I went on a lot of trips during July. In the beginning of the month, I went to Kamakura and Enoshima with a friend. We wanted to stay at a ryokan and found a good one in this area. It had a bath and provided dinner and breakfast. We took the train from Tokyo and then walked across the bridge to Enoshima Island. It was raining, but the island looked nice. While walking around, I think I saw a tanuki (Japanese racoon dog). We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant that served shirasu set lunches (whitebait fish, a specialty of the area). It was very good, there were so many things to try!
We walked around after that and hit some of the popular spots. We went up in the Sea Candle observatory, which had a good view of the sea and town. We also walked through Iwaya Cave, they gave us candles so we could see better. I love bridges and Enoshima had some nice ones. It was kinda windy though, but the view was nice. There was a shopping street near the entrance to the island. I ended up buying tenugui cloths and a hanger so I could display them. For dinner at the ryokan, we had more shirasu.
After breakfast the next morning, we took the train to Kamakura. Our first stop was Hokokuji Temple, which had a bamboo garden. It was raining again slightly, but it was honestly pretty nice. Next we walked around the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine area and stopped by the Sanrio Cafe. There was also a shopping street nearby with good souvenirs.
We took the train to see the Great Buddha statue and then went to Hase Temple. There was a hydrangea garden and it was on a hill with a great view of the seaside town. A lot of people were there and strolling through the flower-lined paths. Afterwards we had dinner near the station and took the train back to Tokyo, thus ending our short trip to Kamakura.
