Kamakura

On Saturday we spent the day touring around the city of Kamakura. Our first stop-- Starbucks, of course. Strangely, none of the local stores or shops open until 9:30am.

We later toured the Great Kannon shrine to Buddha. As a Christian, it was very different to see the local people bowing in front of the great statue, and in other locations there were bottles of water placed in front of the statues....for some reason?! They also had places where they write their prayers on a piece of paper and tie it to a string for Buddha.

Next was lunch at the Kua 'Aina hamburger restaurant. Yes, I came all the way to Japan to eat a hamburger, but it was very good. They only have locations in Hawaii and oddly, Japan.

Finally, to end our day we took a train (without the assistance of my brother, who had to leave for work) to a nearby small island Enoshima. The train ride alone was quite amusing...imagine 7 Americans who know how to say "hi" and "thank you" in the local language traveling to a tourist attraction.

Once we got to the island, we took a series of 4 escalators to the top of the island. Then we went to the top of a tower that overlooks the whole area and waited for the sun to set. The view was spectacular and we even got to see Mount Fuji.