The Great Buddha

Happy 4th of July! We spent our Fourth touring Kamakura. When we left base it was over case and we thought it was on the cool side, we thought it was going to sprinkle so we brought our umbrella. When we arrived in Kamakura it was sunny and humid. I did not bring sunscreen. Afraid we were going to fry in the sweltering heat, I popped into the 100 Yen store (the local dollar store) to buy some sunscreen. Everything of course was written in Japanese. I bought a bottle that said sun lotion with a sun on it. I assumed it was sunscreen, so I bought it. When we got outside there was a nice older Japanese man who gave us a pamphlet in English for Kamakura and all the local temples (obviously recognizing we wouldn't understand the Japanese brochures). I asked him if I had indeed bought sunscreen protection. He was kind to read the back of the bottle. I did indeed by sunscreen unforunately it was for the body only, it was not meant to put on the face. We prayed all day our fair skin (Megan and I especially) did not bake in the heat. We made it. Note to self...pack sunscreen in backpack for all future ventures.

Here are some pictures from our venture. We had a great time yesterday.

Cleaning our hands and cleansing ourselves before we enter the temple.

The Great Buddha and his slippers.

Here we are taking a rest. Me in my usual pose and the kids enjoying a tasty treat of Green Tea and Sweet Potato ice cream. It was delish!

Next, we walked to the Hasedera Temple. According to legend, in 721 AD the pious monk Tokudo Shonin discovered a large camphor tree in the mountain forests near the village of Hase in the Nara region. He realized the trunk of the tree was so large that it provided enough material for carving two statues of the eleven -headed Kannon. The statue was eventually brought to Kamakura and a temple was constructed to honor it. Since time immemorial, Hasedera Temple has been known as the 4th station among the 33 holy palces in the Kanto area.
We enjoyed the beautiful views, ponds, and flowers blooming.

Doesn't Megan look cute posing next to this

little statue/shrine? Some Japanese women were smiling at her trying to get her to smile too.

This is us walking up Prospect Road. No prospects along the way....Sorry!

Other views along the way..........