Kamakura

I spent the night at Uncle Peter's house. I had napped on the couch before, but not a full night of sleep. I woke up with a bit of a sore back, but got to use their massage chair and it felt so good! I've sat in massage chairs before, but this one felt like real hands were massaging. Pretty amazing...I wish I had one at home to use! I heard Uncle Peter get ready for church this morning, but then I went back to sleep for another hour and a half. Hideko came down and made breakfast for us. We ate oatmeal and fruit and Hideko made a latte for me....it was so good I had two cups! Uncle Andy had taken a lot of naps the day before and made it to bed early, so he was up for breakfast with us. We weren't in any particular hurry to leave, but decided to head to Kamakura for some picture taking opportunities. It is far outside of the city and more of "old Japan" so he thought it would be good practice for me. I planned on keeping the camera out of the bag so we could photograph some flowers or other scenery on the way to the station, but there was a steady drizzle so I kept the camera tucked away in the bag.

We got to the train station around 12:15 and made our way out to Kamakura...three (or four?) trains later we were there and it was still drizzling out. Thankfully, it was refreshingly cool out, and not a sweaty, heavy humid rain that I've experienced earlier in the summer here. We had a late breakfast, but was around 2:30 so we decided to get a bite to eat. We ate soba at a small soba shop near the station, then walked in the drizzle towards the Great Buddha (what Kamakura is known for). When we got there, it was still drizzling, so I took pictures from under a tree and in other covered areas. My settings were all off, and I slowly made adjustments and learned things about how to change the ISO setting and Fstop number to get a faster shutter speed and depth of perception in my pictures. Yeah, not quite sure what that all means just yet. I need to figure out how to get the pictures from my card onto the computer! I have a feeling they will look better once I can see it outside of the small LCD screen on the camera. It is a very different feeling to look through the viewfinder instead of using the screen to frame a shot, and the camera is pretty heavy with the lens on it.

I took about 75 pictures of the Great Buddha and the surrounding areas, and I might like maybe 4 of them. With more practice, and help from friends and family that know how about this stuff, I hope to understand more and more about the camera and take better pictures. My Uncle Andy met this guy there who was shooting with a Nikon D300 camera and they talked shop for about an hour! He's in the Navy with Mass Communications and has learned a lot about photography in the field. He used to have a D70 as his camera and he said he loved it and the pictures he took with it. He seemed to know what he was talking about and told me a little bit about how to use the histogram to gauge if you have the right exposure. Maybe I'll take a class or something...

As we left the Great Buddha, it was raining a little bit harder...so much for better light nearing sunset! We ate at a shop in a big shopping area in the Yokohama train station. It was a good mix of food...a sashimi salad, then a smoked salmon and cheese wrap, chicken wings, a lettuce wrap with meat, and then udon. Uncle Andy treated me to both lunch and dinner and I got dessert. It was a chocolate brownie parfait and it hit the spot! It was a waffle cone with vanilla ice cream, bananas, and a brownie. At the bottom of the waffle cone, there was a strawberry filling...a nice surprise! :) Between the dessert every night on the cruise and ice cream every work day at summer camp...man, this has been the summer of desserts! I am looking forward to going home and getting back into a regular gym schedule...I'll definitely need it!

Tomorrow is my last full day in Japan. Auntie Leslie will be at work but I have some shopping I want to finish up with and I have to buy my ticket for the bus to the airport for Tuesday. I hope everything fits in my suitcase! I will have a sayonara dinner with the family tomorrow night. We want to go for sushi, but the places might be closed since the fish markets are closed on Sundays...we'll see!