Tokyo 2009 - Part 2

Tokyo, Day 3, Thursday 15th October

We took a train to the rural district of Kamakura which is about an hour ride south west from Tokyo station. We then changed to a quaint local train which practically travels through people's back yards to a place called Hase. After visiting the 100 yen store right next to the station exit, we headed off on a 15 minute walk to our actual destination for the day - a giant statue of Amida Buddha.

The statue was built in 1252 A.D. along with a temple that housed it, but the temple was washed away in a large tidal wave (tsunami) in 1498, leaving just the undamaged statue and the foundation stones. The statue is hollow and for a small fee you can venture inside (for no apparent purpose).

The other main attraction in this area is the Hase-Dera Temple, which was (according to legend) constructed in 736 A.D. to house a 9m tall wooden Kannon statue (which was covered in gold leaf in 1342). Other buildings & statues in this temple area were added at various other times, including one hall surrounded by thousands of little Jizo stone statues in long rows. There is also a cave which has various statues carved out of the rock walls.

After a good look around Hase-Dera we headed back to the cute little Enoshima train line, trying in vain to find a restaurant that was recommended by one of our guide books (apparently we walked right past it without noticing). We headed back to Kamakura and wandered around there for a bit, then got on the train heading back towards Tokyo. We decided to get off part the way along at Yokohama, where we bought assorted yakitori (grilled meat) sticks as a late lunch. We also managed to accidentally find a Krispy Kreme Doughnuts store in the station! We decided not to explore Yokohama further at this stage as it was a crazy time of day (rush hour) with people everywhere (and a zillion taxis at the station), and we didn't have a very good plan of what to go see. 

We headed back to the hotel for a bit of a rest, and then Simon headed out solo on a mission to the Okachimachi markets for supplies, such as a small backpack (we didn't manage to bring a small backpack, only our super-size laptop bag), shampoo & conditioner and foot restoring bath salts.