Blogs from Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan, Asia

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Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura December 5th 2023

On a bright, sunny, warm morning the Silver Muse docked in the sprawling port of Yokohama. The first sight we saw was the Ramen Museum. Being great fans of that noodle dish, we felt right at home. Our disembarkation was a smooth process and before we knew it we were fiddling with the money exchange machine and searching out a taxi to take us to our rental house in the seaside town of Hayama. It is important to have a handful of Japanese Yen since credit cards aren't so widely accepted outside of the major cities. The ride down to Hayama was quite scenic and uneventful. I had printed out the address of our rental in both English and kanji (Japanese writing) to help the driver. However once we arrived in Hayama he had a very ... read more
BEGINNING OUR TREK UP MT FUJI 1969
ON TOP OF FUJI-SAN
GRAND BUDDHA

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura June 30th 2023

Heute machte ich nach dem Frühstück meinen vorerst letzten größeren Ausflug in Japan: in die alte Hauptstadt Kamakura. Die Fahrt dauert von Shinjuku aus etwa eine Stunde und dort angekommen nahm ich ein Taxi zum Shinto-Schrein Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. Hier waren die japanischen Gläubigen und Besucher bei weitem in der Mehrheit. Auch ein paar Mönche waren anwesend. Ich machte meine Fotos und lief die Fußgängerzone der Stadt in Richtung Bahnhof zurück. Es hätte noch weitere buddhistische Tempel und eine große Buddha-Statue in der Stadt gegeben, aber das hätte den Rahmen gesprengt. Statt dessen kaufte ich bei einen 7eleven wahrscheinlich erst einmal zum letzten Mal Getränke und genehmigte mir auch wieder eine Dose Premiumbier, bevor ich mit dem Zug nach Tokio zurück kehrte. Hier besuchte ich das Starbucks am Bahnhof Shinjuku und trank einen Frappuccino, bevor ich im ... read more
Der Shinto-Schrein Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura.
Der Shinto-Schrein Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gū in Kamakura.
Die Fußgängerzone von Kamakura.

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura October 15th 2019

My usual travel companion hurt her back. She had decided on the event in Kamakura 9 years ago. She booked us rustic but clean and adequate accommodation central to our interest in the Yabusame ritual at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine - realistically horse archery in a shrine complex showing off authentic 12th century samurai archer costumes and horse paraphernalia. Our friends from Hay Flat are country girls, one of whom is a serious equestrian eventer whose daughter practices horse archery in Australia. So they jumped at the chance to see the rare event. Alas our hostess could not join us on our long weekend ( a holiday to repect older people!!!) So we had to travel hundreds of kms on the Shinkansen and local trains to a the shrine in Kamakura. I forgot that I am so ... read more
school kids parading with parts of the targets
archer on parade
archer on parade

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura July 9th 2018

We spent a lovely day in Kamakura, a seaside town an hour south of Tokyo by train. It was a hot day and thankfully, Marcus brought an umbrella which I used as a parasol to keep the sun from burning me (like it did the past few days in Tokyo). We meandered around the town, buying souvenirs, tasting tiny morsels and buying food and gifts to eat and bring home. We ate a squashed octopus paper snack called Tako-senbei. It looked like a sheet of marbled paper, very pretty. It was tasty and very different to anything we eat at home. We were going to return for some Jako-yaki, a similar dish to Tako-yaki, except with white bait inside instead of octopus, however we forgot until it was too late and it had shut. There were ... read more
Inside the Temple for women
Temple for women
Temple for Women, Kamakura

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura October 6th 2017

Hello my fellow travellers! Today I started at the same time as Ichiro which gave me a bit more sleep than what I got yesterday but it was still not quite enough to catch up on the sleep I lost so far when travelling from Qatar. Kerstin was even more jet-lagged than me though so she overslept. Luckily she had been foreseeing enough to pack all of her things last night so she managed to get ready quick enough anyway. I left together with the two of them and we walked together for a bit before I veered off on my own path to get to the station from where I would have a direct train to Kamakura. I took a local train, these are nowhere near as comfortable as the shinkansen or the express trains ... read more
Statues of Myōbu
Hokora (Small Shrines)
Enjoying the Beautiful Koi

