Got a little earlier start today and worked my way over to the Tsukiji fish market. The smell of fish was apparent as soon as I got off subway indicating I was in the right place. It was raining pretty good so the crowds were pretty tightly packed underneath the canopies the covered the thin walkways of the market alleys. I was way too late for the fish auction but it was still interesting seeing all that was for sale. I wasn’t really thinking and had a big breakfast before I went - I should have had sushi there for breakfast instead.
I then worked my way over to Tokyo station so I could activate my rail pass. The procedure was quick and very painless, I just had fill out a very very short application and hand over both the pass voucher and passport for inspection. At all the JR turnstiles there is a lane that is manned. You just flash the guard your pass on the way in and out and thats it.
From there I hopped on a train to Kamakura, a town on the ocean an hour south from Tokyo that is well know for its abundance of shrines and temples. The place was just crawling with school kids. Every now and then a group of 5-10 kids would cry out “Hello!” in unison when they saw me - very cute.
The first thing I did when I got there was buy a cheap umbrella since it was still raining pretty good. The use of umbrellas is pretty ubiquitous here in comparison to rainy Seattle back home. In Seattle when it rains its often windy and/or cold so I usually just wear a rain coat. Here its often a too warm for a rain coat and not so windy so its a more natural fit. Almost all the stores have at least an umbrella rack out front, the nice places actually have someone out front that will wrap up your umbrella for you in a plastic sheath so you don’t drip water everywhere.
I wandered around Kamakura hitting a couple of main sites such as Hachimangu but I hit the burnout point after walking all the way out to the ocean to find not much there. Too many days of walking around, I was just exhausted. I hit the giant Buddha and Hase Temple and cut my visit short.
For dinner we hit “To the herbs”, a nice italian place. I wimped out and didn’t go for the natto and cuttlefish pasta and instead just had a “Classico” pizza which reminded me very much of the pizza I had in Italy many years ago.