Kamakura, Japan

One of the neater day trips that we took while in Japan was to a place called Kamakura. It is about an hour and a half train ride outside of Tokyo. It is easily accessible by JR trains.

My cousins had gone to Kamakura earlier in their trip and had nothing but good things to say about it. Brooke, especially. So with just a few days left in the trip we knew we had to check it out. Ness and I navigated the JR system and after a couple transfers we exited in Kamakura. From there we jumped on a trolley that took us down within a few blocks of the beach. We strolled our way down to the beach to see the first and only Japanese beach of our trip.

The beach was very calm and mostly deserted as you would expect on a Monday morning in January. It wasn’t overwhelmingly beautiful but I can see how it would it be a great respite for the thousands upon thousands of city dwellers looking for an escape to nature. Soon we were heading up the sloped streets of Kamakura toward Kotoku-In.

Kotoku-In is a Bhuddist temple in Kamakura that has an enormous outdoor bronze statue of Bhudda. Hundreds of years ago the statue was covered by a temple building. Throughout the years several buildings that housed the Bhudda were destroyed by storms and tsunamis. Eventually the temple’s caretakers decided to leave the statue open to the elements.

The fact that the statue is outdoors adds to its majesty. It towers above tourists, surrounding buildings, and even most of the trees around the temple. Its size and beauty make it one of the most well known icons of Japan.

One of the great things about visiting this statue is that they actually let you climb up inside of it. For about $.20 you get to ascend a steep staircase into the statue’s belly. From inside you can see where retrofitting was done in the early 1960’s. Most of the work was done on the statue’s neck to protect the head during earthquakes.

In the temple around the statue you can buy an assortment of charms. There are also many souvenir and kitsch shops that await visitors just outside the temple’s doors. Expect to pay an entrance fee of about $3.00 any time you visit a large temple while in Japan.

After visiting Kotoku-In we decided to stroll back to the JR train station. It was a leisurely walk of about a mile and a half. There wasn’t much to note between the temple and the station. As you near the station, though, there becomes much more hustle and bustle. This is the case at almost every station in the greater Tokyo area. You can almost always expect to find more activity near the stations.

Kamakura is a great day trip from the Tokyo and Yokohama areas. It is definitely worth the train ride to get to experience the grandeur of the giant Bhudda and the serenity of the beach.