A "Day Off"

It started as an early morning after a very fun (but long!) day at Disney Sea. I was grateful to wake up without the very sore back and feet I acquired yesterday! Several of us had volunteered to play our quartet piece, "Sakura," for two nursing home facilites in Kamakura yesterday. Many of the rest of us joined in for sight-seeing along the way. We started out on our one hour train trip to Kamakura, leaving through Shinjuku Station, the busiest train station in the world. As the train emptied from stop to stop, we found seats and settled in for the rest of the ride.

When we arrived in Kamakura, we walked under the large gate and up the middle of the street toward Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, a Shinto shrine.

It was built in 1063. We took some pictures and video and when we had our fill, walked back another way to find lunch. Tamamura-san (our agent here) led us into a restaurant specializing in soba, a buckwheat noodle shaped like spaghetti, where we slipped off our shoes at the door and each ordered our topping...mine, tempura (shrimp and vegetables). After lunch we shopped down a narrow alley of businesses, each stopping in shops that interested us, some with beautiful and ornate chopsticks, stationery, clothing, and of course, cell phone charms (VERY popular here!).

After lunch and shopping, the small group split off to go to the nursing homes. The people there were so appreciative of our coming, the residents sang along with our playing, and we all had "warm fuzzies" in sharing this traditional Japanese melody together. At the second home, the eldest resident, 102 years old, presented each of us with packages of special ornate Japanese paper (I feel some origami and scrapbooking coming on here!). She seemed not a day over 75! This visit was really a highlight for me.

The others in our group had gone on without us, so our small group, with Tamamura-san's help, visited the Kamakura Daibutsu (Amida Buddha). I had the opportunity to "sing" a bell under a lovely tree on the grounds and Patti took this great picture of me in one of those moments a person never forgets.

We ended our amazing day of history and service with a little Japanese culture. We slipped into a tiny restaurant (seating maybe 16 people) for a hot drink and warm sweet, little rice cakes and chestnuts in a warm sweet bean sauce. A sweet older woman worked alone to prepare and serve our treat. When we were all warmed up, we headed for the train station to make our way back to Tokyo.

There is NOTHING like Shinjuku Station at rush hour! The massive numbers of people stream through the station as fast as the trains! With only two minutes to get off and on, there is a huge adreline rush and a fight or flight response that kicks in as you fear you make not get on or off the platform on time! I now know first hand the videos on youtube of station workers "stuffing" trains is absolutely true! I cringed as it appeared one girl's toes were not all the way inside the doors! She managed to pull them back another inch as the doors met them in the middle and off she went.