We started in Kita-kamakura at 松ヶ丘東慶寺 (Matsugaoka Toukeiji...a temple). We mainly came here to look at plum blossoms. They're really pretty, but they're just starting to bloom so I think we were probably a few days early. It felt a little weird because most of the tourists there were old Japanese people who like to take macro-photo shots of the flowers, but the scenery was great. There was a cemetery in the back, but unfortunately, Aya and I couldn't figure out who important is buried there since our kanji reading skills aren't up to snuff.
After that, we got a little confused about how to get places and we found a honey shop that's famous for its honey! That was exciting. Then we ended up on a hiking trail. (There are a lot around Kamakura.) At first I was bummed we ended up hiking, but it was actually a nice change of pace to walk somewhere with real, natural scenery instead of flashing lights and crosswalks. Our hike led us to a statue of Miyamoto no Yoritomo. There was a nice picnic spot, but we didn't have bento so we just kept on walking...
We ended up going to Komachi-doori for lunch. 美水 (Misui) was where we ate. Yummy kake set. We were really full and ended up walking up and down Komachi-doori to do some shopping. There are a lot of traditional things in Kamakura, and they have some excellent senbei stores. I had some fresh senbei that they dip for you right as you buy it...so salty! But it does taste good warm. I also bought an assortment of strangely flavored ones. (uni, shiso, shichimi, ume/sugar, spicy, wasabi, etc.) Highly recommend getting some there. We also found a store called まめや, or bean shop. That shop never seemed to be empty. They have different flavored beans, the kind you find in cheap senbei packs and are always left til the end...those, but delicious! My favorite was the kinako one (We tried a lot of samples.) The last thing I picked up was a bottle of Kamakura beer since I hear it's good. I bought a pale ale (星); it was actually really good. Better than Asahi, that's for sure.
The last thing we visited was the Hachiman shrine. There was some sort of ceremony thing going on, which was cool because there was taiko. ^_^ There's also a huge tree outside of this one that is famous. Then we walked around the garden area to look at more plum blossoms. It's so nice and peaceful in Kamakura compared to anywhere in Tokyo. Lastly, we bought some murasakiimo ice cream. (Purple potato! Some ignorant lady said, "I wonder what's so popular..oh! Blueberry ice cream!") Best soft serve I've had. =D Hopefully I'll see more shrines and temples next time, but for this time, it was just nice and relaxing. (Though the train ride home made me tired and irritable.)
