Some years ago my parents visited Japan for the first time, and we visited Kamakura along with my friend Take. Kamakura is one of the most popular tourist attractions near Tokyo. The place is famous because it has a huge bronze statue of Buddha. It is more than 13 metres tall and is the second biggest Buddha in Japan after the one in Nara. In the past it was inside a temple, but a tsunami destroyed the temple and the Buddha remained outdoors.

Kamakura’s Buddha

The Buddha’s flip-flops

My mom and Take asking Buddha for stuff

There is also another very interesting place in Kamakura, which is the temple dedicated to the goddess Kannon, located right beside the big Buddha. It is a temple with very beautiful gardens and with a nice view of the sea.

We went back to Shinjuku for dinner and ended up in a restaurant where they had typical food from Hokkaido (Japan’s northern island). We ate a lot of fish and seafood, and also a few dishes with cheese, a very rare ingredient in Japanese cuisine but which is quite sucessful up north. The geeky note was that, to order food, each table had its own tablet pc where you can choose what you want to have and they bring it straight to your table.

How to get there:
From Shinjuku station in Tokyo with the Shonan Shinjuku Line to Kamakura station. In Kamakura station, change to a small local train to Hase station.