Kamakura Hawk Attack

It was going to be a warm, sunny day so we decided to head an hour and a bit out of Tokyo to the an old capital, Kamakura, on the coast. We got off the train in Kita Kamakura and walked to visit two beautiful temples and one main shrine, eating green tea ice cream on the way.



We took a sakura lined walk down an arcade past a wedding party while heading to see the Daibutsu, a 50 ft iron Amida Buddha that has survived earthquakes and tsunamis in it’s 500 years.



Afterwards we took a 15 min stroll down to the ocean as I was hankering for a swim, I feel like I have never visited a place until I get to swim there. I read that at this time of year windsurfers would be the inhabitants of Yugihama Beach, there they were – some picknickers, dog walkers and families with their wading populated the rest of the beach. Running into the waves I knew I would look like a kichi-gaijin but at least it would give the locals something to talk about over dinner. The water wasn’t cold by my standards but refreshing, salty and tingly. I paused later to enjoy a can of beer and a kelp onigiri, lost in reflection staring out and into the Pacific.

My zen moment was suddenly broken up/interrupted by a flurry of activity at my shoulder and between myself and boyfriend sitting next to me. There was a burst of flutters and a brief cold scrape against my finger. Before I could grasp what was happening my ongiri flew 10 feet in front of us and in an instant it was scooped up off the sand by a huge bird who flew away with it.



I guess this was one of the majestic birds I had seen circling the sites all day, a big hawk, and this one must have been watching for a while for such a well executed hit on my lunch. After a few minutes of stomach cramping laughter we decided to pack up and leave – it was interesting to note that our animal encounter didn’t phase anyone else snacking on the beach. On our walk back to the train station we stopped to scoop more snacks for the hour-long ride back to Tokyo. I spent the next couple of months scared to eat outside. It's nice that there is a sign about tsunamis on the beach but I think a kamikaze hawk sign might be something they should warn about.



After we returned to Tokyo we headed back to Record shop Base in Koenji, as we had made plans to meet up with Kohei, the singer of Mutant, as we had 100 of their singles to hand over. These plans were not the easiest to make over the phone what with the language barrier. As Craig was trying to set a time and place the night before with Kohei, suddenly he heard a woman's voice, "This is Kohei's mummy, he no understand". We made the plans with her and hoped that they didn't take him too far out of his way. It was much easier to converse in person, especially with his pocket translator, we talked alot of punk rock music. We then met up with Shingo of Too Circle Records for another trade. We walked back to Nakano as we had to be up somewhat early to head to Osaka to visit with Randy-san of Buffalo, NY.