Kamakura was the capital of Japan from 1123-1333 and as such has many temples and shrines. The buddha pictured above has been there since 1253 and was once housed in a temple but after storms blew the temple away for the second time in the 1300's it has sat outside. It was absolutely amazing, as was the rest of the day but the baby is demanding my time so I'll update more later.
Update:
Ok, so I'm alittle late with the update, but we really did enjoy Kamakura. In addition to the Buddha there is another temple famous for it's statue of Kannon, the eleven headed goddess. I don't really know how to explain the feeling when standing before that particular piece, but it certainly was impressive and very sacred would be the right word I guess. The picture of Kirk and Sarah is taken in the gardens of that temple.
There are a couple of really nice hiking trails in the area that crisscross the tops of the hills surrounding the village but those will have to wait until next spring when Sarah is more up for long times in the backpack.
Our favorite find of the day was as we were leaving Kannon's temple area and walking down the street we passed a little store that we weren't really sure what it contained but it was brightly lit with warm wood floors. We thought it might be a gallery of some type, but when we got inside it was a music box store. They had hundreds of different types, from plastic to some beautiful carved wood ones. That's the way things go here, you find amazing stores in the oddest places.
We ended up the day purchasing the traditional 'gift' of the area - pigeon shaped cookies. They were very tasty, and everyone in Kirk's office loved them. They are really enjoying our family days because it's traditional in Japan to bring 'gifts' back to people in the office when you go out of town.
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