Kamakura - Dec 7th

Last Sunday we decided to spend the day at Kamakura.  First we took the train and walked up to the shrine.  After looking around and getting a fortune, we walked through the Kamakura street market where we bought a fried potato patty (it was like a hashbrown but with a panko breading and it was made from purple potatoes) - very good!  We then took the electric line train to another part of Kamakura where we walked down to the beach and let the kids play for about an hour in the sand.  There was a sailboat race going on and Chad was thrilled to watch part of it.  After that we walked to the Great Buddha where Chad took Abby and Tristan inside of it.  The interesting thing about the Great Buddha was that it used to be inside a large temple but a tsunami destroyed it (the temple) about 500 years ago.  Maybe I learned this last time but just didn't pay much attention.  Anything that involves a tsunami certainly peaks my interest now, especially all the tsunami evacuation routes that they have posted.  On the way back we decide to walk the whole way along the beach instead of taking the electric train.  We accidentally passed the turn to go back to the JR train station and once again we had some tired, whining children.  Tristan was up on Chad's shoulders and I gave Abby a piggyback ride for a bit.

Waiting for the train

Jamie's buying a candy dipped grape.

All the kids decide to get one!

I believe this was a wedding going on.

This was the fortune I bought.  In order to get the fortune I had to shake a box full of wooden sticks until one came out a small hole. The attendant looked at the number on the stick and then gave me the fortune that corresponded to it.  Apparently I have good luck :)

And apparently you have to tie your fortune here if you want it to come true.  You can see that all the English ones are pink.

We had to get a picture of Flat Stanley with us. (It's a school project)

You can see the shrine up on the hill in the background.

You can see on the map that all the tsunami evacuation places are marked with a wave symbol (some of these are simply tall buildings)

Lots of fishing boats down on the beach

We had to get Flat Stanley with the Great Buddha too.

Taking a break.

On our way back we walked up this road which leads from the beach, through a Tori gate, all the way up to the original shrine that we first visited (in a straight line).