Yokosuka and Kamakura

A couple of Sundays ago, Bruce was assigned to speak in sacrament meeting at the military ward at Yokosuka Naval Base. We've been to Yokosuka a couple of times for his RA infusion treatments at the hospital there, and the Military Relations missionary couple serving there, Elder and Sister Thunell from Taylorsville, Utah, have become good friends. Bruce was asked to speak on the blessings of the temple (by the way, thanks to our children for their responses to my email request to share thoughts and experiences on this topic -- ahem -- NOT! But I digress...). One of my favorite parts of his talk was this poem, written by Orson F. Whitney over a hundred years ago and is now on a plaque in the entry of the Canada Alberta Temple:

Hearts must be pure to come within these walls,

Where spreads a feast unknown to festive halls.

Freely partake, for freely God hath given,

And taste the holy joys that tell of heaven.

Here learn of Him who triumphed o'er the grave

And unto men the keys, the kingdom gave;

Joined here by powers that past and present bind --

The living and the dead perfection find.

After church, the Thunells graciously invited us to their apartment for dinner -- happened to be their 49th wedding anniversary that day! And it was a feast -- they kept saying, whatever we don't eat, the young missionaries will, and I guess that was how they figured it was okay to serve a ridiculous amount of food: steak, fried chicken, mashed potatoes and two different kinds of gravy, vegetables, salads, pie for dessert. You don't get a meal like this many places in Japan! We could hardly move by the time dinner was over -- and yes, we did leave lots for them to feed the young elders and sisters.

But there was no time for a food coma, because we wanted to go to Kamakura to see The Great Buddha -- it's pretty close to Yokosuka. It was a wet, rainy day as we set out, and the trains were very crowded (no pictures, but trust me. Very crowded.). But that's just all part of the experience.

This was our first glimpse of the seated Buddha -- you can see just his head over the top of the entrance building. His name is Amida Hyorai and he is a national treasure. Construction of the statue began in 1252 and took ten years. He is the principle deity of Kotoku-in temple (whatever that means, it was printed on my ticket). He's 13.4 meters high and weighs 121 tons. Big guy!

I mentioned that it was a rainy day, but that was actually kind of cool -- not only because all the umbrellas are fun to see, sort of quaint and picturesque, but also the gray overcast made it all just a little bit mystical.  As if religious observances in Japan aren't mysterious enough!

And here are the slippers for his giant feet. Why? I have no idea.

I include this for Bruce. It's unusual to see any signs in English when we visit places like this -- he spent quite a while reading this and studying the explanation of how the statue was built.

A shop in Kamakura

Here's Bruce with Elder and Sister Thunell

Busy place!