Kamakura, Jasmine

We took a day trip on the train to Kamakura (about 90 minutes southwest of Tokyo) where one of Isako's uncles who lives there showed us around.  The main attraction there is the Daibutsu (literally, "Big Buddha"), which you can see below.  It is made of bronze, and is about 500 years old.  Apparently there used to be a building over it for shelter, but some time ago a tsunami hit the area and washed away the building, while leaving only the Buddha and the pillar foundations intact.

The day we were in Kamakura happened to be the day of the Shichi-go-san, a celebration where 7 and 3 year old girls and 5 year old boys dress up and visit temples.  The kids were very cute, parents were all happy but we weren't so sure if the kids were...

The picture below is from a street vendor's display, I thought it was very colorful.

Here is a picture I took of Jasmine, Isako's mom's cat.

And here's a really terrific picture my mom took of Jasmine.  The reason the picture is so good is because it illustrates one of Jasmine's very odd behaviors.  If he is in the room, if anyone picks up a tissue and blows his (or her) nose, the nose-blowing sound triggers Jasmine to immediately get up and waddle over and sit next to the trash can staring intently at the person holding the tissue.  He'll sit there all tensed up until the person wads up their tissue and throws it in the trash can, and Jasmine will watch it fall into the can as if his life depended on it, and then stare into the can as if something very important to him had just disappeared in there.  Occasionally, especially if you through the tissue up in a big arc, he'll jump up on his hind legs and try to swat it as it goes into the can.  It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen a cat do.