Meaf's Adventures Abroad

The Wee Little Buddha of Kamakura

Kamakura is about 1 hour on the train from Tokyo station, just south of Yokohama. For being so close to the two largest cities in Japan, it has a quaint, tourist/surf town feeling to it. It was formerly a capital back-in-the-day, (during the aptly named Kamakura period) and the town features about 60 temples and 20 shrines. The day I went was a national holiday and so unfortunately there were throngs of people navigating the streets forcing us onto the road frequently. However, the crowds couldn't obstruct the massive Daibutsu, or Buddha. He was formally chilling in a large and likely very impressive temple but a few hundred years ago a tsunami flattened the wooden structure and it was never rebuilt. So now the big guy its an outdoorsman and is just as or more impressive. Reeshma and I paid the extra few cents to go inside, just because we could. It was surprisingly roomy although the Japanese were packed in there like sardines like elevators and trains generally are. Anyhow, we also saw the largest wooden Buddha statue which gave me an eerie, tingly feeling. Then we chilled by the beach and had some drinks at a particularly cool California Bar overlooking the bay.

posted by M. Sullivan @ 11:58 AM