Kamakura - December 29th

I had made plans with Sacchan to go with her to Kamakura and meet her friend Machiko, who is attending college in Texas, and also came back home for winter break. I rode the train for a good hour and a half to get down to Kamakura, which is a surprisingly small station considering how supposedly famous the place is. I beat Sacchan to the turnstiles by a few minutes, and we waited for Macchan in a nearby Saizeriya. She came up and met us at the restaurant, and enjoyed some small talk to break the ice.

We walked down one of the side streets shopping for omiyage and joking around. Our destination was one of the larger temples in the area, but we took a leisurely pace and had a good time just getting there. The temple was preparing for the new years celebrations; in two days the grounds were expected to be packed with bodies, but today, it was pretty deserted. We took a few photos around the temple and I bought an 0-mamori for my brother.

If you go to Kamakura, there's one major sight-seeing attraction that everyone goes to: the giant Buddha. We took a bus out to see the giant bronze statue. It was perhaps a bit smaller than the one I had seen at Toudaiji in Nara a couple years back, but it was still impressive. The statue sat in full lotus, hands folded in his lap, with a serene look of eternal peace on his face. Sacchan and I paid the nominal entrance fee and actually went inside the cast figure. It was quiet and dark inside the statue, and it occurred to me that it'd be a good place to meditate, if it weren't for the constant stream of tourists flowing through it.

We did a bit more wandering around and checked out the omiyage shops nearby, but ultimately finding nothing of interest, we returned to the station and parted ways. It was good to finally meet Machiko, and I had a good time hanging out with her and Sacchan. We'll have to do that again back in the States!