Japan Trip - Day 5 (May 22, 2003):

Woke up and got a ride over to Taeko's parents' place for some breakfast before heading out on another excursion to see some historical sites of Japan. We planned to head out to Kamakura to check out a bunch of shrines and temples. So, we hopped on the bus that takes us to Fujimino Station where we hopped on a train to Ikebukuro. We then jumped onto the Yamanote line to Shibuya to catch a train to Yokokama. Finally we caught the train that would take us to Kamakura. The entire trip took about two and a half hours.

When we finally arrived in Kamakura, it was time for lunch. So, we stopped at a teuchi soba place (teuchi meaning the restaurant makes their own noodles) that came highly recommended from one of Taeko's friends, Maki, whom we were going to meet later that night. I had the tororo soba, which consisted of cold soba noodles and a dipping sauce made from Japanese yam/potato. Now, I'm not normally a big fan of soba (I'll take udon over soba any day), but this lunch was outstanding.

After lunch, we started on our 4 mile trek (about 6km for our metric friends) through Kamakura to see some of the smaller shrines and temples. I have to admit, though at times it was quite tiring, the walk was pretty cool. This was probably our first time spending a large portion of time walking around outside of a major city and it was very soothing. We ended up stopping at a couple of the temples and walked through them. One thing I learned from this was that every temple seemed to be built into a hillside, with a cemetery where the locals would bury their dead. The grounds of the temples were also very natural. Many of the structures and cemeteries were built in amongst the trees which made it seem like you were cut off from civilization while there. It all seemed really cool, and was very different from the grassy field feel of our own cemeteries. All in all, a cool experience.

After our little hike, we hopped on the train in Kita-Kamakura and arrived back in Yokohama, where we planned to meet up with Maki in Chinatown and have dinner. So, after meeting up with Maki, we walked through Chinatown and ended up at Amazon, which specialized in a kind of Asian-fusion cuisine. All I know is that everything we got was really good. Here we are ( left to right: me, Chris, Shawn, Taeko, Maki, Tony) enjoying our meal (photo courtesy of Tony):



The restaurant was pretty dark, and seemed more like a date-type place than a place to go if you had a big party of people. It also had a hidden bathroom, which was kind of neat. The bathroom door was an automatic sliding door built to look like part of the wall. It had a "table" with a sewing machine on it (photo courtesy of Tony):



In order to open the door, you had to touch a button on the sewing machine and the door would slide open. It was really funny the first time I had to use the facilities.

After dinner, and a few beers, we set off for home. Suddenly, as we were heading from Chinatown to the Yokohama station, we see this huge influx of people heading towards the same station. We then realized that there must have been a baseball game that night at the Yokohama stadium, and it had just ended. Let me tell you, there is nothing more fun and interesting than riding an extremely crowded train while buzzed. It's hard enough to keep your balance on a moving train while sober. But, at least the train was crowded and the mass of bodies helped keep me upright. So, we took the train from Yokohama, transferred to the Yamanote line in Shibuya, transferred to another train in Ikebukuro, and finally arrived at our destination, Fujimino Station, about 2 hours later.

Finally got back to Eiichi's place, and to our surprise, he and his wife planned a little going-away party for us since we were going to be staying with Shawn's sister Joleen the following night. They even bought us a cake. Again, I must stress how much I appreciated them putting us up for all these past days. It was an amazing time, and they were great hosts. We ended up eating the cake and chatting for a long time upstairs, before heading back downstairs to go to bed. However, I could tell that something had been bothering Chris the past couple of days, and this night we finally talked about it. It was a good talk, and I remember feeling more at ease after talking to him. Finally fell asleep sometime in the wee hours of the morning.

All in all, I've gotta say that our trip keeps getting better and better. I had a great time this day, getting out of the city, and checking out a more rural section of Japan. After tomorrow, I will miss the great hospitality of Taeko and her family, but looking forward to staying in Shibuya with Joleen and Eugene. Stay tuned for Day 6, which should be soon to follow.



Posted 5:23 PM by MZ

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