Hey everyone! Today we took a small trip away from Tokyo and headed down to Kamakura as a group. We hopped on the bus and traveled to the city which is about an hour and a half south of Tokyo. Kamakura is a seaside city located in the Kanagawa Prefecture. It is surrounded by hills on the North, East, and West side, but faces the Sagami Bay on the South. The city is a popular tourist attraction and is commonly known for its temples, Buddhist shrines, seasonal festivals, and shopping streets.

The band planned to visit two main attractions for the day, the Diabutsu and Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine. The Diabutsu, also known as the Great Buddha, is a monumental bronze statue of Buddha that sits 11 meters tall. The group was able to visit the statue, walk inside, and shop for souvenirs at the site.

Next, we headed to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine and Komachi-Dori street. We were able to walk around the shrine and shop in the many stores on the street outside for a few hours.

Looking back at the beginning of the day and our trip to the Diabutsu, I really enjoyed visiting the statue. Not only was the tall structure fun to look at and go inside, it was really fascinating to learn about it and see the importance it has in the Japanese culture. My trip to the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine was also enjoyable. I went into a peony garden and got some nice pictures of the flowers and the surrounding pond along with shrine.

Overall, I thought the trip to Kamakura was great and it was nice to get away from Tokyo for the day. It was fun to see a more rural, ancient part of Japan compared to the more modernized areas where we’ve been staying the past couple days. I’m really glad we had the chance to visit Kamakura and I can’t wait to visit more cities in Japan like it!

Resources:

https://www.city.kamakura.kanagawa.jp/kamakura-kankou/en/history/

https://www.japan-guide.com