We started by finding the small train line in Kamakura. It's really cute. It looks like a cross between a turn of the century British built Asian train and a San Fran trolley car. It took us closer to the temple we were heading for. We strolled down the street to see the Daibutsu which I've visited before in the Spring. It's a huge hollow bronze Buddha statue. It was weird to see it in the winter in such sparse surroundings. So much of Kamakura is full of amazing gardens and greenery but during the winter it's much more, well, dead. We went inside the Buddha guy. It's kind of eerie. You kind of expect to see bats inside. It's like a cave.
Then we headed down the road again for Hasedera Temple. It was nice to see the ocean. It was such an incredibly beautiful day. Through much of the year most of Japan is smoggy and hazy, but through the winter it's quite crisp and clear. I really like the weather this time of year here. So the view of the ocean was stunning. We walked up the hill a little further to get a good glimpse of the town and area. We saw people surfing down in the bay. Oh! speaking of views. When we were on the train on the way to Kamakura we got a fab view of Fuji right square out the window. I saw Fuji for the first time on Christmas Eve with Paul and LeeAnne, but this time it was a really good view. It was totally cool.
We headed back on the train for our usual, recap the day English/Japanese lesson that Yoko and I tend to do. We go over all the words and phrases that we've taught each other throughout the day and write them down so we can remember them. I worked on the verb 'neru' to sleep, and the phrase structure of because. It's different in Japanese. In English, we say "I want to go to sleep because I'm tired", the reason follows because. You can still say "Because I'm tired, I want to go to sleep" that's not switching it around cause the reason is still following because. In Japanese, it's different 'Nemui kara netai' "I'm tired because I want to go to sleep." It might work logically in this example but not really. Think of it this way. "I'm going to put a sweater on because it's cold outside" vs. "It's cold outside because I'm going to put a sweater on". Not so much logical in English. So that was mine. Plus day counters, sort of like saying December fifth instead of December five, only they're really different in Japanese. December 5 = juu ni gatsu (dec) go (five) is WRONG. It's juu ni (12) gatsu (month) itsuka (5th day). Not 'go' – 'itsuka'. Nothing like it.
From there we decided we hadn't eaten nearly enough so we went to Funabashi city. We stopped at the 7 floor dollar store so everyone could buy wool for me to make them hats. Then we went to the usual kaiten sushi place across the road and ate waaaaay too much raw fish. It's soooo good. I always try something new. This time it was Tai. It was a massive hunk of it and I had to bite it in half just so I could eat it. It's Seabream I think. It's a really light fish, unlike salmon, but not white. It has a really soft texture like salmon but it's very light tasting, not heavy fishy. Quite good. I also had my usual of salmon and onions, clams, crab, tuna, I didn't have eel, and what else? I can't remember. It was tasty but we were all fried so it was time to go home. Especially seeing that I had had maybe just over an hour and a half sleep the night before. It was a really good day.
And then it wasn't.
It was like 6:30 in the morning back home so I woke my family all up by calling the house in such a state that I could barely speak. I just wanted to hear stories of when I was a kid, of times of innocence and of times when I was safe. I feel like I'm but a shell of myself like the tree we saw at the shrine. I talked to Dad for like 2 hours and then to Ryan for like an hour. It made me so thankful again for the amazing unit that my family is. He prayed with me for quite some time and I finally went to sleep around 3:30.
