Hey everyone, I just got home from Japan a few days ago and I think I’m finally getting over being jet lagged. I wanted to spread my trip over the course of two posts because I walked around A LOT. This post I wanted to focus on my visits to Kamakura.

I stayed in Yokosuka on Naval Base with my uncle who is a captain. Yokosuka is about an hour and a half south of Tokyo, right next to Tokyo Bay.

Kamakura was a 20-30 minute short train ride away so my aunt took my friend Akira and I there for a day trip. We got to see the great Buddha (Daibutsu), the Hasadera temple, and the Hokokuji temple which had a beautiful bamboo forest. One really cool thing about visiting temples and shrines is that you can buy a thing called a “goshuin” where you pay 300-500 yen (roughly 3-5 USD) and for each Shinto shrine or Buddhist temple you visit, you can pay to get a stamp/calligraphy specific for that temple or shrine placed in your goshuin.

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My personal favorite of Kamakura was seeing the Buddha, a huge bronze statue resting peacefully in the countryside. It was breathtaking and I would go back in a heartbeat. Everyone basically had the week off since it was New Year’s which meant a lot of people were visiting temples and shrines to pray.

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Finally, here are some shots from the Hokokuji Temple (the bamboo forest). This one had plenty to see and lots of open space to walk around. There was a koi pond and I tried some matcha tea while sitting down and enjoying the peaceful scenery.

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I had a really wonderful time in the rural parts of Japan. I have to thank my Aunt and Uncle for graciously taking time out of their schedule to show my best friend, Akira, and I around and I’ll be uploading photos of Tokyo and Yokohoma for next week’s post!