Yesterday, February 11th, was Foundation Day here in Japan. I celebrated by finishing up my long weekend in Tokyo and heading back here to Nagano. Saturday morning, Jaclyn, Heather and I took a bus to Shinjuku (Tokyo) then spent the entire day sightseeing in Yokohama. I had high hopes that Yokohama would be like Hong Kong: big, clean, bright, with lots of Chinese & British influence and cultural things to see and do. Unfortunately, it turns out that Yokohama is just another big Japanese city. To be fair, we only spent about 6 hours walking around the port area... but you know you're bored when you will spend 500 yen for a thirty-second amusement park ride that you could probably find anywhere back home. Oh well. We did have a fabulous dinner in Yokohama's Chinatown. I haven't had any great Chinese food in a while, so it was pretty fun to stroll the sidewalks (where it did actually SMELL a lot like Hong Kong) and peer in the windows at all the yummy food. We also visited the Chinese temple and were in awe of the many dragons and milions of red, blue, and yellow carvings. Or perhaps we were just dazed by the clouds of incense... The highlight of the evening was stumbling on a walking parade of folks accompanying a Chinese dragon dancing from restaurant to restaurant. The dragon was performing a ceremony (or something!) in front of each door- where there was a leaf of cabage hanging for him to jump up and 'eat' and a beer bottle waiting for him to sample and then 'spit' at the crowds. It was highly entertaining and extremely loud! There were drums and cymbols -we timed our exit from our restaurant perfectly so that we were inches from the dragon-- went through a lot of film!

Sunday morning we dragged ourselves out of bed early (for a weekend!) and took several trains south of Tokyo to Kamakura. Kamakura was the seat of power in Japan for awhile way back when (check the website for the actual history plus some pictures) and is chock full of historical sites, shrines, and "National Treasures". We visited two shrines in the morning: Engakuji and Tokeiji. They were both breathtaking (in the case of Engakuji and our trudge up several flights of hillside steps to see 'the biggest bell in Kamakura', literally!).
On Tokeiji:
Back then, wives of upper-class people usually turned into nuns upon their husbands' death. With her family fortune and her son's social status being the Regent, she founded Tokeiji as a convent to pray for the repose of the departed husband, and entered nunhood herself. She also made the Convent serve as a refuge for the oppressed women who were unhappy with their husbands. The first women-lib advocate Japan ever produced. Undergoing ups and downs, Tokeiji remained a convent for over 600 years until 1902, when a male priest finally took over the seat of the chief.

The weather was absolutly perfect for the day- we were shedding layer after layer before noon. Kamakura was not only starting to look very green, but many of the trees were already blossoming. It was truly encouraging to see the flowers- many of the Japanese tourists spent more time enjoying the plantlife then exploring the ancient shrines!

Of course, walking around in the sun with too much clothing and not enough sleep caused our stomachs to start growling before we were ready for lunch. So... we had ice cream. We ran across a streetside ice cream shack with the most interesting array of flavors I've seen outside of Baskin Robins. Heather went with the classic green tea, I got almond-tofu-jelly with fruit (that doesn't quite translate right), and Jaclyn braved soy bean (edamame- our new favorite snack). They were all delicious and gave us the extra energy needed to search for an appropriate stopping & eating spot. We ended up at a tiny, quaint noodle shop for soba.

After lunch we decided to try hiking from where we were (more North Kamakura) to the other side of town and the Daibutsu, a very large Buddha (12 meters tall and 125 tons!). The hike turned out to be much longer than our guide book had described, but it was also much nicer then what we'd expected, and a great change from walking down the side of the street filled with tourist traffic. It was a good compliment to the sightseeing, even if we did end up fairly hot, tired, and muddy! We were not dissappointed by the Great Buddha, either. Not only was he impressive to see from the outside, but they even let climb inside! You can sit inside his lap and look up at the curly nobs on his head. Thinking back on all my other trips to shrines, temples, and museums... I can't say that I've ever been INSIDE Buddha before!

We were pretty much pooped after our Buddha visit, so after purchasing some postcards and sweets for the offices back home we hopped a bus back to Kamakura station. After a detour to Starbucks for a treat, we headed back to Tokyo for some Indian food.

Originally, we planned to go to Nikko on Monday, but after walking all day long on Saturday and Sunday we decided to prevent sight-seeing burnout and make Monday a "sleep-in and shop in Tokyo" day. It was appreciated. We took the monorail around Tokyo Bay (Brook- saw a Japanese Coast Guard Ship) and checked out one of the new malls. Dissappointed at the pathetic movie selection, we headed back into rainy downtown for a bit more shopping in Shibuya, dinner in Shinjuku then finally called it a night.

After an immense breakfast of apple pancakes (WAY too many for the three of us, thank you girls...), we got back on the bus and headed back to Nagano. I could use another day to just rest, but isn't that how it always works? Three days of school and then I head up north for the AJET ski trip! No complaints though, this February is just flying.