I’m sure if Liverpool won the game, Suarez will did the same thing to Evra.
4. As the result of the celebration, other players become emotional which forced the security/ police and the game steward involved to calm all players.
5. FA conducted an investigation about the chaos in the game, although finally both teams decided not sentenced to anything.
6. The sponsor of Liverpool get disappointed with Suarez’s action, which make the Liverpool owner strongly warned Suarez, and finally Suarez once again have to apologize to public and to Manchester United.

So, by had been acting negatively to the 10%, Suarez has chosen to make the rest of 90% become worse.
Can you imagine what would happened if Suarez made the handshake to Evra or even more dramatic to hug Evra? Yup.. of course everyone will see Suarez as a big gentlemen and all the 6 items above will not happened. But, unfortunately, Suarez has made terrible decision.

Please remember the formula of 10-90, and I’m sure that you will think more clearly when you face such a bad 10% of your day that beyond your control to get a good thing of the rest 90%.

Have a good day 😀

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Using Google Maps to Find Address and Route.

I want to share about using Google Maps to find route and more information such as address and travel cost.

Well, the story begun when I started working in Yokohama, Japan.
I’ve been asked to extend my passport validity. In my previous company in Jakarta, when I needed to go somewhere, I’ll just call the lobby and ask the operator to prepare a driver to me to get me anywhere. In Japan, it’s a little bit differ because you have to go by yourself with your own cost which you can reimburse later.

The problem is how is you don’t know how to reach the place, as in my case, I just new in Japan, and to find address in Japan is completely difficult. There is no name for the road and the number of building or area is not in correct number of sequence. I guess only the postman who knew how to find address in Japan.

In this case, I have to thank to Google Maps because it’s make a lot easier to find address. I’ll show you how I can get the direction to Indonesia Embassy in Tokyo, while my office is in Yokohama City.

Firstly, open Google and click on tab “Maps”. Fill in the keyword KBRI Tokyo (green circle), and you will got as depict below:

Some places might be written in Japanese character Kanji (brown box), but by selecting the test and copy paste to google translate, you can find easily what the meaning is.

After I’m sure that it’s is the place I want, right click on the maps will show you some option. Then choose “Direction to here” (red circle).

The screen in google maps will show the following:

The location that I put as target (red box) which mean “Indonesian embassy” will be mark as “B” and in the column “B” will show the complete address.

The next step is to find where the place that I’ll be use as my starting point. I zoom out the map, I move until I find Yokohama city, then I zoom in the location that I quite recognize. I browse until I find the train station “Sakuragicho” which is the nearest station to my office.

In the map, precisely on the test “Sakuragicho”, right click and choose “Direction from here” (red box).
And automatically, Google Maps will processing the data because the start and end point already defined. And the result will be as shown below:

Notice the green box, there are some alternatives you can use to reach that location, for example automobiles, trains, and on foot. If we select a car, of course, google maps will show the route of the road. Google maps here suggesting for a train with a few choice lines as indicated in the brown box. The alternatives train route shown completely with the travel duration and total cost… really impressive.

In the red box, we also can define when we will start our journey, the date and the hour. These things quite important because the train schedule is not the same on weekdays or weekend, and also the interval is different according to rush hour (7-10 am and 3-7 pm).

It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?

If we pick one of the alternative route, the maps will show you the path (pink marked in google maps), the transit station, which line to be used and the direction, and how many station you will pass… (wow), as shown below:

Really informative, isn’t it?
This is indicate that the mass transportation in Japan is really efficient with a very accurate and up-to-date data. If our target should using bus, Google maps will also show the data of the bus.

So, that it is. I hope this information will be useful to you too.

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