My Half-Day Zen Experience in Kamakura

On the next day, Monique and I went to Kamakura to visit a few temples.

I have put together photos that I took, so if you were interested, please click here
We were blessed with such gorgeous weather.

While visiting the first temple, Engakuji in northern part of Kamakura, I heard a bush warbler singing, so I recorded the sound with my dad's digicam. The Engakuji property was quite large, and there were many sub-temples and a lot of statues to see. Towards the end of our visit, we reached to the top of the hill, where the famous bell, the largest in Kamakura measuring 2.6 meters high with 1.42-meter diameter and a National Treasure is hanging. We decided to take a break and enjoy this sweetsake (rich tasting drink) and the great view from the hill.

We then walked to Kenchoji, where we saw the second national treasure bells in Kamakura. It indeed was very peaceful visiting these temples in mid-afternoon, so I video recorded how it was like to walk around all these traditional buildings. Hope the clips help you understand how wonderful it was to be there(you need Window Media Player to view).

	Engakuji: the main temple of the Engakuji school within the Rikai sect of Zen Buddhism. It is the number two of Kamakura's five great Zen temples.
	Kenchoji: the main temple of the Kenchoji school within the Rikai sect of Zen Buddhism. It is the number one of Kamakura's five great Zen temples.

We walked through the Kamakura Dori (shopping street) towards the Kamakura station ad enjoyed looking at some shops. We tried sweet soysauce and green-tea with sweet bean paste flavour odango (sticky dumplings in bumboo stick) and Konbu tea. We then took a local train to Hase to see the Great Buddha at Kotoku-in, which is the second largest Buddha statue in Japan. While walking between temples, we talked about Buddhism, super human power, reiki (feng shui), family and friends etc. It was

very nice having had the day to spend time with her in Kamakura. On the way back from Kotoku-in, we found this shop where they were selling this very yummy sweet potato chips (kinda like Karinto), so we bought some and tried two different flavours. By the time we got back in Shinjuku, it was 7pm, the time for me to catch the bus home, so we went to this udon noodle shop for a quick hunger fix and said good bye to each other. I want to thank both Monique and Doug for theirtime hanging around with me. It was a fun time away from home :)