Well, since I don't have as much time left in Japan as I had hoped, I decided yesterday to finally get out of my room and explore this wild and mystical country. I'm right in the middle of the most populated and historical center in Japan, so I don't have to travel far to get to see many of these crazy things.
I'd bought a travel book and looked up some interesting sites, then went looking for someone to accompany me. Unfortunately, everyone in the unit already had plans. So, as you see, I was all by my lonesome.
I almost didn't go. I mean, what is the point of going and discovering all these amazing things if you don't have anyone to share them with. Then I thought about it. I walked around Salzburg all day once and had a great time. I didn't have anyone telling me they wanted to see something different, or what I was checking out was boring. And I do have someone to share all this with. All of you!
So, I checked the train routes and I was on my way to Kamakura to see the Great Buddha, or Daibutsu as the Japanese call it.
Daibutsu is the second largest statue of Buddha in all of Japan. It was built in 1252. It was guilded in cooper and enclosed in a large temple. In 1495, a huge tsunami wiped away the temple and everything around it. Only the Daibutsu survived.
There are craploads of temples and shrines all over the Kamakura district, but I only went and looked at two.
The first one was by mistake because I couldn't read the map I had bought, so I followed two cute guys down a tree covered path in th
e middle of the street hoping they would lead me in the right direction.
I ended up at the Hachiman Shrine, which is one of the largest and most beautiful in Kamakura, but I didn't know that at the time. I was just annoyed that I didn't know where I was, and I didn't have a lot of time before the Daibutsu temple 
closed.
The stone stairway was so long, but it was worth the walk. The temple was huge. I wanted to go back and explore the outer buildings and museums that they had near there.
When I figured out where I was and took off toward the Daibutsu. It was a long walk, but it was pretty. I found the road that led up to the temple. There 
is a thing about Japan. I always seem to be on the wrong side of traffic. I think, walk on the left side, no, all the walking traffic is on the other side of road, so I switch and again I'm pushing against the current.
So, moving on, I got to the Great Buddha. It was smaller than I thought, a
nd the surrounding shrine wasn't really much to look at, but it was worth it. For 500 yen, or $5, they allow tourists to go inside the statue. Want to know what it was like? Well, imagine, walking inside the bottom of your mother's favorite porcelain knick-knack.
I made my way down the road to the little train station that takes tourist back to the Kamakura train station. This little road should have been called "Ice Cream Alley" because of all the ice cream shops. And I'll tell you another thing: Sweet potato is the flavor of the season. Holy cow! Purple ice cream everywhere (Sweet potato ice cream is lilac colored.) I got a sweet potato/vanilla twist cone. It's was very good.
I got back to Soubudia-mae (the train station outside Camp Zama) and had sushi for dinner. I love the sushi restaurants they have. They have a bar for single people and booths for parties, but they are all placed around a conveyor belt with sushi and food on plates. You grab the plate you want and they are color-coded to tell you how much that plate costs. Pink is 100 yen, green 150, blue 250. Then they have tea and cups on a bottom belt so you just have to grab it and put hot water in it from the little spout that's on your table. It's so fun. I love sushi.
There are craploads of temples and shrines all over the Kamakura district, but I only went and looked at two.
The first one was by mistake because I couldn't read the map I had bought, so I followed two cute guys down a tree covered path in th
e middle of the street hoping they would lead me in the right direction.
I ended up at the Hachiman Shrine, which is one of the largest and most beautiful in Kamakura, but I didn't know that at the time. I was just annoyed that I didn't know where I was, and I didn't have a lot of time before the Daibutsu temple 
closed.
The stone stairway was so long, but it was worth the walk. The temple was huge. I wanted to go back and explore the outer buildings and museums that they had near there.
When I figured out where I was and took off toward the Daibutsu. It was a long walk, but it was pretty. I found the road that led up to the temple. There 
is a thing about Japan. I always seem to be on the wrong side of traffic. I think, walk on the left side, no, all the walking traffic is on the other side of road, so I switch and again I'm pushing against the current.
So, moving on, I got to the Great Buddha. It was smaller than I thought, a
nd the surrounding shrine wasn't really much to look at, but it was worth it. For 500 yen, or $5, they allow tourists to go inside the statue. Want to know what it was like? Well, imagine, walking inside the bottom of your mother's favorite porcelain knick-knack.
I made my way down the road to the little train station that takes tourist back to the Kamakura train station. This little road should have been called "Ice Cream Alley" because of all the ice cream shops. And I'll tell you another thing: Sweet potato is the flavor of the season. Holy cow! Purple ice cream everywhere (Sweet potato ice cream is lilac colored.) I got a sweet potato/vanilla twist cone. It's was very good.
I got back to Soubudia-mae (the train station outside Camp Zama) and had sushi for dinner. I love the sushi restaurants they have. They have a bar for single people and booths for parties, but they are all placed around a conveyor belt with sushi and food on plates. You grab the plate you want and they are color-coded to tell you how much that plate costs. Pink is 100 yen, green 150, blue 250. Then they have tea and cups on a bottom belt so you just have to grab it and put hot water in it from the little spout that's on your table. It's so fun. I love sushi.
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