Kamakura

Kamakura is a coastal town in Kanagawa prefecture, less than one hour south of Tokyo.
Kamakura became the political center of Japan, when Minamoto Yoritomo chose the city as the seat of his new military government in 1192. The Kamakura government continued to rule Japan for over a century, first under the Minamoto shogun and then under the Hojo regents.
After the decline of the Kamakura government in the 14th century and the establishment of its successor, the Muromachi or Ashikaga government in Kyoto, Kamakura remained the political center of Eastern Japan for some time before losing its position to other cities.
Today, Kamakura is a very popular tourist destination. Sometimes called the Kyoto of Eastern Japan, Kamakura offers numerous temples, shrines and other historical monuments.

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha that is located on the grounds of the Kotokuin Temple. With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan (the largest is located in the Todaiji Temple in Nara).
The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were washed away by a tsunami tidal wave in the end of the 15th century, and since then the Buddha stands in the open air.





Zeniarai Benten Shrine is a popular shrine in western Kamakura, where people flock in order to wash their money (zeniarai means "coin washing"). It is said that money washed in the shrine's spring, will double.

Hotel New Kamakura was our hotel. It was very nice. We stayed in a Japanese syle room. A Japanese style room is where you sleep on a futon (bascially is a feather filled pad that you lay on that is 2 inches thick). Its not to uncomfortable to sleep on.

Ethan loved the futon too. So much we ended having to make a bed of his own.

We got robes to wear too and Ethan decided he wanted to be karate kid. He's ready with his fighting stance but not sure who he is going to fight.

This is just a few of pics from this trip. I won't bore you with all the temple pics we took. Overall it was an ok trip. We stayed two nights but could of done everything in 1 day. I bet we walked about 20 miles in 3 days and climbed 1,000 stairs. Randy carried Ethan most of the trip on his back so he is a little wore out from that. We had good weather so that made it nice. Not sure what we would of done if it rained. The tv in our room was only Japanese stations so couldn't watch tv.

Nikko

Nikko is a small city at the entrance to Nikko National Park. It is most famous for the Toshogu, Japan's most lavishly decorated shrine complex.Nikko has been a center of Shinto and Buddhist mountain worship for many centuries, and Nikko National Park continues to offer scenic, mountainous landscapes, lakes, waterfalls, hot springs, wild monkeys and hiking trails.
We took a trip to Nikko and it was so neat. There were tons of shrines and temples we got to see and go into. It is about a hr from where we live.



All the saki breweries send there barrles of saki(alcohol) to Nikko to have them blessed.

This is one of most beautiful gates in Japan. It was not finished because it was to close to perfection which is looked down upon in the Japanese culture.

Down a ways from Nikko are three big water falls. We only made it to one but we want to go back to see them all. You drive way up in the mountains and very curvey roads. On our way up we actually saw a monkey. Nikko is famous for these monkeys. You don't want to get to close because they will attack you. We took a quick pic from the car and kept moving. These are the monkeys where the speak no evil, hear no evil, and see no evil saying came from.