boys washing their money at the zeniarai-benten shrine in kamakura on tuesday.

one of my new flatmates, the fabulous dave, has this hilarious repetitive expression whenever he likes a song/film/filmclip, etc. "yeah, it's the best [song/film/clip] ever". he makes me laugh because i am also guilty of similar over the top nonsense. and i'm going to do it again right now. kamakura: my new favourite place in japan.

kamakura is a small country/beachside town that at one point in olden days [1192 - 1333 to be precise] was the nations capital. it has a lovely sense of serenity and a laid back atmosphere. lots of sprawling alley ways with very traditional style homes, and many many shrines and temples, many of them zen. and of course, it is home to the great daibatsu - a giant bronze buddha seated at 11.4 metres and weighing 850 tonnes.

we started out at kita-kamakura station and just ambled along at our own pace oohing and ahhing at the sakura trees, picturesque alleyways and rampant squirrels in between temple/shrine stops. after checking out kamakuras most important zen temple, kencho-ji (kinda disappointing, to be honest), we hit the daibatsu walking trail. now, in japan, one tends to get used to fairly easy going walking paths and convenience. somehow, someone forgot to tell us that the daibatsu walking trail is a fairly hefty piece of trekking... through a damp, forested mountainous area complete with steep, tree-root cluttered embankments and poor signposting. it almost felt like hiking through the daintree, and was great fun. until, after trekking for some 45 minutes, we reached a signpost that read "daibatsu - 2.6km's". erm.... we had started from a sign that read "daibatsu - 2.2km's". yeah right.... there was no way we were gonna keep trekking (even though it had been a pretty fun little path) so we abandoned our plans and followed the sedate directions to the city centre.

and on the way down the mountain we stumbled upon possible the best, the coolest, the most unusual shrine i have ever seen in japan. the fabulous zeniarai-benten. to get in to this lovely mountainside shrine you have to go through a long tunnel, and then through a heap of small tori gates. 2 caves serve as the main places of ritual, but I only saw the main one. the main idea is that you can wash your money in the holy water here and it will double. we hung out in the little food hut and had inari sushi and green tea and watched the tame squirrels frolic...

and then made our way down into the town, and the daibatsu. a glorious site.

and it's all just over an hour by train.

more photos to come.