Kamakura

We went over to Kamakura to see a bit of autumn and the temples in the area. Kenchoji, the largest Zen temple in the area was beautiful, but Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a shinto shrine nearby, ruined it all with such a disgusting commercial atmosphere overflowing with tourists and touts. I couldn’t help but be reminded of someone in the past having thrown the money lenders out of a temple somewhere … We saw many nice restaurants and would have liked to have some stew to stave off the cold, but the line for the most interesting place wound down myriad stairs and on down the street. 8(

Movie: Eleventh Hour (08)

Hm. If this were made for tv it would have been middling, but this is apparently a feature film. Not so bad for mindless “action” movie tripe. IMDb contributor kidtuffy summed it up (and the movie is nowhere near worth even retyping anything about it so … kidtuffy says:

An ex-Navy SEAL, Michael Adams, (Matthew Reese) was captured during a raid to free Japanese prisoners from a North Korean prison camp. He endures the North Koreans torture for three years — seen only as flashbacks — then released back into civilian life. A renegade North Korean General wants revenge for the raid on his camp, he follows Adams back to the United States with a plot to manipulate the former soldier into assassinating the leader of the raid, now a United States senator, Mason Chambers (K. Danor Gerald). The General targets Adams’ estranged wife, Rachel (Jennifer Klekas) has her attacked so a doctor on the North Koreans payroll can insert a bomb into her head. Then Adam is captured, given the assignment and warned he must assassinate the senator within 12 hours or the bomb will detonate.

I wasn’t even particularly engaged enough to notice what the eleventh hour might be … it didn’t seem to have anything to do with anything. Thanks to that synopsis, I’m enlightened. What a stupid ending though. You are warned.