Kama Kama Kama Kama Kamakura

Saturday! (2nd April 2011)

The weekend, hooray. This meant our beautiful host was free to entertain us all day so we set off from Tokyo, using our JR Passes, travelled about 30 miles away on a train and arrived in the lovely small town of Kamakura. Kamakura is a popular day trip for many visitors to Tokyo. It’s a seaside town full of shrines, temples and most impressively, the largest (outdoor) Buddha in the world.

Before paying the big man a visit, we stopped to have lunch in a kaiten sushi (conveyor-belt) sushi restaurant. At midday the place was buzzing. We stood in line and the man in front of us put our names down on the list – he didn’t work there, he was just being nice (standard Japanese behaviour). We didn’t have to wait long before getting seated at a booth. Everybody knows the Japanese love fish. (it’s well documented in this song) At a sushi place, you can really see why. It’s so fresh! So varied! So delicious! So affordable! We ate a lot. Luke ate a sea urchin, which he wasn’t fond of, but the baby squids were amazing.

we ate all these plates and it came to about £30 for all of it.

Luke not enjoying a sea urchin.

After we had gorged on raw fish (can you ever really gorge on something so healthy?) we set off on a little walk to see the big bronze buddha, Daibutsu(Dai? He’s probably Welsh).

He’s big! That’s for sure. It costs 200Y to get in (approx £1.50) to see him. And you can even go INSIDE him, where it is like a massive echoey jelly mould. He’s survived fires, earthquakes and tsunamis. What a hunk. We then went off to see some temples and shrines with lovely gardens and amazing views across the sea.

these are dedications, you pay for a thing and write a prayer on it. Many of them had "play for Japan" written on them. SO ADORABLE. (Ls and Rs are seemingly interchangeable to the Japanese. Luke was often called Ruku)

It’s a very peaceful place. I guess it’s Tokyo’s equivalent of Brighton in a way. A seaside town less than an hour away, perfect for getting away from the hubbub of the big city. I don’t think  Kamakura is particularly renowned for it’s vibrant gay scene though. But relax in the knowledge that Take Out is OK from Woof Curry.

I also enjoyed a bottle of local cider, and tasted my first matcha ice-cream, making it a fully fledged trip to the Japanese seaside. 

We headed back to Tokyo as we had a special Saturday night meal planned, which I shall describe in my next post (oooh….the anticipation).