Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Tokyo trip 2008 - Kamakura

On our last day of our Tokyo trip, Ayako and I went to the historical town of Kamakura. It was the capital city of Japan during the 12th and 13th centuries. From the train station, there was a small shopping street with many souvenir stores that we checked out. We then started at the most famous shrine there, Hachimangu shrine:
Many people were visiting it on this day, and they were getting ready for the huge crowds of people that will come there on the first few days of the new year:
Here you can see some gifts to the shrine from various companies:
We then visited Kencho temple, which is one of the oldest Zen temples in Japan and the oldest in Kamakura. It was built in 1253:
Here is me in front of a large bell, which has been designated a national treasure:
Inside the temple:
A beautiful painting of a dragon on the ceiling of the temple:
In another part of the temple:

Ayako in front of one of the gates:
We went for a small walk behind the temple, near a bamboo grove:
The next temple we visited was Engaku temple, which is the second-most famous Zen temple in Kamakura:
We then had a long walk to see a giant buddha statue and along the way, we saw this old entrance to a bank that looked very western:
We then had lunch close to the giant buddha statue. The restaurant's special was the buddha-looking udon:
Finally we arrived at the giant buddha statue:
Here's a close-up view:
We had a nice picture taken in front of it:
And then had fun taking other pictures in front of it:


After that, we were on a train back to Hamamatsu. WE both enjoyed the trip but are fairly exhausted after four long days of walking.

1 comment:

Isobel Rosa said...

Awesome photos! :D
Those buddha looking udon looks delicious o.o