Tenen Hiking Trail

We had planned a trip to the base of Fuji, but things didn't work out during out trip.  It turned out to be a considerable distance away and navigating our way there would have proved quite challenging.  The mountain is closed during the summer because it is covered in snow.  We still wanted to see Japan's legendary mountain so we looked into some hikes closer by.  We settled on hiking the Tenen Trail just north of Kamakura.  It two short train rides away and provided breathtaking views of the Kanagawa Prefecture including Yokohoma, Tokyo and what we really wanted to see, Fuji.

Fuji was every bit as breathtaking as we imagined.  Even from over 50 miles away it dominated the skyline.  Mount Fujisan, as it is called there, is over 3700 meters high (>12,000 feet); the surrounding hills are maybe a third of that.  We first glimpsed Fuji from the top of the Kenchoji Temple Trail.  As we surveyed the skyline we saw only clouds, but Fuji's snow-capped top stuck out above these clouds.  Anything I think to type seems to minimize how magnificent it appeared.

As mentioned, we walked through a Kenchoji Temple to reach the Tenen Trail.  At the other end of the trail was the Zuisenji Temple.  The hike between temples was around 5 miles, but we had to hike a 1/2 mile from the Kita-Kamakura train station to Kenchoji and then another 1.5 miles from Zuisenji to the Kamakura train station.  I would absolutely do it again and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience.

Along the trail were many yagura, or Samuri graves.  Many have been looted over 100 years ago, but some preserved.  Often times families have gone back and reclaimed or taken over the empty tombs to use.  Here are some pictures from both temples and the trail.

Entrance hall at Kenchoji.

Painting on the main hall ceiling at Kenchoji.

Statues in main hall at Kenchoji.

Gold plated gate at Kenchoji.

Back side of gate.

Guardian on top of Kenchoji back trail overlooking the temple grounds.

Our first view of Fuji.

Panorama of Fuji (click to enlarge).

Trail head sign.

Fuji from the second lookout point.

Our brother-in-law, Mike, with Fuji in the background.
This is at a second lookout point above Kenchoji.

Us with Fuji in the background.

Checking out one of the shrines.

This sign let us know that our remaining hike would be more
down than up (this made Elise very happy).

Hidden Yagura Mike and I found off of the trail.

Some of the things people leave at the shrines.

A view from the trail down into the valley of Zuisenji Temple.

Close up from in Zuisenji temple.

The two of us in front of a Zuisenji shrine.

Map Project

We are taking a break from posting about our trip to Japan to post about a project we just finished. We have always wanted some sort of map to hang on the wall and got this idea from pinterest. We bought some canvas at Joann's, bought a map on line, and cut the map into three pieces to wrap around the canvas. We then modpodged over the map to give it a shine and put map pins in all the places we have been to or lived (both individually and as a couple).The white pins are where Alex has been, the black pins are where I have been, and the red is where we have been together. Below are pictures of some of the steps, along with the finished project. All pictures were taken with our Nikon J1.

All of our materials: canvas, map, modpodge,
paintbrushes, exacto knife, tarp

Laying out the canvas's and measuring the map

All ready to put the map on the canvas

Letting it dry

The map pins all in place

Up on the wall!