Friday 15 August 2002 - Carlo arrived from Sydney today. I actually got up early so that I could move most of my luggage into the office because I had to check out of the hotel tomorrow (ie. Sat). Carlo, after walking around Roppongi for some time, eventually found the hotel. The poor guy had to carry my luggage (which was quite big) around with him on the subway,etc. Thank you very much Carlo!! We decided to visit Kamakura for the day. Kamakura is one of the oldest cities in Japan and boasts a number of temples around the area. Our first stop was "Daibutsu" which means Big Buddha. The Big bronze buddha was completed in 1252 and is 11.4m tall. It was once washed away by a tidal wave but remained intact. We could even walk into the centre of the buddha which was hollow..... although we had to pay of course. After that, there was time for one more temple. This one was called the Hase-dera. The grounds of the Hase-dera was huge and was high up on a hill top. There were lots of little statues and little caves to explore.... each with either candles, little statues of the goddess of mercy, etc so that you can prayer for what you wanted.....i think. It was all very interesting.... and provided lots of photo opportunities.

Binny-san