Not kyoto yet... soon

Kyoto stories and pictures are en route, but first there’s kamakura, aksaka, the emperors palace, and Tsukiji. Joe and I went to kamakura and our day of temples ensued. One of the aspects to sightseeing that I can not stress enough and that I always underestimate is the amount of walking required. Basically, you get up early and go to bed late, and sit down little if ever along the way. If you have seen any pictures that appear they were taken on or near the ground, this angle was not a matter of art or perspective – it is a result of a very tired photographer/sightseer.

Kamakura was neat, the long day of temples, as was the case when Angela and I visited them, was capped off by the huge Buddha. My last set of kamakura pics and text can be found here http://kaskeljapan.blogspot.com/2007/03/ang-day-4.html

For me, the most memorable thing about Joe and my trip to kamakura was what we thought was a hidden passage to a well, which eluded me when I was last at kamakura with Angela. This mystical well was supposed to be a main attraction at one of the main temples, but like the emperor’s palace, still remains hidden. The passage Joe and I saw was basically a hole, about 6 feet high at its opening, with a narrowing width and height as you continued into the cave. After about 12 feet in, Joe and I decided that the lack of light and lack of English signs outside were enough to turn us around. Not to let an adventure slip away, I took a picture of the cave and the Japanese sign outside. I then showed this picture on my camera’s lcd screen to the ticket taker at the beginning of the temple. Far from sayingn that the cave was off-limits, she quickly handed us two flashlights. Feeling more comfortable, Joe and I returned to the cave, this time following it to its end. Sadly, there was no well. In fact, there was not much of anything. We figure it was a tomb, and we were basically walking over the graves of people buried long ago. On a side-note, as we left the cave, I made the mistake of directing my flashlight toward the ceiling. On the ceiling was a spider. The spider was about 5 inches and freaked the heck outa me. I quickly pushed Joe out of the cave and shook out every article of clothing I had on. Yuck.
Also Joe was kind enough to take a wrong turn as he was leading us back to the train station. The turn led us to a beautiful beach.