My last and final relocation throughout my year in Japan has brought me to the historic and beautiful city of Kamakura. Kamakura, situated about an hour outside of Tokyo on Japan's Shonan Coast, is what my landlord while driving me and my belongings from Shinjuku to my new summer sublet, described as the Venice Beach of Japan.
Kamakura was once the capital of Japan, as the seat of the Shogunate during the Kamakura Period (1185–1333). Today, Kamakura has a population of 174,016. However, Kamakura was the 4th largest city in the world in 1250 AD, with about 200,000 people. It was also Japan's largest city by 1200 AD. It is currently the middle of Japan's rainy season, so these photos might look a bit gray, hopefully within another week or so the sun will come back out!
The Daibutsu, Kamakura's only national treasure, is an enormous cast bronze Buddha statue. When it was first constructed in 1252 , it was covered completely in gold leaf!
The current happening in town is Hydrangea viewing at Meigetsuin Temple, which is high on a hill over looking the ocean.
Though I managed to crop them out of this photo, currently all along the beach there is construction going on of makeshift temporary storefronts. In the summer these beach shacks become stores, restaurants, bars, and arcades. The town also gets entirely inundated with tourists, I am told.
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