Jives and I decided to take the train to Kamkura from Tokyo on a day trip, while Gaby went to an art opening in Ginza for Junji Ito. We started out around 8:30am and took the Yamanote line to Tokyo Station. (To Book Train Travel in Japan Click Here) From there we transferred to the JR Yokosuku line to Yokosuka (stopping in Kamakura). The trip took about 1.5 hours. *Get off at Kamakura not Kita-Kamakura, which is the stop before*

We then walked toward the main sites, stopping at a 711 to grab a few picnic supplies for our picnic on the beach. Kamakura looks out on the ocean, and there are fishermen hanging seaweed out to dry all along the shoreline.

One thing to keep in mind if you decide to eat on the beach is that there are giant hawks circling the beach. When I visited in 2011, I had used my last few yen to buy some sushi at the 711, I sat down on the beach to eat it and suddenly a hawk sweep over my shoulder and stole it. An older man beside me jumped up and chased the bird with his shoe, and came back to laugh at my misfortune.

This visit a bird did not eat my food.

After our picnic we walked to a temple called Goryo Jinja Shrine. We crossed over train tracks and explored this relatively tourist free temple.

We then walked to Kosokuji Temple (400 Yen entrance). I had visited this temple before, and the plum blossoms were just starting to peak out. This time the sakura was in full bloom!

This temple was huge, you could easily spend a few hours here hiking up the hills. I particularly liked revisiting the caves.

From here we walked a short distance to the iconic Giant Buddha at Diabutsu Kotoku-in. The crowds were pretty large by this time (200 Yen entrance fee), so we looked around pretty quickly and then started back towards Kamakura station.

Along the way we stopped at a shop that was selling craft beer, the old man opened the beers up so we had to drink them in front of his shop!

We got back to the train station around 1:45pm and it took about 1 hour and 20 minutes to arrive back at our airbnb in Ueno. Gaby was waiting there (we planned to meet at 3pm to go to Shibuya together).

We took the train to Shibuya and found a Genki Sushi without a line!!! We had amazing bullet train sushi, I had hot sake with mine! For all I could eat, I only paid 1500 Yen!

Gaby and I went to Don Quijote to get some last minute souvenirs ie. kitkats, tea etc. to give away. Jives went to a record store while we were in there.

We then met up after and went to check out the Akira murals that had been put up on the exterior of the Parco store that was under construction.

We then went to Mugiwara, the One Piece merch store in Shibuya.

After that we went to Taito Station to play some last minute video games (pong, bishi bashi, mariocart, street fighter 5) and did one last photo booth.

We headed back to our airbnb around 9:30pm (stopping along the way to grab some snacks). We did some last minute packing and showering before heading to bead….it would be an early morning the next day.