Shizuoka City

Last weekend Gary and I decided to take a little trip into Shizuoka City, about 90 minutes away by train. I was able to get my first glimpse of Mount Fuji from the train and let me just tell you, "big" doesn't do it justice! I snapped a few pictures through the trees of the Castle Ruins Park but unless you see it in person I don't think anyone can appreciate the magnitude of this magnificent mountain! Here's what we did that day:


I love my Zoom!
At the end of a very long residential street is the entrance to the Temple.



I have no idea what was going on, but there were a lot of little girls in kimono.
Notice that some of the adults and children are in suits instead. It's a little dark but the woman on the stairs in the front is also wearing a kimono.
This little girl was PRECIOUS! She smiled and waved at me but her older sister was a bit scared. If I'd been able to take this picture a second earlier you would have seen the smile. She was so cute!!
This adult woman, in a series of robes, bowed to the families and then went out back. I wasn't able to get a picture of her from the front. :(
The buildings here are absolutely gorgeous! I tried to zoom in on alllll the carvings!
Here's the zoom. The detail work and carvings were so intricate!
The first trees I've seen in a long time!


Above the temples you could climb up to get a better view of the city. These 77 stairs (that family is only about half way up them!) are just the START of the climb we did up the mountain! The view from the top was almost completely absconded by trees so I didn't bother with any pictures at the top. What a workout!
Back at the bottom was a coy pond with MASSIVE fish! I've never seen fish so huge! They were lots of different colors, too!


On the way to the temple I noticed a great playground and (as usual) I insisted we stop for a few minutes! The playgrounds in Japan are SO AWESOME! The one by my house has a massive slide! Par-tay!! This picture is of a little cement mountain that can be climbed lots of different ways. I opted for putting myself in a hole and I think I look just like Pooh Bear when he eats too much honey and gets stuck in Rabbit's house!! =D And there was a little kid in the other end who smiled and waved. I suppose there's not much funnier than a big Gaijin playing on the playground!
Gary opted for climbing the tires. Well, I call them tires, but the truth is they were also made of cement! Good thing neither of us fell down!!

I'm the king of the world, LOL. I should really reconsider posting such weird pictures on the net for the whole world to see, LMAO! Ah well, we had a great time!! =D

After that we did a little shopping and wandering before heading home. Good times!!!