Woke to pouring rain, which was lovely. You miss it when you haven’t seen it for a while but realise how awful it is in the UK at the moment so should watch what I say!
Writing this in some ways feels a bit self indulgent or maybe very self indulgent but it has really helped me remember things. Mostly our holidays tend to be a bit frantic and things become of a blur so it’s good to have time to reflect on the days.
Today was our last day on the Izu peninsula, it was a lovely place. Travelling over the mountainous central area I felt that we had picked the right side of the peninsula. When we reached the other side it was far more commercial, with massive hotels and the beaches didn’t look as good.
We were heading to Kamakura. Which seemed a good stop off before we stopped at Chiba. Kamakura is to the south of Tokyo, it was the medieval centre of Japan, with more temples and shrines than you can shake a stick at. But we were only going to visit one even the guide books say there becomes a point when there are too many.
The one we were going to was the Kotoku in. The temple is one of the most renowned in Japan as it has a giant bronze Buddha.
In some ways it felt more impressive than the Golden Buddha in Nara because it was in the open air. It’s 11.4 metres high and is the second tallest Buddha in Japan, after the one in Nara. What makes this one a bit different is you can actually go inside it!
It was built in 1252 and since then it has been reinforced against earthquake damage – the top picture shows how they did this. It cost 20 yen to go in – which is about 10p. I thought it was a bargain! 
Before going into the shrine we had to wash our hands and mouth. With the searing heat I fancied a bit of a drink, you are supposed to spit it out. 
I may have had a few sneaky gulps. Still here hours later!
To be honest whilst in many ways these places seem quite spiritual it is hard to completely feel ‘at peace’ as there so many stalls selling tat. Buddha fridge magnets, Buddha pens and the list goes on.
From here we went to the station by bus – cramped but luckily cool. We got our ‘picnic’ from a very swanky shop called Tokyu Store. The Food Hall was amazingly delicious looking. I love the precision of detail they have here. But it’s a bit like Kim Joy’s column in the Guardian, what she makes always looks super cute but I can’t imagine making any of her things. But certainly it is a delight to the eyes and I would feel a shame to eat. 
The one we bought had aduki beans in it so definitely part of our 5 a day.
On the way into Kamakura we saw a monorail. It looked so futuristic we decided to look into having a trip on it. We would check out prices first and weigh up if it was a good idea. It turned out that the tickets wouldn’t come to more than £1. 50. Someone helpful in the train station suggested a route to Pete and so we embarked on yet another type of transport.
We thought perhaps we were a bit silly to feel giddy but they had monorail lunchboxes and a whole shop full of monorail goodies, including a Hello Kitty monorail pen!
It was a bit of an odd experience, not exactly a smooth ride but interesting to glide over the houses.
The picture above shows the rail in the background that we had just traveled along. Pete did look very excited. When I see foreigh students getting giddy in our local Tesco and taking photos I am going to be a lot more forgiving.
We travelled to Enoshima, what an interesting place…… Enoshima is an island which is the only one hour from Tokyo. We caught a glimpse of the Kannon statue on the mountainside above the station. 
The walk from the station to the island is a bit of an eye full in lots of ways. It seemed very much the party place.
Again you have this juxtaposition of loving animals here but then shoving them in tanks ready to eat. 
From dressing up inanimate animals to the real thing. 
These two dogs were wearing tutus in very high temperatures in a pram. Why, why, why?????
I love the notices in Japan, trying to work out what they mean. 
Run after your child if it does a huge fart, run from exploding child, the options are endless.
The beach wasn’t the nicest in Japan by any stretch, the sand was dark and it was very crowded. But of course only being an hour from Tokyo it must be a great, easy to get to getaway. Anyway it didn’t matter as I have had to get rid of my swimming costume as there has been a strange malfunction. After yesterday’s swim my swimming costume had filled up with sand, on either side it looked like sand bags. I can’t work out what happened but the amount of sand in it could have kept a toddler amused for hours, having made quite a few sand castles!
Music blaring, bar workers half heartedly beckoning us in to sample their tequila etc, djs playing. Fun for sure but not our kind. Although maybe getting overly excited about a monorail is questionable.
On the way back we saw this notice:
There is a lot around in English and children and adults alike wear clothes which have odd English translations. Making sense but never quite hitting the mark.
And of course the ever present tsunami warnings… 
Found the van, no mean feat and set off for the nearest michi to Tokyo. On route you always see interesting things, especially as we haven’t done the toll roads.
Pete got us to the michi. He has been amazing as I couldn’t have driven the van at all. He had made quite a chilled play list so that kept us calm. Driving through places like Yokahama and part of Tokyo in the night with light glaring made me feel quite anxious but Pete took it in his stride.
We passed places in Tokyo that we had seen on foot, like the big wheel by the Borderless Teamlab. 
And so we reached our very last michi of the holiday, after only a few Googlemap hiccups. 
Not a bad looking michi, we have either stayed at a michi or had a drink in one on route, becoming quite discerning. 
Again many of them have great tactile maps and when I have a moment I am going to look into how they make Japanese into Braille. 
I have been brave enough to use the private function on the toilets. As they have a musicsl note symbol invariably, I thought if I put it on I thought it may play something loud like Wagner, then everyone would know I was doing something noisy myself. But all it does is make a very noisy sound of something like a cistern filling and refilling.
And every michi has a whole host of bright, colourful vending machines.
To end the journey we used up all the food leftover. 
A spicy bean and rice stew.
I will be glad to be sleeping in a proper bed tomorrow night but have been glad of the freedom the van has given us, added to that we could never have afforded accommodation to the places we have been to for this length of time.
Random Acts of Travelling 