Leaving Buddha Behind

It's been great having the rest of the Setters (Spencer, Sarah Joy, Jillian) here. Last night the five of us had dinner at our apartment, and we came to the realization that the three of them had only been in Japan for 4 days... crazy. 

When I was younger I remember looking in a National Geographic magazine at a picture of some giant Buddha statue that was out amongst some beautiful Japanese landscape. Until I saw that same Buddha this weekend, I hadn't made the connection. It was so cool. I could hardly believe I was actually standing in front of something that had once been just a distant magazine photograph. This giant iron Buddha is located in Kamakura, Japan (where we traveled to this weekend). Apparently it used to have a building around it, but years ago a tsunami came and destroyed it, leaving Buddha behind. The Japanese were so taken by the way the statue looked outside that they decided not to build around it again. Cool huh?

The trip this weekend was great. I could hardly tell one day from the next. It was full of sightseeing, good food, rain, the Onsen, a 'plan B,' making friends, trying to name 100 countries, and 1.5 hours of sleep... followed by 2 hours of trains and then The Shawshank Redemption. 

good times.