Kamakura (鎌倉市)

After being in busy Shibuya yesterday, we went for the scenic route today. Our route to Kamakura involved the subway, a normal train, an upside down monorail which the train was suspended from, and another train which seemed to drive on nothing but back roads and using railway crossings every 100m. The last two amazed in terms of how small a space you can fit trains into.

Kamakura showed that not all of Japan is quite as level Tokyo, or as spacious. Pedestrians have to pass each other on the sidewalk by ducking onto the car lane. But what Kamakura certainly has is Buddha's, one of which they seems to have been found including his huge straw sandles. And one particular temple listened a bit too much to the local mafia when it introduced the concept of getting visitors to clean their donations in the local water spring before the actual act of donation. For another ¥100 donation to the local shop, they also give you a cleaning kit to make your life easier.

By the time we got to Yokohama, the clouds had been gathering again. But the ultra compressed theme parks there which try to pack as much action as possible by interleaving everything interestingly and have a roller coaster which also dives under water, is fascinating. Following breakfast, this actually occupied the rest of the evening to the point of completely forgetting about actually visiting more of Yokohama than just the area around the landmark tower.

We were toying with the idea of taking the Shinkansen back from Yokohama, just so that we can take the full range of trains in a day. It would have taken us quite a bit longer to change between four trains, just to shoot for 20 of the kilometres between Yokohama and Tokyo at 270km/h. But when we realised that the train we found was actually a train taking us right to our hotel, common sense took command.