Hotel Tsurugaokakaikan Kamakura

... to find a spot we went down a narrow street to try and find a spot and found ourselves encountering a slick (it was raining....) unbelievably steep hill. Not quite 90 degrees but it sure felt like it when we were trying to get turned around to go back down. Our first attempt was very unsuccessful. So after much going forward & back we kept going up the hill till we finally found an area big enough to pull in & turn around ...

... cez ocean prisiel Japoncom na pomoc boh vetra Kamikadze a odvial 1600 Cingischanovych lodi. Preto je boh vetra Kamikadze taky uctievany a preto boli kamikadze v druhej svetovej vojne po nom pomenovany. V Kamakura je velmi vela svatyn a chramov. Dnes som dostal poucenie o tom aky je rozdiel medzi svatynou (Shrine po Anglicky) a chramom (Temple po Anglicky). Rozdiel je taky, ze ...

... sometimes I wish I had never read up on places I'm going...ah, the bliss of ignorance. Walked from Hase dera back to the Kamakura station, which was utterly packed with Japanese tourists. Tons of restaurants and souvenir shops and a river of people up the entire shopping drag. I found a stall for something sweet and ran for the train, unwittingly heading towards another packed shopping district. Headed back to Tokyo to see Asakusa, a former pleasure district which supposedly still ...

... Miyuki showed us first, and then we followed suit. We had a look in the little museum. I asked about the little wooden blocks you often saw hanging up. Miyuki explained that you wrote what you wished for on these, and she often liked to read them. She said most asked for luck in exams, and good health for children. I asked if the papers people knotted onto trees at temples were similar. She explained these were like a fortune, but it was a lottery what you ...

... Disneyland. I have no idea of the different but they created 2 parks next to each other of which one was closer to the sea. I went to visit Disneysea so traveled there early in the morning to arrive for the 10am opening time. It was such a fun experience, the whole place is pure Disney, everything in the park is manufactured for Disney from the coffee stirrers, to the cast members' uniforms. Its easy to spot the Disney traits by ...

... as it turns out, the machines require Japanese credit cards, ergo the extra Yen I took out came in quick handy. After asking for directions a few times (in english and cantonese) we made it down to the platform for the hour ride west to Sinjuku, Tokyo - where we would find the Kent Hotel and rendezvous with Tiff's parents (and meet her mom for the first time). The rail ride from Narita showed a country side that I had not quite expected. Lush forests, and ...

... girls that never looked our way...) We headed up to the Daibutsu. While this "Great Buddha" wasn't as big as the one at Nara, it was immense, and fully outdoors. They had retrofitted the base to move with the earth in case of earthquakes, and as such, actually let you go "inside the Buddha"- which seemed a bit sacriligious, but hey, they said i could... ;) When we came out, a huge raven/crow lighted onto the Buddha's hand, staring intently ...

... At these places they have only about 6 set lunches to choose from, some meat with miso soup, maybe a little salad, etc. I had a few pieces of sashimi, some mstery fried begetable I didn't like, a piece of shrimp, miso, and some greens in sesame dressing with a side of rice. This was 780 yen (a little over $7). Chris had some fried pork in a curry sauce with rice and some miso, about 800 yen. As usual there was complementary tea. This filling lunch ended up being about ...

... lots of yosakoi dancers, but that tapered off as we neared the shrine. This torii, or gate, marks the entrance to the shrine. The shrine itself is quite beautiful, although sadly, it is not original - the original building, dating to 1920, was destroyed during World War II. It was rebuilt in 1958. Since this is the first Shinto shrine we visited, it was interesting to learn how people pay their respects. First, you approach the Temizusha, which is a sort of fountain with ...

ok guys. this is the deal. i have no easy access to the net, cos net cafes havent taken tokyo by storm. my visa doesn't work at atms, and im cashless :) all i have left is an apple and lots of storage space on my camera.. mmm how much tempura could i have had instead of the gig memory card? Tokyo is fun, i wouldnt really call it beautiful. it's exciting and very different to anything i ...