Kamakura

On September 29th, I woke up bright and early and made my way to Shinjuku station to catch a train to Kamakura. At Shinjuku station, I witnessed the Tokyo hive mind at work during the rush hour. Shinjuku is the world's busiest train station; hordes of people were coming and going, but they seemed to know exactly what to do to not inconvenience others. Even though the trains were crowded, boarding and disembarkation was orderly. Two different lines operated from the platform I departed from. There were colored lines on the platform floor representing the two routes; commuters knew where to wait in line and how stay out of the way of people disembarking.

The ride itself took about an hour. Departing Shinjuku, the train headed south to Yokohama and then onwards to Kamakura. The landscape remained built up throughout the train ride, but it became less dense further away from Central Tokyo.

I disembarked at Kamakura station and followed a sign to an exit with an icon of Kamakura's most famous landmark, the Big Buddha at Kotoku-In Temple. I knew Kotoku-In was some distance from the train station, but the directional signage was poor. I asked for directions a couple of times and I figured I was on the right track because of all the tour buses whizzing by and the shop signs in English.

After a diversion to a hillside shrine, the first tourist sight I came across after more than 30 minutes of walking was Hasedera, a large complex of temples set on a hill. The complex was impressive with one main temple and several smaller shrines, including a cave shrine. The views of Kamakura town and its coastline were quite spectacular.

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