We left  Tokyo behind and head to a Pacific Ocean. We spotted on our way the snow capped mount Fuji! We saw only the top but I guess we all felt we saw it all since we wanted to see it so much in its full beauty. Well, we did not really see it, and many do not since fog covers it most of the time.  Even if only in our imagination – it was beautiful!

Our first stop was an ancient city of Kamaratu,  a capital of Japan in 13. and 14. century. We visited one of sixty five (!!!) Buddhist temples Hera-Desu. We climbed to all of the small and large shrines within, visited a long whirling cove  with many  life size carved in statues (I loved a Buddhist god of music with a mandolin) – it was amazing…

Then we saw one of the symbols of Japan – a 44 feet tall Buddha cast in bronze. It survived all of the earthquaces and tsunamis and sits at Kamakura proudly since 1254. We climbed inside!

Castle Odawara built in 1603 looks as all Japanese castles: beautiful, painted white with dark green trims. slightly raised gables at the outside end, many stories with roofs upon roofs and two shachis (a killer whale)  on the each end of the roof that ward off fire. So elegant, charming, graceful!

We arrive to our hotel and we all scream with joy when we see our rooms! Unbelievable what we see. The lobby already revealed that we are in a very nice hotel  right on the beach and steps from a downtown of a charming town of Atami. The rooms are actually apartments with two large rooms with movable walls that you can arrange as you wish. One room is a bedroom and the other, living room,  has a large low table and beautiful floor chairs with silk cushions. There is a large kettle brewing water and green tea and fine china cups ready in a large wooden box. Beautiful Japanese painting of cherry blossom on the walls and the balcony! We have a view of the ocean and romantic mountain range on the left and right. We all meet on the balcony (we are all next to each other) in our yukatas (that is how you dress in the hotel) and we just laugh at each other how Japanese we all of a sudden look.

Dinner only tops all of the surprises. We go (all in yukatas – they look like kimono only simple and male`s and female`s look alike) to the ninth floor (the view!!!) and there in a large room is 21 low tables with incredible feast of sashimi, tempura, miso soup, smoked fish, raw shrimp, baked lobster…It is beyond words. Two ladies are taking care of us with incredible care running around, explaining what is what and how to eat it, bowing to us, looking happy that we admire and like it all. We all feel so special.

We experinced yet another beautiful day full of surprises…I  stillcannot believe we are traveling in Japan!