Day 13 Yokohama, Japan

I don't know whether I explained that we are doing two cruises back to back.  The first cruise ended today in Yokohoma where around a quarter of the holiday makers disembarked and now a new lot of cruisers have joined this next cruise.  The last leg was fully booked and we understand that this next leg is not quite capacity - around 600.  

Today we stepped off the ship again for a tour to Kotokuin Temple (Great Budha) and then to Isurogoka Hachimangu Shrine.  Today is a holiday here in Japan and the crowds both on the footpaths and on the roads were jam-packed.  It took us almost an hour to reach our first stop.

There are two major religions in Japan - Shinto and Buddhism.  Our first stop today was at the Great Budha.   He is huge with a height of 13.4 metres (including the pedestal) and weights 121 tonne.  It was originally built in 1252 and over the centuries it has received damage from natural disasters and has been re-built many times.

Our next stop was the Isurugoaka Hachimangu Shrine.  This shrine was quite elaborate compared to some that we have seen over the past couple of weeks.  We couldn't enjoy it properly though because of the huge number of people.  Photographs were almost impossible but I managed a couple.  This shrine was founded in 1063 and is a very important place of worship for the Shinto religion.  There are a number of smaller shrines surrounding the large shrine on the many acres of land.  There are also two ponds that are home to the lotus that were not flowering.

We were allowed two hours at the Shrine so Philip and I walked along the streets outside the shrine area.  To accomodate the huge number of pedestrians there is a tree lined footpath running through the centre of the road, and it works extremely well to keep the crowd moving.  

There were lots of street food stalls in the area today so we tried a couple.   The first was a bag full of little round pikelets that were yummy and next I bought a wedge of pineapple on a skewer.  Two young girls were selling these sticks for 200 yen (around $2) each.  I figure from one pineapple they were probably getting 10-12 wedges, and the line up to purchase the pineapple was the longest by far.  

And guess what?  We got to see Mt. Fuji on our tour drive this morning!  Admittedly, it was just a glimpse in the distance but it was still great to see her.