On the morning after climbing Mount Fuji (August 8th) we had plans to spend the day at Kamakura. We were all sore and could barely move and we wanted nothing more than to spend the whole day relaxing in an onsen (thermal bath). We knew that if we didn’t to go Kamakura that day we might not have a chance to do it another time, so we decided to suck it up and go.
Kamakura is about 1.5 hours from Jessie’s house by train and it is the location of the Kotokuin Temple (Great Buddha). The Great Buddha is a 11.31 meter tall gilt bronze seated statue of a Buddha which was constructed in the 1200s (construction began in 1252). The original temple was constructed around the Buddha and enclosed it inside, but numerous disasters destroyed the temple and left only the Buddha standing. It was incredible to see! It’s enormous!!
Once we finished exploring the Buddha we made our way to the Hase-Dera temple. It was beautiful. It contained an enormous beautiful garden, and then stairs up the mountain to reach the temple. The Hase-Dera temple is known as the 4th station among the 33 holy places in the Kanto area.
After the Hase-Dera temple we went on a mission to find the Zeniarai Benzaiten-Shrine. We got a little lost and had to ask a group of Japanese schoolgirls. At first Ken only asked a few girls, but as they were talking to him more and more girls surrounded him! They were giggling and talking to Ken in Japanese. Once they pointed us in the right direction and as we were walking away they yelled “I love you” back at us. I think Ken made a pretty big impression on them!
The Zeniarai Benzaiten-Shrine is reached through a cave in the mountain, and it is famous for its money washing waters. It has been said that if you wash your money in this water you will have financial success. We actually saw people placing their money in baskets and washing it in the water. Very interesting.
After leaving the Zeniarai Benzaiten-Shrine we made our way to the Sasuke Inari Jinja Shrine. It is a small shrine up the mountain. It was empty when we went as it is not a tourist destination and is not on the tourist map. Ken knew of this shrine from the last time he was in the city. It was very pretty and natural. There was a lot of moss growing on the rocks and sculptures which made it blend in with nature.
The last place we visited in Kamakura was the Tsurgaoka Hachimangu-Shrine, which is located in a large square with a long walking road leading up to it. We went during the lantern festival, so the whole walkway was covered in painted lanterns. There were also some ponds on the grounds, which contained enormous water lilies!
We were so tired at that point that we couldn’t stay and wait for the lanterns to be lit, so we decided to head back to Ken’s house. Getting back to Ken’s house took us about 3 hours, changing trains plus a half hour walk. We arrived at Ken’s house exhausted and fell right into bed.
Soon after, Steph and I received a visitor, a very very large spider the size of the palm of a hand!! We screamed so loud and ran into Fieke’s room and jumped onto her bed. The boys heard us and came out to investigate. They locked the spider in the kitchen and assured us that it couldn’t get back into our room. Nervously, Steph and I went back to our room and got back into bed. About half an hour later it had crept into the corner of our room! We screamed again and Fieke came running. She tried to catch it but it was too fast. She offered we could move into her room for the night, but we decided we would stay in our room, and move our beds closer together and away from the wall where it was crawling. We went to sleep shortly after, and never saw the spider again.
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