Since we slept virtually on site, we started with the quiet Temple of Engaku-ji:

Next, we went to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, a major shrine in the area, and it was definitely impressive.

After that, we walked back up to Jufukuji, as our gateway to the hiking trail to Daibutsu (the great Buddha in Kamakura). To be honest, the hike wasn't fantastic (we were expecting better views), but pleasant nonetheless:

We finished by visiting Hasedera temple, which is also a great temple with statues, and an unusual cave you can visit.

From there, we took a train to Enoshima and got on the nearby island to spend the rest of the afternoon.

view from the island

When we were done, we went back to our hotel to collect our luggage and travel to Hakone (we even got to use a hanging monorail for that trip), and picked up some food by Ofuna before going to Hakone. You had to order your noodles by clicking on a vending machines with what kind of soup and ingredients you wanted. It was a challenge, but Jennifer prevailled ;)

The cool part (for me) is that I had been to Kamakura during my 3 day visit of 1997, and quite frankly had forgotten pretty much all about it. After the fact, I found some very old analog pictures I had, and found out some looked kind of similar to the new ones :)

2013

1997

2013

1997

2013

1997