Big Buddha in, "Love and Loss in Chinatown"

It has been eons since I have written, but now I am back in my apartment all alone and a bit lonely. That means I have plenty of time to catch you all up-to-date on my adventures with Gabby and everything during winter vacation!

Kamakura and Yokohama are two pretty interesting cities just outside Tokyo with some incredible history and some exciting places to see. First Gabby, Chika, Jason and I went to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu (the Big Buddha). The pictures I have taken do not do justice to the immense size of this grand statue. It is incredible to think that something so large was built without modern technology nearly 800 years ago. I think I would feel an even greater sense of wonderment and awe at the Pyramids in Egypt, but as for now, this Buddha blows my mind.

For a mere 20 cents one can climb inside the Buddha and peer through his great eyes to see the world from his perspective. This Buddha is rather ironic, as are all Buddha statues, shrines and places of worship, because Buddha never intended to be a Deity. In his teachings, Buddha wanted all people to respect one another and all of the natural world equally where no one person or thing was higher or revered more than anything else. The teachings of Buddha embody the true root of the Japanese culture of togetherness and group mentality; but as with all "religions" this one has been a bit distorted as well.

After indulging the Buddha, we naturally went through the gift shop. I purchased a lovely bell for Mom's birthday (early yes, but it was really pretty) and a frog phone charm for Kaitlin's safe travels through Africa. Gabby got some chopsticks and Jason bought some omiyage for the teachers at his school. Chika just got a lollipop and we all should have just followed her lead and saved our money!

After our stop off at the Buddha, we ventured on to Yokohama. This is a lovely little harbor city a 30 minute train ride from Kamakura. Even though the air was brisk, we drove right into the busy streets of Yokohama's Chinatown. The smells from the Chinese restaurants were so tempting and every few steps there were people giving away Japanese roasted chestnuts to entice you to buy a whole bag. Aside from an incredible amount of restaurants, there were little souvenir shops with Chinese print dresses and jewelry with semi-precious stones. In one of the jewelry shops, the four of us looked for about an hour. Finally both Gabby and I decided upon pieces we really liked. I bought a small sterling silver ring with a small garnet stone. It was dainty and I really thought it was pretty.

We left the jewelry store and continued with our travels through the streets of Chinatown. After another couple stores and browsing, I suddenly realized that the bag I had been carrying with the bell, phone charm and Gabby's chopsticks was no longer with me. I panicked because I had lost all our souvenirs and we retraced our steps back through Chinatown. Sadly, our lovely presents never turned up, so we wrote it off as a loss and luckily it wasn't too expensive.

The four of us were hungry and we decided to scour for a place to eat. We went into a beautiful old brick building that was probably a factory of some sort, but had been renovated into an interesting shopping mall. On the bottom floor of the building was the food court, and the moment we walked in to see the Hawaiian burger joint, it hit me! I had totally been in this exact place before! The second time I was in Japan, I was lucky enough to have a homestay experience for a few days. Because it was the summer time, my host sister wanted to take me to a fireworks festival. At that time I was 17 and in awe of Japan and quite the following little sheep. I wasn't really conscious of the fact that we were in Yokohama and I just took the experience as it came. When I saw the Hawaiian burger place again, all the memories of standing in the crowded food court in my yukata and geta and then finding a place to sit along the brick patio outside came flooding back. I was so excited to be in that exact place again, that I took pictures. I wish when I was younger I would have really understood how important it is to keep contacts and remain friends with people even very far away. I have not spoken or emailed with my host sister in many years, and for that I am sorry.

Finally, late at night, we took the train back to Koga talking and teaching Chika all kinds of wonderful American slang and -isms. When we finally got back to our car to drive home, Jason looked down and realized he no longer had his bag of omiyage either. We had successfully managed to lose everything we purchased while in Kamakura. Maybe the Buddha cursed us.