Kamakura was a political capital of Japan between 1185 and 1333 and is the birthplace of Japan’s first military “samurai” government. It is situated with an ocean bay on one side and mountains on the other three sides, creating a protected environment. It boasts at least 54 Japan Heritage sites which were developed over many centuries. Visiting its many shrines and temples became popular as early as the 1600s – especially for travelers from nearby Tokyo (which was called Edo back then). This popularity has helped keep all these sites maintained and protected throughout the years.
We flew Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur to Tokyo for the final stop of our 2-month trip. We really enjoyed visiting Japan last year at the beginning of our South East Asia adventure, so when I found an inexpensive flight from Tokyo to Los Angeles to get back home this year, we jumped on it. We visited Tokyo and Kyoto in 2023, so this year we decided to visit the ancient city of Kamakura – which is about an hour south of Tokyo on the Pacific coast.
We stayed overnight near the Tokyo Haneda airport as we arrived in the evening. The next morning we took a regional train to Kamakura, changing trains once on the way. Most public transportation is pretty easy in Japan – especially since you can now just tap your smartphone’s wallet when you enter a station and tap again when you exit at your destination. Charges are automatically tabulated.
After arriving in Kamakura, we headed to a shopping street near the train station to find lunch. Since this town is on the coast, we decided to try a restaurant advertising seafood bowls as the fish was bound to be fresh. I had a bowl with fresh tuna, shrimp and whitebait (a tiny fish we had discovered while in New Zealand). It was so fresh in fact, that everything was raw. Well, the shrimp may have been cooked a little bit but nothing else was. It tasted fine, but I was a little squeamish eating all those little raw whitebait fish. Sophie was not up for raw fish yet, so she ordered a braised pork bowl instead. Craving some sweetness afterwards, we got some taiyaki (a little fish-shaped pastry we discovered last year) at a nearby shop.
We arrived in Kamakura on April 15th and were told we had missed the peak cherry blossoms by only five days. About 10% of the blooms were still on the trees though, and that alone was beautiful. There were also lots of other flowering trees and bushes everywhere we went. We were really lucky to be there in Spring!
Our hotel was just a block away from the small train station, and at the start of a beautiful raised, cherry-tree lined parkway called Wakamiya Oji Avenue. It was built in 1182 and ended a half-mile away at the main shrine in the center of the city. We immediately started taking pictures there as the blossoms were falling in the wind as we watched. Dozens of school kids in matching uniforms were excitedly walking home from school along the avenue, which made the scene even more quaint.
Later that afternoon after we had settled into our hotel, we took a historic four-car train to a nearby island called Enoshima. We walked across a bridge to reach the island, then followed narrow, quaint streets that led to a shrine and some great viewpoints.
After visiting the island, we decided to have some supper before catching the train back to our hotel. We saw a sign for a ramen place, and decided that would hit the spot. It was on the second level of a building, so we had to walk up some stairs – eerily reminiscent of our first night in Tokyo last year when we experience our first ramen restaurant. When we got to the top, we opened the first door and were the only ones in the place. We sat down at the bar and proceeded to try to order ramen. The attendant was pretty confused until we all finally realized that we weren’t in the ramen restaurant but in a whiskey bar instead! The ramen restaurant was across the hall, note to self – always check to see if there is more than one door in a hallway. In the end, we moved across the hall and had some really excellent ramen served by some very nice people. Sophie decided to add himetake to her ramen, also known as princess bamboo shoots and harvested in the spring. It had a pleasant taste and she was glad she tried it.
It was time to head back to our hotel. Japan has a tradition of taking baths at the end of the day. Often, hotels have public baths called Onsens which I wrote about last year. Our hotel this year did not have public baths, but did provide a nice shower/bathtub space in our room instead to create a private onsen experience. The shower area came complete with a small stool, bucket and mirror you could sit in front to wash yourself. When done, you then moved to the bath to soak in bath salts and relax . The hotel room itself had a definite Japanese touch. It had a raised platform at the far end with a low couch, vanity/desk space and everything we needed to make tea and coffee. The decor was very pleasing and as usual, they provided us with slippers and pyjamas, and a drawer full of amenities in the bathroom – including such items as a warm eye mask and stick-on cold pads for tired feet and legs.
We always find it a bit funny how the Japanese are so concerned about safety and have so many instructions. The elevated platform for instance, had many warnings – including an illustrated sheet in multiple languages they showed us at check in – to remind us that the platform was elevated and you could trip if you didn’t raise your foot to step up. To reinforce the message, the platform step was even illuminated at night. The little table by the couch had soft, cushioned bumpers on the corners to ensure one wouldn’t bump their shin. There was a nice sign warning us that the window was not tinted and people may be able to see inside. We got a formal letter put under our door on our first morning as we had left our do not disturb light on, and were informed by housekeeping that they could not come in to clean the room. The letter warned us (in an extremely polite manner) that after two days, they would come in and clean the room anyway for hygiene and safety purposes. Another funny thing was a bottle of air freshener spray by the door that read “it is a deodorant spray of an effective professional specification to the anxious smell”. We could go on and on…. In many ways, it is actually really sweet. You get the impression that they really care about people and want everyone to be comfortable and safe.
It was nice to be back in Japan!
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