Day 1: About 18 hours after leaving the SLC airport, we arrived in Japan! To be honest, my first thought upon entering the airport went something like, "This is crazy. What am I doing here?" And then upon entering the bathroom, "I could sleep in here." Because, little did I know, Japan is the cleanest place in the world. Probably. The airport was immaculate. As was everywhere else we went. And the funniest thing is, there isn't a garbage can in sight. It's still a mystery to me what people do with their garbage. They must slyly slide it in their bags and dispose of it in the privacy of their own homes. Anyway, B and I got to the airport and began our search for M. Luckily, we found M and his friend J right as we walked out of the baggage claim area. Naturlich, I was terrified we wouldn't find him. That would have caused not a headache, but a migraine. We dropped our bags off at J's host man's home and then as M would say, "made like trees and leafed" off to Kamakura. Kamakura, along with every other site in Japan it seems, is a UNESCO site. It was the first Japanese capital to be organized by the samurai, or Shogunate.
Kamakura is the home of the Daibutsu (Great Buddha), the second largest in Japan. Also in Kamakura are the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and the Hase-dera Temple.
Before I go any further, I need to mention the free guides. Before going to Japan, Kathy B. told us all about how she had free tour guides for each city there. So, I emailed a boat load of people and set up a guide for every day. In Kamakura, our guides were Fumi and Mai. They took us around to the sites (extremely helpful as we could not read anything there, everything is written in the Chinese Kanji characters) and we also went to lunch with them.
Lunch: After eating my first meal in Japan, I now know why the Japanese stay so thin. The secret: chopsticks. My first meal with them was a disaster. We ate soba noddles (pretty much spaghetti dipped in soy sauce) and I could barely grab onto any of those slippery things.
To finish off a grand first day in Japan, we took a stroll around Tokyo Tower (which strangely enough, looks identical to the Eiffel Tower), went to MacDonald's (there's just something delicious about an American hamburger in a foreign place. I hate to admit it but, B and I went there 4 times in 10 days), then B and I crashed in our miniature hotel room (I could nearly touch all the walls in it at the same time).
Next up: Bidets, church, monkeys, marionettes, and museums.
I am so intrigued with how clean Japan is. For some reason, I have never been tempted to even entertain the idea of touring in Japan. I have always felt that I am more of a European kind of girl, but the idea of all that cleanliness has me thinking that I must go there next. Plus, I love those World Heritage sites which I am told are abundant in Japan.
ReplyDeleteNaturally, you were terrified. Naturally, things went exactly as I told you they would (that we would have no trouble finding him).
ReplyDeleteYes, I understand Japanese figures now too-the chopsticks and combo of the cold soba noodles-not overly appetizing-is quite enough to make anyone refrain from over-eating.
I love MacDonald's.
McDonalds is so much better in foreign countries!
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