O Great Buddha!

On our last day in Tokyo, o so many weeks ago, Bridget and I decided to leave Tokyo and take the train to Kamkura. Kamkura is located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 31 mi south-south-west of Tokyo. It is a small town but has a lot of shrines and restaurants. We also had some fantastic Chinese and sweet potato ice cream, a speciality of Kamkura and to be honest I was only partially brave and had half vanilla half sweet potato.

When in Kakura Bridget and I saw something that had me speechless, yes I know me speechless?!?!?! We saw a bunch of little kids, I am talking 5 year olds, just leaving their school friends and taking the train by themselves! They were so cute and so tiny, the boys had on little uniforms with tiny shorts and little boat hats but seriously, taking the train by themselves was normal! I couldn't imagine that being okay in the U.S.; nobody blinked an eye or even seemed to notice that they little kids were by themselves!!

Also something else that had us slightly disturbed was the map symbol for Buddhist Temples. Scroll on down to see what it is!!!

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine : This is Kamkura's most important shrine.




The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu): a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple. With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan. The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were destroyed multiple times by typhoons and a tidal wave in the 14th and 15th centuries. So, since 1495, the Buddha has been standing in the open air. Bridget and I went inside the Buddha, it was amazing to be inside it and look at the inner details.







Throughout the week in Tokyo we were bombarded by school groups EVERYWHERE. Only fitting that we finally got a picture of them!



These school kids bought some bird seed and then would freak out when the pigeons came, it was very entertaining!

Movies to Reality

It is a rainy day in Iwakuni and a rare weekend day that I am actually in town with nothing to do. So I decided to rent movies from the library and I finally watched Lost in Translation. When Bridget and I were in Tokyo we went for drinks at the Park Hyatt, where the movie was filmed. We too were surrounded by cigar smoke and serenaded by some Jazz music. We also sat next to the large table that is in the movie. The funny thing about our experience was getting there, we get into a cab in the pouring rain and asked to go to "Park Hyatt" (the only Park Hyatt in Tokyo) and the cab driver was sooooooooooo confused and after a few seconds he was like Park Hyatt Shinjuku?!?!? I guess we tried to make it too simple!

Senso-Ji: Religion, Shopping, and People Watching

On our tour Bridget and I went to Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa. There was so much going on that we had to come back to take it all in. It is the oldest temple in Tokyo and it is a Buddhist temple. In front of the temple is one huge row of stores (more like permenant booths), the street is called Nakamise-dōri. Both times we were there it was mobbed, mostly by school kids but it was so much fun to walk thru the little stores and to shop a little bit. I was able to get a wonderful set of chopsticks with rests, these are awesome because they are Sumo chopsticks - yes I am obsessed with sumos! Too bad Bridget had to bring them back to the states for me since my bags were already stuffed to the gills!







The Row of Shops:





At the Shrine:

Shrines, Views, and Dome Umbrellas ahhhhhh Shinjuku

When we were in Tokyo Bridget and I decided to go to Shinjuku. Shinjuku is a major commercial and administrative center (government of Tokyo is here) and is a great place to walk around and stop into stores. It also has the busiest train station in the world. One of the nice things about Shinjuku is that they have a Citibank ATM, they are rare and one of the only places where you can get cash as a foreginer. As we were leaving a few other tourists were walking up to it and we all broke out in laughter.

As soon as we got out of the train station it started to pour so we traded our mini umbrellas in for one of the most amazing things ever, a clear dome umbrella. These umbrellas are EVERYWHERE and I knew there had to be something special about them and boy was I right. You are in like a 4 foot bubble of dryness, these might be the greatest thing ever. Unfortunately, both Bridget and I had to leave ours behind in Tokyo, I had no way of getting it down to Iwakuni but don't you fret I will get another one.




We also went to:

Takashiyma Times Square: 15 story department store



Starbucks: awful picture but showing that they go one size smaller then we do, they do a short - which is very popular!



We walked around and saw the Hanazano Shrine. The best part about this shrine is when an older Japanese man ran up to me and just started saying thank you over and over and over again while handing me his camera. After I took the picture and he reviewed it, which is a big thing for them to do here it kind of makes you feel like they are judging your camera skills, he continued with the thank yous and the bow.








Views from the Tokyo Government Building:

Sumo Time

Now given the opportunity to be the skinny person in the room anyone would take it and sumo is that perfect opportunity. It is not a well known fact but sumo matches are not all year round. Instead, there are six major tournaments throughout the year and they are held bi-monthly in four locations: Tokyo in January, May, and September; Osaka in March, Nagoya in July, and Fukuoka in November. Bridget and I were very fortunate to be in town during the first week of the two week sumo tournament in Tokyo, we were also very fortunate that our hotel arranged for our tickets before we got there. For some reason we thought sumo would be at nite, I am not quite sure why we thought this but I guess that is because we are used to nighttime sporting events. However, we were wrong. The tournament is all day with the main competitiors being on from 4 to 6.

When we are the sumo match we had no clue what was going on since nothing was in English; which was slightly weird since they did have people working there who spoke English in order to direct the English speakers to their seats. So instead we tried to figure it out ourselves and even though we only had a slight idea of what was going on we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was extremely entertaining, so much that after work I would come home and catch the last hour of the tournament and the best part was that I found a channel with English commentary. According to that commentary, 1/3 of the top sumos are from outside Japan and many are from Estonia. During the matches the crowd gets into it and cheers along. Even being during the day it was very busy. The sumo wrestlers are very agile and flexible which surprised us because of their size.

Another thing that we loved about the sumo tournament was that we were able to get some good food!! (More about food in general to come later). However, as our french fry container depicted if you eat too many you will look like a sumo!


















The judges conferring


The french fry container telling you that if you eat too many you too will look like a sumo!