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.

Komachi Street

In between our travels around Japan and seeing the sights we took some time to visit Komachi Street in Kamakura.  This is an old street that is line with shops.  It remains closed to cars and is packed with people up and down in between the shops.  We got many different souvenirs from this town.  Here are some pictures of our trip to shop.

McDonald's is everywhere! Although, like most of Japan - No credit cards.

31 Flavors is also popular there.

A view down the street.

My new friend.

About to enjoy our Japanese crepes.

Hase Giant Buddha

Another short train ride from the Kamakura station took us to nearby Hase, home of the 'Great Buddha of Kamakura', also known as the Amida Buddha.  This Buddha statue is 13.35 meters (over 40') tall making it the second tallest in Japan.  It was originally built in the 13 century and placed indoors in a temple.  Since 1495 it has been outside, because this temple was hit multiple times by typhoons and tidal waves in the 14th and 15th centuries.

Our tickets to enter the grounds.

These washing basins were in temples and shrines everywhere.
I'm not totally sure what they are for (some cleaning I conjecture), but
I decided to try it.

A look at Amida Buddha from far away - you can get a sense of its imposing size.

Big man... big feet.

A picture of us in front of the Buddha.

A small dedication area at his pedestal.

Incense burning offering at the base.

Lexie kept saying he looked sad.

The inside is hollow; for the equivalent of roughly a quarter you can go inside.

Mike and I reading about the construction while exploring the inside.

A memorial of an influential Buddhist associated with Hase Buddha.

Erika, Lexie and Elise.

The Grimstead family.

Verny Park

Our first full day in Japan was spent trying to retrieve my suitcase from the airport because in my travel delusion I had grabbed a suitcase that looked very similar to mine but had very different contents.  What should have been (at least what they told us would be) a few minutes at the airport became much longer.  Elise and I spent sometime behind closed custom doors with our passports taken from us.  My sister was almost to the point of contacting 'people' worried that we were being detained.  Enough of that.

On our first day really seeing Japan, we visited the Navy base and then took a train to nearby Kamakura (I think I took the train to Kamakura about 5 times during the trip).  Just to be clear, I love Japan's train system and public transportation; the ease to get just about everywhere with a short walk and a train ride was beneficial as a tourist.  Walking from the navy base to the nearby train station took us through Verny Park.  From the park we could see the shipyard and harbor; Lexie got to terrorize the park's pigeons by chasing them everywhere.

A beautiful place to drop anchor.

The harbor is shared by US and Japanese Ships

Lexie Enjoying the fountain with her Aunt E-lise

I got lucky and caught a pigeon in action while I was getting a
shot of the fountain with the ships as a backdrop.

I liked using the ships as a backdrop for some close up shots of the flowers.

Lexie asking me to come follow her.

More ships and flowers.

I understood the sign as thus: no feeding pigeons and robins
but the hawks are okay.

Lexie had loads of fun chasing the pigeons.

One of the carriers.

Lexie wanted to smell the flower but it looks like she is kissing it.

Our first Japanese train tickets.

Waiting for the train to come out of the tunnel.

Special seats on the train were reserved for thus who needed to be seated.

A map of the JR train line, we were on the bottom middle line.