Saying this was going to be a busy day is the understatement of the year. In the morning, I took a train with Nguhi to go see the big budhaa at Kamakura.
The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a bronze statue of Amida Buddha, which stands on the grounds of Kotokuin Temple. It’s 13.35m in height and is the second tallest bronze Budhaa statue in Japan, surpassed only by the statue in Nara's Todaiji Temple. It was built in 1252 and similar to most budhaas in Japan, it was inside a large temple hall. A series of typhoons and tidal waves in the 14th and 15th centuries destroyed the temple buildings and the Budhaa has been in open air since 1495. Kamakura used to be the capital of Japan in the 12th and 13th century.
After Kamakura, we went to meet the rest of the #mirozinjapan for a night boat cruise in Yokohama.
Yokohama was one of the first Japanese ports opened to foreign trade, in 1859. It contains a large Chinatown with hundreds of Chinese restaurants and shops. Before the cruise, a few of us ate in Chinatown. The cruise was lovely in a strange way – most such cruises are about seeing nature, but we were intentionally going to see factories and industrial areas of Japan😊.
One would think that the day was complete, but not at all. That evening #mirozinjapan were hosting a party in a club where drinks and snacks from our different countries would be served. We had all carried a few unique items from our various countries. My contribution had mostly been in the form of tuskers and sesame bars. After the night’s partying, I got a second wind. I would be leaving Tokyo on the next night and I knew that this particular night would be my only chance to give Tokyo my all.
Party plans were also aided by the fact that I overstayed at the “La petite Dakar a Tokyo” party and missed the last train home. You should have seen Kabura and I running like mad women to catch that train only to find it had left us. Having given up on getting home affordably, partying all night sounded like a great alternative. Ben and I ended up going to Roppongi and finding a bar with a Kenyan owner. We were welcomed like long lost relatives. I love my Kenyan people! Especially when traveling – it feels as if you’re home when you bump into other Kenyans. We stayed there then finally ended up at an all-you-can-drink bar. It was all-you-can-drink for women, but I believe we got in and I sneakily shared drinks with Ben. Then I got a message from my roomies that the key to our Airbnb was not working and they had all gone to get hotel rooms for the night. I knew that partying had been divine intervention as I would have been in a similar homeless situation. I was lucky to be able to spent the night at Kabura’s Airbnb - which we staggered into at 4am.
