Buddha

My dad was working in the morning so we didn't head out for sightseeing until the afternoon.   We went to a small town south of Tokyo called Kamakura.  Our main reason for going was to see the second largest Buddha statue in the world.  The statue is made of bronze but since it had been left outside it has a greenish hue, similar to the Statue Liberty.

The Buddha, much to our surprise, was hollow. It cost 20 yen (about thirty cents) to go inside the statue. We learned that the structure was reinforced to withstand earthquakes. However, the sign inside the buddha that explained the structural design was not particularly clear so I am not quite sure how they did it.

Getting there in the first place was a bit tricky. We had to take a subway to a train station, in which the train was late. Then we had to take that train to another train, and that train to our destination. We were able to manage it, though, with the help of a map and a few kind Japanese people.

How to find your way in Japan

1. Look like a tourist.

2. Stand there looking and pointing at a map.

3. Look confused. Someone will come up to you and help.

Japanese people are very helpful.

On our trip back, we saw a vending machine. I wanted some hot tea, which you can get from a vending machine there.  I had purchased one before and I liked it so we bought what we thought was tea.  We are in Japan so almost everything in the vending machine was written in Japanese.  All we had to rely on were the pictures.  It turned out we actually bought coffee but didn't realize it until I had taken a few sips.  It turns out that I kind of like coffee!