Feb 12th ……we were to have gone into Nagoya. As mentioned in the previous post, we passed by it in order to get to Tokyo earlier when high winds and rotten weather were expected. That did not materialize. I don’t know what the captain was thinking. Maybe, Tokyo Bay is too shallow. It took a long time to get into the port of Tokyo. He might have thought we’d be thrown off course. I don’t know, but we did not get to do or see anything on land. It’s our Linda’s birthday so we did celebrate her by going to “Jacques”, having a wonderful dinner and drinking champagne.

Feb13….Our excursion today goes to Kamakura

Our guide today is Romy-sad though understandable, her father told his daughter that Japan was guilty and so she grew up hating her own country. 

It’s an 1.5 hour to our first destination…. Historical Komachi Dori (dedicated to God of War) Shinto shrine … 11th century and giant Buddha (19tons) at the grounds of Kotoku-in…..erected in 1252

Fiji is active but hasn’t erupted in 350 years. Tokyo has a population of 14 million of which 3 million commute ever day. In 1868…. The country opened the ports to international trade. Previously they didn’t want Christians… because their missionaries colonized other countries and they didn’t want them to do the same with Japan. 5 ports that were opened in Yokohama, Kobe, Nagasaki, Kamakura and Niigata. Two national airports here… Narita and Haneda. 

 Japan’s economy is continuing to decrease as with a lot Asian countries. English is taught in middle and high school for 6 years. For 60 years it’s been mandatory 

There was an accident on the bridge that caused a big delay in getting to our destination on time. Once off the highway, it was quite a windy narrow road.

Japan armed itself during the 1800’s so that they wouldn’t have the same problem of opium like China had. Not sure why they attacked the US when apparently they are very interested to keep learning the American  form of democracy…. (We’ll see how that goes).

Pine, bamboo and plum trees are considered noble trees.

Geisha is a woman of arts like music, singing poetry….. not a courtesan. Funny, but the southern Japanese doesn’t understand northern Japanese because of dialect differences. For some reason I didn’t expect that. 

Shintoism is about this life, nature. 90,000 Shinto Torii gates in Japan.

In between, we shopped a cool pedestrian street. There was some interesting stuff… should have bought something but always pressured for time.

Buddhism is to look to the future after death.  Amida is name of the Buddha….. means “in your heart”. The giant Buddha built in 13th century …is made of copper…. Is 13 metres high.

Hair on Buddha is means wisdom. The one button on his forehead means give light unto the world. Hand gesture are different with each Buddha. His is meditative.

It was erected in bronze in 1252 …and was inside a temple but in 1498 a tidal wave destroyed the temple leaving the statue standing leaving the foundation stones. In sept 1923 an earthquake destroyed the base. 

Again there is so much industry along the roads…. It’s hard to imagine that their economy is not doing well.

Hiroshima means broad island (shima means island)… happiness Island

Port area of Tokyo is only 25 years old…. Built on reclaimed soil.

Feb14…. We just took a taxi to go shopping but he drove us to the very high end Ginza shopping area….way out of our league so we left. Next to the Tokyo Diver Mall….. ho hum! Not too much of interest to see so walked the rest of the way to the ship.

Feb15 This is our last day in Tokyo but I am too sick to venture very far. The other 3 went in search of something interesting but I am afraid Tokyo is just a big, absolutely spotless city. The buildings are sleek and a whole lot more interesting architecturally than ours but nothing compared to Shanghai. There is NO garbage, no garbage cans anywhere (we did see near the pier, recycle containers…..once) ….. like you’ve never seen.