This Is A Lake - A travel blog

There was nothing I wanted for today than to spend the day blissfully walking from one ancient temple with breathtaking landscapes to another, and that's exactly what I got! It was overcast and noticeably cooler than yesterday, but it was still very nice to walk around. We went to Tokyo Station and took the train there to Kita-Kamakura, the station just before Kamakura proper. The most common itinerary is to go to Kamakura Station, see the Great Buddha and Hasedera, then walk across town to see the temples, but I decided to mix it up a bit and do the visit the other way round. The train ride takes about 55 min. Actually, the train ride takes 54 minutes exactly, because Japanese trains are as punctual as you expect. Several times I've done the exercise of looking at my watch as a train's arrival time approaches, and every time when the watch is about to strike the given minute you can start to see the train coming in the distance. As you leave Kita-Kamakura station, the firs...

After five days that have been pretty much all urban madness, today was a day dedicated to reflection, introspection and contemplation: day trip to Kamakura, city of shrines and temples! There are a lot of shrines and temples to visit in Kamakura, so it takes a lot of walking and a lot of fishing for change (since they all have an admission price of 200 or 300 yen, €1,60-2,45 at the current rate), but the good news is that with the notable exception of the Daibutsu, most of the shrines can be visited as you walk along the road from Kamakura station to Kita-Kamakura station, or vice versa. In my case, I got on the train in Tokyo Station, skipped Kita-Kamakura and got off at Kamakura Station, because that's where the Tourist Office is and I wanted to get a map first. A very kind lady there took the time to give me some recommendations on my itinerary; my guides mentioned the most famous shrines, but she pointed me out a couple of lesser-frequented ones that had blossoming plum t...