Japan Vacation - Day Six

WOW - there are so many things I want to say and so many pictures I want to show (I took 125 and Dad took 198), but we only have so much room, so we will give you the highlights.

Curtis made pancakes again and we headed to the train station where, even though we had pancakes, we had to stop at the bakery and get some more sweets for the train.

Our first step was Kamakura. There were many temples and shrines and the entrance was lined with cherry blossoms that weren’t quite in bloom although we did see a couple of beautiful ones later in full bloom. And we got to climb LOTS more stairs!

From there we went to the Enoshima Island and had lunch.

NO, we didn’t eat that! The kids (and DAD) had hotdogs and potatoes. The rest of us had the local cuisine again.

When we left the shrines and temples, we headed to see the Big Buddha. We were even able to go inside of him. He was constructed in 1250AD. A few hundred years later, a tsunami destroyed the building that housed him, but he remained.

As we were leaving the Big Buddha, there was a gathering of people with their cameras out standing around a tree. We moved in to see what their interest was. There were a couple of squirrels that were pretty much tame and because squirrels are so rare in Japan, everyone was taking pictures of them. There was this one kid actually trying to pet it - and succeeded! So....Mom decided she would feed it. Look closely at the two dots on her index finger. She didn't tell us about this until many hours later on the way home. Not sure if she was bit or scratched. But at the time, she wasn't about to admit it because we were all making fun of her for trying to 'pet the wild squirrel'!

Our next stop was Hase-Kanon where there were many more temples and shrines. The one with all the little idols was for all the unborn souls and there was another very big Buddha that was covered in 24kt gold. We weren’t allowed to take pictures of him…..but when I tried anyway, the Japanese guards told me in perfect English that I wasn’t allowed to take pictures…..ooops. Gomenasai (that means I’m sorry). And oddly enough, the picture didn't turn out anyway - spooky!

While we were there, the kids decided to play with the Koi…again! Avery actually got them to suck on her finger.
When we left, we were again exhausted and ready to go home, but Avery kindly reminded Curtis that he promised we could go to the ocean to collect shells. After realizing that 5 tired adults were nothing against 2 upset children, we decided to head to the beach. And what a treat that was (thank you Avery and Austin)!! It was probably 45 degrees at the most and windy and I am sure that water was cold. Of course I don’t know for sure, but Austin and Avery sure knew. Once we finally gave in and let them play in the water, we decided we had to stay long enough to watch the sun set. And after a week of cloudy and rainy skies, God showed us his true beauty through the setting of the sun behind Mt. Fuji.

Check out Austin's fishing adventure. Avery was sooo upset because she didn't catch a fish of her own!

We came home to homemade Sushi rolls and tortilla soup. Bed will be early tonight and we all will sleep in tomorrow morning. We will visit a couple of local souvenir shops, do laundry and get ready to travel home. I am sure that even though this sounds like a down day, there is sure to be some excitement to report! Stay tuned for our last day in Japan!!