Back in Time

Hello! We're going to back track a bit and show you some pictures of Tokyo and some of the places we saw while we were staying there. For now we'll try blogging every Monday, that way in case anything interesting happened over the weekend we can tell you about it. This weekend we spent time getting our bearings around Tomioka, finding good grocery stores, a good art store, replacing Franklins bicycle seat, and ordinary things like that.
So... As we're new at this I'm not sure if I'll be able to post pictures they way I want so bear with us and hopefully we can all figure this out together! Hey, at least you don't have to translate our entries from Japanese to English, right! :)
Getting to know the train system was an interesting experience, and had it not have been for Franklin, I'd still be downtown Tokyo sleeping under a bridge somewhere! We managed to find our way to Ginza district which is a popular shopping area. That is if you like Gucci, Dior, Hermes and Armani. Sure, I'll buy that little black purse! Excuse, me, what!?!? $600.00? hmmm. Needless to say we didn't buy anything other than train tickets. It was cool to go at night and see all the lights, though. Right in the same area (Ginza) is the Imperial Palace Park, where the emperor lives, and you can tour the grounds but the palace is only open two days a year. The park is beautiful and when your in it it's hard to think you're in the middle of a city.
A couple days later we took the train to Kamakura. This is a touristy little beach town in a bay. It's also famous for the Diabutsu, which is a giant Budda, that was made out of bronze in the 13th century. Everyone else in Japan was also at Kamakura that day as it was Golden Week (a national holiday)! We took side streets and alleys and stayed away from the mobs and managed to find our way to the Diabutsu. It was pretty impressive. It had a temple over it until a tidal wave wiped it out back in the 14oo's. And for 20 yen you could go inside of it. Kamakura is also famous for it's temples and shrines so we checked out a couple of them. Very interesting, however, I don't have the information with me right now, which temples we saw exactly, and when they were built. But we did see the biggest one and I have a bunch of pictures, which hopefully I'll be able to post. :) We also found a hiking trail which took us way up above the town and gave us a beautiful view of the bay and the town below. And it ended up being way longer than we expected. Probably a lot longer than all the Japanese girls we passed with high-heels on, expected too! They are waaaay too into fashion in Tokyo! Thank goodness, Tomioka is a good old "country" town and much more relaxed when it comes to fashion! Okay. That's all for now folks. Thanks to Anna and Chattyhouse wife for leaving comments! If you're reading this leave a comment, so I know it's not all for nought! Until next time....!