Day 159: City of Samurais

I'm staying in Tokyo again until I fly out later this week, but today instead of staying in the city I hopped on a train for the short ride south to the much smaller city of Kamakura. While Kamakura is a somewhat quiet getaway these days, it was once the center of politics and culture, as well as the capital of the island back in the Kamakura shogunate era 800 years ago.

Kamakura is famous for its temples and shrines, as well as being popular for its sandy beach along the coast. Of all the temples and shrines, the most distinct icon of the city is the Great Buddha of Kotokuin Temple, so I went there early to make sure I found it.

I hiked along a back trail that links many of the sites, and checked out a handful of other places, some which were more interesting than others. One of the temples, the Hasedera Temple, had lovely gardens and was full of hundreds of small statues.

Another cool place was a shrine hidden in a small clearing through a tunnel in the hill. The unique thing about this shrine was it's mystical spring that by legend makes any money washed in it lucky, so that whatever is bought with it will bring back even more wealth.

After all the temples and shrines I wandered a bit and checked out the city beach. It was another hot, sunny day so the beach was quite busy, but it was a nice walk through the surf in the afternoon.