June 29, 2016 Kamakura

June 29, 2016- Kamakura

I loved Kamakura. It's a smaller town outside Tokyo. It took us about an hour to get there on the train. We were shocked getting on the train in Tokyo. It was rush hour and there were people literally squished against the doors and the train pulled into our stop. Luckily some of those people got off and we were able to get on with very little personal space. All the Japanese on the train were engaged in their phones, so they didn't pay much attention to us. The train quickly emptied out and we had a nice ride to Kamakua.

First we visited the Kotohuin Temple. This is the Giant Buddha temple. There isn't anything of the structure left since it was taken down by a tsunami in the late 15th century, but the Giant bronze Buddha is left. It's quite a site to see. It was built in about 1252 CE, in the Kamakura era . It is 13 meters high and weighs 93 tons. It's a hollow statue and for a small fee, you can go down inside the statute.  This is a popular place for tourists and they had a really cool store outside with some Ninja throwing stars. I couldn't get any because I thought security night not let me bring them back to the US.

Next we walked to the Hachimangu Shrine. This is a Shinto Shrine in Kamakura. This was the headquarters of the Kamakura Shogunate in the 1161 BCE.  There is only the original bridge left of the original structure. Quite an impressive structure with some lovely grounds, including 4 ponds to represent the 4 shogun of the Minamoto family.

We walked to the restaurant for lunch along the original road built for the shogun. He built it so that his pregnant wife could move quickly in case she was to give birth.

After lunch, we were able to visit the beach. Kamakura is a good place to surf, but we really just wanted to put our feet in the Pacific Ocean. It was fun to do a little beach combing. Lots of beautiful shards of Japanese pottery on the beach to find.

Anne, Erica & Calvin

It was time to head back on the train to Tokyo. Our day trip to Kamakura was wonderful. it was nice to see a smaller Japanese town. Apparently Kamakura is known as a wealthy town. It's outside Tokyo enough to that families, if they can afford it, can have a little bigger houses and grounds.

So excited to see the Pacific Ocean

some cute school girls on the train back to our hotel

We arrived back, packed for our trip home and headed out for our last dinner in Japan. After dinner we decided to try a traditional Japanese past-time, Karaoke. It was so fun. There were 11 of us in this little room and we sang our hearts out. The music videos they have with the songs and so corny. I highly recommend you try this if you are in Japan. You didn't have to sing in front of anyone like you do in the US.

Karaoke fun

Ginger is a rock star

Time for bed. It was a long day.