Blogs from Kanagawa, Japan, Asia

I headed to Kamakura as my last stop in Japan for this trip. I had earlier planned to visit Hokkaido, but April is not a great time to go, the winter hasn't fully ended nor is it there, so not the best time. I hope to cover it in another trip. Kamakura is in the Kanagawa prefecture in the Honshu island, a seaside city close to Tokyo. I stayed at Fujisawa, about 30 minutes by train from Kamakura and rested the first day after a long journey from Takayama. Next day, I visited Kamakura and my first stop was the Kotoku-in temple, to see the Daibutsu (Giant Buddha). This Buddha sits in the Amitabha posture, weighs 120 tonnes (made of Bronze) and is 13.5 meters tall. You feel dwarved by the Buddha, but also know that ... read more

The Japanese culture values hard work and social harmony. As modern as this country has become, they seem to continue to practice their traditional values and spiritual beliefs. It is refreshing to visit Japan because the people are polite and respect their elders. This was demonstrated a couple of times when younger people offered us a seat on the train. Yes, it made us feel older, but the kindness and respect were evident. There is also great reverence for the past and many Japanese value this greatly as evidenced by the shrines and embracing traditional clothing. All this is evidenced in our travels..... Nikko A short train ride from Tokyo is the town of Nikko with a population of 80,000. It was nice being out of the hustle and bustle of Tokyo even though we enjoyed ... read more

On a bright, sunny, warm morning the Silver Muse docked in the sprawling port of Yokohama. The first sight we saw was the Ramen Museum. Being great fans of that noodle dish, we felt right at home. Our disembarkation was a smooth process and before we knew it we were fiddling with the money exchange machine and searching out a taxi to take us to our rental house in the seaside town of Hayama. It is important to have a handful of Japanese Yen since credit cards aren't so widely accepted outside of the major cities. The ride down to Hayama was quite scenic and uneventful. I had printed out the address of our rental in both English and kanji (Japanese writing) to help the driver. However once we arrived in Hayama he had a very ... read more

Having learnt our lesson after the trip from Tokyo, Scott took Elodie to the playground to run off some energy while I packed up our AirBNB in Osaka. By the time they came back I was all done so we grabbed our suitcases and headed to the train station. When we arrived at Osaka station we purchased shinkansen tickets to Hakone. We opted to take a slightly later train so we'd have a direct trip. While waiting for the train it became clear that the morning playground trip had been a little too successful as Elodie fell asleep in her pram. We had about an hour and a half wait for our train, so Elodie was awake by the time we were due to board. We were a little worried about how she'd cope being awake ... read more

Heute machte ich nach dem Frühstück meinen vorerst letzten größeren Ausflug in Japan: in die alte Hauptstadt Kamakura. Die Fahrt dauert von Shinjuku aus etwa eine Stunde und dort angekommen nahm ich ein Taxi zum Shinto-Schrein Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. Hier waren die japanischen Gläubigen und Besucher bei weitem in der Mehrheit. Auch ein paar Mönche waren anwesend. Ich machte meine Fotos und lief die Fußgängerzone der Stadt in Richtung Bahnhof zurück. Es hätte noch weitere buddhistische Tempel und eine große Buddha-Statue in der Stadt gegeben, aber das hätte den Rahmen gesprengt. Statt dessen kaufte ich bei einen 7eleven wahrscheinlich erst einmal zum letzten Mal Getränke und genehmigte mir auch wieder eine Dose Premiumbier, bevor ich mit dem Zug nach Tokio zurück kehrte. Hier besuchte ich das Starbucks am Bahnhof Shinjuku und trank einen Frappuccino, bevor ich im ... read more