Day Trippers

Today we took our first day trip from Tokyo. We went south to Kamakura, a small city full of Buddhist temples and shrines. The most famous is Daibutsu, a huge statue of Buddha.

We visited the large Buddha, both outside and inside. We also went to the other two major temples in town, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and Hase-dera. I think we've had our fill of temples and shrines, but Hase-dera stood out because of the huge number of hydrangeas that were in bloom on the side of the hill

We had a wonderful lunch at a small place that we walked into at random. I love the Japanese experience of ordering your food by pointing at the plastic food on display outside the restaurant. It worked out great today!

We decided to stop in Yokohama on the way back to our hotel. I hadn't been there since 1982, and much of it seemed familiar. Our main destination this time was Sankeien Garden. This is a lovely garden with old buildings from the 1400-1600s that were moved there in the early 1900s. Although we've had our fill of gardens, too, we did enjoy the winding paths and beautiful lake.

After that, we headed home for dinner and some rest!