Shrines, Temples, and Gardens; Oh My!

At last-we have made it to Japan! Can you believe it took 12 days to get to The Port of Yokohoma from Hilo, Hawaii. Well, it did. When we arrived everyone was so happy to get off of the ship. With haste we rushed, pushed, and praised the ground as we debarked from the ship. Land has become a necessity the shipboard hopes for everyday after leaving port. Our first stop; Shrines, Temples, and Gardens! Harumi--our inter port lecturer who boarded the ship in Hilo , and sailed with us to Yokohoma--instructed us that we wouldn't really experience Japan unless we saw shrines, temples, and gardens- and so we did. 

Jerry, Bobby, and I made our way to Kamarkura , Japan. Here we were guided by our friend Victoria who had been attempting to lead us to the "Big Buddah"... FAIL. We ende up in some sacred shrine that was closed. I suspect we weren't supposed to be there, because a patron walking pass made it his duty to come and kick us out of the shrine. This was an adventure. We hiked up hill for about 2 hours and found ourselfs with nothing to see. Soon after we began to wander down hill in the opposite direction and found a museum. Because we had been walking for well over three hours now, Jerry, Bobby, and I decided that we would pay the 3 yen to explore the museum. We weren't leaving this area empy handed, so Victorian and some others in the group decided they would wait for us outside the museum. We spent well over 2 hours inside and let's just say when we left the museum was closed and our other group members where gone. The saying "hard work pays off" can be applied in this situation. When we pasted the gates of the museum we found huge shrines, temples, and gardens! Oh My! 

We were so happy we decided to go into the museum that we just spent the entire time talking about how out friends in the other group would be so upset that they passed up this opportunity. We saw Buddah! Not "Big Buddah" but large enough to take massive amounts of pictures with him.

This adventure was awesome. Needless to say, near the end our our exploration we hiked back down the mountain (lol) and returned to the ship. Here are some pictures of our day! 

Mieko wanted to tak a photo after I insisted she take one with me. This was just as we passed immigration in the port of Yokohoma. 

Our group for the day! (Front from left to right- Victoria, myself, Kasey; back from left to right- Kaisey, Jerry, Bobby)

On our way up the mountain we saw this shrine, or so we thought. After we hiked down the mountain we realize it was an open park of shrines but more commonly an entrance way to a primary school. There were hundreds of Japanese school children leaving as we passed on our way back to the ship.

Bobby and I, and Buddah...

And amazing temple, upon entering we had to remove our shoes.

Another temple.

The garden in the museum.