*beautiful & historical Kamakura*

Ok, so I know I shouldn't have gone travelling AGAIN, but my friend Danielle's contract is coming to an end, so I reasoned that I "had" to go because this would probably be the last time I ever see her. Danielle had never been to Kamakura, and neither have I so that's where we decided to go. To save money I took the local trains, it took 6 hours each way!

Kamakura is in Kanagawa prefecture, neighbor to Yokohama and Zushi (where I stayed for training). Other than the big buddha, and the fact that it was the capital of Japan prior to Tokyo, I had no idea what to expect. First on the "must-do" list was to visit the Daibutsu (big buddha).






Now that cherry blossom season has begun, they have sakura-flavored EVERYTHING! At first I thought it was rather disgusting...they have sakura cakes, sakura tea, sakura manapua, sakura ice cream, and MORE! I decided to try the ice-cream, because you can't knock it, till you try it...it was refreshing! It did taste exactly how the flowers smell, but it was very light..mmmmm!


From the Daibutsu we walked to Hase-Kannon Temple. Hase-Kannon is where they have an area dedicated to the children of Japan, and to pray for all of the babies that had been aborted. It's a very beautiful, peaceful, and yet depressing place to be!









Kamakura is usually done as day-trip because it's a small town and there's nothing to do at night. We stayed at a very cute guest house called New Kamakura Hotel. I recommend staying here if you're ever in Kamakura...The rooms were very spacious and the staff was very friendly.




The next day we had breakfast at Coffee Iwata. It's near the station and is VERY popular for it's breakfast. At Kamakura Hotel we met a girl named Aya who worked there and she suggested that we eat the pancakes here. We were sure glad we did...it was a little expensive but our table overlooked a little garden and the food was yum!



After breakfast we were ready to begin another full day of temple hunting!! There are dozens of temples around Kamakura, a lot like Kyoto and Nara. We started with the most popular, Hachiman shrine.







Next stop: Sugimotodera temple. This is the oldest temple in Kamakura, dating back to 734!!!!



We also stopped at the beach because Kamakura is popular for it's beaches, and is a popular surf spot in the summer. For that reason this area has an obsession with Hawaii. There were quite a few "Hawaiian shops" and a couple of hula schools!! Outside of one shop I found this...



Ahhhhh!!!! Hawaiian Sun! Natsukashii ne! I miss home a lot right now...I'm sick of the cold, and I don't like going to the beach in a coat and not being able to jump in the water. The cherry blossoms need to hurry up...I'm getting kinda futless. haha :)

Ok, well that was my weekend...Today was a national holiday here in Japan so I spent the entire day cleaning! I'm so proud of myself haha...Today is the first official day of spring, and it should be any day now that the cherry blossoms come out in full-bloom! On the news it predicts that in Tokyo it should all come out starting this Friday, so we'll see! *fingers crossed*

I hope everyone at home is enjoying the warm weather! grrrrrr i'm jealous! hahaha love you :)

jaaa ne, bye bye!

Toyama-ken a.k.a. SNOW COUNTRY

So this past weekend Michelle and I decided to be a little crazy (like always) and visit our friend Stacey that lives in Toyama. Toyama is FAR from me. Toyama prefecture is north-west of Nagano, and right on the coast of the Japan Sea. In some areas it has actually gotten colder this past couple of weeks than it was before. Weird huh? It snowed the entire time I was there, and I heard that it even snowed in Iwaki a little this past weekend.

So I left Iwaki Saturday night. My last class ends at 8, and the last train was at 8:20 so I had to sprint out of there! From Iwaki I went to Ueno, and then from Ueno I took the midnight train to Toyama. That same train stopped in Omiya where Michelle joined me :) It was a 5.5 hour train ride and so we brought along a little bit of alcohol and snacks to tide us over.

The Express Noto...it was VERY OLD train!! There were a lot of people taking pictures of it, I'm guessing it must be from the 70s or something because it was OLD!!!!!!!!

Our mess

"Hmm...this little can is definitely not going to do the trick..."



We arrived in Toyama at 5:15a.m. where Stacey met us bright and early!!! It was freezing! When we got to her apartment, she had a "happy birthday" sign waiting, and she and Michelle had got me little presents...so cute!! It definitely made up for last weekend, spending my bday alone!


Later that day we decided to check out Ainokura Villages in Johana. Ainokura village is famous for it's gassho style houses. People can go there and stay in the houses overnight, and during the summer you can camp there. Ainokura village is also a World Heritage Site, so it's land is protected.
It took about 2 hours by train to get there, and the further we went, the more "country" it became...


"We're not in Tokyo anymore..."

Johana Train Station

In the middle of nowhere


Freezing!

Welcome to Ainokura Village






Lunch at Ainokura




It was an amazing trip!! Most people in Japan will go their lifetime without ever visiting Ainokura. It was so beautiful, and so full of history that we really felt lucky to be there, despite the freezing cold...That night we had dinner in Toyama and went to sing some karaoke.




Monday morning we decided to take advantage of all the snow and go snowboarding up Mount Tateyama!! It was a breathtaking journey...it was just covered in snow!!! It felt like had walked through the closet to Narnia or something...

Arare, cookies, and ritz crackers...breakfast of champions


Snowboarding was quite an adventure. It was the first time any of us had been in such conditions!!! The powder was waist-high and really choppy at the beginning of the run...The beginner slopes were closed so we had to start at the top. It was so windy and snowy that there were times when you couldn't see five feet in front of you...At the beginning we couldn't even move, and had to trudge our way through the snow. We finally gave up and took our boards off and hiked half way down the hill until it smoothed out a little and we were able to actually snowboard...It was a lot of fun, and I'm really starting to learn the different types of conditions and how to adjust each one...the last time we went at Inawashiro it was the opposite where there wasn't a whole lot of snow, and it was hard and icy.










It was such an AWESOME weekend, I really liked Toyama! It was very country, but there are so many things to do! We are already planning our return in the summer so we can hike and camp-out on Mt. Tateyama when everything is green, NOT white. :)