After we had walked along the panorama path we had a dumpling stuffed with black beans to eat and then went in search of the big Buddha which we had come to see. He was another 300m or so up the main road and sits in all his majesty in the open air and is in many ways much more impressive than most other Buddhas we have seen. It is possible to go inside and see how it was made. In recent years the neck has been reinforced and this is clear to see. Hanging up near-by are two huge sandals made of rope which are the size his sandals would have to be!
We then got the train back to Kamakura which was just as packed as it had been when we came.
In Kamakura we went in search of the art gallery that Herta had told me of. We were not successful finding only the museum of modern art which was closed. But we found that the town was just about as crowded as Hase had been. The main street was a wide dual carriageway with a cherry tree-lined walkway along the centre.
The street ended at the gate to another temple and we saw on the map, that it would have been possible to hike from the big Buddha to this temple – the route would not have been so much longer that the road we had just walked down from the station. Although it had dried off we decided that we had had enough temples for now and took the train back to Yokohama and our hotel. So our last day in Japan came to an end.
This post is an extract of my mother’s travel journal written during a tour of Japan in 2014.
travel tales 