Kamakura for me was a bit underwhelming. I was feeling pretty grumpy as I had found out I had to head back to Australia sooner than I expected. Apparently there is a limit to how many tourist visas you can use in a row. D'oh! (180 days max in a 12 month period, in case you were wondering.) It was a public holiday too, so the crowds were a bit mental which may have added to our meh feeling about the place.
It is an easy day trip from Tokyo though, We went via Shinagawa, on the JR Yokosuka line, 690 yen, 46 minutes. There are a few different train and ticket options depending which part of Tokyo you are travelling from.
We started by getting off the train at Kita-Kamakura and picking up the Daibatsu Hiking course from next to Jochi-ji .
The trail is 3km long and winds past a few shrines in the hills before finishing up at Daibatsu (Great Buddha).
A few young guys were enjoying smashing tiny plates at this shrine.
We also stopped at Zeniarai benten, the entrance to the shrine is through a short tunnel.
We skipped the queue to wash our money in the natural springs, supposed to bring financial success but seeing as they use paper money here, it seemed kinda silly.
After stopping at a few other small shrines we made it to the bottom of the hill, paid our 200 yen each and got to stare at the giant Buddha.At 850 tonnes, it is a big Buddha indeed.
There is literally nothing else to do in this area except take photos of the Buddha from different angles. So I did. Oh and you can line up to see inside the Buddha statue but the line was about an hour long so adios to that idea.
Next we walked down a bit further to the beach. It was pretty lame and there were girls wearing high heels on the sand. Double lame.
We got some ice cream and decided to call it a day. So long Kamakura. Maybe we will come back one day in a better frame of mind.
