We visited Kamakura this weekend!

Kamaura is a historic Japanese city with a ton of culture. It was the capital of Japan back in the old days. Right now, it is nowhere near the size of Tokyo or Yokohama, but it's got a lot of shrines and old temples.

We first visited the Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine. It reminded of old Chinese temples in the beginning, and in some aspects, it is like Chinese temples. Same architectural qualities, lots of kanzi, and similar historical background.

We had to clean our hands with the shrine water. I think that it is deemed holy and pure. We could drink it as well. Very interseting.

After that, we hit up the shopping district, Komachi-dori. It featured a variety of traditional Japanese toys, snacks, and gifts. I bought a post card for my mom. I think she would like this surprise, because I have never sent her a post card before.

Tugi (next), we visited Hase-dera temple. It is believed to have been built before the Kamakura period, which is in the 1200s. It is a huge buddhist statue, with closed eyes and big ear lobes. I saw a bigger buddhist statue in China last year, but the interesting thing about this one is that we can go inside the statue.



Chinese Budda

Japanese Buddha

I have the big midterm coming next Friday, so I have to go study. Our grades are apparently dependent on these big tests. To sum it up, this weekend was also another fun non-Roppongi adventure. I miss Roppongi now.