Enjoy your one-day trip to Japan from dawn till dusk by visiting Kamakura!
Kamakura is the medieval military capital of Japan, where the shogun's headquarters was located. This samurai city is located on the Pacific coast and is surrounded on all sides by picturesque mountains, making it an impregnable fortress.
It is not surprising that the main local temple - the Shinto shrine of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu - is dedicated specifically to the god of war Hachiman. Tsuragaoka, which means “Crane Hill,” is also the family temple of the shogunal Minamoto family. The road to it runs between two ponds - “Genji”, which means life, and “Heike”, which means death. Nearby is the Maiden Pavilion, where the wedding of Japan's first shogun, Minamoto Yoritomo, once took place. And the Wakamiya Oji Alley divides the entire city in half, it leads from the sanctuary to the ocean. At the Kotoku-in Temple there is a famous bronze statue - the Great Buddha Daibutsu, 13.5 m high. It was created in 1252 and has survived a number of natural adversities: severe fires, powerful earthquakes and deadly tsunamis.
At Hasedera Temple, on top of the sacred hill, there is a gilded sculpture of the eleven-faced goddess Kannon the Merciful. It is the tallest wooden sculpture in Japan of almost ten meters hight, It is carved from a single trunk of a camphor tree. Admiring the plum blossoms, which is an ancient Japanese tradition, is most romantic at Tokei-ji Monastery or, as it is also called, “the temple of divorce.” In the old days, women who lived in an unhappy marriage came here. It was here that they could gain freedom and get rid of the shackles of marriage by simply throwing their shoes over the walls of the monastery. Elegant plum trees bloom around Zusen-ji Temple throughout the winter; there are more than a hundred varieties of them. These trees, as if on a carpet, grow among daffodils.
Return to your Tokyo hotel. Transfer to the airport for departure.
Top