Kamakura is a very traditional area near Tokyo that has gained popularity in the recent years for tourists. Also known as a 'Little Kyoto,' Kamakura had a lot of temples and shrines to offer. I went there in September and tried to milk the area as much as I could on a budget and in one day.
The trip there was actually quite easy. My girlfriend and I woke up later than planned, but it didn't really affect any of our plans. We hopped on the train to Shinjuku and transferred to the Yokosuka line, which brought us straight to Kamakura. The whole trip took about two hours, and that's only because we experienced a lengthy, half-hour delay at Shinjuku.
I'm not much of a morning person, so I slept on the train for most of the way from Shinjuku to Kamakura, but the glimpses outside the window told me that I was heading to a less metropolitan area. Every time I opened my eyes, there were less obstructions to the view of the sky. Eventually, tall buildings disappeared altogether, giving way to homes and local shops.
I completely awoke when we arrived at Kamakura station. The station was busy, with foreigners and locals alike crowding in and around the station. The day we went was a national holiday, so it wasn't much of a surprise to see. There were two exits, the east one leading to the buses and the start of Komachi Dori, the other heading out into a suburban area.
The plan was to head straight to Hokokuji. We (incorrectly) went out the west exit and turned until Google Maps gave us a more accurate route. I had wanted to walk to experience the homely atmosphere, and the calmer, quaint environment didn't disappoint, even though the walk was about thirty minutes in the blazing sun. We started walking to the temple at around 11:30 a.m. The walk took us past a shrine gate guarded by two lion statues, and through very local areas. There was a stretch of road that had a stream running alongside of it, complete with carp. The homes here had some distance between them and the road, which was unusual for me to see. Along the way we saw some signs that I found interesting, including a sign for a clinic featuring a dolphin doctor, and a wild west inspired wanted poster for firearms.
We finally arrived at Hokokuji Temple after tolerating the heat for half an hour. I was expecting the temple to be much emptier than it was, but its reputation for having a lush bamboo forest had clearly grown since the articles I read about were written. Right after paying the entrance fee and stepping into the grounds, we beheld the entrance to the bamboo forest with a group of non-Japanese people in kimonos ordering each other around for the perfect photos. We avoided them and went around into the rock garden and strolling through the smaller-than-expected forest. The time spent there was fairly short, perhaps a half hour or so, but the sights were worth the trek.
We took the bus back to Kamakura station, having had our fill of the view of local residences. The bus was packed and there was only standing room. It drove through a route that seemed to differ from the one we walked through, so what I saw outside the windows were still new. Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine was on the way, so we took the opportunity to stop by.
The shrine had a large strip of land leading up to it with a path running down its middle. This path extended out into the roads and all the way down to the lion statues that we had passed by earlier that day. From the statues to the stairs leading up to the shrine, it probably took ten minutes or so to walk. There were stalls along this path selling food, and it was easy to see with the large amount of space what a festival here would look like, especially after experiencing Koenji's Awa Odori and Fuchu's Kurayama Festival.
On climbing the stairs we landed on the shrine grounds proper. My curiosity led us all around the grounds and we dropped a couple hundred yen for a fortune attached to some charms in the shape of birds. A quick aside: Japanese fortunes, or omikuji from shrines come in several levels. Those levels are, roughly translated: excellent luck, general luck, middle luck, small luck, and bad luck. I was told that anything that isn't 'excellent luck' or 'general luck' should be left behind at the shrine by tying the fortunes to a designated area. I didn't draw either of those, so I tied mine to a rack at Tsurugaoka.
We explored the grounds further and took a peek inside the shrine itself, taking pictures along the way. There were no photos allowed inside the shrine, and there were security guards making sure of it. A line of people streamed in, some in kimonos, and gave their prayers to the shrine's deity. There wasn't much else to see here, so we left and walked back to Komachi Dori.
The walk back wasn't too long, and we perused some shops along the way. I stopped many times at "power stone" shops. These shops are accessory shops that feature jewelry made of precious stones. While the trinkets were interesting, I thought I could spend my money better elsewhere. The actual road that was officially Komachi Dori had more restaurants, specialty sweets vendors, and souvenir stores than accessory shops. The restaurants here are definitely examples of the idea of "don't judge a book by its cover."
We stopped for a late lunch at a restaurant with a very plain facade. Without the menu and folding sign out front, I would never have guessed it was a soba restaurant. On entering however, we were greeted with a relatively fancy interior. We were seated with in a semi-private table and had some well-presented soba with tempura. The place is highly recommended if you can read it's name in kanji: Minemoto Komachi Dori.
