Kamakura... Home of the Daibutsu...

... And who knows how many shrines and temples; yet this was our first homeschooling venture in the Land of the Rising Sun. I signed us up to go on the Kanto Plain Homeschool Group organized field trip to the beautiful town. The trip was not just us wondering about, but we were going to be lead by a group of Japanese tour guides who were doing our tour for free, just so they could practice their English and get certified to give a bilingual tour. I surmised that we could get to know our fellow area homeschoolers better, see sights only Studman and I saw when first in Japan, all the while hoping I like or at least can tolerate the people we just met, and the Unfortunates happily take to walking without my promises of bodily harm should they refuse. Of course I survived, in fact, I enjoyed myself! Why such pessimistic foreboding? A trip through Kamakura means you are hoofin' it, this time with short Unfortunates from each and every point in the ancient capital of Edo period Japan. Believe it or not, the Unfortunates actually had a great time and want to go an another such trip, I can happily oblige them! Muwahhahahaha!!!
Okay,back to the field trip...
Getting to bed after 1am, just to lie there awake, isn't a good idea if you need to get up by 7am. 07:30 I roll out the rack and shuffle over to the Unfortunates rooms to rustle them up. Note to self; get proverbial ass to bed before 01:00hr when the morning comes early. Those accursed boxes could have waited if the damned packers would have just put the phones in the boxes of the rooms they originally were in! What-the--!(in with the good, out with the bad... in with the good... out with the bad...). Good thing we got our yen, packed our bento boxes and put the rainy weather clothing together before bed, it really came in handy... now if I hadn't have been too lazy to do hair too, we would have been golden time wise. Despair begone, Mommy has a plan. Remembering to feed Suicide-girl before leaving in a rush, but looking good; we're armed with my backpack of snacks, bentos, water, and a change of undies for the Crazy Unfortunate... Traditional Japanese toilets can be precarious at best to the unpracticed. (here is an excellent blog entry regarding this issue). We hop into the Box and drive to the parking lot next to the main gate. See, this here be thinkin aheads... knowin n'all that dem'youngins would be plum tuckered out, 'bout th'time we'ds be makin it back heres, see? So we step lively in the drizzle and hail an off base cab, cutting out our 20min walk to the train station by 15min. We hop out, and pulling the Gaijin flag, I tip him 200yen(you don't tip in Japan), due to excitement and appreciation for shutteling us to the station, giving the Unfortunates their first Japanese cab ride, and waiting for me to make change of the annoyingly large 5000yen note all ATM give out. Getting through the ticket readers, we make our way to the platform and we are really on our way! You can just feel the excitement radiating from the Unfortunates; the thrill of their first train ride--city cast in the gray of eminent rain, speeding past the windows. "Too bad you can't ride trains like this in the States," the Older Unfortunate says to me. "Nobody would drive cars 'cause its so easy and really cool!" All this is said with a glow about her face and the Crazy Unfortunate nodding vigorously in agreement. "I can't wait to meet the other homeschoolers," she wistfully says with Crazy chimeing in, "me too." We already met a few, who just happen to be the same age groups of mine and were also going on this outing.

Well, we get to Zushi station--the rendezvous point at 08:53, 30min till the group was to meet up and catch the train to Kamakura. We wait...15min: just us still so we kill some time by wandering around and take a picture just for memories and the blog of the girls at the station (I forgot how to ask in Japanese, 'could you take our picture please,' so I am not in it). We anxiously wait... 10 more minutes; by this time I am starting to kick myself for not rolling out of the rack sooner to check email in the event that they postponed the trip since it was raining when we got up, and had been raining for the past 3 days. I also wished that I had given my cell number to some of the people we met who were going... Agitatedly we wait 5 more minutes... 09:30 and I am starting to wonder if there is ever anyone who tries to make it somewhere on time besides me when you are suppose to leave at that time. 5 more minutes... The Unfortunates glow is definitely out the door and they are starting to resemble the weather in their demeanor. FINALLY, 09:45, just when we were going to catch the train and do our own little tour of Kamakura, I am flagged down by the leader of the leader of this field trip with her tall teenaged son, and sulky, ill tempered preteen boy (who seemed to be in a much improved mood from the last we saw of him). Three minutes later we are met by another family... and that was all, only 9 of us. The other 8 families bowed out due to colds and weather, so by time we made it to Kamakura, we were greated by 9 very happy Japanese guides who look a bit confused with the size of our group. They quickly recovered their shock and we all merrily set off on our personal tour of the city.

First we went to see the Great Buddha--Daibutsu (second largest in Japan), and cleansed ourselves before entering the shrine. We got to go into the bronze cast statue--not for the claustrophobic. We took pictures in front of his sandals that an elementary school made for his feet. Seeing all we could see there, we headed out to a small but beautiful Shinto shrine where we had been given special permission to eat lunch on their grounds (the head tour guide is friends with the head priest's mother). That was great, the kids loved exploring the grounds, seeing> the turtles, fish, frogs, butterflies, and getting a personal tour by the head priest of the shrine.
Once rested, we set off again this time to Hasedera Temple. I would have taken more pictures but I was running out of space on my memory card and many of the sites on the grounds were off limits to pictures. I linked the official website so you could see what we saw. This place was really beautiful and we all would have loved to stay longer, despite the losing the Oldest Unfortunate. One moment, she was right with me and all together as a group we moved to go visit a cave within the temple grounds. We spent about 10 minutes in the cave and came out and did a head count. I realized that she was no longer with the girl she hung back with before we entered the cave and my heart skipped a beat when she was not to be found around the entrance to the cave. Just when me and our personal tour guide were about to go ask the temple for help that is when I hear from across the way a tear soaked, full of relief, "Mommy!" and here she comes running, snot and tears down her face, crying loud as ever to me. Sweet Relief!!! After getting her to stop sobbing loud enough for the gods to hear, I made sure she was all right. Come to find out, she stopped off to the side of the path we were walking to look into one of the many fish ponds right outside the cave. She didn't realize that we all entered the cave and thought she saw me walking out of the temple grounds. She followed "me" until she realized that no one in our group with with "me." That was when she panicked and started shouting for me while running around the area looking for us. No Japanese helped her, but fortunately this was a Thursday, which is when the mandatory AOB/ICR (Area Orientation Brief/Inter-cultural Relations) class has their self-guided explore Japan day. A group of Yokosuka base new comers, who had seen us before, then again at this temple, knew that we were still on the grounds.
They brought her back to the temple and helped her look for us. I was SO happy someone helped her out before too much longer. It was pretty scary, more so for her, I wouldn't want to repeat that with any one.


Now that our short, scary adventure was over our group headed to another train station to ride it back to where we started so that the two other families could go, since they all had business to attend to after 14:00. We said good by to 5 of our tour guides and our little beach det. and the rest of the tour guides decided to take a chance on the break in the weather and see one of the largest shrines in Japan, the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine.
It is huge and we had fun walking down the cherry tree lined lane that runs down the middle of the road, with cars passing on the left and right. The lane was constructed to appear longer than reality, to bring fear and humility to anyone who came to beg audience or enemies to fight with the shogun. I didn't get any good pictures of this shrine, but I did get some. They are not the best thanks to the clouds deciding to pour on us.

Lots sites, new friends, bit of a scare, and just plain fun had been had, and to celebrated the end of such a good day, I treated the Unfortunates to ice cream outside of the station. We said our good-byes to the last of our tour guides, finished up our treats, bought our train tickets, and awaited the train on the platform headed to home.
Hope you enjoyed our little photo journey. Ja-mata ne!