Trip to Odawara

Odawara is the next major city next to Hakone. Actually nothing special, except that it is located by the sea. The beach was - as expected - gray/black, but not very beautiful. It is located right next to a highway and there are a lot of red algae (the water looks more red than blue).

But before I went to the beach, I had a very strange encounter: A Japanese woman (at first I thought she was a guy!) approached me at the train station and started chatting with me in Japanese. She walked with me to the castle and then started talking about the beginnings of Buddhism in Japan. 'Buddha - great power. Makes you happy!'. She said that at least a hundred times :) When she wanted to know my religion, she imitated the Jesus hanging on the cross and said: 'no power'. According to her, if I pray to Buddha for 30 minutes, I will be 'forever happy'. That's why she tried to persuade me to come with her to some shrine nearby. And all the time: 'Buddha makes you happy. Jesus no power.'

And then it dawned on me: Maybe she belongs to some sect or something. Of course, I denied it and said that Jesus did more than just hang on the cross. She was very persistent and just didn't want to leave. When I said I was going to the castle, she understood and left. That was probably one of the weirdest conversations I've ever had :D And all in Japanese! At least I could test my Japanese skills :)