Kamakura

Had to take a picture of the Big map to use.

After another tough week fighting with the crowded trains,congested city and contaminated breathing space we decided to grab the first train heading out of Tokyo and see where it takes us to. Sadly, that's a lie. We had to search for a good place to hang out, somewhere we don't mind going back to for the second of third time since we covered most of the hiking trails surrounding Tokyo city.

We decided on going back to Kamakura since its one of the option after sleeping in so late and the fact that the sunlight disappear way before we had lunch. Instead of taking the usual route to Shinagawa then to Kamakura, we took the Odakyu line from our station, Shimokitazawa, and head for Fujisawa where we changed again to the Tokaido line bound for Ofuna and then the last train from Ofuna to Kita-kamakura. The reason was that the trails look much closer to Kita-Kamakura than to Kamakura station, which is quite true. We arrive in Kita-Kamakura station to be welcomed by this huge crowd, apparently everybody else was thinking of going there too. Now the hardest part was finding the tourism office, according to my source there is suppose to be one located right beside the train exit. Even with my level of Kanji I couldn't locate it, so we decide to make do with the maps provided by the train station which from the looks of it might lead us no where.

Great Budha of Kotokuin Temple

We decided to use the directions provided along the road and off we went. The first temple we came across was the Jochiji Temple. Was founded in 1283 by the members of the ruling Hojo family on the occasion of the premature death of their son. Beside the Temple starts the Daibutsu Hiking trail that will eventually lead you to the great Buddha.

We skip Jochiji Temple and start the hike up. The trail is quite manageable, not too steep and doesn't require proper gear just any comfortable shoes will do just fine. We walked at a much slower pace because of the crowd when we reach the top it was after 40minutes. At the top there is a beautiful garden where one could rest. They install a few vending machines so its OK to leave the 2litre bottled water at home when you come. The landscape was just too perfect, we were in time for the autumn leaf viewing. And what they did was arrange the trees with red leaves on one side so its red everywhere with little spots of yellow here and there.

From that spot, we kept walking on the signs showing the directions are not that bad. You just have to remember the names of the sites and temples you want to see or else you will keep going round in circles. We went  straight for the Great Buddha skipping all the other proposed routes and temples. At one point we started descending til we reach this stairs that lead us to the main road. My Boyfriend was disappointed, thinking why are we back in the main street?. But of course the Buddha is in Kotokuin Temple right in the middle of civilization.



The Beach at sun down



The Kotokuin Temple was Jam packed with a lot of people including foreigners and tourists. It was like being back at the shinjuku station only this time more noisier. We head straight for the Great Buddha, then we notice a queue of people waiting in line to enter the Great Buddha. We queued up and after 10 minutes we were right in front of a tiny tunnel-like entrance. Just before your turn you had to pay a sum of 20yen as an admission fee. Inside was stuffy and crowded and honestly there was nothing to see just the nose of the Statue from the inside out and it was quite dark. We couldn't stay in there for more than a minute, we had to get out of there.

We decided to leave the temple and head down towards the beach. When we arrive we saw a lot of heads popping up and down like a floater tossed by the current. Ahhhh....sufers! then we burst out laughing, there was no wave at all and the number of surfers clustered together was unbelievable. But it was fun to watch, from there we walked the length  of the beach then started heading towards what we thought was the train station.

A kind woman redirect us towards the station which took us another hour which we didn't mind at all because theres just so much to see. We stopped for a quick beer by this yakitori stand that provide seats on the terrace and just watch the people go by. We finally made it to the train station a bit later and head back to Tokyo.

Kamakura is a great place to visit however be aware that the Great Buddha is closest to the Hase station. About 5-10 minutes walk and do not be surprise to see pictures of President Obama left and right even on the Ice-cream stand. Lets just assume he made a visit to the Kotokuin Temple and left a great impression on the residents.  The hiking trail is not exactly a hiking trail, think of it as a walk in the park with man made hills, 50-60 year old and children can do the trail.