DAY 4
I started chatting to some guys in the hotel last night and decided to go with them to Kamakura today, about 50kms to the south of Tokyo.
We all said it was good to travel with other people rather than on our own.@In Japan it doesn't matter who you are or where you come from, you are a 'Gajin' -basically one from outside. I spoke to an American bloke yesterday who'd been here for 7 months and he'd only just got used to people staring at him.
Anyway, I went there with Joanne from Ottowa, Tim from Germany and Ingrid from Italy. A good bunch of Gajin. We took the train about an hour South to Kamakura (I kept calling it Karma Coma) Its a town that seems to be aimed at tourists mainly, but even so was a welcome relief from the intensity of Tokyo. Traditional wooden buildings lined the streets and each branch on every tree seemed to be shaped. There were numerous original temples which was good to see over the Tokyo recreations, but the main reason to come to Karmacoma is to see the 'Daibutsu' Great Buddha Statue.
You can actually walk inside the statue (for some reason) which is nice.
Incense in the clensing pot in front of the Daibutsu.
This is Jo "Dr Dolittle" McCulluch from Ottowa in the area to the back of the buddha which had some shrines and some really friendly squirrels.
What? It was actually really relaxing...
After that we went into Kamakura town which had loads of Japanese craft and sweet shops. One however drew us over with loads of tiny shrimp (shell and all) to try. We tried those, some battered worm things and some crickets. Which had a nice crunchy texture and tasted sort of fishy but sweet (probably what they were cooked in.)
