It’s a little more than a week, but there is not much going on at this point. I’m winding down and preparing to get back to life in the States. I’ve experienced my first 2 real earthquakes since coming here over the past 2 nights (Tue 10/25 and Wed 10/26). They were not very big, but enough to rock the house a little and make me take notice. Last Sunday (10/23) we climbed up a small hill/mountain near the house here (about a 5-10 minute bike ride up) and they apparently have a very small “zoo”.

Today, Wednesday Oct 19th, I went out on a trek. Started off in Zushi, went up the street to the OK Market, where they have a 4 story parking garage. Took pictures of Zushi from the top. Then rode the train to Kamakura (next hop over from Zushi). Kamkura was, at one time, Japan’s capital (pre-1500’s), so it’s a pretty popular tourist destination and pretty bustling.

Today, Tuesday Oct 18th, was more or less a rest/recovery day after the 16 hour day yesterday (4-hour drive each way + 8 hours going through the various areas we visited), so I didn’t go anywhere or do much of anything except sleep and relax the day away.

Today, Monday Oct 17th, we took another tour bus, this time it took us to Nikko, which is a very important place to the Japanese people. It is where some of the remains of Ieyasu Tokugawa (the first Shogun) are laid. Though he had never been there, in his time the place was already famous for it’s shrine, and so one of his last wishes was to be partly laid to rest there, as well as in his home town at the base of Mt Fuji (I don’t recall the town’s name off-hand).

Over the weekend of Saturday/Sunday Oct 15th/16th, we went into Tokyo to stay at the New Sanno Hotel for their “Beatles” night. They had a cover-band called The Parrots who were doing nothing but covers of Beatles songs. I did not take any pictures or videos, but they were pretty good. The food was definitely great, but the speakers on the right-side of the stage were pointed right in my ear and because everything is so quiet at home and I listen to things at some of the lowest volumes, my ears ended up hurting from it and I didn’t have as much fun as I might have if maybe I had taken a different seat away from the stage or at least pointed in a different direction.