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.