Money Laundering...Japanese Style

Laundering...as in laundry. If you have dirty money and you want to clean and even double the quantity, stop by Zeniarai Benten Shrine in Kamakura. It's known as the "Money Washing Shrine," and as you'll see in the pictures, the money, both bills and coins, are soaked in water. The point isn't to clean the money, it's to double it. I've added pictures to a Shutterfly album and if you'd like to see them click here.

There's a sign outside the entrance that reads, "It is believed that if you spend the money that has been washed in the spring's water, it will increase many times and come back to you. The spring is one of Kamakura's five famous water." The money has to dry naturally though, and has to be spent in order for it to double...at least that's the belief.

The entrance is up a small hill and through a cave. Once you walk through the cave there's a tunnel of wood torii gates and it opens up to the shrine. There's another cave, waterfalls, shrine buildings, candles and koi. Calling it unique is an understatement! Once you get into the center area you can buy an incense stick and candle. You'll also get the basket for your money. After you wash the money you'll see a stack of baskets...add yours to it when you're done. Julie and I weren't sure what to do and in which order, so she asked (her Japanese is pretty good!) and we also watched what others were doing.

Inside the cave where you wash your money are strands of origami cranes hanging. The pictures don't do them justice. Click on the picture to see it at full size and you'll notice how many cranes there really are. There's a very pretty area off to the side with a small waterfall and bridge that was so pretty and perfect for pictures. There were a lot of orange and blue koi swimming in there too. See them?

If you've got a Japanese Shrine Book make sure to bring it with you. We both got our books stamped. We visited another shrine that day and I took video of the man writing in my book (at the second shrine). I love watching it because it seems so simple and effortless, but when it's done it looks beautiful! I've included a video of it below. Those who subscribe via email may need to go to the main website (http://www.passthechopsticks.blogspot.com/) in order to view it.

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Where Exactly Are We?

You can see on the right under "About Chopsticks" that we live in Zushi, Kanagawa, Japan, but that probably doesn't mean much. Unless you've looked at a map, chances are you have no idea where it is. We live in the city of Zushi which is in the prefecture (can be compared to a state in the U.S.) of Kanagawa. We're about an hour south of Tokyo and 90 minutes from Narita Airport. Kanagawa sits on the Kanto Plain, and Zushi is in the center Miura Peninsula. So to sum it up and simplify it, I circled in red where we live. The base, Commander Fleet Activities Yokosuka (CFAY) is about a 20 minute drive from our house, and is located southeast of us. The base is a peninsula that sits on a peninsula.

The Yen Japan's main unit of currency is the yen and its symbol is ¥ or ¥. The sen, a former monetary unit, was worth 1/100 of a yen. "Yen" originally referred to a round coin, while "sen" referred to a copper coin. And strangely enough, the plural of "yen" is "yen." The Japanese use 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen coins. Slightly different from ours, but not too much. Since a yen is roughly equal to a cent, you can see than a 100 and 500 yen coin is close to a dollar and 5 dollar coin. Wow, and are they handy. Too bad the dollar coin never seems to catch on in the States...not to mention a 5 dollar one!

I use the general rule of moving the decimal point over two places to the left and that gives you an idea of the dollar amount. When Bob was here on a port call in the fall, the conversion rate reached $1.28, but now we're getting about $1 for ¥100. On base we can pay in dollars, yen or with a credit card. But out in town we need to pay with yen. We could use a credit card, but are charged a fee for conversion, so it's easer to use yen.