Our First Foray Outside of Tokyo... to Kamakura!

After a month and a half in Tokyo, we were itching to explore a little beyond.  Not that we've even scratched the surface of Tokyo itself, but we were just ready to see outside the city - even if only for the day.  So, we hopped on a train and headed to Kamakura.  It's only about an hour away by train and we had some great ocean and surfer views on the trip out.

The best way to sum up Kamakura (based on a whoppin' 8 hours there) is to describe it as a little sea-side-tourist-town-Japanese-style.  Nice views of the ocean.  Lots of little shops.  Tons of street food (and I'm pretty sure we tried almost all of it).  Very crowded with lots of Japanese tourists - surprisingly few foreigners.  Oh yeah, and a Big Buddha!

The Daibutsu ("Big Buddha") was quite impressive.  Kids enjoyed taking pictures of it on their Leapster Explorers.  We paid a whoppin' 20 yen (25cents - adults only, free for kids) to go inside the Buddha, where we learned all about the amazing feat of its construction - it was built in 1252.  Also, the story goes that there was a large earthquake and tsunami and the adjoining temple was completely destroyed, yet the Buddha remained intact.  Just sayin'.

Explored the Hase-dera temple and gardens.  Kids were most excited about the koi, as is par for the course.  There was a nice rock path up the hill, which afforded great views over the town and the seaside, several different walking paths, many, many flowers, and a cave to explore that had 16 children chiseled out of the rock walls (the Benten-kutsu cave).  There were many lit candles in the cave as well, adding to the general mystique.

Kids with the Jizo stone statues...

There is also a very touching part of the temple grounds that is meant to "comfort the souls of unborn children."  There are thousands of little stone statues, some wearing knitted baby hats or bibs, whose purpose it is to comfort the souls of the unborn children.

Several weeks ago, I had read about this part of the Japanese culture but had not realized that this was an element of our temple visit today.   It kind of caught me off guard and I was surprised by my own emotions.

We finished our day with a trip to one more shrine - the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (and a few more street food snacks - more on that later).  There, Kevin and the kids partook in the cleansing away of the bad spirits....

Washing the bad spirits away...

Perhaps one too many stops for the little guy?