Today we finally headed out from Tokyo. We hopped on a bus and headed towards the Fuji-Hokone-Izu region.  On the way, we took a trip to see the Great Buddha of Kamakura.  I have to say that it is a well named Buddha… it was huge!  After exploring the shrine at this location, we walked around Kamakura a good bit.  I finally had my first sushi in Japan, and it didn’t disappoint.  I would describe what I had, but I don’t know what it was… other than delicious!  I took pictures though, so perhaps I can figure that out later.  I met a nice guy, Toby, and his wife who were also visiting Japan for the first time.  He was from Malaysia.  We chatted for a bit while deciding which sushi/sashimi was the best 😊

I got my wife a couple presents today, and I’m betting she’s going to love them all.  By the nature of this being shared with her as I write them, I guess I’m giving the surprise away, but I don’t care… I’m excited.  The first is a cool wind-chime bell, which is going to look awesome with the wind-chimes she built last year.  Since she likes making pho so much, I also got her a couple wooden spoons… those cool ones you see at Thai restaurants… that kind of stand on their own.  Finally, I got some good chopsticks.  While I like the Korean ones I bought so long ago, they’re flat… and I like the Japanese ones sooooo much better.  They’re rounded, and the tip gets much smaller.

After we finished another temple/shrine there (I get them mixed up), we headed to a cool shogun period castle.  We walked through the whole area and took some really cool pictures.  They redid the walls, using the same techniques they used back in the day, and it looked pretty darn neato.

Finally we drove through the mountains, and got some cool looks at Mount Fuji.  We ended up at our hotel for the night, which is a traditional Japanese style hotel, where the floors are matted, and the bed is just a thin pad.  We all wore some traditional robes to dinner, and it was very similar to the hot pot we had the other day… but still delicious.  My window has a beautiful view of Mount Fuji!

In just a bit I’m going to take a dip in the hot springs located here at the hotel.  They’re a whole ceremony for how you go to the springs… nude of course.

P.S. It was actually more of a bath-house thing.  It was awesome though!  Crazy hot water, but other than that, what happens in the bath-house, stays in the bath-house!