Day Trip to Kamakura

Day Trip to Kamakura

With fine weather predicted for Monday (Sep 11), we traveled south to Kamakura, a seaside town that is home to a giant Buddha statue, one of the most famous icons of Japan. An easy 50 minute trip.

The site is a 30 minute walk from the train station.

Mt. Rainier packaged coffee drinks are available everywhere!

In addition to walking the grounds and viewing the bronze statue from the outside, we also were able to go inside it, into the “belly of the Buddha” if you will!

We stayed for a little, and walked the surrounding streets.

Fortunately, we also encountered another temple and shrine complex on our way back to the station: Hase-dera. This is one of those “1000 Places to See Before You Die” sites, and oh boy, we are glad to have stopped by. Many temples and shrines set amongst several gardens with pools of koi fish, all in one compact hillside location.

Hase-dera, commonly called the Hase-kannon is a short walk down the road from the Giant Buddha. In one of the temples is a massive wooden statue of Kannon.

As we walked the steps to see this statue we encountered a small shrine that had hundreds of small Buddha statues arrange in tiers around a small offering plate.

There was also one larger Buddha statue sitting, while leaning its head against its arm and hand. Seemingly sighing, “so many Buddhas”!

Then back to Tokyo to explore the Ginza area, then dinner.