Japan 2014 Wednesday

Wednesday - This was our Japanese temple/shrine day. Leanna drove us to Kamakura where we spent the day hopping on different trains and visiting different temple sites. The following pics are not necessarily in order of the temples visited.

We bought some rice balls at a Family Mart for our lunch. We didn't know which flavor we were getting since the labels were in Japanese, but they turned out pretty good.

These beautiful flowers were common at some of the temple sites.

Hasedera was a shrine which had The Goddess of Mercy with eleven heads. She was pretty impressive. We met the cutest group of Japanese women there. We offered to take their group picture, and they were so cute about it. They wanted pictures with all of us as well. They charmed us with their cute smiles and sweetness. 

We love how men in uniform, like policeman or security guards, are so helpful. If they approach you, it's not to tell you you're doing something wrong, it's to help you-- offer to take a picture or direct you somewhere. When we were taking our pictures with the group of cute ladies, the security guard held back people so they wouldn't ruin our picture. 

One of many train stations we frequented

Charming walkway up to the temple

The last shrine was Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. We enjoyed the charming walk up to it, and it was mostly cool to look at from a distance. 

One of two guardians each temple has. They keep out evil spirits.

While walking along the road we saw a octopus chip stand. We stopped and watched the whole process of taking octopus and making it into a huge chip. It was quite fascinating. However, after a couple of bites we decided we didn't care for it at all.

Octopus cracker
Watch the demo below...

This shrine was the money-washing shrine. They believe if you wash your money there, it will bring you greater fortune.

This shrine had a fox theme...tons of little foxes were lined up and all around the shrine.

We took quite a hike through nature and then made our way to the Buddha shrine. Buddha was gigantic!

We ate our dinner at a sidewalk joint that said Casual Japanese Dining. We enjoyed some things, and not others. We feel we really have done our duty in eating authentic Japanese food.

Close to our hotel

In our hotel room.  Leanna slept on this tatami mat where shoes are not allowed. We're glad our tables at home have regular chairs.

Okay, tonight was definitely a first. We made it to Hakone, and we're staying in the Senkei Hotel. They have a nice Onsen which is a public bath up on the roof. You get naked, bathe yourself and then get in the very warm semi-shallow pool of very warm water. Yep! We did that. Only because we were the only ones there at the time and it's such a Japanese thing to do! Ha! At one point we sat together on a short rock shelf and we decided that even though we were bum to bum on the rickshaw, we had never sat quite THAT bum to bum! We got some good laughs!

So cute in our yukatas

Instruction inside our room on how to use onsen.  Very funny.

One of many "not-quite-right" signs they try to translate.

Japan 2014 Thursday

Thursday - After a short walk, we checked out of our cute hotel, and as we left, one Japanese fellow did a full bow in the doorway as we pulled out, and the other Japanese clerk went out in the road and helped us get on our way. They are always so courteous and kind. 

Then we went to the Yunessun which are the flavored hot tubs. We sat in all the tubs -- red wine (we got to splash some real red wine on us), beer, green tea, coffee and yogurt. 

My favorite part was Dr. fish where hundreds of little fish attack your legs and feet and nibble your skin. It tickles and feels very strange, but it's very fun. We shared two small cups of soup-- pumpkin and sweet potato--and a frozen crepe. The crepe was definitely the best part.

Then we went on an adventure to add seven years to our lives. We took a train and a cable car up to some volcanic hot spots (reminded me of yellow stone), and we bought some hard-boiled eggs which were cooked there in the spring where the elements turn them black. You peel the black covering off, eat the egg, and wallah!-- you've added seven years to your life!

Enjoying our black (vanilla flavored) and yellow (egg-flavored) ice-cream cones.

Then we went to Odawara Castle. We walked through it quickly-- not much of interest inside-- more like a museum. Got some good pics outside.

Then we went home and Mike and the kids joined us for dinner where we had yakinuku which is food you grill yourself over some coals in the middle of your table, and there are lots of choices on the table for sauces to dip the meat in. Yummy. No one in Japan expects a tip for service, they just gladly give it as part of their job. We love that! Another thing of note is that they don't have a lot of public garbage cans. You're just expected to take care of your own trash.