Japan: Part 1

Hello from Japan! As I write this, it is almost 7am Friday morning. Most of you are probably getting ready for your Thursday night dinner since it is about 5pm. Huge time difference! I have now been here since Monday. Elaine, my sister, has had me hitting the ground and running each day! I have seen some incredible parts of Japan. The only bad thing has been the miserable weather. The heat and humidity has really taken a toll on us and has limited what all we can do. Me being jet-lagged still and combined with the heat, it is very easy to get run down. We are making the best of it though!

Elaine is a great tour guide. We are having a blast seeing so many things and spending so much time together. I do miss my boys so much. I call and talk to them both everyday. It sure is hard hearing little Jack say "love you" and "miss you." And of course, Tommy saying it too. Anyways, I'm going to go ahead and post some pictures from the first day, which was Monday. By the way, I did make it through the non-stop 12 hour flight and it was terrible. I was completely unable to sleep and could barely sit still. I get to do it again in another day...whohoo!

So Monday we visited a little area called Kamakura. On the way, we stopped and saw the Pacific Ocean. It was rather dirty, so I barely stuck my finger it it to say that I have been in the Pacific Ocean. Then we toured the city. Kamakura is filled with Japanese shrines. They are very, very old and beautiful to look at. Here are a few.

The flowers are just amazing here. Bold colors and interesting designs. Here's one of my favorites.

Before entering the shrines, the Japanese use these areas to wash the impurities off their hands.

Look at all the little Buddhas! That's not even all of them!

Nice view of the Pacific Ocean from the top of the Shrine.

Biggest Buddha ever!

Streets on the way to another Kamakura Shrine. I really felt like I was in Japan here. Lots of street shops and look at the two ladies in kimonos.

So on our way to another shrine, we were walking along a very busy street. But look what we saw. This cat was passed out and the sign reads, "When I asleep, do not touch it with me." Translation is alittle off. Do the picture justice and click on it to see the bigger version.

On our way to the last shrine, Elaine and I were on the train when a Japanese guy said hello. We thought at first that he was hitting on us. He offerred to be our tour guide for the shrine. It was really neat. He told us lots and explained a lot of the customs. Turns out, not hitting on us but getting a free English lesson. Alot of Japanese pay for coversational English classes. More about that latter in the week.

Another shrine temple.

Shrine.

Large guard at Shrine.

So that was day one. After finishing our touring, we took the train back to the base and had dinner with Elaine's friend and got ready for day two!