Bobble Heads Will One Day Rule the World

Everyone loves a bobble head. The way the head jiggles and bounces around always brings a smile to my face and these days you can find anything in the form of a bobble head; there are even companies that let you create your own bobble head design. My cousins created a bobble head wedding favor; a figurine of the two of them in their wedding getup with their names and date painted on the bottom. The likeness of the bobble head to the real thing was quite impressive.

Anything and everything is or can be a bobble head, even the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

On a side wall of the Diabutsu's surrounding park it explains the history of the Great Buddha of Kamakura; although the exact year that the Buddha was cast is unknown it was originally built with in a wooden temple. The temple itself was washed away in the 1498 tsunami and only the Buddha remained; to this day the Buddha remains as an open temple for people to come and see. You can even pay 20 Yen to crawl inside him; which I find kinda creepy. The fact that you crawl up Buddha's bottom does not sound like a good time to me; however, my father seemed disappointed that we didn't take advantage of such an experience.

Over the years the Great Buddha has had to under go repairs to protect it from future tsunamis and especially earthquakes. During the 1960 and 1961 repairs the workers were given the task to fortify the neck so that the head would not break off and crash to the ground. In this construction a spring like mechanism was created to allow the head and neck to have a little give and take in the event of an earthquake.

The Great Buddha of Kamakura is in fact a Bobble Head; how awesome is that! :)

3 Days of Fun in Tokyo

Or first day out Jen and I leisurely strolled around the market and shrine close to our hotel in Asakusa. I saw my first Japanese shrine and Buddha's sandle. Then it was onto the subway as we made a beeline for a park near Tokyo Tower for some geocaching. Tokyo tower itself is ugly and we were not impressed; even the fact that it is suppose to be taller than the Eiffel Tower didn't seem to amaze us.We think the reason it's taller is the LONG spike at the top but I believe the reason we didn't like it was because it's bright orange. Either way we made sure to snap a few pictures and continue on our geocache hunt.


The hunt for buried treasure eventually lead us to the Meiji Shrine. While there we stumbled across a Spring Festival, some traditional dancers, and an older gentlemen who was thrilled to be talking to Americans. He talked our ear off, took way too many pictures, and even gave us some cakes. We would have stayed for what looked like a really neat ceremony with the gentleman but hunger won that battle and we headed to lunch instead.

After lunch and no luck with any more caches we headed to Shibuya for some more sightseeing. This included 1.5 hours of people watching from the second story Star Bucks. Shibuya's main intersection is definitely something to see and we enjoyed our moment of rest and caffeine.




Day two we hiked from Kamakura to Daibutsu where the Great Buddha rests. The hike was long, strenuous, beautiful, and I had blast! We made stops along the way at a really neat mountain side cafe and a couple shrines; including one where they wash their money. It is believed that if you spend the money you wash at this shrine that it will come back to you multiplied. You can be the judge on whether or not you believe that one.
After finally reaching the Great Buddha we picked up our cache hunt once again and it lead us all around the town. Along the way Jen caught sight of some women selling one piece kimonos; they would let you try them on in an attempt to show the Japanese women how easy they are. Feeling brave I stepped up and let the women dress me. It took longer than I would have thought and it was much heavier than it looked but it was gorgeous!

Day three was spent bathing! The Japanese are known for their Onsens or baths. The Odeo Onsen, where we went, is the Disney world of baths with 17 different types of baths to choose from; since Jen and I both are serious bath takers we were in heaven and spent 5 hours bathing, eating, and lounging. This definitely ranked in my top 3 favorite things in Japan!



After our baths we hopped on a train and headed to Jen's apartment in Tahara.


*Coming Soon- Fun in Tahara

Traveling TO Japan

I consider myself extremely lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to Japan and the fact that I was getting to spend a week with my sister who I haven't seen since Christmas was definitely icing on the cake.

Brandon and I got up early Friday (5-1-09) morning and made sure that I had double checked everything. Being the obsessive compulsive person I am when it comes to traveling I checked my bags twice the morning we left even though they had been packed for two days and checked twice each day before that. I can't help it; too many bad travel experiences I think.

I wasn't really looking forward to a 12 hour plane ride by myself so I made sure to stock good meds to knock me out; my biggest concern was not that I was alone it was that I was going to end up sitting next to a talkative person who would refuse to let me sleep or that I would finish my book too soon and have nothing else to do.

The flight from Louisville to Detroit was uneventful and I was thankful for my short layover in Detroit. It allowed just enough time to eat, use the restroom, find my terminal and prepare for the 12 hour flight I had ahead of me. Right as I started to get bored they made the call for us to board the plane. All through the airport were warnings and announcements that everyone needed to board the plane at least 30 minutes before take off or their reservation would be threatened to cancellation. A hour and 15 minutes before take off they boarded us. As soon as I got on I climbed in my seat, stowed my bags, popped two melatonin and a benadryl sinus and laid my head on the window ready to sleep. I barely even noticed that we took off an hour later. I woke up in time for dinner and then went right back to sleep. I woke up 3 hours later in time for a midnight snack and conked out again. After 6 hours sleep, which I was amazed I got, I was fully awake and ready to read. Ispent the rest of the 6 hours reading and eating breakfast.

Luckily the seat next to me was empty and the girl on the isle was small; over the 12 hours we rotated who got to use the spare seat to lay on or prop our feet on. Before I knew it we were landing in Tokyo. As the entire planned began to move around and get up the flight attendants blared over the intercom that no one was to move, get up, or remove their seat belt. Due to the swine flu the health department boarded our plane in full gowns, gloves, caps, booties, and goggles. They carried cameras that read every body temperature on the plane, they collected health surveys, and asked everyone at least 5 questions a piece. Those that were not satisfactory were given a red dot and asked to remain on the plane; everyone else was free to leave. The health department was taking temperatures with thermometers and doing mouth swab tests; those that didn't pass that test were quarantined and had a blood draw. We sat on the plane for 45 minutes waiting for them to collect their data and decide; I was only too glad to be released :-P

After getting off and going through customs and immigration I met up with Jen and we hopped on a train for Asakusa, but not with out Jen making sure I was ready for Japan first. ;) Jen gave me a survival kit for Japan that included Green Tea Kit Kats that I don't recommend, a fork and knife for when chopsticks wouldn't do the trick, a cell phone charm (they are huge in Japan), a hand towel for when there were no paper towels in the restroom, a cloth tissue holder for when there was no toilet paper, and mask to wear if I got sick or didn't want to get sick.
YAY for being in Japan!!

*(coming soon: Fun in Tokyo)