Kamakura

Last week I went to Kamakura, which is about an hour's train ride south of Tokyo. It has a ton of temples and historical sites, but we didn't get there until later in the afternoon so we only saw a few of them. First we took the regular JR train to Kita-Kamakura station and got out to see Engakuji, which is "one of the most important Zen Buddhist temple complexes in Japan." It was really pretty, and we were lucky that the camellias were still in bloom! It was really nice to leave the hustle and bustle of Tokyo and walk around the serene temple complex for a while. We were intrigued by the signs pointing to the "National Treasure" and followed the arrows until they led us up a long staircase to a hill with a little cafe and a beautiful view of the area. It was beautiful!

The main gate

Paradise

Camellias!

Next, we headed to another area of Kamakura to see the Great Buddha of Kamakura (Daibutsu) at Kotokuin Temple. To get there we had to take another electric train, which was really old-fashioned and cute. We were cutting it close on time to get there before the temple closed, but we still checked out some of the food vendors on the sides of the road on the walk there. I had seen some other pictures on Facebook of people's trips to see the Buddha and they were all packed with people, but since we got there so late there was basically no one in the complex with us. The Buddha was really impressive -- it's about 45 feet tall and is the second tallest bronze Buddha statue in Japan. It was cast in 1252, so it's over 750 years old. It's amazing to think of people building/transporting it without advanced machinery!

Giant Buddha!

After we were sufficiently exhausted we headed back to Tokyo to relax before going out later at night. We decided to take it easy and got some food around the hotel before going to karaoke! Then, we went home to get a good night's rest before our weekend in Nagano and Matsumoto -- post coming soon!