Today was "Kinro no Hi" or what we call Labor Day. This is a national holiday in Japan so Dennis had a day off from work. When we woke up we heard a car in the street which was singing "Yakimo" which is a roasted rice cake. Apparently the car was selling them and had a speaker on it which was singing the song in the street wherever it went. We heard them before but never heard or saw one from close by. Dennis first went to the post office to get his bank book of his new bank account before we went to Kamakura. We did not have a planning, we just wanted to see anything and because we had never been there before, everything was okay. When we arrived we saw on the map that the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu temple was the nearest so we took a little and very busy street leading to that temple. There were all sorts of special food in the street so we tried some different things like a rice cracker wit soysauce and seawead and different kinds of prepared mochi on a stick called "Dango". It was a lot of fun tasting all the strange foods. When we arrived at the temple we saw a part of a traditional wedding in a little building before the stairs that lead to the temple. We did wonder why they choose this day because it was very busy and there were many spectators but it was very interesting so see, but maybe they chose this day especially because of the crowd. After we visited the temple we went to the Demon temple, Ennoji. It was very quiet there and although very small, we were impressed by the statues inside. After we went to Kenchoji, a bigger temple complex that was very impressive. There was an very beautiful golden gate and when we visited the temple near it, saw there was a beautiful garden (with cute little birds) behind the gate. We left the temple when we were losing light and went back via the main street.

We saw very expensive pottery and the restaurants were quite expensive near the temple. We passed a shop which sold "Omiage". Those are food-souvenirs you buy for family and friends when visiting somewere. This specific one was shaped like a bird. We bought some for ourselves, just a small package so we could try it and maybe buy more next time we visit. When we went to the smaller streets we passed on our way to the first temple, in search of something nice to eat, we met the colleagues of Dennis who happened to be there. They had trouble finding dinner too so we searched all together and settled with Chinese food and afterwards we went to the train. On our way home we went to the Central sports centre near our apartment to check it out. It was well arranged although the equipment looked very old but when we saw the prices we knew it was way too expensive for what they were offering. We had seen some lessons before, since it is the way from/to the train station, and we already know those lessons were not of high quality as well. The Steps class that was taking place looked as it was for total beginners and on the schedule we saw this was the expert class, very dissapointing. Luckily there are more sports clubs to choose from. There seem to be a few in the neighborhood. When we arrived home we tried the bird cookies and we must say they tasted very good. We take a bigger package next time!