After the meal we bought a brownie at a cafe near the station. After having been in Japan for over a year, I was excited to finally see a brownie again, but on eating it I was disappointed that it wasn't as chewy as I had wanted it. I also bought some kompeito, small clumps of coloured sugar that are basically old-school jawbreakers, at a souvenir store before we headed for the Enoshima Electric Railway, or Enoden as it is more commonly called. It was about 2:30 p.m. when we boarded the train.
We got off two stations later at Hase Station, and walked to our next destination: Kotoku-In Temple, home of the giant Buddha statue. We didn't stay for long there, taking only a couple of photos that may have been too telling of my foreign status and buying a small figurine of the Buddha from the temple shop. I had forgotten during my visit that you could enter inside the statue and see how it was made, but I was also told that it wasn't that interesting inside unless you were really into architecture or curious about how it was made. There was another souvenir shop hidden behind a wall near the giant statue that we perused before leaving the temple.
On the way back to Hase Station, we had time to stop by Hasedera. In June, this particular temple is popular for its blooming hydrangeas, and is probably one of the more interesting temples I've personally been to, and it was definitely worth the 600 yen entrance fee. The temple is multi-level, with the highest point of the area overlooking the nearby residences and providing a view of a nearby beach. This point is sort of a mini-hike, and is where the hydrangeas bloom when they are in season. This area has a sign that named it Prospect Road in English. It also has a sign at the exit in both English and Japanese that tells you not to go up in that direction. There were some elderly foreign ladies that ignored this sign completely and went up anyway. If you do visit this temple, please follow the signage out of respect and for your safety. This part of the temple was particularly steep.
Just below Prospect Road was the actual temple grounds. We didn't go inside the main buildings, but the garden and its exterior were well-kept and calming to behold. There was also a smaller building near the exit of Prospect Road that housed a rotating library with prayer wheels surrounding it. I took a quick lap around the library and spun the prayer wheels as I went, following the example of a local that went in before me. The interior was dim, despite the clear afternoon outside.
The next level down towards the entrance was a small landing with hundreds of similar looking statues placed in an eerily organized fashion. These statues, with a couple of other variations in style, could be found in many places throughout the temple. Some variations were more friendlier in appearance, while others more sombre. Further down another flight of stairs below this was a pond and a small waterfall in a garden. I didn't see any fish, but I assume they were around.
On this same level was a cave of prayer, known as Benten Kutsu. I didn't take any photos of this area out of respect of the religion, but it seemed like a pilgrimage route similar to Christianity's Stations of the Cross. This cave had a low ceiling, so I was stooped down for the entire route. The inside of the cave was lit only by some mining lights and the silence was broken only by the sounds of dripping water and other visitors offering murmurs of prayers. The temple exit was on the same level, so we left after finishing with the cave and headed back to Hase Station to ride the Enoden once again at around 5 p.m.
The Enoden was actually one of the things I was looking forward to on this trip, as I heard that it had it's own unique character that separated it from the other trains in Japan. Indeed, it was an older, more quaint train line, with a seventies style design reminiscent of early Studio Ghibli films. Its interior was smaller and more homely than trains in Tokyo, and it felt as if I was on a train similar to that featured on Spirited Away. The real appeal of this train, however, was the seaside view it provided on the way to Enoshima. On a bright day such as the one we took the trip on, it was a stunning sight.
After about a twenty minute train ride, we reached Enoshima Station. Shops were closing near the station, and the twilight gave us a beautiful sunset as we crossed the bridge to Enoshima Island. By the time we got to the island, most of the local shops had shuttered down for the evening, but we still went up the hill to the shrine.
The shrine itself was a curious one. There were three escalators that you could ride for 100 yen or so (they varied in price), but we chose to skip them and took the stairs. Up the first set of stairs was a statue that looked foreboding in the dimming light. We kept climbing up more flights of stairs and took a look at the then-closed buildings of the shrine, skipping the second and third escalators completely. There was a viewpoint halfway up the shrine that overlooked a local highway, but it probably would have looked nicer during the day. By the time we reached the top of the shrine hill, it had gone completely dark, so we decided to call it a day and head home at about 6:30 p.m.
On the way to Katase-Enoshima Station, we stopped by Kua Aina, a well-known Hawaiian burger restaurant. It seems that on the station side of the bridge, there were a few Hawaiian restaurant choices, but I do not regret going to Kua Aina, especially since I had never tried it before. For a Japanese establishment, the service was really mediocre, but I was happy with the new twist on food, and the onion rings were just to my preferences. We took an uneventful ride back to Shinjuku using the Odakyu line, and made it home tired but satisfied with how we spent the day.
That was my experience with Kamakura and Enoshima, and I hope it gives you some idea of what you could do in a day out in Kanagawa Prefecture. The whole trip was roughly 9,000 yen, give or take a couple of thousand yen. This is including my purchases and trains, so it is definitely not a bank-breaker of a trip. Thanks for reading, and I hope this post encouraged you to come out to this area!
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