Yesterday we decided to go to Kamakura, which was the administrative capital during the first Shogunate (Samurai warrior lord guy) whilst the Emperor was being ignored in Kyoto. Because of this history it has plenty of temples and other things to see and is only about 2 hours away from where I live.We were going with our Japanese friend Yohei who is really nice- he makes me feel good about my Japanese because I can have a conversation with him without him doing the usual Japanese thing of going on about how talented I am in Japanese which is a blatent lie. He is one of the most hilarious people I have ever met. Unfortunately he didn't wake up until we were at Kamakura station, where we were supposed to meet him at 10am. We woke him with our phonecalls to see where he was. This was not a problem though as we decided to go sightseeing on our own and he was still coming so we just met him later.
The most famous thing here is the Daibutsu (big buddha) which is very impressive and you are allowed to go inside it for a mere 20 yen to touch it and get good luck.
I also discovered another buddha, this time made of gold and was in a temple a short walk away. I think I much prefer temples to churches but my favourite has to be a good old shinto shrine. I didn't go to any shrines here but never mind.
As you can see there is a no photographs sign at the bottom. Being foreign I am unfortunately unable to understand signs with or without a picture of a camera (along with the Japanese tourists who definitely could read the writing and see the fairly obvious picture.)
My doubts about being in Japan seem to wash away when I see nice things like this as I could not be doing this back home.
We took a little rest after climbing a hill to see another temple where winter daffodils and cherry trees bloom.
I thought this looked particularly Nihon-poi (japanesque:)
After that hard work we thought we deserved some oishii aisukuriimu and had sweet potato and matcha half and half. Berry Derishasu.
There were lots of pretty lanterns guiding our way back to the station which was nice.
On the train home we suddenly decided to stop off in Yokohama on the way to have fun and maybe do Karaoke. It was so dead despite being Japan's second biggest city- I was very dissappointed. It is incredibly huge but just empty and lacking in atmosphere (and people walking around.) I took this photo just so I could say it wasn't a wasted journey:
Then we began our quest for Karaoke. Not possible in Yokohama, the only one we could find signs for in the fun district kept leading us to the following carpark which was not so fun until we eventually found it. It cost 2500 Yen for one hour which is Incredibly expensive so we decided to escape Yokohama never to return and go to Shinjuku in Tokyo where we knew that Karaoke is everywhere and the atmosphere is brilliant.
Before karaoke we were quite hungry so we went to a good indian restaurant which was really nice (I have been craving Indian food so much, I might start going here regularly.)
I also discovered another buddha, this time made of gold and was in a temple a short walk away. I think I much prefer temples to churches but my favourite has to be a good old shinto shrine. I didn't go to any shrines here but never mind.
As you can see there is a no photographs sign at the bottom. Being foreign I am unfortunately unable to understand signs with or without a picture of a camera (along with the Japanese tourists who definitely could read the writing and see the fairly obvious picture.)
My doubts about being in Japan seem to wash away when I see nice things like this as I could not be doing this back home.
We took a little rest after climbing a hill to see another temple where winter daffodils and cherry trees bloom.
I thought this looked particularly Nihon-poi (japanesque:)
After that hard work we thought we deserved some oishii aisukuriimu and had sweet potato and matcha half and half. Berry Derishasu.
There were lots of pretty lanterns guiding our way back to the station which was nice.
On the train home we suddenly decided to stop off in Yokohama on the way to have fun and maybe do Karaoke. It was so dead despite being Japan's second biggest city- I was very dissappointed. It is incredibly huge but just empty and lacking in atmosphere (and people walking around.) I took this photo just so I could say it wasn't a wasted journey:
Then we began our quest for Karaoke. Not possible in Yokohama, the only one we could find signs for in the fun district kept leading us to the following carpark which was not so fun until we eventually found it. It cost 2500 Yen for one hour which is Incredibly expensive so we decided to escape Yokohama never to return and go to Shinjuku in Tokyo where we knew that Karaoke is everywhere and the atmosphere is brilliant.
Before karaoke we were quite hungry so we went to a good indian restaurant which was really nice (I have been craving Indian food so much, I might start going here regularly.) It was a very very very long day, but really nice- a nice way to end the year.
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