February 10, 2010 | In: Day 12 , Kamakura , Planning , Yokohama

Walking Day 12: Yokohama Kamakura &

WE HAVE MOVED! Join us on:

Let us planning our trip. This route, to me essential, is very intense because they are two cities with much to see in one day.

Begin with a brief introduction to Kamakura:

Kamakura (Japanese: 镰仓市;-shi) is a city located in Kanagawa, Japan, about 50 km southwest of Tokyo. The cities are connected by the Yokosuka line passing through the city of Yokosuka. Kamakura is a city that is surrounded by mountains in three directions and the Sagami Bay in the fourth, this area turned into a natural stronghold Kamakura. During the Heian period was the principal city of the Kanto region. Between 1185 and 1333, the shogun Minamoto clan ruled Japan from Kamakura in the period known as the Kamakura shogunate, which was also the first government of the shogun in the history of design Japón.El city must greatly to the shogun Minamoto Yoritomo.

The city of Kamakura is famous for its temples and shrines. Kotokuin Temple is one of the most famous for the Daibutsu, a bronze statue of the Buddha Amitabha 13.41 m. In the fifteenth century a tsunami destroyed a temple containing the statue of Great Buddha of Kamakura but the statue survived and has been in the weather since that time, enduring earthquakes and other weather phenomena. Currently in its foundations strengthened by absorbing vibration.

Some of the main attractions of the city are magnificent temples and Zen-ji and Engaku Kencho-ji, the Tokei-ji (a nunnery which was used as a refuge for women who wanted to divorce their husbands) Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine; the Hase-dera is an ancient temple to Kuan Yin, the graves of Minamoto no Yoritomo and Hojo Masako and the shrine of Kamakura-gu where Prince Morinaga was executed. Kamakura has a great flow of tourists because it has a beach, is very near Tokyo and also the presence of a multitude of temples. The city has a number of restaurants and other amenities for its population of approximately turistas.La the city according to data taken in 2005 is 171,122 inhabitants (the population density of 4,321 persons per km ². Its total area is 39.53 km ².

Well .. Now what? Well start with the pure and simple planning.

The first thing is to get up early (about 6:15), to be taking breakfast Edoya early hour (7:00). My idea is to leave from the station of JR Okachimachi.

Once we get there Kamakura route consists of 3 parts:

KAMAKURA ROUTE - Part 1

We got off at Hase Station at 9:17, from there we headed north encaminandonos Hase-Dera temple:

As you see in the picture above, from the station go north to the junction you see in the image below, where we turned west:

And we continue straight until you get to the door of the temple:

HASE-DERA TEMPLE

Following the legend, in 721 AD the pious monk Tokudo Shonindescubrió a camphor tree in the forest of the mountains and near the village of Hase in the Nara region. He noted that the tree was so large it could provide enough material for carving two statues of Kannon and his eleven heads and did so. Why has 11 faces? Why Kannon can hear everything people say.

The statue carved from the lower trunk is the one in the temple near Nara Hasedera and the statue carved top and now the larger of the two, was thrown into the sea with a prayer to save people . Fifteen years later he was found on land, on the beach Nagai Miura Peninsula, not far from Kamakura. Thus, the statue was then brought to Kamakura and in his honor a temple was built. Here you have some photos of my last visit to Hase-Dera (click to enlarge):

This temple since then is the fourth stop on the religious pilgrimage that travels 33 points in the Kanto region. And how is the statue? Well, it measures almost 10 meters high, camphor wood and covered with gold. It has 11 heads, each representing different stages in the journey of enlightenment.

Hasedera Temple Kamakura is one of the most famous place not only for the building itself, but by the stunning gardens with a thousand and one details that will delight anyone who has a camera with a minimum zoom. All the way to the main building are small sculptures dedicated to the Buddhist deity Jizo, protector of the children killed before birth or those who have died before their parents. Jizo is a beloved deity in Japan, because it is the protector of children. Legend has it that Japanese Buddhist children who die before their parents are unable to cross the mythical river on their way to Sanzu further because in their short lives have not been able to accumulate enough good deeds. It is believed that Jizo saves their souls to be eternally punished accumulating stones on the banks of the river, hiding them in their robes and making them listen demons mantras. Among the photos above, is a cave full of small figures in commemoration of these children.

Practical information about Hase-Dera:

- Planning: stay 45 minutes, from 9:30 to 10:15

- Location: Near the JR station Hase

- Input: 300Y

- Hours: 8:00 to 16:30

Leaving the temple, about 10:15, we went to visit the Great Buddha of Kamakura:

As you see in the picture above, is to return to the main street and go north to get to this deviation:

BIG BUDDHA

Also known as the Daibutsu of Kamakura, is made of bronze. His execution is attributed to Ono Goroemon or Hisatomo Tanji, both great experts of bronze. A large cast bronze statue of Amida Buddha belongs to. An image that expresses an unchanging inner calm. His face, the position of the hands and legs crossed, show a concentration that transmits a large inner serenity.

