Today, I booked a day tour to Kamakura and Enoshima Island through Japanican.com. Since I have 10 days to kill in Tokyo, and planning (and executing) can be a bit painful, a paid tour would be convenient.  It costs money, but since I’m traveling alone, getting to these places I booked will be more difficult DIY.

Kamakura and Enoshima, both in Kanagawa Prefecture, are places I’ve only heard of/seen from Terrace House (Boys & Girls in the City).  Both are less than two hours from Tokyo (by our chartered bus), and to be honest, they both exceeded expectation!

Kamakura

Kamakura has a very rich history, being the first shogunate in Japan (according to our tour guide). The good thing about guided tours is that you learn about the history and stories of places that you wouldn’t really know if you just went there by yourself.  Its temples are historical treasures that date as early as 1200-1300s, built by significant people of that time. I did not take notes during the tour (which looking back, I should have for the sake of this blog) – but you can also read about it on Wikipedia (I’m a lazy blogger).

Hokoku-ji Temple

Our first stop was a small temple that had a bamboo grove, reminiscent of Arashiyama’s Bamboo Forest, albeit a smaller version. There is also a tea house where you can enjoy having tea while looking at the bamboos.

Our tour guide Tak told us a story about Seibu (a famous Japan conglomerate) buying off land in Kamakura so they can build houses and sell them (real estate). However, the Japanese government passed a law on conservation of ancient cities (that’s how he translated it), which made it illegal for anyone to build houses on that specific land Seibu bought. So, what Seibu did was instead of creating houses for the living, they turned it into one big cemetery – where each square meter costs 100 million JPY, and to purchase land, you need to buy a minimum of 3 square meters!

These cemetery caves (below) just beside the bamboo grove are where war casualties, victims of samurais, and the normal people living back in the days were buried. As Kamakura is a mountainous region, there was no flat land for a cemetery so they carved caves on cliffsides instead!  There are supposedly hundreds of these caves around Kamakura, and the thought of two levels of cemetery (one above the hills developed by Seibu, and those in these caves) is very interesting!

Jomyo-ji Temple

Our next stop is one of the five temples known as Kamakura Gozan (“Kamakura’s Five Mountains”), which also played a big part in Japan’s history.  This temple has a tea house, where we learned the basics of tea ceremony, as well as concepts on Zen Buddhism.

To the left of the main temple is the famous tea house with a Zen (rock) garden. Unfortunately, we were asked not to take photos of the hosts while they were performing the ceremony. We were given a wagashi (traditional Japanese tea confection) to consume before drinking the tea. Wagashi, though small in size, is very sweet – but is probably the best one I’ve tasted in my life! The tea ceremony followed, then finally, tea was distributed to everyone in the room.

While having our tea, our tour guide told us stories about tea ceremony and Zen Buddhism. In the room, there was a painting on a panel that had the characters for “Day” and “New” – he told us that while there is a general meaning to it (e.g., Every day is new), zen buddhist monks will ask you what it means for you personally as it will have a different meaning to different people. To our tour guide, it was more about not putting off to tomorrow what can be done today. I thought about it, and to me – it’s that we’re all given a new chance every single day, so it’s not too late to go after what we want in life! Zen moment right there, while I was staring at the zen garden outside.

Another story he had was when Queen Elizabeth II visited Ryoanji temple in Kyoto (famous for its Zen garden with 15 rocks). Queen Elizabeth II enjoyed it so much and said it on the news and suddenly Zen gardens became famous! I haven’t been there, but he mentioned that in Ryoanji temple, there are 15 rocks, but at whatever angle you look at it, you will only see 14. The buddhist monk will ask you how many rocks there are – after telling you there are 15 rocks! He asked us for our answers, but as the time was running out, he told us to just think about it!

Kotoku-in Temple (and the Great Buddha)

Our last temple before we go for lunch is where the Great Buddha is located – Kotoku-in Temple. Our stay here was quick because we were running late for lunch. We barely had 15 minutes, so we took pictures and ran back to the bus!

Lunch at Hachi no Ki

For lunch, we had Traditional Japanese “washoku“, which is a balanced Japanese meal with rice, soup, main dish and side dishes. Washoku in itself is an art, as there are preparation and presentation techniques involved! This is hands down one of the most authentic meals I’ve had in my many visits to Japan. In a normal setting, I wouldn’t think of having this for a meal because there’s Ramen, Gyudon, and a lot of other more well known Japanese food – but I regret not giving this a chance earlier!

That ends the Kamakura leg of our day tour. I was asleep on the bus on the way to Enoshima island because I was so tired from all the walking, and so full from lunch!