Date: Trip taken in January 2023
Background: Kamakura is a famous city that is about an hour away from Tokyo. It has a lot of Buddhist Zen templates and Shinto shrines. One of the most famous landmarks in the area is the Great Buddha.
Logistics: I decided to get the Enoshima-Kamakura Freepass for a day trip to both Kamakura and Enoshima. You would start the trip in Shinjuku Station and the pass included unlimited rides on all Enoden lines and designated sections of Odakyu lines.
We started the day by taking the train all the way to Kamakura. We went to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine. It was moved to its current site in 1180 by Minamoto Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura government.
There were many templates along the road and we went to the Kenchoji Temple. It was one of the oldest Zen temples in Kamakura. It has a Zen garden, a mini bamboo forest and a hiking trail where you could get a view of the city of Kamakura.
We went to Komachi-dori to get some snacks for food. The purple sweet potato was a specialty in Kamakura so I got the soft serve ice cream and a fried potato at a shop. I also saw a shop with a Good Luck Buddha Cake snack.
Then we took the train to Hasa Station to Kotoku-in Temple to see the Great Buddha. It is the second tallest Buddha in Japan!
It was close to sunset so we headed to Inamuragasaki station where the black sand beach was closeby. Turns out many people had the same idea and there were viewpoints to catch the sunset.
Then we took the train to Enoshima Station. It was about a 30 minutes walk from the bridge to the mainland.
We went to the Enoshima Sea Candle. It lit up during the nighttime and there was a great 360 view from the outside.
We headed back towards the train station and got shirasudon at one of the restaurants. Shirasudon is a specialty dish of Kamakura, Enoshima Island and Chigasaki where there are raw sardines placed on top of the rice.
