Today was raining which isn't so great for sight-seeing; however, it does mean that there were fewer people. We went to Kamakura to see the Great Budda and Hase Dera temple. Personally I like Daibutsu (Great Budda) - I find it very peaceful. Mom and Donnie were expecting him to be bigger though. Hiroshi went up inside him and was upset because "he's heartless". Daibutsu is 750 years old. The statue has been exposed to the elements for 500 years - it is in surprisingly good condition. It used to be in a temple but a tsunami came and washed the temple away (must have been a huge tsunami). Budda however stayed.
Then we went to Hase Dera temple. It is really nice. There is a nice garden at the entrance and then quite a few temples. One of the first things you see when you walk up to the temple area is Jizou. These are small statues that represent babies lost through miscarriage of abortion. It is actually quite sad because there are hundreds of them. Women come and dress them so they stay warm.
When we got to the main temple area, mom was all excited because there was a cemetary. There are several temples there. We rubbed the statue of Daikokuten who is the god of fortune. Mom lit candles in front of Kannon, the Buddhist goddess of mercy. The statue is said to be 1200 years old. Then we walked around the sutra ... basically you push on a wooden post sticking out of the library which is circular and centered on a pole. Hard to describe. Anyway, walking once around is supposed to impart all of the knowledge of reading the sutras themselves. Then we went to the little restaurant and had tea to warm up. And took pictures of the ocean before leaving. At that point we were really tired, so got back on the train to go home.
For dinner we had katsu, or pork cutlet. Very filling. Then we came home and relaxed and mom and Donnie packed all of their stuff. It fit! Not sure how mom got her bamboo hat into her suitcase, but it worked!