Japan- Part 2

Great Buddha Statue

Kamakura Beach

From the top of the mountains

Lost in backstreets of Kamakura

The city of Kamakura

We arrived in this city by a train in the afternoon. I guess it was love at the first sight. A perfect balance and harmony between man and nature and breath-taking scenery. The city is surrounded from three sides by forest-covered mountains and one side by the sea. The city has an old-fashioned texture and architecture-woven seamlessly into its enchanting nature. After spending several hours in this city, walking around in the back streets, visiting some very old zen temples, the dusk arrived and forced us to the lively colorful old part of the city full of restaurants and food stands. A local pastry, cooked fresh on the spot and filled with sweet red beans, fresh large cracker dipped in zesty sauce and wrapped in a nori, and discovery of a local wonderful restaurant with no English menu. I fell in love with the city and we planned to spend one more day in Kamakura later in our trip.

There is a train stop called Kita Kamakura, one stop before the city center. You arrive in the rural setting in the middle of mountains. There are hiking routes which takes you up in the mountains, and if you are ready to hike for many miles like us, it takes you to the top of forest-covered mountains, through the paths to several Temples and finally to the great Buddha statue. You see pilgrims walking the way through these beautiful colorful forests. Below the mountains, the city has immense peace and tranquility and natural beauty. It is the perfect place for poets, writers, and artists, and it seems that traditionally, the city has served such a role in Japan. If I have an opportunity to spend a year in Japan, I would definitely choose Kamakura as one of the two cities that I would love to live in.