Day One

Today was the most beautiful weather. It started off cool but got pretty warm.

We took a drive to Kamakura, a city about 10 minutes away. It was the capital of Japan's first military government from 1185-1333. I loved seeing everything in the daylight. Some observations: a lot of the cars are tiny here-they look like Luigi and Guido from the movie "Cars". Also all the shops and store are right next to the street. There is no sidewalk or places to park in front of the stores. There is only about 2 feet from the door of a house or store to the street. Everyone was walking around and getting their groceries for the day which is common here. They only buy what they need for the day so they shop everyday. Another thing that caught my eye was quite a few people wearing surgical masks. Lauren told me that they are very careful to not spread germs so if you or sick or have a cold you put one on and wear it out in public.

After our drive we arrived Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine. It was founded in 1063. It's a tutelary shrine of Minamoto No Yoritomo, founder of the Kamakura regime. He was the first military ruler of Japan. We saw things called Torii Gates which are huge gates built by Yoritomo in 1182 as an offering for a safe delivery for his pregnant wife, Masako. She would walk through them and it would give her good blessings. Masako yielded great power after her husband died as was known as the Nun Shogun (warrior).

There were a lot of people at the shrine and we observed them throwing coins into a box, saying a prayer and clapping their hands twice. There were huge vats of sake (rice wine) that people have given to Buddha as a sacrifice. They also has pieces of paper and wooden plaques to write prayers on.

We had lunch at Kua Aina, which is a hamburger place they have in Hawaii. It was super good.

Then we came home and all took naps. We all went to bed at 2:30 and as of now, 10:00 pm, Jacob is still asleep!

I am really impressed with Lauren's Japanese vocabulary and her ability to communicate.