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We left early on Thursday morning for Kamakura by train. We arrived in Kamakura after about two hours and three transfers.....It was a beautiful day...sunny and warm, but not too hot.

We walked from temple to temple, along with crowds of school kids, older Japanese tourists and a very few "gaijin" (foreigners). We have seen so few non-Japanese here (except for on the base of course), that it almost feels like Kenya, without the scaring of small children! We went all day Friday without seeing one foreigner, until we got near to Matt's apartment.

The roads were lined with shops and restaurants, but the temple grounds were peaceful and immense, with many old trees. The exception was the Shinto Temple we visited, where the crowds were noisy and and there were stands inside the grounds selling things.

We lunched in a tiny restaurant off the main street, and then got on a private train line for a few stops to the great Buddha statue at Hase. I'm sure you've seen photos of this statue.....but it is still amazing "in person". We even got to go inside the belly!

We got back on the same private train line and rode along the coast as the afternoon turned to evening. At the end of the line (Fujisawa), we got off and looked for a hotel. We were walked to a hotel by a very helpful woman in a tourist agency, but we hadn't brought our passports, so they wouldn't let us stay....we tried the "Love Hotel" next door (a type of hotel that mainly deals in hourly stays....) but they wouldn't give us a room for the entire night. The man at the front desk in a love hotel is completely hidden, so he cannot see who you are...a very strange exchange!

We found another hotel on the other side of the station, where we could stay without our passports....it was new, impeccably clean, and had a spa-type soaking pool upstairs....

The next day, we slept in til 8:00 and took a train further down the coast to Atami and then on to Ito. Both are resort beach towns with pretty waterfronts. We walked around, ate, and did some shopping, before heading back to Matt's in time to babysit my nephew and a friend. We were on four train lines for a total of 48 stops and four hours....!

I love the feeling of getting on a train or bus for a long trip in a foreign place: I feel deliciously free, with a slight ache for home, and ready to sit back and wait for whatever the trip brings.

We saw great sunset views of Mt Fuji from the train. It is so symmetrical and perfect.....

We made only one mistake: we couldn't of course understand the announcements, and suddenly realized we were heading back to way we had come.....had to get off at the next stop and take a train that continued in the right direction....

Pictures are more important than words, so here they are:

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