Just 31 miles south-south-west of Tokyo you'll find the small city of Kamakura in Kanagawa, Japan. The city is filled with many historically significant temples and shrines. On any given weekend it's bustling with tourists from all walks of life, though mostly Japanese. Kamakura has been on my list of places to visit for some time now and I finally got the chance to go down there this weekend to check it out. It's a short 1 hour train ride from Shibuya station in Tokyo and there are both direct and multi-train options to get you there. In short, I found Kamakura to be as pleasurable to visit as Kyoto, but without the two and a half hour bullet train ride or the massive crowds getting in the way.
Once I arrived at the Kamakura train station it wasn't very intuitive to figure out where to go from there, mostly because I couldn't read the signs in Japanese. However, once I figured it out getting around was surprisingly easy. Everything is in walking distance, if you don't mind 30 minute walks, and you can travel from one major site to the next without needed an auto, maps, or even directions in my case.
First on the site seeing tour was Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū, it's the major and most important Shinto shrine in Kamakura and was originally built in 1063. Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū is the geographical and cultural center of Kamakura and is one of the best shrines I've seen thus far. The shrine has a lovely approach which gives it a feeling of grandeur on a large scale. One thing I love about the various major shrines is their scale and size. The grounds of the shrine are as important and as impressive as the historical buildings themselves and is a pleasure to explore.
After the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū shrine I walked around the surrounding shops
and restaurants just outside the shrine grounds. The residents have done a nice job of filling the natural tourist path around the city with places to eat and things to buy. I ate at one of the nearby restaurants which looked like a converted home and was very cozy. The waitstaff seemed like family and the food was great for the price.
After lunch it was time to head to the Great Buddha, or daibutsu, at Kootoku-in. The site was about a 25-30 minute walk from Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū and I got there without direction or a map, both of which would have helped.
"The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a monumental outdoor bronze statue of Amitābha Buddha located at the Kōtoku-in Temple in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The bronze statue probably dates from 1252, in the Kamakura period, according to temple records." - Wikipedia
The Buddha was an impressive sight to behold. It's large scale can only be appreciated in person as it towers over you from 13 meters high. The grounds of the buddha is very well kept and monitored and even though there were crowds there it still felt tranquil.
Sadly, I wasn't able to see much more of Kamakura after daibutsu. The other shrines closed down at 4:30PM, at which point I walked around a bit more before heading back to the train station then back to Tokyo. I plan on revisiting Kamakura to catch the other sites, and since it's less than an hour away it should make another great day trip in the future.
Update: The following day president Obama visits Kamakura as well and goes to the Buddha statue. Even more, he had ice cream just like I did - probably vanilla too. Why is he always trying to bite my style?
