Kamakura is a short train ride southeast of Tokyo, on the ocean. It is a very old city full of shrines and temples.

The first and largest temple complex we visited was Enkakuji, the oldest Zen temple in Japan.

Zen archery is practiced at this temple.

A ceiling joint. The ideal is to not use nails; in places such as Himeji castle where there are nails, they cover them up with ornate nail covers.

One of the 18 temple buildings in the complex.

A painting on a ceiling.

In front of the pond.

This "Proud to be Gay" kid and his friend had their picture taken with us. Who knows if it's Japlish or they're trying to tell us something?

I don't know. Maybe these turned the stairs into an Xtreme wheelchair ramp.

Turtles across the pond.

Pretty purple fruits (in September).

The tea house.

A kind of green tea.

A box used to extrude noodles.

They have such nice knots.

A bell.

Keiichi-san bought us a blank book. We had it stamped at each temple we visited, with calligraphy identifying the place and the date of each visit.

Here are all the stamps we collected during the trip.

One of the best meals of the trip was at Hachinoki, a Shojin Ryori restaurant nearby. It's a style of vegetarian cooking eaten by monks.

Posing with our hostess, outside the restaurant.

After lunch, we went to the Kotoku-in temple, home of the Daibutsu, or Great Buddha. We were able to go inside the statue.

Getting our book stamped.

A closeup of a lotus flower sculpture in front of the Buddha.

Bamboo.

A little bamboo forest at the Hasedera temple.

This temple had two areas with little statues which people would adorn with various trinkets in memory of their deceased children and aborted fetuses. There were dozens of statues in this courtyard.

Toys to play with in the next world.

There were thousands of statues in this complex. It's a very orderly afterlife.

Still posing.

As it got dark, we stopped at the Zeniarai Benten shrine, the original money laundry. Place your currency in a basket and pour the water from a tin cup over it. I'm not sure what happens next. Clearly wealth is supposed to increase. Maybe it turns into yuan renminbi.

Origami hanging at the shrine.

At Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine.

On the way back to the station, we stopped and bought some mochi snacks.

On to The Wedding