April 2 - Kamakura (鎌倉) & Atami (熱海)

We started our Japan tour in the morning by traveling along Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line (東京灣跨海高速公路) to Umihotaru (海螢島) which is an artificial island at the bridge-tunnel crossover point of the Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line. Literally it means “sea firefly” and it has rest area, restaurants, shops and amusement facilities.  The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line has overall length of 14 km with 4.4 km birdge and 9.6 km tunnel underneath the bay (the fourth-longest underwater tunnel in the world).  Air is supplied to the tunnel by a distinctive tower in the middle of the tunnel and it uses the bay’s almost consistent winds as the power source.  It connects the 2 important industrial regions Chiba (千葉) and Kanazawa (金澤) and it cuts down the travel time from 90 to 15 minutes.  

Then we arrived to Kamakura (鎌倉 - 日本第一個古都) to visit Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (鶴岡八幡宮) which is the most important Shinto shrine (神社) in the city of Kamakura. Tsurugaoka Hachimangu was for most of its history not only a Hachiman shrine (八幡神社 which is a Shinto (神道) shrine dedicated to kami Hachiman (八幡大神), but also a Tendai Buddhist temple (天台宗寺).  Tsurugaoka Hachimangu is one of the most popular shrines in Japan with more than 18 million visitors a year.

We entered the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine from the side to visit the shrine itself, then walked along the Wakamiya-dori (若宮大路 - the main entrance road of the shrine), and got to the Pulled Rickshaw (人力車) station to enjoy the Ebisuya Rickshaw.  It took us through some back streets of Kamakura city.  We saw many typical Japanese houses and also spot quite a few cherry trees.

Then we stopped at a seafood restaurant on Komachi-dori (小町大道) for lunch.  We had sushi for our lunch.  It was OK and we can get better sushi in Houston than there.  There are a lot of small shops on Komachi-dori, we did some shopping for Japanese paper products and mochi.  Then we got back to the Wakamiya-dori to enjoy the Sakura.

The next stop was the Great Kannon Kamakura Hasedera (長谷寺). Originally we were supposed to visit Odawara Castle in Odawara (小田原), however, due to the maintenance schedule of Odawara Castle, it was changed to the Kamakura Hasedera Temple.  Hase-dera (海光山慈照院長谷寺), commonly called the Hase-kannon (長谷觀音) is one of the great Buddhist temples in the city of Kamakura. The Kannon (觀音) statue is one of the largest wooden statues in Japan, with a height of 9.18 meters (30.1 ft), and is made from camphor wood (樟木) and gilded in gold. It has 11 heads, each of which represents a different phase in the search for enlightenment. By the way, Japanese use Kannon and Taiwanese use Guanine, both are translated as 觀音 in Chinese.

From the top of the temple compound we had a beautiful view of the whole Kamakura city.

We also walked around the temple compound to witness more of Sakura and other blooming flowers.  

Then we traveled to Atami (熱海) and checked into Hotel New Akao (新赤尾飯店) which was built by the sea and is the oceanfront with all rooms having an ocean view.  Their rooms are Japanese style with tatami mats as the flooring along with shoji slide doors (推拉門). The room has setting as living room during the day and will be changed to bedroom at night.  The hotel has a beautiful garden with Akao herb, roses, and some cherry trees; and it is adjacent to Akao (赤尾) beach. 

The evening program was for everyone to dress with Japanese Kimono to attend the kaiseki-ryōri (會席料理) which is a set menu of selected food serving on an individual tray to each member. It included miso soup, side dishes, appetizer, sashimi, and desert.  It was the first time we have kaiseki-ryori along with dressed in Japanese kimono, therefore, it was a pretty exciting dinner.  After dinner, we did some karaoke.  Then we rested for 1 1/2 hours before we went to hot spring pool to enjoy the spa.