I Left My Heart in Kamakura
If you ever come to Japan, be sure and visit Kamakura, a charming city located about 50 km south of the Tokyo-Yokohama sprawl, which makes a really nice day trip. A picturesque city by the sea with a very long history, it hosts many temples and shrines, the most famous being the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, founded in 1063. Old stuff like this always floors me as an American, since nothing any ancestor of mine is half that old. Kamakura is most famous for the giant bronze statue of Buddha, the second largest in Japan, and this alone would make the city worth a trip even if it weren't one of the prettiest places in Japan. Kamakura is also home to one of the most famous train lines in Japan, the Enoshima Electric Railway (nicknamed Enoden throughout Japan), which has been in operation since 1900 and which is beloved by Japan's many train otaku, who come from miles away ride on it.
posted by Peter in Japan at 7:40 PM
3 Comments:
I took a day trip to Kamakura from Tokyo earlier this year when I was over there. It was one of the best days of my trip. Since I went during the week early morning I had almost every temple I visited all to myself.
After a delicious lunch in the town (and eating lots of those pigeon shaped cookies!) I took the railway over to Enoshima island and climbed that, which was really fun and beautiful.
I guess that's a long way of saying I wholeheartedly agree with this post :).
10:40 PM
I read somewhere that you can go inside the Great Buddha for ¥20, but each person says "sore dake", i.e., "is that all?". Just a hollow statue, after all.
2:30 AM
Yes, I want to go again. Oddly, my Japanese wife is generally more interested in, say, going to San Francisco or New York or somewhere like that in the U.S. than seeing her own country. So she usually makes groaning noises when I suggest the family taking a vacation to Hokkaido or Aomori or some such.
4:10 PM
Post a Comment
<< Home