Kamakura, Ikego

So two week ends ago we went to Kamakura. A girl from the ward babysat for personal progress and so we were kid free. We got off at the north Kamakura station and wandered around. We found a couple little temples and a tunnel. The area is very hilly, but the rock is soft, so there were lots of cliffs and caves and tunnels. We found someone with a map and got some advice. The temple in the picture is Engaku-ji, which is a large temple complex with a bunch of temples, some really old and some new ones. Saw a few more temples, which were smaller but had nice graveyards/gardens in the back. Including the God of Happiness in a cave. You "walk this way" through the tunnel in the picture to another cave where you find the very happy guy pointing at you. The we hiked over to the big Buddha and took a detour to the money washing shrine on the way. To get in you go through a tunnel into a little valley. In the valley is a spring in a cave where you can wash money to make it double. Most people were washing change, but we tried a hundred, just in case. We met some girls from Hawaii. They are in med school at UH and knew Matt Taylor from Laie. Saw the great Buddha, wandered through some antique stores. Went to the beach and watched surfers on ankle high waves. Then we had dinner at a California/surf themed restaurant. The decor was like random garage sale mix. Old license plates, a wooden sled, and a huge smurfette doll in the bathroom. The main appeal was a great view of the water. The food was also pretty good, but the girls at the table near us were smoking.
This weekend I went to a camporee at camp Ikego, on the US navy base near Kamakura. I wasn't sure what to expect, but the campsite was in a little valley, so you couldn't see anything but trees. It was pouring all morning, but by the time we left that night, it was just drizzling. Brother Mason made peach cobbler in a big dutch oven for dessert. The next day I helped run the frisbee toss and then went over to archery and translated and helped teach it. It was BSA, Japan Scouts camporee, so each patrol was made up of half American and half Japanese scouts. At night we had a potluck with one of the Japanese patrols. We had a pot of gyozas and fried rice and dessert, but they had two long table filled with food, plus a a huge pot of udon. We stayed for the camp fire and elaborate order of the arrow ceremony, and sang the special closing song. (So many scout traditions and ceremonies that I had no idea existed.) When I finally got dropped off at home it was almost 11.

Not much happening

Okay, so I missed posting last week, and can't think of anything to post this week. We had youth conference last week. This weekend we went to the Tokyo National Museum at Ueno park. The park was packed with people there to see the cherry blossoms, but the museum was not too crowded. The most surprising thing about the museum was the trash cans outside and the benches everywhere. It felt like they were making an extra effort for the foreign visitors. The stuff inside was cool too. My favorite was probably the early Chinese stuff bronzes, and the Thai bronze age drums. Did you know that Thailand had a bronze age culture that no one knows a lot about? The samurai armor and weapons were pretty cool too. Miriam liked the exquisite traditional doll set, with lots of tiny lacquered boxes, a minuscule tea set and writing box, furniture, picture books, etc, and the kimonos.
The architecture throughout was very nice. Dissertation is coming along, but I am so easily distracted. I am feeling pretty uninspired and its not like I can just put in hours and it will get done. I have to actually engage and think and process or its pretty meaningless. I kind of wish I had something else to do that was less taxing to balance it out, but I don't really. But since I do want it all to be over at some point I had better get a bit more motivated soon.