Japan - Day 8 - Kamakura; The Great Daibutsu & Hase-dera Temple
Still pretty exhausted from our days at Disney we ended up getting a later start today at around 7:30-8 but as we had decided the night before to finalise our plans in the morning due to the constantly changing weather forecast so we couldn't get up too late, really.
The forecast for Tokyo was to be on and off showers, not bad really, but the weather forecast for Kamakura was completely clear all day and it wouldn't be again before our trip ended, so we decided to go and visit the Great Daibutsu as we didn't manage to squeeze it into our trip last August.
First things first, we had to have breakfast and get some ironing done as it was too late to get any done last night. We were ready and out before 10:30 ready to catch our first train to Shinjuku! Only to get to the station and realise that my fiancé had taken our PASMO cards out of his wallet and let them in the room! 6minutes before our train was due!
We rushed back to the hotel but by the time we got back to the station, our train had just departed!
So back onto Hyperdia to find a new train route and we were soon on our way once we'd topped up our PASMO cards with another 2000¥ each - the trip to Kamakura was around 950¥ each way.
We changed train at Shinjuku, following the orders of Hyperdia, but there seems to be an issue with this route as it told us to get off and straight back on! in the end we just waited for the next one as it was direct rather than us having to switch train again a few stops down the line.
It took just over an hour to get there on the second train, and the train had to perform an emergency stop - TWICE!
The following announcements were in Japanese only so we don't know the cause of the emergency stops, but looking at the display board on the train, there seemed to be a few disruption issues across a few lines this morning, but, being Japan, the issues were fixed within minutes!
There was a weird couple on our train - actually, we'd seen them in the station when we messed up our connection and waited for the direct one instead. They kept looking over at us and following us, it was pretty creepy. I think they were American, so I wish, had it just been a case of them being lost and looking for someone to follow who may have been going to the same place, that they'd have just spoken to us! In the end, as they were making us feel pretty uncomfortable, we got off at Kamakura and just stayed in the station until they left on their own, they did seem pretty lost, but we were going to get some food before heading up to any of the temples anyway so we couldn't really help them from there anyway!
Our first temple stop was Kōtoku-in Temple & the Great Daibutsu!
We'd decided to walk there rather than get the train as the weather was pretty nice in Kamakura, but I probably could have done with a shorter walk as my feet are covered in blisters now! Anyway, once we finally got there, we did see quite a few people but it was a lot quieter than we expected, I don't know if its because its so far away from Tokyo, or maybe people just don't really know it exists, but I wasn't complaining, the entrance ticket queue was so short! It was 200¥ each to get into this temple. I took plenty of photos of the Great Daibutsu/Buddha, maybe too many - at one point I noticed people had started queuing behind me to get some photographs from the spot i'd chosen!
We wandered through the gardens and into the souvenir shop, my fiancé got an ice cream and I picked up a gift for my Nan before looking to see if they had any magnets for a couple of work friends - but no, its so difficult to find magnets in Japan! Especially ones with a place name printed on them!
We then took the short walk to our next temple of the day, Hase-dera Temple. This one cost 300¥ per person, but oh my gosh, the gardens were absolutely spectacular! And the view the temple area offers makes all the hiking and step climbing all worth while, even if I did later describe the climb as 'more difficult, and worse than climbing Mt Fuji last August'.
This temple had a lot more to offer than the Kōtoku-In Temple and we ended up staying here until just before closing time - all of the temples close between 4 and 5pm, so we couldn't make it to any of the others today, which is sad really as Kamakura is full of so many amazing shrines and temples.
We picked up a couple of icy drinks and sat for a while before heading back down through the gardens and off to Hase Station to take the Enoden as there was no way I was walking back!
Soon we were back on our way towards Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, getting messed up in our connection by Hyperdia again! and we picked up a McDonald's to take back to our room. I took a bath and spent the night writing this blog post while my fiancé went down to Ikebukuro Station as the PokéStops there on Pokémon GO are practically constantly lured up - he went down one night earlier in the trip and apparently there were 150-200 people there playing!
Soon we were back on our way towards Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, getting messed up in our connection by Hyperdia again! and we picked up a McDonald's to take back to our room. I took a bath and spent the night writing this blog post while my fiancé went down to Ikebukuro Station as the PokéStops there on Pokémon GO are practically constantly lured up - he went down one night earlier in the trip and apparently there were 150-200 people there playing!
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