I will admit that I didn't do only studying in the time I've been gone. Two Saturdays in a row, I took day trips with friends to areas outside of Tokyo. The first place we went was Kawagoe. It a bit of a historical town, and there is a street over there that has a bunch of old fashion Japanese style buildings. There is another street dubbed "candy lane" that has a bunch of shops that sell Japanese sweets. OH! And I got to go inside my first castle! Granted, Japanese castles are much different than western ones, but it was really cool! We also saw a rather large shrine while we were up there. And I took lots and lots of pictures (much to the chagrin off my friends!).
We found a used kimono shop while we were up there too! And, several of the girls bought yukata (summer/cotton kimonos) to wear to festivals later this summer. I didn't find any that I liked well enough to buy that day. BUT, last Friday we found another used kimono outlet, and I DID find one then. It's blue and has gold fish all over it! I'll be sure to post pictures when we wear them out!
The next weekend we went down to Kamakura. One of my friends told me that Kamakura has historical roots as a capital of Japan. So, there is a lot of things to do down there. We bought a day pass that allowed us to take as many trains as we wanted. So, we were hopping all over the place. We got to see another beautiful temple, and we even saw a Japanese style wedding! I took pictures (I'm not sure if that's strange or not). I thought it was interesting that the groom was a foreigner too!
We also got to see one of Japan's Big Buddha while we were down in Kamakura. He was huge! It was also the first time that I have gone to a religious site in Japan where I partook in washing my hands before going up to the sacred site. You have to wash your hands in a certain order (I think its left, then right but I can't be sure) and some people even wash their mouths before heading deeper into the temple area! It was interesting to learn all of this from my friend.
From Kamakura we made a quick stop over to Enoshima, which is a small island close to where we had been hanging out all day. There was another temple (that was a bit of a mountainous hike to get to) that we wanted to see. Unfortunately, we got there just after sun set and we were worried that the hike up to the temple would be a bit dangerous in the dark. But, there are a bunch of cool shops in Enoshima that we got to see. And, Enoshima is famous for having lots of feral cats. Feral cats have a special place in my heart because of Jade, my own kitty who was born feral. I got scolded by a friend for jumping in front of Japanese people's pictures to pet the cats.... I couldn't resist!!
These two weekends are shaping up to be a bit more relaxed. I'm actually looking forward to not having to go anywhere! Although, I was recently introduced to a new riddle game that seems to be taking up hours of everyone's time. It's become a bit of a group effort to solve each level! It's called Overture Facile. Has anyone heard of it? I think the English riddles go all the way up to levels in the 70s. Currently, my apartment has made it up to level 41!
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