Big Buddha....Big Buddha, Ohh Yeah

So on Friday we took a train to the City of Kamakura to see the great Big Buddha! It was really fascinating, It is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan and dates back all the way to 1252. It was hollow and we were able to go inside for 20 yen. The grounds were very peaceful and reverent. You could watch people go up to the Buddha and put a coin in the offering and then say a little prayer.

The locals all love to get their picture taken, they are so flattered when you ask them to take a picture with you and I love how no matter what they always do the peace sign. When I first was asking them to take a picture they thought I wanted them to move so I could take one but then they got really excited and did the peace sign thing and then got out their cameras to take a picture with me. Another thing I love is that we are all the same height even though I'm pretty sure I'm at least 5 years older then them. haha

They had a couple places where you could buy and then place and burn incense. I believe they use it to purify the grounds, and the smoke is said to have healing powers so if you have an injury you are supposed to fan the smoke towards your injury.

This is a purification fountain.

This is right before we went into the big buddha. The stairs were extremely narrow and steep.

Buddha's Slippers. haha

Mister Doughnut!!

So we were told that this Mister Donut in Japan is thier Krispie Kreme, so of course we had to try it.

Yummy... This what I call real Japanese food.

Although it was a cute donut, The frosting stuff tasted like wax. The donut itself was extremely good, and they were really light. After we ate them we didn't even feel fat. I don't know how they stay so skinny here.

The girl below is adorable, she was super excited to be in the picture. The people here are just so cute. I love it!

This was the young lassey that helped us. This was the first time we used our language skills, we asked for Mizu(water), when we asked she looked kinda confused and then just said "water?" haha we also thanked her in Japanese. It was quiet a mile stone for us.

Just a walk in the park... :)

We have a park that is right next to our house, This is a pile of pictures most from walks that we have taken to or around the park. Sorry I wish it was more organized, but since we haven't updated I didn't want to put up just boring pictures. haha Well it's cold here, all the girls wear tights or leggings with short skirts or shorts and boots. not joking. They love fish, and bright colors and making the peace sign in all of their pictures... Just a phone booth. ha

Harry Potter in Japan..haha just kidding. They defiantly have weird styles of reaading glasses in this Country.

Oookay this is at the park right next to our house, I absolutely love the way that they dress here. My kids are going to look like this every day of the week. But I was trying to be sneaky when I took this but they saw me and glared at me too bad I didn't get a picture of it. Their parents probably thought I was a psycho american. haha

A Palm tree in Japan...yeah thats what I thought. haha I've seen alot of these suckers here though.

The apartments have washers and dryers but they are like a tenth of the size of american ones it usually takes me maybe two loads to wash all my clothes in america but here it would probably take like 5 at least. Well everybody hangs their clothes out try dry, I mean EVERYBODY.

They basically have the best fire hydrant colorful sewer things that I have ever seen in my entire life. I'm in love with this Country.

This is our apartment name. So Before we left when someone asked where we were going in Japan we would say Sakura, which is really just the name of our apartment complex. We are really in Yokosuka. The complex is american so we aren't totally lost its mostly people from the base.

LDS IN JAPAN

Off to church we went....With our neighbors upstairs the Brady's from Orchard Heights Ward. It took us 20 minutes to walk to the train, & 15 minutes on the train. We met Brother Cliff Reinbold at the station in Yokosuka, thank goodness..... Then another 5 minutes to the church building. Wow, the church can only rent a building in Japan. The chapel and 1 classroom on the main floor. Auxiliaries are on separate floors. Relief Society was next to Nursery (I say why not next to Elders Quorum?) lol There are 7 Young Women including Chelsea :) she is over-joyed :) Seminary is this Tuesday and the Burbank's (remember Aslynn from girl's camp) are picking her up! So much for sleeping in for the next 3 months. :( Wednesday is mutual and YSA is on Monday nights, with not more than a handful of kids I think. The good thing is....they are just starting institute!!!!! Someone was called Sunday.

After church, we took a short tour of Yokosuka and saw Cliiff's hotel room. Tiny..... our living room here is as big as his whole living space. Shops everywhere, we love shopping, if only we knew what they meant..... Rosetta Stone Help......... He was a great tour guide for us. Thanks Cliff. :) I thought I recognized the word chocolate on a building, it was a hair salon..... ha-ha But he did show us the good foods to buy. Bakery, donut shop, Ramon cafe' and of course places not to go. lol We went to eat at a Chinese place which was very exciting, we tried things like fungus and mushrooms our first taste of real foriegn food. On to the base to take care of I D cards.! Of course a jaunt to the Exchange and Commissary so we would know where we were going. We ended up going to get some grocerys on base and ventured to take yet another taxi ride With all of our grocieries we filled them up in this gigantic bag dad had. So much to see and do :0 Let's get started. Stay tuned for more adventures..... with Chelsea & Alisa

Ahhh.... Grocery shopping!!!

The anticipation of going to our first store..... To our surprise nothing was even vaguely familair except for pocky sticks & bread. :( We had our camera's out looking like a bunch of tourists!! lol We rounded and isle and what to our surprise, was our hero :) Ichiro!!! Yes there he was in all his glory by the yogurt ? What was he doing in the yogurt section? Why wasn't he wearing his Mariners uniform? Why wasn't he holding his bat and wearing his hat? yes, alas, he was sponsoring yogurt, but what a hunk he was....... So what did we buy YOGURT!!!!!!

The Airport Yo...

Well we left for our wonderous adventure on Thursday morning. Had a quick stop in Vancouver and then a 10 hour flight to the foreign field of Japan! As we arrived we met our dear father and husband. It took us a two hour bus ride and two taxi cabs to make it to our loverly apartment. We made it about 10 oclock pm japanese time give or take an hour, and like 6 am Port Orchard Time. We were oh so tired. The cab ride was extremely intense, they didnt speak any english and laughed alot at us. It felt like we were on the bus ride in Harry Potter, no joke. They drove super fast, and were extremely close to all the other cars. Between the three of us we had seven suit cases, two backpacks one baby car seat and we had them all up in our laps on the cab. Will keep you updated oh blogger world.