Kamakura

Last week, we visited Kamakura with a few of Ronjie's friends from school. Kamakura is a few hours away from Hon-Atsugi by train; we got a ¥1,140 Enoshima-Kamakura train pass which allowed us unlimited rides on the train routes to & from Hon-Atsugi and Kamakura (and in between stations) for a whole day.

snow on the mountains
(the view of the mountains from the bus stop near our apartment)

tulips at the Fujisawa station
(at the Enoden line, waiting for the train to Kamakura)

Kamakura!

the first of many torii I would see that day

First stop was Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, Kamakura's most important shrine.

torii on the walkway to the shrine

the path is lined with cherry trees
(gusto ko bumalik dito pag sakura season na!)

saw an Our Lady of Perpetual Help church along the way

rice cakes for sale along the sidewalk

another torii

Tsurugaoka Hachimangu

barrels of sake

temizuya

had to climb a flight of steps to get to the shrine

prayers

more prayers

After visiting the shrine, we had lunch in town. We tried this Chinese noodle restaurant which specialized in dan dan mein (Szechuan noodles). I didn't have dan dan mein (didn't like spicy); I had barbecued pork noodle soup, which tasted and looked like regular Japanese ramen. (Will be blogging separately about the Chinese noodle restaurant. Wait for my next post!)

saw these Japanese pancakes for sale along the sidewalk during the walk back to the train station

Headed back to the Kamakura station and took a ride to the Hase station, where we would be getting off to see the Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha).

the temple grounds where the Daibutsu is located is a 15-minute walk from the Hase station

The centuries-old Kamakura Daibutsu has a height of 13.35 meters. It stands (sits) in open air as the temple building which used to house it was destroyed by typhoons and a tidal wave in the 14th & 15th centuries. The Kamakura Daibutsu is the 2nd tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan.

for ¥20 you can enter the Daibutsu and see how it looks like from the inside

We stayed just a while to take photos and sit a bit then headed back to the train station. Last leg of the trip was Enoshima Island. I was already tired by that time so didn't join the group anymore when they walked up and around Enoshima for the island tour. :)

But still managed to goof around on the way home. :D

at the Katase-Enoshima station