These children were too cute for words. They couldn't have been any older than 4 or 5. They were absolutely filthy from the rain and the mud they'd obviously been delighting in prior to the Buddha visit. The caregivers didn't seem to be one bit concerned at the state of these children's clothing. They laughed and played and had the best time. I had the best time just watching them being children.

She was too cute.

Such pretty children!

Too adorable!

It had begun to rain just as I got there, so the boats were all coming in from an early day's fishing. It was low tide. Not sure exactly how they launched the boats, but it appears they just drag them on the skids and go.

While the boats were beached because of the rain and wind, it didn't stop the windsurfers that were just outside this shot. This is also very near the Zushi Kaisei Junior High School Victim Tombstone in memory of the student who died during the sub accident near Hawaii.

Up close fishing vessel.

Just couldn't resist the fishing stuff.

What a warning! I'd hope that they would have long gone by the time the weather was THAT bad, rather than reading the sign while the wave was upon them. Don't see this type of warning in the US even at the east coast beaches where hurricanes are prevalent.

(from the literature given me at the entrance) "The sutra repository contains a revolving sutra library that hold the Buddhist scriptures, which are precious to the temple. It is said that rotating the shelves of the sutra library represents a symbolic reading of the entire Buddhist cannon and thus gives equivalent merit."

I saw several people rotating the sutra while I was there. Sorry the picture is so bad, but it was very dark and raining when I took it.

Hydrangea Road is part of the Hasedera (The Hase Kannon Temple) in Kamakura. Want more information? Try here http://www.hasedera.jp . OK. So it's in Japanese, but the pictures are really pretty. :-P

You can tell that, at the right time of year, this would be a breathtaking place to be! I was there early July and there were still some pretty flowers left, but I can imainge about June it was spectacular.

Nengedo is the largest among the wooden structures existing in Eastern Japan, and is dedicated to the statue of Senju (Thousand-Armed) Kan'non Bosatsu. (This information from http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~QM9T-KNDU/kenchoji.htm , a GREAT resource!)

There was a good deal of construction going on at Kencho-ji. These are the construction cones in Japan. MUCH better than our offensive, big, ORANGE ones, don't you think?

Isn't it cute and little!

Geeze, guys! Even the construction fencing is pretty there!