The realization of this statue took three years, from 1252 to 1255. It was made along the lines of Great Buddha of Todai-ji in Nara (Nara period). The Great Buddha of Kamakura (Daibutsu) is the second largest in Japan. Only the Buddha of Todaiji in Nara is larger, however, the Kamakura Daibutsu is considered by many the most beautiful. The statue belongs to the Temple Kotokuin and represents Amida, the Buddha's most important popular Jodo sect. Height including the pedestal is 14 meters and weighs 121 tons. Originally outdoors was not like today. I was in a wooden shrine, but the earthquakes this structure was suffering until it was broken completely destroyed in 1495.

Since then been completely outdoors, and proximity to the sea, has made the bronze Daibutsu take in a greenish patina that makes it even more attractive.

Practical information on the Great Buddha

- Planning: stay 20 minutes, from 10:30 to 10:50

- Location: North of Hase Dera

- Input: 200Y (20Y access to the interior)

- Hours: 7:00 - 18:00 (inside 8:00 to 16:30)

Here we will be until 10:50 and make your way back to Hase station. Once Hase, we will take the same electric train in the opposite direction to the station of Kamakura. The departure of the train that interests us most is that of 11:05.

From Kamakura station began ...

KAMAKURA ROUTE - Part 2

This second route is to and from the Hachiman shrine through Wakamiyaoji Avenue. Get to the strip is very simple, after leaving the station in advance eastward to the intersection of the image below where we turn the North:

AVENUE WAKAMIYAOJI

This is the main street of Kamakura. Here we plan a trip between two large clitoris which start and end to this wide avenue, full of gift shops, craft glass and wood, sticks and amulets. Never bored this walk. There are also shops that sell Ji-beer (local beer) and Shonan beer. Famous among the crafts are the sizes of Kamakura Kamakura-bori lacquer, which can be purchased here at Wakamiya-oji. We can snack on some street vendor or to jump on a cart pulled by a Kamakurense. The point is not to arrive later than 11:45 am the next point.

SANCTUARY Hachiman

Originally built in 1063 near Yuigahama, and was dedicated to Emperor Ojin, his mother, Empress Consort Jingū, and his wife Hime-gami. Minamoto no Yoritomo, the founder of the Kamakura shogunate, moved to its current location in 1191, inviting the Hachiman, God of warriors, to live in it and ensure that government.

There are some chapels in place, the most important are the bottom Minor Chapel and the Chapel, 61 steps up. Current Lower Chapel was built in 1828 by Ienari Tokugawa, the 11th shogun of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The avenue leading to the chapel has to extremes cherry trees that were ordered by Yoritomo as a prayer for the good birth of their firstborn. Minamoto no Sanetomo, the third shogun of Kamakura was killed on February 13, 1219 by an archer hiding behind the great ginkgo tree that remains standing beside the staircase that leads to the chapel.

One of its roads leads to two lily ponds: the Genji who has three island (san means three and life), and the Heike (a rival clan) and has four (shi, four and death).

Practical information on Hachiman-Gu:

- Planning: stay 45 minutes, from 11:45 to 12:30

- Location: End Avenue Wakamiyaoji

- Free admission (museum 200Y)

- Hours: 6:00 to 20:30

- Link: http://www.hachimangu.or.jp/

After visiting this temple, we turn our steps to the station of Kamakura, where we take the next train:

To get off at the next stop, and since she started ...

KAMAKURA ROUTE - Part 3

This is the shortest part of our visit to Kamakura, and that basically is to visit Engakuji, temple located in front of the station Kitakamakura. Access to the temple we can find it after walking a few meters to the southeast:

Engaku-JI

Engaku-ji (円覚寺) is one of the complex of temples of Zen Buddhism of Japan's most important. A Chinese Buddhist monk founded the temple in 1282 at the request of the then ruler of Japan, the regent Hojo Tokimune had repulsed the attempts of invasion by the Mongols between 1274 and 1281. Tokimune was a fervent follower of Zen and the temple was erected to honor the fallen on both sides of the war and to serve as a center from which to extend the influence of Zen According to the records of the time, to start work Hill was taken from a copy of Engaku buried-kyo Sutra of Perfect Enlightenment, which gave name to the temple.

The current form of the temple is due to Seisetsu Buddhist priest, who rebuilt and consolidated by the end of Edo period. In the Meiji period, Engaku-ji became the main center of Zen education in the region of Kanto, Kosen Roshi and Shaku Soyen were abbots during this period and Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki studied under his direction. Even Zazen courses are offered in the temple.

