Hotel Mets Kamakura Ofuna

... The train was very spacious and tidy, much better than any of the planes we'd been on. Once at Kamakura we headed for our first temple, and I can't remember the name of it because we have been to so many. Anyway, it was beautiful, the buildings were very elaborate with lots of adornments, and housed big golden buddhas, and there were cauldrens of incence smoking outside. In the grounds were ponds ...

Woke up involuntarily early--damn partying tourists in the hostel. They drink and karaoke until 5 AM and then flop into bed. Add in their avidity for anime and hankerings for McDonald's, I'm kinda resentful we're in the same boat. Mind you, I'm not part of partying crowd, but if your trip is all drink (to the point of not remembering what happened last night), then it seems a bit of a wasted opportunity--why not binge drink somewhere closer? So up with early and mostly empty trains ...

Hatsumode is the first shrine visit of the New Year in Japan. Some people visit a Buddhist temple instead. Many visit on the first, second, or third day of the year as most are off work on those days. Generally, wishes for the new year are made, new o-mamori (charms or amulets) are bought, and the old ones are returned to the shrine so they can be burned. So I went to Kamakura ...

... 2F Kamakura City, 0467-25-0805 Mon-Fri 11:30 to 15:00 17:00～22:00(LO21:00) Sat, Sun and holidays 11:30 ~ 22:00 (LO21: 00)

Next, we visited "Tsurugaoka Hachiman" shrine. We then walked about 15 minutes on the hill to visit "Zeniarai benten" shrine and "Sasukeinari" shrine. On the way back to the "Kamakura ...

... when I asked him if I could see some of his photos, he agreed and took me inside the bookshop only to pick up one of the magazines and turn to the pages where his photos were printed! His name was Hidenori Ohno. Look out for him in the press. Senso-Ji Temple, Asakusa It was over to Asakusa to visit the Senso-Ji temple, which has been enshrined with a golden image of the Buddist God of Mercy, Kanon. It was fascinating walking through the Nahamise-Dori (market streets) with their ...

... of the memory card back in the states, so if anyone is a super techie or knows someone who is, please let us know.   There we went into what we thought was a costume shop and proved otherwise.  Use your imagination. In another neighborhood, we did find a place for eel.  Mark was insistent on trying eel in Japan.  Hours later, while eating eel Mark was explaining that he had to ration his rice to eat with his eel because he doesn't like anything too ...

... The cake itself tasted like a very light spice cake. For a late morning wakeup, it was wonderful. We decided that the room was probably a part of the family's house, but it was classy and comfortable. Kaoru was still waking up a bit, so we decided to take the bus back down the hill. After sitting in traffic for what seemed like FAR too long, Kaoru and I decided to just get off the bus and walk back to pickup the train to the Daibutsu ...

... it I don't know if I would have wanted to stay for the next act although I think we could have with our one ticket. Even Margie- who speaks Japanese as a first language- could not really understand the show because Kabuki is in pre-World War II Japanese which is apparently very different from modern. There are matinees as well just to note. The performances are almost every day and change monthly. From here we stopped at a huge sushi place since Jeff and Margie had not eaten. I ...

... we've spent the last 9 or so hours flying west to get east, but determining the date in this time zone is overwhelmingly complex for this pea brain... 2:30pm (Tokyo time) - After 13 hours the Chicago to Tokyo flight, what do we do with our 4 hour layover? SIT?!?! 6:00pm (Tokyo time) - Just a 3 hour and 15 minute flight between us and Beijing!

... individual walking up to the gate, handing them a boarding pass, and then walking into the business or first class seating and taking a seat. The image just doesn't really click! Most of the people in these business classes are at least middle aged people and definitely dress well, as opposed to me, who dresses in fairly well worn clothing. Hahaha, I find it rather amusing. Well, take off time! Gotta turn this baby off.