Carly's Year in China and Japan

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 9:32 PM

I have a "final" in both classes tomorrow, and I'm not looking forward to short-term-memorizing all 10 texts from the _Formal Expressions_ textbook, so what better way to procrastinate than a blog post!?

This one will be is mostly pictures... because they take a nice, long time to upload.

Garrett was in town last weekend, and I had signed up for a free tour of Kamakura (an ancient city that was a headquarters of the bakufu back in THA day) from a volunteer group that gives guided tours there once a year.  Garrett and I were there at the station exit by 10... but the group wasn't.  So, I called the phone number I had written down from the information sheet and got a hold of Umeshita-san... who informed me: "A-NA-TA GA MA-CHI-GA-I-MA-SHI-TA."  (aka: "YOU MADE A MISTAKE.")  I had confused the days and had gotten there 24 hours early...

We decided to stay and see the sights of Kamakura anyway, since we had already done the whole train ride there.

We first visited Shokozan-Tokeiji, a really peaceful temple and former nunnery founded in 1285.

The gardens there were just a touch wild-looking and had a mystical quality.  Mama would have loved them.

The return of Tourist Garrett (now that I gave him a camera)

Embracing giant moss wall... this moss was awesome!  It looks like it was rock-texture, but it was squishy like a stress ball!

GORGEOUS!  (The scenery's not bad either)

Made me miss you, Spidah.

Delish green curry lunch with the freshest veggies ever

And then it must have been Adorable Day at the shrine, because all around, there were precious little kids dressed in fancy kimono get-ups.  The cutest one by far was this little pinky on the right. 

The whole place was crawling with fancy little munchkins, and I ventured to ask a random old man passerby what the occasion was, but he turned out to be a smart aleck who answered me in "English" with hazy explanation about Shich-Go-San Day... which I thought was in November.

Then we saw a Shinto wedding ceremony!

And then a cool bonsai exhibit.  Garrett was pumped and said: "Hey!  Take a picture like this!" and put his hands into little paws... When he saw the result, he was bummed and insisted that I "didn't get it."  No, Garrett, I didn't.  Cute paws, though.

Spirits lifted by the candy apple

And now for the late October birthday wishes!!!  Happy (late) birthday to Dran!

Birthday girl Dran at the old jail in Franklin, KY back in 2008

And Happy (one day early) birthday to my Sissie-in-Law, Josephine Christian Oldham Brown!!!

Chillin on the Tokyo metro with Jos back in August

Ohhhhh kay.  It's study time. After one Modern Family.