Tokyo to Kamakura by coach

 Monday 3 april

This morning we drove west of Tokyo to the charming town of Kamakura in the Kanakoa prefecture. During the drive we could see various islands around Tokyo and realized this is all reclaimed land, which they started doing at the end of the 17th century.

We came by the immense harbour on Tokyo bay and passed through an industrial area called Yokohama. Tokyo has a huge enclosed incinerator to burn garbage without smoke. It is now considered one of the cleanest cities in the world.

In Yokohama you will find the largest Chinatown of Japan. When they opened up to the western world at the end of the 19th century they needed translators in the ports. Chinese are particularly gifted with languages so they were hired in this Tokyo port by the droves.

The drive to Kamakura took just over an hour. It is an interesting town full of quaint little shops lying right on the Pacific ocean.

Our first stop was the Hase temple, originally shinto but now buddhist. They worship the  11 headed Kannon buddha here, who is depicted with a walking stick. He has 32 avatars. The gardens around the temple are lovely with a view of windsurfers on the ocean in the distance. There are several ponds. One stood out as it was built in the shape of the ancient peace sign, which ironically later became the swastika, but for centuries had been used by Buddhists, Jains and Navajos among others as a sign of wellbeing.

Our next stop was the giant Buddha of Kamakura, the Kotokuin Daibutsu.  The Hall that protected it was destroyed three times by tsunamis. After the last rebuild in 1260 they gave up, so when that got destroyed in the 1400's they no longer had a hall and the buddha has been exposed to the elements ever since. The original gilt has now been washed off with a glimmer remaining on it's right cheek. The buddha's hands are folded in the meditation position with big webbing between the fingers, the better to scoop people up and protect them.

The neck also got damaged by a tsunami and underwent extensive repairs.
 It is cast in bronze with openings at the back of the head to get to the molds used in the casting.














To give you an idea of size I took a picture with a pigeon sitting on his head.

There was a lovely ice cream stand outside the buddha park selling wonderful green tea, red sweet potato or roasted sesame flavours. 

We went for lunch in a charming restaurant in the middle of town. For a change we got meat in what can best be described as a cross between a giant hamburger and meatloaf. Served with rice it was very good.

We had a few hours to walk to the Hashimingo shinto shrine and explore the shops. The shrine was newer, so less interesting,but there was a lovely peony exhibition with parasols protecting the flowers from the sun.

We drove back to Tokyo with the plan to visit the Tokyo Sky Tree building ( very tall skyscraper with good aerial views) and the Tokyo aquarium but as we were driving by the hotel to drop some people off, we decided to call it quits as well. Johnny was tired and I was coming down with a cold. Just after the remaining few left we heard claps of thunder and saw flashes of lightning. It was nice to have a bubble bath and go for drinks and a bite to eat in the bar on the top floor of the

Imperial, where we had lovely views too with a piano playing in the background. A nice way to end our last night in Tokyo.