Not much to report this week, except the purchase of a new (to us) car. It's a '95 Toyota Caldina station wagon that we bought from a friend on Melody's boat. At 2$K, it was a pretty good deal. It's only got about 40K km on it, too. Most of the driving around here is local. For instance, it is about 26 km from where we live to work. Now, one would think that it should be just a quick jaunt up the road to get there, and take, oh, 20 min or so. Not the case. If I leave at 5:30 AM, I get to work at about 6:25. Coming home in the evening is worse...about an hour and a half. But, it's just the price to pay so that Melodyh and I can live in the same house, and it's well worth it. Still, I'll be taking the train (even though it takes about 1.5 hrs) a few times a week, b/c it's more relaxing, and I enjoy the walk to and from work. A little fresh air and exercise, you know...

At the risk of jinxing myself, I'm getting the hang of driving on the wrong side of the road, too. It took less time than I thought it would, especially after all the driving experience in KSA. Driving however you want, fast, slow, passing on the right, driving the "Inshallah Lane"...all those habits apparently weren't too deeply ingrained, as I've been able to get around fine. It's still strange, but not too bad.

Now, some pictures from the day I found my first Geocache.

Lion along the way to Hachimangu Shrine

Rickshaw Driver in Kamakura...these guys make a living by pulling tourists around. They wear these cool looking "ninja" shoes with a split toe sole.

The first stop was Kenjoji Temple, the start point for finding the Geocache. Hanging from the temple was this sign...not sure what it said, but it was probably enlightening (since this was a Zen Buddhist Temple).

A serene Zen Garden

Bamboo Forest

Scary Bird Man...I think he was there to try to convince me not to try to find the geocache.

The first part of the trail was straight up a bunch of stairs. Once at the top, the trail followed a ridgeline for about a kilometer or so. Along the way were some nice views of Kenjoji Temple and beyond.

Along the way, the trail was lined with steep (vertical) drop offs...Sort of hard to see in this picture, but the trail edge just dropped straight down for tens of feet.

Up along the ridge was a small shrine to Buddha. People will come along and make offerings of saki. Saki, because it is made from rice, is considered to be a holy drink.

After finding the cache at the base of a high tension wire (humming with electricity), I headed back down the trail to town. Once out of the woods, the road led to a small shrine just outside of Kamakura. At the Kamakura-gu Shrine, there was a place where one could buy a small clay dish and break it on a rock. I'm not sure what that was for, but folks seemed to be getting into it...

Kamakura-gu Shrine

All in all, it was a great day...a chance to get out and enjoy the nice weather, get some good exercise wandering around in the woods, see a few more places in Kamakura, my new home town, and find my first Geocache. If you enjoy being outdoors, like to play hide and seek or do scavenger hunts, you'll love this sport.