guests!

Our guests arrived yesterday, and we've been busy ever since. This morning (well, at 11 when we finally managed to get everyone out of the house), we hit the road for Kamakura, where we saw a giant old buddha and washed our money in a temple for good luck. The Kamakura Daibutsu is one of Japan's oldest surviving large Buddha statues, dating back to the Kamakura period in the 1200s. The bronze statue is joined to the ground with a fairly sturdy foundation, which is why the statue survived the 15th century tsunami that washed away the temple that used to house it. After everyone admired Buddha in all his glory (he's pretty fat, there's a lot of glory to go around), we went on a medium-length hike to Zeniarai Benten, a shrine contemporaneous with the great Buddha. It was constructed by the shogun in the 1200s, and quickly gained favor with merchants, who went to the shrine to wash their money. Somehow, the locals came to believe that money washed in the spring waters of the temple grounds would double (or better) in value within a year or so. We took out a couple hundred dollars worth of yen and washed them thoroughly.

Afterwards, we headed to Chinatown in Yokohama for dinner. The prawns in chili sauce were tasty. Tomorrow we were going to go to Nikko, but the weather is supposed to be lousy, so I think we're going to stay in.

More reports from the field to come later.