Big Buddha's

Journal #45 April 10, 2009

Today is my last day in Japan :( I have had such an amazing time and can not believe how fast my time has come and gone. Chikae and her mom made me some breakfast and I got ready to explore around Yokohama. Chikae’s mom was going to take us around in her car. I said goodbye to her sisters, her dad and brother were already at work, and we headed out. Today we were going to do some site seeing in the oldest capital of Japan. It took about an hour drive and when we got there the city was absolutely adorable. The cherry blossoms were lined in the middle of the street and shops were on either side. The streets were filled with locals and tourists.

We first went to a temple which had an extremely big Buddha. You could actually go inside of the Buddha so that was really cool. There were small gardens around the Buddha which we walked around and got to see traditional Japanese plants. When we left there we went to another temple which was huge. I was really glad we went to this one because there was a traditional Japanese wedding going on. The bride, groom, and about 10 family members were in a covered building. It was interesting because the tourists were swarming the place taking pictures. It did not seem very romantic but the bride was gorgeous and they looked like they were enjoying themselves. The temple was very pretty too, there was a lake on the side that was covered in Cherry Blossom petals. It was the most gorgeous scene I had ever seen.

When we left the temple Chikae and her mom took me to lunch. They ordered for me and I got eel, with sashimi, rice, and soup. It was very good. My favorite was probably the eel. When we left we walked around for a while and went into a couple shops. It was getting closer to when my ship was leaving so we got in the car and headed to a bamboo forest. This place was awesome. The bamboo was hundred of feet high and very pretty. I had never seen anything like it in my life. I really wanted to see a panda in there :)

When we left we rushed to a 100 yen shop, its like the dollar tree, and got some last minute shopping in. I only had about 15 min in there because we were running late and I did not want to miss the boat. As we drove to the ship I started to get really sad. I did not want to leave Japan at all. I was really considering missing the boat and having spend a couple more days in Japan and fly to Hawaii, but my parents would kill me :) I have such an amazing time in Japan the people are amazingly nice, they try to help you out at much as possible. Next time you see a foreigner in the US try and help them, its really nice to have someone who knows the language and country to help you. I am so grateful that I got to see Chikae and her family. They made Japan my favorite port so far!!!!

Love
Michelle