Sunday Judi and I met up at Mito station at 8am to take the train into Tokyo and then another train to Kamakura, a very small and old city about an hour north of Tokyo. We arrived and started off at the Engakuji temple where we saw where they keep the Sacred Tooth of Buddha (or so they say). We were only allowed to peak into the courtyard to which the tooth is kept across the way. Otherwise we checked out the temple, the bell, the garden, and walked to the top of the hill and had some tea and snackies while overlooking the city.
Afterwards we walked towards the main shopping are of Kamakura and stopped by the Kencho-ji, one of the 5 great Zen temples in Kamakura and saw the 3rd largest bell in Kamakura (they like to rank things in JP). We also stopped by a shinto temple that had a wedding procession in progress with another one on the way as well as hundreds of families with their little girls and boys all dressed up in traditional kimonos. There was a ceremony going on that familes were lining up for; everyone looked so cute and adorable! Lots of little Japanese tantrums taking place, there were some booths set up like a matsuri and Judi and I bought some mini candied apples and proceeded to walk the main shopping street of Kamakura.
As it got closer to sunset (which happens around 4:30pm over here now) we decided to rent bikes at the last minute in order to see the most famous monument in Kamakura, the Great Buddha, Daibatsu. We got there just in time and I was able to take pictures of the Great Buddha from all angles and even go instide him for just 20yen! Our last stop was the Hase Dera Temple, which was beautiful, but unfortunately the temple was closing and we had to return our bikes before 5pm, so we ran through most of it. I was totally impressed by the thousand little Jizo stone statues that they had halfway up to the main temple, as they all represented unborn babieswhere there was an 11-headed Kannon. All the little statues are placed to comfort the souls of unborn children.
At the top of the hill is the temple, where there is a gold 11-headed Kannon which supposedly survived a major float that occured in 736. There is a beautiful view of the Kamakura coast from that temple and it reminded me a lot of the little Cinque Terre cities in italy we had hiked through.
Finally, Judi and I raced back just in time to retrun the bikes, had a tasty Japanese meal near the Kamakura station, and shopped for a bit before it literally rained down on us in a matter of minutes. It cleared up as quickly as it came, but we were pretty drenched and decided to head back to Tokyo. We checked in at a very comfortable capsule inn in Asakusa, my new favorite spot to crash at whenever I'm in Tokyo, and headed out again for some quick karaoke at Big Echo and dessert at Denny's (drink bar!!). Did the Japanese bath-style at the capsule inn with 2 French girls we met in the bathroom (I think Judi and I have seen each other in the nude more than any girl I know!), and finally passed out around 2am.
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