Kamakura and the Great Buddha

We were so happy to take the opportunity while my parents were here to go visit Kamakura which is where the great Buddha is. We had been saving this trip for my Dad to be honest. We just couldn't fully enjoy it without him there. :)

First we stopped at a beautiful shrine

My Dad enjoying the beauty......

We washed our hands before entering

Being a Saturday there were several weddings being held. We enjoyed being able to see a traditional Shinto Wedding.

This is looking down onto the smaller shrine that the weddings are held in. Behind us (at the top of the steps) is the larger more beautfiul shrine. No pictures of that one sorry.

You can see the wedding going on inside the shrine, they sang a lot and then fed the bride groom and their respective families traditional food.

Enjoy listening to the music of the wedding.


You might be thinking sugar coated strawberries on a ritz?? but trust me, it was sooo good!

We were having such a good day. One of those days that seemed just right


Then on to the Great Buddha

Yep it was a great big buddha.... not much else to say about it

Here we are at the great Buddha

IN case you wanted some more info

The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu) is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple.
With a height of 13.35 meters, it is the second largest bronze Buddha statue in Japan (the largest is located in the Todaiji Temple in Nara).
The statue was cast in 1252 and originally located inside a large temple hall. However, the temple buildings were washed away by a tsunami tidal wave in the end of the 15th century, and since then the Buddha stands in the open air.

So it is kind of cool when you think about how old it is
My parents

My Dad practicing his Buddhaness


The girls were thrilled, can you tell? Niyah was more interested in the ice cream afterwards *sigh* if they only understood that people come from all over the world just to see this.


This guy just stood and chanted and people would put money in his bowl, I swear he chanted "buddha, buddha,buddha,buddha,buddha,buddha,buddha......."





Jeb liked this sign, so in case you are ever tempted to go to the Big Buddha and light a Bonfire, don't try it. Made me wonder who has tried it?


Cute girl in her kimono.

As we were leaving these guys walked in chanting. I wish I understood why, and what they were saying. I wish I could read the signs they carried so I would understand them better. If you can translate, let me know

And that was the trip to the Great Buddha, afterwards we stopped for some squirrel pizza, that story and more next time.

Swimming fun

We had a fun family home evening at the swimming pool. We had fun using our new water proof camera. The girls are both great swimmers.

Easter

Easter was nice this year. It was beautiful weather and nice to have my mom here to join in. It was also a quiet Easter weekend since for us that was the weekend of conference. We had a Easter egg hunt with the branch. I believe it is the first easter egg hunt race that began with the word Amen. As soon as the prayer was over the kids thought that meant start the race so off they went as soon as they could say Amen. HAHAHA

Blossoms falling down

When the blossoms fell it was so fun and beautiful. I enjoyed letting the girls just play in all the petals.

Doesn't this look fun? Who wouldn't want to jump on a trampoline full of petals? I know I secretly wanted to.

Sakura and Showa Park

Spring has come in Japan and as most people know that means cherry blossoms or Sakura!I was so surprised at how beautiful it was. The weather has been amazing and the air has smelled sweet. I don't really think that any pictures can do justice to the cherry blossoms. I don't know how to describe them best either. My best attempt would be, it is as if it has snowed light pink snow but only on the trees. Then as they all fall down it is as if it is snowing pink petals..... its a fairy land. I was glad that my mom who is here visiting (more on that later) was able to share it all with us. The blossoms were beautiful here on base where we live.We decided to take a trip to Showa park during the flower festival to really appreciate the blossoms and all the other flowers blooming.

I highly suggest you click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can get a somewhat better idea of how the blossoms looked, but really even that won't make it clear!

The tulips where so big and beautiful

Check out this cool dragon slide!

Of course being at showa park we had to visit the bounce clouds, this is where the girls made some Japanese friends.

I will load more pictures later of more blossoms as they became more full and began to fall, it was so fun!