Day Trip to Kamakura

On Monday we took a day trip to Kamakura! It's not too far distance wise from the Kitakurihama train station, but we did manage to be on 3 different trains getting there! At Kamakura we visited the Great Amittabha Buddha monument at the Koto-ku Temple. This monument is as old as the year 1252! It's 13.35 meters tall and weighs 93 tons!

 Lily looking so happy for the picture...

 There are supposedly Buddha's sandles - talk about big feet!

I have a thing for lillies....

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 The doll I bought Lily, it's the one in the middle

While in Kamakura, we had to try the local specialty of purple potato soft ice cream (murisaki-imo sofuto). It is made from the purple sweet potato found throughout Japan. It actually tasted pretty good!

 It was a long day for the babies.  This is Lily's friend Miley.....

I didn't go into the White Lily Store but I definitely had to get Lily's picture by the sign even though she was fast asleep!

For lunch we ate at a place called Sobi. We all were cold from walking around. We just wanted to sit down and have something warm to eat. No one in the restaurant spoke English, and the menu was entirely in Japanese. When we sat down we were served a warm cup of ...... something! My friend Mikaela decribed the flavor as "When you burn toast, then scrape off the burnt, the beverage tastes like that brewed in water." My initial thought was that it tasted something like wood. For food, Matt and I decided to share this assortment of noodles. It looked the most normal. We ordered by pointing to the picture and nodding our heads. It turned out to be 5 bowls of cold noodles with different toppings on them. One with fish eggs, the other with some type of fish creamed sauce, another with something pickled in it, and I honestly don't know about the rest! I can't say that I was brave enough to try each bowl! Neither of us enjoyed the food and left the restaurant still hungry, but at least we were warm!

After lunch we visited the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This shrine is at the geographical and cultural center of the city of Kamakura. It was built in 1063 as a branch of the Iwashimizu Shrine in Zaimokuza.  It was dedicated to the Emperor Ojin, and his mother and wife moved to the new location in 1191 to protect his government. There is so much history in Japan! We may have to go back in a couple months when the cherry blossoms are blooming all around it!

On our walk back to the train we were still hungry, so we defintely tried out some of the street food! I got a chocolate crepe, which was absolutey delicious!

Lily thought it was delicious too!

Mikaela got a crepe too! She got a rasberry cream cheese one! I never knew there was French influence in Japan!

All of us girls and the kids! It is so much more fun traveling with people you know! In this picture with Lily and I, there is also Mikaela and Miley, and my friend Ashley and her 2 kids Andrew and Ava.

 

On the way home in the train we were snuggling to stay warm! Love my Lily Bug!!

I can never choose which pictures of her to post, so here is another!

and another!

 At the end of the day I looked at a few of the things I had purchased. The teacher in me couldn't help but think that having a few souviners would be so fun to show in my classroom one day. I bought a children's book to learn about the religion, as well as one of the things that Buddhists light as a traditional part of going to the temple. It was definitely a cultural experience and I could not help but think about all of the possible teachable moments. The doll and the kaleidoscope are for Lily. I need to be better about buying a couple things here and there since she won't remember any of this!

It was a fun day!