Day 4 in Japan was one of our spontaneous short days, in which we slept in and recouped a little from Tokyo Disney Sea. We made it to the apartment just before midnight the night before, standing most of the 2 hour train trip back.
There really wasn't much of a plan for this day. I did the research for all the places and things we could do, and there were two things that we hadn't done yet that I wanted to do: Visit Meiji Shrine, Asakusa, Skytree, and go to Mount Takao. With our last two days in Japan I wanted to separate those things between our last days, and hopefully squeeze in Akihabara for Michael. Our tentative immediate plan was Meiji in Harajuku, and that's what we woke up planning to do.
But as soon as I stepped outside of the Apartment, feeling the air and sunshine, I declared, "How do you guys feel about the beach?" And it was decided, we were going to revisit Enoshima and trek onto Kamakura.
But first we had to visit the post office Michael found to buy stamps and mail off postcards. It was a bit of a walk, but so worth it. And we had a fun phone call home during the experience.
I cannot recommend enough, when you're on vacation, to buy a few postcards and jot down some of your memories, and then mailing them to yourself. All the postcards I sent arrived the week after we got back, and it was so much fun reading them and seeing the postmark.
And then we found a super yummy bakery next to the train station. I bought pizza toast and some kind of hot dog pastry. I was too busy eating them to take a picture. Oh, but the eating!
This is very important: There are so many cultural rules when it comes to eating in Japan. You can't eat or drink while walking. You can't eat or drink on the train. You can't sit on the curb or against a building wall to munch. Here in Utah, if we were super hungry and bought yummy goodies, it's totally acceptable to immediately leave the store, lean against the building, and chow down. Not so in Japan. We were starving but weren't sure where to eat. We walked a couple blocks and found an elderly couple eating lunch on a bench in a small neighborhood park. We figured, "If they can eat here, we can eat here!" And we ate. And it was good.
A funny story. A couple weeks ago when I was at California Adventure, I had the Shellie May Disney bear from Tokyo Disney Sea on my purse, and one of the photo plus photographers saw it, and he mentioned he was in Tokyo several months before. And then we had a fun, quick conversation about the cultural restrictions. He joked about losing 15 pounds on the trip, because eating was so difficult, and he didn't know how to order stuff. In Shinjuku he and his friends bought lunch, but couldn't eat it (as stated above), and it took them 5 hours to find a park where they could eat! True story. We had a good laugh in understanding over that.
On the Odakyu line the train signs switch between Japanese and English.
Enoshima again! This is outside Katase-Enoshima train station.
I never found out what the building poking through the trees was. I think it's a giant Buddha, but I'm not really sure. The next time I venture back there I will investigate.
Mount Fuji!!! It's BEARLY visible. It was easier to see in person then what this image proclaims, but it was so nice finally seeing Fuji.
A cat sitting outside the character shop, getting a whole lot of attention by passer-by's.
At another train station in Enoshima, getting ready to hop onto the train to Kamakura.
These cute little birds were hanging outside the train station.
Krista and I got the best seats on this fun train!
Honestly, I loved this train ride. It's about 30 minutes from Enoshima to Kamakura, and the atmosphere was nice and relaxed. People talked and laughed on the train! And it runs right along the ocean, just behind houses and streets. We caught the train during what I call "golden hour," which is just before sunset when everything is aglow. So beautiful.
A torii right at the entrance of a shopping street.
There's really great shopping here, especially if you want to buy specialty cultural items.
The Miyazaki shop.
There's so many Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines to visit, but with the sun setting around 5 pm there wasn't much we could do.
Tsurugaoka Hachimangū was the only shrine we could visit, but it's the most important shrine in the city. It was closing when we got there, but thankfully we were able to see it.
It got dark way too quickly!
On the way back to the station we walked down the long street of stores and found some treasures. Michael thankfully walked into a music store that focused mainly on handcrafted Ocarina's: Ocarina-Shirai. The man who runs the store made all the instruments. He spoke no English, our Japanese is super poor at best, and yet we managed to communicate.
I was just short the funds to buy this Alto Ocarina in the key of F, but Krista was gracious and gave me some money so I could get it. One of my greatest treasures from the trip.
It's amazing how we weren't planning on visiting Kamakura at all. It was an afterthought, but I'm so glad we went. It was one of our favorite places we visited.
(Photos by Sarah and Michael Stufflebeam)
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