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After almost 2.5 months, I finally sent some photos of another tourist to her of her visit to Kamakura that day. She was kind enough to take photos of me with the Diabutsu of Kamakura.
The Daibutsu in Kamakura is the largest statue of Buddha within an 1.5 hour of Tokyo. There is a larger one in Nara but Nara is past Kyoto, so a trip there would take a few more hours to get to by Shinkansen and other train transportation. Within Tokyo, there is an urban legend that says that there is a great daibutsu statue nestled within the city's 23 wards, but I have yet to go see it or find someone who knows exactly where it is and how I might get there to pay homage.
I had gone to Kamakura in late April on a tour group with Tokyo Gaijins. Everyone else spoke English or some level of it, so to many foreigners it is comforting and to many Japanese people who like to practice their English, it's somewhat of a treat to hear so many people speaking it all around you. We stopped at 3 temples and 3 shrines that day plus we hiked in the mountains / woods.
I post this photo today because most of the photos of the other tourist that I just sent by email were taken here. And really, these two are a couple of my favourite photos from the day.
I'm also inspired to write this post by my upcoming visit this Friday. This time, I will get to see the beaches of Kamakura close-up, of which previously I had caught only a glimpse from within the heavily forested mountain hike.
Last weekend, we went to Hakone. We investigated going independently, but found that taking a Hato bus tour was actually less expensive, and for us more convenient, since we wouldn't have had to figure out any of the Japanese signage. Although, the entire tour was conducted in Japanese. Hato bus offers the same tour in English. We decided to keep a little challenge in our day.
It was the last weekend of the Ajisai tour (hydrangea). I managed to snap a few shots of them. But the tour included a public outdoor garden, so I managed to get some shots of other seasonal flowers. This post is about the flowers.
The above sign could be seen everywhere on the platform while waiting for the Ajisai Densha. Last week that platform was crowded. The flowers were in full bloom last week. They call the train that takes you up to the cablecar at Gora and 550 m above sea level from Yumoto the Ajisai Densha at this time of year because enroute, you will pass over 10,000 different Ajisai plants. Most were in Full bloom, only a handful were just beginning to bud. The array of colour was spectacular. The hillside is so steep that the train conductor actually has to change end cars 3 times so the train can make it's up the steep incline, like a herring bone pattern. If you're a snowboarder, it looks like the side to side movement on one edge of the snowboard. This move is usually done by beginners who don't know how to turn, or if you like to always see what's in front of you. Also can be done if you don't have a wide enough turning radius to complete a full turn. This is the case for the train to Gora.
While there were plenty of photo opportunities, I didn't actually take advantage of them as the train was packed at about 10 am in the morning. Most of us in the tour group had to stand, myself included. Also, I couldn't really appreciate the scenery that much since it was so stuffy in the non-air conditioned train. And there really was no breeze. The only time, I felt a hint of a breeze was during the stops that the train opened it's doors to let people out and in before Gora. For the record, no one gets off, they only get on. The Ajisai Densha can best be described as extremely uncomfortable, hot, crowded with no air flow. It is much, much worse than the regular Tokyo rush hour on the Yamanote line or the subways.
The following photos were taken from the outdoor botanical garden. It wasn't a great season to go since, right now, there aren't a lot of flowers in peak bloom, but I did manage to snap a few interesting species.
Click here for some great information on Hakone.
