Day 11

Today we started in a new place for breakfast

They really pushed a choice between 2 set menus that were very expensive but we didn’t realise that there were indeed cheaper options, oh well

When it did come out, you could see why it was expensive

You got to choose one of the pastries each plus all of the bread and the selection of preserves along with refillable coffee or non refillable tea it was way too much for us

When Joss finished her first coffee she waved at a waiter to get his attention then did the most English thing ever by silently over - mouthing the words “more coffee” so he didn’t have to come over to ask

Hattie almost choked laughing

Then we were off to the train station again as I’d found a non-stop train direct from Shibuya to the city of Kamakura

This was the first time the trains felt British as it was way overcrowded and I had to stand for the first half of the hour’s journey

When we got there we put our ICOCA card in the SUICA machine and found we could put money on - result - that should sort out all our train fares for the rest of the week

We’d come to see the “Big Buddha” and so walked through the quiet half of Kamakura to get there - about 1.5km

I’ve never fancied working as a delivery boy but if they gave me one of these I’d definitely give it a go

All along the wall we kept saying “I hope this Buddha is big” and “it had better be big” and as we turned the corner we found out

Yep, in fairness it was bloody big. So big we could actually go inside it - although my claustrophobia on the thinnest 2 way staircase known to man did have me sweating a bit

Then, after souvenir shopping we went back towards the station and found a place to eat

Joss and Kieren had the beef, Hattie and I had the pork with green peppers - both were delicious. It also came with what tasted like a leek and potato soup and biscotti - which was either citrus of matcha flavoured

It also came with a complimentary glass of orange water which tasted like it had come off the roof so we gave that a miss

We then went to the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū Shrine and on the way hit the motherload of Sakura season

The we realised that it was actually a cherry tree-lined walkway all the way to the shrine - so we had to have a bit of that action and jaywalked across the road

At this point we had the opportunity to play the first of 2 legs of where’s Wally 

Can you guess where?

Onto the shrine:

You may have noticed the shrine was up some stairs so we can now play the second leg of where’s Wally 

We made it up there in the end

Hattie then broke the ticket machine to go into the museum but they still let us in

Unfortunately it was another “no pics” place so I again was going to draw the statue I liked but he was cross legged and holding a knife pointing outwards from his crotch area and try as I might, I couldn’t get the drawing to not look pornographic

Back to the train and it was far less busy

Joss tried to convince me this man was carrying a cello - I think he was smuggling ET - but I guess we’ll never know….

Also on the way back - this guard was definitely milking his part - he even had a stage!!!

Then we went back to the hotel to rest our weary legs - another day of 15k plus steps

In our “down time” Joss googled restaurants but alas couldn’t find anywhere that would be good for Kieren

So at 7 we just left the hotel and had a look

On our 5th attempt we found this place

It was down this road

It was on the second floor / we walked in and were seated at a table then all of a sudden we were told to leave and go to the 3rd floor

Up there was another restaurant set up - with no one in it

We thought surely they haven’t done this because we were tourists?

But I’m fairness shortly after these pics were taken it started to really fill out with cool young people of Tokyo

Maybe they just realised we were too cool for floor 2 👀

Our first joy was that we could order by tablet

That took a bit of head scratching and in the meantime our appetiser arrived - cabbage and a sauce

I know it sounds awful but the sauce made the cabbage lovely to eat 

The drinks arrived first - great choices

Then Hattie and I had the ramen 

Joss had the yakisoba

And best of all kieren had fried chicken and chips - he was thrilled!!

All of the food was delicious 

As we ordered another beer - the waiter brought us over some complimentary boiled eggs - no idea what bird they came from but they were so nice too

That rounded off the day - well with a quick beer pick up from the 7/11 - a tiring but really enjoyable day