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura September 29th 2017

This blog covers a day trip I took from Tokyo to Kamakura, a UNESCO World Heritage Site south of Tokyo. The rest of my Tokyo shenanigans are covered in a separate entry. On September 29th, I woke up bright and early and made my way to Shinjuku station to catch a train to Kamakura. At Shinjuku station, I witnessed the Tokyo hive mind at work during the rush hour. Shinjuku is the world's busiest train station; hordes of people were coming and going, but they seemed to know exactly what to do to not inconvenience others. Even though the trains were crowded, boarding and disembarkation was orderly. Two different lines operated from the platform I departed from. There were colored lines on the platform floor representing the two routes; commuters knew where to wait in line ... read more
Hasedera
My View At Lunch
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura August 24th 2017

As we were getting ready to leave Chiba yesterday morning, it struck me that we might be able to stay on in Kamakura for another night, if we so wished. Toss in an extra t-shirt and another set of undies, and why not? As I said to Stephen, "We don't have any cats to feed," and this is a thought also crossed my mind (and this will show why it's a jolly good thing we don't have kids): "It's not like we have a baby to come home to." So, fairly soon after our arrival we discussed it and decided, yes, we would like to say another night. This gave us all day today to spend without without worrying about time-limits or the two-hour trip back to Chiba, and it was lovely. Last night we made ... read more
Hachiman Jingu
Hachimangu Shrine
Enoshima

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura August 23rd 2017

We're on holiday! We've left the urban jungle of Chiba and ventured again to the opposite side of the bay - a little further on from Yokohama, to Kamakura, a town we remember fondly from earlier visits. My current VNese teacher Mr Hue (said like /h/ + 'way') used to live in Chiba too, and urged us to visit the Izu Peninsula, and I really wanted to find somewhere there to visit for a night or two, but we also wanted to squeeze in a day in Kamakura, and we couldn't do both. So we're compromising by forgetting about the Izu Peninsula altogether, and we've come to spend two nights in Kamakura instead. The route was almost the same as how we got to Yokohama, under the bay again, but with another 20-30 minutes further train ... read more
Daibutsu, Kamakura
Yuigahama Beach, Kamakura
Japanese room, Izumi Hotel, Kamakura

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura September 26th 2016

Glyn asked this morning, "Is it just the one train today?" And I couldn't help but laugh. After the initial mountain bus down to Odawara Station, it's one train to Ofuna, then a shorter one to Kamakura, then a bus, then it gets interesting because we're staying in an Air B'n'B place, a private home and looking at Google Maps, the walk there is not straightforward. If I was to market this trip, I would called it 'A Taste of Japan': we are running around trying to fit in as much as possible into two weeks, trying every form of transport there is plus seeing parts most tourists usually avoid. That's why we didn't have much time in Hakone - that and getting lost, plus not understanding the place until we got here. You never get ... read more
Bamboo Grove, Hokoku-ji Temple
Wandering around backstreets of Kamakura
Bamboo Grove, Hokoku-ji Temple

Asia » Japan » Kanagawa » Kamakura September 26th 2016

Three meals in one day plus snacks in Kamakura. It's like a holiday! When somewhere we're staying includes breakfast I get a tad excited. Knowing I may not be able to eat again until tea time exacerbates the excitement so imagine how much I was looking forward to my first free breakfast in Japan. So when there were dry bread rolls and a few pastries that I don't particularly like and give me heartburn anyway.... There was hot coffee and some strange tasting juice but with no butter or jam etc everything was very dry and quite unappealing despite the lovely smell. There were no westerners there other than us but people of other descent were wolfing it down like there was no tomorrow. I suspect some were foreign workers who may not be able to ... read more
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