The fires have damaged several buildings at different times, and dates given below refer to the construction of structures in its current form. From the entrance, the temple buildings are situated along a wooded hillside, the main buildings being located in a straight line, Chinese style, the mixture of austere buildings and trees is a nice composition. In total there are 18 temples in the campus. Among the buildings and other monuments are:

The front door, San-mon (1783), with calligraphy of Emperor Fushimi;
A great hall of Buddha, Butsu-den or modern (1964);
Shari-den, built in the sixteenth century in the style of the Song Dynasty of China, which is said to house a tooth of Buddha;
The Butsunichi-an, roofing, which is where are buried the remains of Hōjō Tokimune;
Obai-in, a small temple with a roof that contains a statue of Kannon;
Ōgune (1301), most of the bells of the temples of Kamakura, over 2.5 meters high.

Of these, Shari-den and Ōgune have been declared National Treasures of Japan.

Practical information on Engaku-Ji:

- Planning: stay 45 minutes, from 13:00 to 13:45

- Location: Station Kitakamakura

- Input: 300Y

- Hours: 8:00 to 17:00

- Link: http://www.engakuji.or.jp/index.shtml

The temple back to the nearby station Kitakamakura, where we catch the train from JR Yokosuka line bound for Yokohama Line:

In turn, the route will follow in Yokohama also has 3 distinct parts:

ROUTE YOKOHAMA - Part 1

Motomachichukagai Station is the nearest to our first destination, the famous Yokohama Chinatown (Point 1). Yokohama's Chinatown (横浜中华街, Yokohama chūkagai) has about 150 year history. Today only a few Chinese still live in Chinatown, but has a population of about 3,000 or 4,000. Most residents are from Guangzhou (Canton) but many come from other regions.

From the station go down that road a little in a southeasterly direction until you reach a junction where a gas station. In this corner we turned to the southwest:

We continue to the southwest, crossing two zebra crossings and the third contains one of the gates of Chinatown:

CHINATOWN

This Chinatown is the largest Chinatown not only in Japan but also Asia (larger than Chinatowns in both Kobe and Nagasaki) and is one of the largest in the world. There are over 200 restaurants with a wide variety of Chinese dishes, Cantonese cuisine, Beijing, Shanghai, and kitchen are available Szeshwan. Even you have to queue to enter the most popular restaurants. For example, Manchin-ro is one of the oldest and most popular restaurants, but in general these restaurants are expensive. And I mean that expensive for a dumpling eating on the street may be asking for 300 or 400 yen. We did not see any menu for less than 1500 yen, which is expensive. But when 10 minutes, in the port, podimos find a trattoria with wood in the oven you that pizza went out to 1000 yen ... (come on, visit China, Italian food).

Yokohama's Chinatown is surrounded by four main gates: Enpei mon Gate, Seiyo-mon Gate, Zenrin-Mon Gate and Gate Choyo-Mon Altogether there are ten gates built based on the horoscope chino.Comparandolo with Kobe Chinatown, we visit a few days before this is probably more fun to visit as there are many more shops and temples in which waste time. There are plenty of shops, where you can buy from caps of the Cultural Revolution, a traditional Chinese silk dresses. The temples, colorful compared to the Japanese Buddhist temples (almost rococo), which are usually a bit more measured when using the red passion

Although the route is marked in Chinatown, anyway, the important thing is to return the same site.

Practical information about Yokohama Chinatown:

- Planning: Stay 2 hours, from 14:45 until 16:45

- Location: Motomachi Station Chukagai

- Input: -

- Schedule: -

After visiting Chinatown back to the Motomachi station Chukagai from where we will go to Minato Mirai (3 stops):

Minato Mirai is the modern port area of Yokohama and point 2 of our route.

ROUTE YOKOHAMA - Part 2

From Minato Mirai Station is perfectly Landmark Tower skyscraper, which is our next stop, so there is no loss:

LANDMARK TOWER

We give a short stroll to the LandMark Tower. Yokohama Landmark Tower is one of the highest building in Japan with 295.8 meters high and 70 floors. District is located in the futuristic Minato Mirai 21, Yokohama City district, directly next to the Yokohama Museum of Modern Art, and is the symbol of the district. The construction of the building work began on March 20, 1990 and was completed on July 14, 1993. The building contains a five star hotel which occupies floors 49 to 70, making it the highest hotel in Japan. The 48 lower floors are used as offices and shops.

The building contains two large seismic attenuators hidden in the floor 71 to 282 meters on the front corners of the building. On the 69th floor there is an observatory, Sky Garden, from which one can enjoy a 360 degree view of the city. Top views of the bay to Yokoham are fabulous. We were very impressed with the amount of heliports that was on the skyscrapers. They also say that on clear days is Tokyo, Mount Fuji and Izo-Hanto, but we never have that luck with the viewpoints and pollution. In addition, the views, the Sky Garden is decorated with striking marine theme. Blue, colorful fish hanging from the ceiling and some aquariums with some species not seen in life.

