Day 18

And so our trip came to an end. We took the trains to Narita airport and the girls bid a fond farewell to Nana and Papa and Japan. We had a wonderful time and it was such an amazing opportunity to be able to go. We are so grateful to my Dad and Stepmom for making it possible for us to come. We had the most incredible time. And then we all crashed. Poor Dietrich had to go right back to work, but for the rest of us, I think we managed to sleep in until about 11 a.m. each morning for about a week.

Day 17

I was so thrilled for this day because it was finally clear enough to see Mt. Fuji! We went to church and then that night my Dad and his wife Kym had invited over their friends Imtiaz and Kimmi who were wonderful. And especially generous of them, they gave Kym and me a kimono. It was so nice and unexpected. And Kimmi performed a traditional Japanese fan dance which was so neat to watch, the girls especially enjoyed it and tried to do their own fan dances afterward.

Day 16

This was a super busy, fun-filled day. We met my Dad at Shibuya Station and saw the statue of Hachiko, the loyal akita dog who waited for his owner at the train station for ten years after his owner's death. Talk about loyalty. Then we took the JR trains to Kamakura, a beachy coastal town a little south of Tokyo. It was really neat. They have a tree-lined walkway down their main street, we walked through that and ended up at Hachiman-gu Shrine where we saw several traditional Shinto weddings. It was kind of odd to see a wedding that was so public, but it was neat seeing the all traditional attire.
We stopped at a Chinese restaurant for lunch where Dietrich and my Dad ordered a bowl of the world's spiciest soup. I am a a total wuss when it comes to spice so I wasn't even going to attempt it. We had some great dishes though and then we walked down to the beach. We saw some surfers, and sun-bathers, and a really neat kite with a long line of fish tails trailing off of it. Then we walked up to the Great Buddha. It was really neat to see. We rode on an old-fashioned train back to the main station and then took the trains back to Tokyo. Going to Kamakura was definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Day 15

Dietrich and I took the girls and walked back up to the Kiyomizu-dera Temple in the morning. Leading up to it were several shops so we bought a few things and then headed back to the hotel to get ready to return to Tokyo. Another quick trip on the Shinkansen and we were back. And of course we had to have a bento box on the bullet train to get the full Japanese experience. That night we left the girls with a babysitter and went to the temple.