Country and Corgis: Day 13 (Part 1) Kamakura

We debated on what to do this weekend. Should we travel to Nagano to see the mountains and castles, or should we explore something more local? We decided that traveling to the mountains was fairly expensive, and to do the trip justice you really need more than a day. That meant that we were going to explore Kamakura and Hakkeijima.

We saw this wonderful site on the walk to breakfast.

Just a woman and her 6 pugs. That's not a baby in that stroller, it's another pug!

Before we set out on our explorations, we needed breakfast. And I was CRAVING eggs and pancakes. I read that Bill's has one of the best non-traditional breakfasts in Japan. So naturally that's what I needed to eat. E and I shared a plate of their famous banana honey butter ricotta hotcakes and a traditional Aussie (Bill's is an Australian export) full breakfast. The full Aussie came with scrambled eggs, bacon, grilled tomato, sausage, roasted mushrooms, and a piece of toast. Take my word for it that the hotcakes are where it's at! Bacon and sausage in Japan are just not the same as bacon and sausage at home, even if you're eating it at an Australian restaurant. But those hotcakes...yum!

Photo credit Bill's

After breakfast, we hopped on a train and traveled about an hour south to Kamakura, a small beach town popular with locals and tourists alike. The town definitely feels like a beach town, a little slower pace, with paddleboards on porches and people wandering about in board shorts (not many though). But we weren't there to see the beach. We were looking for the Great Buddha statue. Someone had mentioned to us last weekend that it was really a must see. I'm glad that we sought out this opportunity.

Before we left Yokohama, we had decided that we would walk from the train station to the temple as it was only about a mile walk. Looking back, it sure would have been great to have taken a nice air conditioned bus. It was HOT! Also, Google maps took us on a route that led us through a residential area, where we were really uncertain of where we were going and we got some odd looks from locals. But we got there in one piece and a little sweaty. Ok, really sweaty.

Rehydrating with Pocari Sweat. Not actual sweat, it's like Japanese Gatorade and it's actually pretty tasty.

Pretty hydrangea spotted on our walk

We were rewarded with a nice shady temple with views of this handsome guy.

The statue was built to honor Amida-butsu and is also known as Kamakura Daibutsu (Great Buddha of Kamakura). The statue is made of bronze, is 43.8 feet tall and weighs a whopping 121 TONS. The first statue was built in 1243, but was made of wood. In 1248, that wooden statue was severely damaged in a storm. So it was proposed that another statue was built, but this time it was to be cast from bronze. Kind of a big deal and expensive undertaking back in 1248. At this point in Europe, the Crusades are still going on, the 7th one to be specific. The statue that sits in Kamakura now was built in 1258. It was originally covered in gold, but all that remains of the gilt is in the Buddha's ears. It truly is a masterpiece and even with modern technology it can't be fully determined how exactly it was cast and built. All of the structures built to protect the statue of been destroyed. But The Great Buddha has survived all of the storms, a tsunami, the great Kanto earthquake, World War II, and 700 years of being exposed to the elements.