The tower also contains the second world's fastest elevator, traveling at 750 meters per minute, reaching the floor of the observatory in just 1 minute. The price of the lift is 1,000 yen.

There are many buildings higher than the Landmark Tower in other countries, but it took the most advanced techniques to build a structure as high as that on the soil of Japan, a country shaken by at least about 1,000 earthquakes a year. The Yokohama Landmark Tower has a flexible structure to absorb the force of earthquakes. The structure is theoretically the same as that of Japanese temples, pagodas and five stories that have never collapsed during an earthquake. Interestingly, the construction method used in this building is similar to the techniques of Japanese architecture used for wooden buildings of great height. The building will be replaced as the largest in Japan when the project is built Nishi Shinjuku in 2010, with a tower of 77 floors.

Practical information on LandMark Tower:

- Planning: Stay 1 hour, from 17:00 to 18:00

- Location: Minato Mirai 21 District

- Input: Elevator 1000Y

- Schedule: (viewpoint) From 10:00 to 20:30

- Link: http://www.yokohama-landmark.jp/english/

As much as we entertain at the Pokemon Center or any of the many establishments that are in the Plaza LandMark must march to the area of the latest Cosmo World about 17:45.

As we can see in the picture above, to leave the tower follow the bay to the northwest to the bridge that gives access to Cosmo World.Como can see in the picture below, the minority, which is the main attraction in Cosmo World, is at all times. This wheel, by the way, is the largest in the world. Climb or not the wheel'll decide when we get there, as we are very dependent on time.

East of Cosmo World is a very interesting shopping center, the World Porters, where I took one of the richest ice cream I have ever tasted. The frozen fruit cut up in front of you with breakneck speed, mixing it with ice cream so that you hardly had time to see the two blades he used.

In this area we should not be more than 2 hours. So around 19:40 we striving toward Sakuragicho station. Leaving the south Porters ccWorld find a nice walk reclaimed from the sea:

The ride ends at a zebra crossing, cross it and move on:

Continue along the sidewalk with trees until we find ourselves faced with another zebra crossing, we crossed to the south and we will be in Sakuragicho station:

At this station we take the following combination that will take us to the third part of our route in Yokohama:

ROUTE YOKOHAMA - Part 3

From the station we cross a large avenue northwest on an overpass:

Proceed to the northwest, and the second zebra crossing we cross turned right (east), for at the first intersection, turn left (north again):

Up to the door of the Ramen Museum:

Ramen Museum

And you will say, ¿Ramen Museum? In what is this? Japan is a country filled with ramen fans, ramen specialists and sonre all crazy about ramen certificates, and the city of Yokohama has opened a museum dedicated to these Chinese. More common than a museum, is also partly historical theme park and part mall and Hyper-specialized restaurant. And, unlike the usual dusty museum, open until 11 pm.

Once you're past the turnstiles, the first floor is devoted to numerous museum exhibits and a well stocked gift shop. Clearly, the organizers of the museum have been puzzled to bring every conceivable type of ramen and everything related to esllo, and the results can be seen: utensils, bowls of ramen (over 300), match boxes, wrappers of chopsticks, curtains and aprons. The historical development of instant ramen is esplicado with care, and the invention of cup ramen (where boiling water is poured directly into a styrofoam cup) is celebrated as the most spectacular technological achievement.

Instant ramen packages from around the world adorn the walls, and television monitors broadcast a continuous stream of announcements of ramen in 25 years. The Ramen history buffs will love (and the rest of us just confused) by a replica of the first ramen dish eaten by a 17-century samurai, Mito Komon.

Two living dioramas show the system working in a factory of instant ramen, and since it is a modern museum (which opened in March 1994), there are also interactive video panels. Video about the ramen are provided for younger visitors, such as one in which you eat your ramen as quickly as possible.

But the fun has just begun, as the rest of the museum (in two underground levels) is a miniature theme park. The date is 1958, and the place is Shitamachi, a bustling working-class neighborhood full of small shops, houses and restaurants. We are just 40 years ago, but it's definitely a different time, just before the rapid modernization that changed the face of Japanese cities.

As a theme park, "ramen town" is not Disneyland, but it includes several nostalgic attractions - vendors of cotton candy and an old bakery and antique shop windows. Behind the storefronts will find a café, two bars former regional brands of sake, and the main attraction - eight ramen shops throughout Japan, each with its distinctive variety of noodles.

Admission to the museum is Y300 (being printed below the ticket will make us a small discount), or Y1, 000 for a three-month pass, and ramen prices are around Y900 per bowl. .