Kamakura

Also known as Kyoto of Eastern Japan, Kamakura is located about an hour by train from Tokyo. It is also the former political centre of Japan. We decided to head here after deciding that we should not try to get to Nikko in the few precious days that we have left in Tokyo. Plus after Kyoto, I was little over shrines and temples :P.

We only had 1/2 a day to spend in Kamakura so we decided to do a quick spin of where we needed to go after researching it on japan-guide the night before. After all, it was a last minute decision :P. There was only a handful of places to visit in Kamakura, so a half-day itinerary wasn't that difficult to plan.

We started off pretty early that morning, and I think it was this morning that we decided to have coffee at shop that really looked like Starbucks from afar. Excelsior Cafe. Coffee - definitely one of the better once I've had in Japan. Actual caffeine, actual caffeine!!! *grin*

Isn't it just so Starbuck-ary??? :D

We then headed to Shinjuku Station, which was only about 5 minutes from our hotel to catch the train to Kamakura ( I think we had to change train once), and the journey took about 80 minutes. Kamakura JR station is a pretty small station in comparison to those that we've seen so far, and the Enoden Line is located just behind the JR Line which was really convenient.

First stop, Wakamiya-oji Street. Once again, all I had to do after we exit from the train station was hold the map and get my bearings. And then a lady came up to me asking if I needed help with directions. *I can sssoooo get used to this! :)*

Wakamiya-oji Street

The street is a 1.8km street leading to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, one of the larger Shinto shrines in Japan. The street is supposedly lined by cherry blossom trees which would be without any doubt, a very pretty place in April, when they are all in bloom, but we were obviously in the wrong season for it when we were there :( .

First gate to the shrine

Little teahouse by the pond (Gen-pei Pond to be specific)

I am amazed with the number of teahouses by the ponds in Japan. They look so pretty, fitting right in, with the trees and it's flowers and the clear ponds. *I want a pond in my house tooo!!!*

A praying place

I am sure these are here for a reason other than as decorations...

Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu was built in 1063, dedicated to the late Emperor Ojin and his family. After passing the first gate/torii, 3 bridges come into view. The photo where I took next to the pond above is one of the two bridges. The bridge in the middle was arched, and at that time, I did think that that must have been part of it's design. Only when I looked up the place online at a later time, did I know that the flat bridges were meant for common people, and the arched one is meant for the founder. I forgot if the arched bridge was open to public :( .

The main hall or shrine

Inside the shrine

Just like most of the other temples that we've visited, they had the fortune machines where you can get an oracle for usually 100 yen. As I've said earlier, if one gets a bad oracle, one's suppose to tie it to a string thingy.. This is an example of it if you have no idea what I was talking about :

Place to get the oracles/fortunes told
Strings and papers tied thingy - on the right

Papers tied

The other practice is drinking the water from a well-looking thing. There's usually a few ladles around for people to use and one's suppose to wash your hands with the water and drink them for good fortune (or something similiar). I think......

The water 'practice' place in Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu
The prettiest one I've seen in Japan

The pretty ladles :D

In Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu compound

From there, we made our way to the Komachi-dori, which is the shopping street in Kamakura. Located just behind Wakamiya-oji, it wasn't hard to find at all. Just like other streets in smaller towns, Komachi-dori sold mainly small eats, and tourist-y stuffs like keychains, fridge magnets, fans and little ornaments for souvenirs.

Komachi-dori

There was this fish shaped pastry thing that I've seen in Kyoto I think, which we didn't manage to try then. Lucky for us, they were sold in a few stalls in Komachi-dori. It seem pretty popular as just after a few minutes walk down the street, there was a quite a few who were having it. So we decided to have some too! :) We had two, 1 with redbean filling and the other... I think it was lotus paste or something. Can't exactly remember but I couldn't finish mine as it was too filling for the tummy! But it was pretty good.

The making of the fish 'cake/pastry'

Final product!

I also saw my first takeaway sushi stall here! Not your usual type of takeaway sushi... well, perhaps its the same concept, but not in a stall like this! The food weren't on display, there was pictures instead. Actually, come to think about it, maybe it wasn't a sushi stall. It was more of a takeaway bento box stall. Hehehe

The takeaway bento stall

Right at the end of the street was the JR station again, which was really convenient as we needed to take the Enoden Line to head towards Hasu to visit the famous Kotoku-in and also the Hasu-dera Temple.

The Enoden Line trains - I felt like we just went back in time!! These trains are so cute!! :D

Kotoku-in Temple

The Great Buddha Statue

In the olden days, the statue was actually located in a wooden building, dating back to the 13th century. In 1493, the wooden building was washed away by tsunami but the bronze statue remained, till the present day. Amazing isn't it?

There is an actual entry into the inside of the statue, priced at either 10 yen I think. It was only a very small area, and the statue is actually hollow inside. There was a board stating how the statue was built in stages. Quite interesting, given that it was only 10 or 20 yen to enter :). The only thing was the steps, which were pretty narrow and poorly lit.

How the statue was constructed

The Hase stop on the Enoden Line is a fair distance from the Kotoku-in, which is located at the end of the road. The Hasedera Temple is located on the way, to the left of the road, coming from the station. It wasn't clearly marked in English, so I had to do a little of mix & match with the chinese characters. The temple itself, is at the end of the alley. If all else fails, just look at an alley where many are heading to.

At the entrance of Hasedera Temple

At the compounds of Hase-dera Temple

The famous statue in Hasedera is the biggest wooden sculpture in Japan, the Kannon-Batsu standing at 9.18m in height. She has 11 faces *I think 9 on the front*. It is said to carry the wishes and thoughts of every man.

Little statues of Jizo

There is a larger statue of Jizo to the right of the picture, where prayers are made. I didn't know this when I was there, but apparently each of these status represents prayers for every child miscarried, stillborn or aborted.

Hase-dera Main Hall

The temple is actually built on 2 levels, where the pond and lake on the lower, the temple's main hall and Jizo statue on the upper ground. Just to the right of the picture above, close to where I was standing to take the picture, is the terrace that overlooks Kamakura town and bay. Not the prettiest photo picture, but still not a spot to miss.

Overlooking the bay and town

More cute statues :)

On the lower ground, apart from the pond and trees (and the cute statue!), there was a little cave called the benten kutsu cave, where tribute is paid to Benzaiten, the goddess of feminine beauty and wealth, and also the only goddess in the Lucky Seven Gods mythology. The cave is actually quite small and the path works in a one way pattern. On occasion, one would need to stoop lower as the overhead is quite short. There was some restoration work while we were there, but it didn't really affect us much. One could also purchase little wooden statues to put in the caves, but there wasn't any spots left when we were there :( .*I either forgot to take pictures, or it was not allowed*

Another pond and house

Couldn't resist a picture with this cutie :)

Just to the left from Hasedera Temple was a shop that sold musical box/ornaments. According to G, they are a famous musical company in Hokkaido where he visited the year before. The shop was huge, with plenty of cute & pretty things. I was contemplating if I could take a picture in the shop when the salesgirl came up to me and told me to feel free taking pictures as well as playing the music on the ornaments. Just wonderful people!! *grin*

The iconic cat posture :)

Aren't they just so adorableeeee?

My personal favourite - as much as I hate cats! How can I not love this cute little thing??

To find the shop, its just along the alley towards the temple to the right (left if leaving from temple). It has a huge grandfather clock near it's entrance which is a big white building with wooden doors.