My Amazing Time in Japan III – Kamakura

Kotoku-in Temple and its massive Buddha

After three beautiful days in Tokyo (you can read all about them here) I took a JR Train directed to Kamakura. Kamakura is a beautiful city just a couple of hours away from Tokyo, and it hosts some very beautiful temples and shrines.

I only stayed one night in Kamakura, and explored the temples and the city center basically in one day. If you are well organised is very easy seeing all the top sights of the city in just that short period of time. The first temple I visited has been the Hase Kannon (Hase Dera) a beautiful shrine dedicated to Kannon, very famous for its 11 headed wooden Kannon statue that seems to be the biggest of the whole country.

Hase-Dera Kannon statue

Hase-Dera temple

The bamboo forest

From there it is possible to explore some more small temples, like the Zeniarai Benten shrine and the Bamboo shrine. Zeniarai Benten is a temple dedicated to a water deity, and it is very famous for its flow. People say that if you wash your money into the temple flow it can double. You just need to try to find it out!

Zeniarai-Benten temple, where people wash their money in bamboo baskets, hoping for the value to multiply

The Bamboo temple is a beautiful, quiet temple opened on a stunning view on the ocean. It is surrounded by a massive bamboo forest, and the sense of peace that it radiates is second to none of the other temples I visited.

Little oyster shells, where people write down their wishes, hoping for the gods to answer. I saw any kind of tools used to write down wishes in the temples I visited, including wooden tablet and small rolls of paper, but I think these ones are by far the most original!

I would like to highlight the fact that all these temples are situated at walking distance from one another, that is why visiting them in little time is possible and easy.

The same is true for another beautiful temple I visited, Kotoku-in, ten minutes walk from Hase Kannon, and famous for its massive Great Buddha Statue, which is the biggest of the Country, second only to the Buddha in Nara (which I visited, and about which we're talking later).

The statue is beautiful and majestic; according to the historical data it used to be placed indoors, but after a tsunami happened in 1498 it was decided to leave it outdoors. It is also possible to visit the interior of the statue, and admire the mechanism keeping the pieces of it together.

By the Bamboo temple is this wooden tool, that the monks spin once a month, opening a kind of "window" storing a series of mantra. The main goal here is to read all of the mantra regularly.

It was in Kamakura that I had my first okonomiyaki, in a small, cute restaurant just walking distance from the Hase Kannon temple, called Sometaro. In here the very kind staff brings you a bowl containing all the ingredient of your okonomiyaki, and let you cook it yourself on a hot plate in the middle of the table. It will be the waitress herself coming to you and giving you tips about what to put inside and when it is time to flip it, but I had so much fun in preparing – and obviously eating! – it.

My first - self prepared - okonomiyaki! It was simply delicious!

In the evening I had a walk in the city centre, which is very pretty, and had dinner in a restaurant where it was possible to grill meat by yourself on a small grill in the middle of the table. Another lovely experience, and delicious meat! The restaurant is called Gyukaku Ofuna.

The stunning view of the city from the Hase-Dera temple

Grilled meat based dinner, in another lovely restaurant in Kamakura. It was very funny grilling the meat by ourselves, but also very tasty!

I stayed at the hotel Mets for one night (it is literally walking distance from the main station) and then moved on to Hakone, a place famous for its hot springs, and about which we're talking very soon. I hope you might find this little post useful, if you have any question don't hesitate to ask.

Talk to you very soon with another post on my Japanese trip

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