Kamakura and the Hot Chocolate Stick

During our trip to Japan, we spent one day sightseeing in Kamakura that was once the ancient Capitol of Japan from 1185 to 1333.  There are many beautiful temples in Kamakura and it's a place that is always worth visiting when in Japan.  This is also where the giant Buddha is located called Daibutsu.  We visited Daibutsu in 2014. 

 

 Kamakura has a historic railway called the Enoshima Electric Railway or Enoden line that looks like a streetcar which dates clear back to 1902.  It is fun to ride and takes you to many of the sightseeing stops.

 Kamakura is also right along the coast making for beautiful scenery.  It is about an hour train ride from Tokyo so it's similar distance as Nick's home town of Yokosuka.  Lots of people come from Tokyo to Kamakura on the weekends for the beach and it's laid-back, earthy vibe, organic restaurants and cafes, and lots of unique shopping. 

We always enjoy our time in Kamakura and this visit was no different. After taking the Enoden line, we stopped off at Hase-dera, a famous Buddhist temple here. 

Hase-dera has sprawling grounds with much to see. There are many smaller historic temple buildings that dot the hillside where you can spend hours walking around. Hase-dera is also known for its gardens and flowers that change with the season which are very lovely. I always love the Zen gardens 

and the bamboo grove.

An area known as the Jizo-do Hall is dedicated to Jizo, the patron protector of children. It is estimated that 5,000 Jizo statues have been donated to Hase-dera since the end of World War II.

In another hall is the big Jizo Bosatsu statue, a famous Japanese Buddhists monk.

My favorite part of Hase-dera are the Benten-Kutsu Caves. 

The caves are dedicated to Benzaiten or Benten, the goddess of everything that flows - e.g. water, music, poetry, words, knowledge, fortune, beauty, the fine arts (dancing, acting, visual), other crafts.  Every major city in Japan has a shrine or temple dedicated Benzaiten.  The places of worship for her number in the thousands and are often located near water, the sea, a lake, a pond, or a river.  She is also one of the Seven Gods of Fortune.  In Japanese mythology, the Seven Gods of Fortune, known as the Shichi Fukujin, represent different types of virtues that date back to the 15th century.  Benzaiten represents the god of joy.  Her abode is cavern, thus the caves 

The ceiling in the caves can get really low at points making for an interesting stroll. 

All this strolling around on the grounds of Hase-dera caused us to work up our appetites so we stopped for lunch at one of their very nice restaurants.  I had one of my favorite Japanese dishes of curry that came with miso soup and a salad that was all very good. 

They also served us matcha tea with a bit of bean curd that is customary to drink with it to help balance out the bitterness of the tea.   

The bean curd was slightly sweetened and reminded me of Aplets and Cotlets. The matcha was a thick and frothy type of green tea that the Japanese use in their traditional Japanese tea ceremonies. Matcha is actually green tea where the leaves are stone-ground into a fine power. Instead of regular green tea where you steep the tea leaves and throw them out, with matcha, you are actually drinking the green tea leaves. You make it by mixing the matcha powder with hot water (heated to less than a boil) which is then whisked with a bamboo brush until it froths. It is said that the Samurai warriors drank matcha before going into battle because of its energizing properties and the Zen Buddhist monks drank it as a way to flow through meditation while remaining alert. There is caffeine in matcha but it has about half the amount as in coffee. The caffeine in matcha is much more energizing and longer-lasting because of the amino acid L-Theanine, which slows the release of caffeine and has a calming, relaxing effect.  There are no jitters or crashes as with drinking coffee.   Matcha is the focus of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony because of it's Zen effect and association with mediation. The concept of Zen is based on maintaining the order of the state of one’s mind and training to realize such state. The Japanese tea ceremony arose as one of the methods to practice this. A tea ceremony is based around the act of preparing and drinking matcha and is a choreographed art requiring many years of study to master. It usually takes place is a small room with a tatami mat of four to five people, surrounded by a garden and they use large glazed or unglazed ceramic bowls to drink the matcha.   

In the U.S., matcha has become very popular (Starbucks even has a matcha latte) because of it's known health benefits. Matcha has three times more phytochemicals that regular green tea, specifically one called EGCG or epigallocatechin gallate. EGCG is a catechin that acts as an antioxidant to fight cancer, viruses and heart disease. It is known to reduce cortisol, the stress hormone that drives appetite and increase belly fat, thus helps with weight loss, curb impulsive eating and lower inflammation. However, adding milk such as in a latte, is known to have less of an absorption rate of the beneficial catechins. And, not to mention all the sugar added to most drinks and all the matcha products here in the U.S.,they don't do any good for any of us.  Being the good Americans that we are, after we left Hase-dera, Nick wanted to try out an interesting hot beverage he had read about offered in a Kamakura cafe known as hot chocolate on a stick. So much for our health benefits of matcha...

We were seated and Nick ordered one for each of us.  We received this cute little setting of 5 ounces of hot milk with marshmallows in a bowl and a plate with a dollop of whipped cream with bits of chocolate sprinkled on top and the stick of chocolate. 

 The chocolate was like a dark chocolate truffle on a stick that you slowly mixed into the hot milk where it melted forming hot chocolate. 

You could also lick the stick of chocolate as you stirred it into the milk since it immediately started getting soft and drippy as it melted into the milk.

Lastly, you drink the milk like hot chocolate from the bowl.  It was actually more like chocolate milk since it really wasn't very hot anymore after stirring in your stick of chocolate but it tasted pretty good, just the same.  I think the whole ritual of it was the most fun being that it was unique and just licking the gooey, chocolate truffle on the stick was pleasure enough for me.  I wouldn't say this was a typical "Japanese" food experience but it was an experience and made for a pleasant and fun afternoon break on a busy day sightseeing in Kamakura.  Thank you, Nick, for always surprising us with such entertaining food experiences, from the traditional to Western influences.  Japan just has a little bit of everything.