The weekend

Saturday.
That early start ended up being a bit later than expected as we didn't roll out until 10 or so. Apparently no one wanted to wake me up (go figure). After grabbing fairly quick breakfast (rice, natto, and apples, I think), it was off to Hakone and the Stinky Egg place (it has a real name, but I can't remember it). The drive up to SEP was fun, as it was basically bumper to bumper traffic the entire way up the mountain. If it weren’t for the fact that we didn’t want to abandon Tamie and the car, it would have been much faster to just walk up the hill. Once we finally got to SEP, there were these hot springs in which they cook black eggs. Now, if you eat one of these eggs, it's reputed to add 7 years to your life. Eat two and you add 14 years. Not sure what eating three would get you, other than gas. We ended up getting a dozen (6 for us, 6 for Tamie's dad), and ate the 6. Guess that means I have 7 more years of this life to look forward to, at least. After that, we zipped down the mountain to Hakone where we wandered around, checking out a historic checkpoint that was used to monitor movement around the country. We also took a walk around the area, seeing some ancient redwood trees that were absolutely mammoth.

Back down the mountain we headed, off to check out a Japanese bath house. Not a traditional one, thankfully, as I got to keep a swimsuit on and hang out with women J. This place was huge, with many different pools, each with a theme. For example, there were green tea pools, sake pools, wine pools, and sea salt pools. It was definitely a different experience, and a lot of fun. Even if all the swimming while suffering from jet lag did want to make me hurl.

After all of that, it was off to find a place that serves Kevin-friendly food. This being Japan and all, it’s a bit harder than it sounds, at least outside of Tokyo. After trying an all-you-can-eat place to no avail, we ended up at an Italian place for dinner. Considering I had just flown in from Italy, it was kinda funny. I must say, the Italian on the menu wasn’t all that bad, although they did have a pizza named wrong. After dinner, it was off to karaoke. Who knew you could sing for 2 hours straight? Man was my throat sore. Everyone else's ears, too. It was a great time, though, and I’m glad to have gone.

Sunday.
The plan for Sunday was to head off to Enoshima to check out the beach, as well as head to Kamakura to explore the temples there. We ended up just driving past the beach and focusing on the temples as it was extremely busy (long weekend + nice weather). After parking the car we stopped at this cool store that sold swords and throwing stars. Man, if I could get that stuff through customs, I would have had a field day there. First temple was this place with a huge (and I mean gianormous) statue of Buddha. Very cool indeed. Very popular too. After that, it was off to a second temple where you got to take part in money launderying. Apparently it’s good luck to wash money at this temple, and so we all partook in the activity. It was funny to see the look of fear in Brian’s eyes as he dumped water all over his crisp new 10,000 yen note ($100). The temple itself was cool as it was in the side of a hill/mountain, and the entrance was a tunnel.

After that, it was a quick jog over to the last temple of the day, on top of a hill. Fantastic view, and we got to rub a god of money. Weird tradition, but if it gets me that raise I’m looking for, more power to it. Beautiful temple, lots of statues, and an awesome pond out front. Unfortunately we shows up right at closing, so by the time I headed back to take pictures of the pond, they had already shut off the fountains. I did get to see a turtle, though.

By this time, we’re already a little late for dinner with Tamie’s family, including her sister. We jet back home, stopping at a grocery store on the way. All I can say is Wow, Japanese people must be big drinkers…I saw a 3 litre bottle of whiskey for like $12. Messed up. At dinner Tamie’s sister gave me some gifts (damn it, now I have to get her something) which was very thoughtful if entirely unexpected. After dinner, Brian and Tamie did dishes while I tried to teach Tamie’s sister tongue twisters. Apparently the Japanese aren’t really good at “she sells sea shells by the sea shore”. And trying to explain “how much wood would a wood chuck chuck, if a wood chuck could chuck wood” can be a lot of fun. A few laughs later, and it was off to pool. By this point, though, we are all exhausted, so I don’t remember who won the last game. I do remember kicking Brian’s ass for most of the night, although Tamie wiped the floor with both of us.