I decided the previous night to escape the city for the day and settled on Kamakura. It ended up being my favorite day so far.
I took the JR Yokosuka line from Shinagawa station to Kite-Kamakura station which took about one hour and cost around ¥1000.
I exited the station with a hundred or so children who were going to school.
I then made my way to the Engaku-ji temple.
Next up was the Kenjō-ji temple. Which was the highlight of the day with one of the most colorful shrines, and the Tenen hiking trail that led to some spectacular views of Kamakura.
After Kenjō-ji temple I walked 30 minutes to the central business district of Kamakura, which is a beach town.
I bought a waygu beef baked bun for some energy.
And then browsed the shops on the main drag called Komachi Street.
Next up was a local train ride to Hase station followed by a 10 minute walk to see a large Buddha statue called a daibutsu.
After viewing the statue I walked to the beach for a bit, grabbed a quick curry and rice, and then hopped on the JR train back to Tokyo.
No one locks their bikes in this country. The amount of respect people have here for each other is simply amazing.
After getting back to Tokyo I met up with another traveler friend I made earlier to checkout the view from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building. There were a few more clouds than we had hoped for but still some great views.
We were both hungry at this point and saw some signs showing food on the 32nd floor. So we took the elevator down from the observatory to find the elevator that would take us up to the 32nd floor. The entrance to the elevator had a guard in front, and I asked "tabemas ka", which means "eat?". There was much confusion and he asked us who we worked for. My friend misheard him and said "San Francisco". The guards eyes lit up and said "Oh! San Francisco! Come this way!". He had us fill out a form with our names and a contact number, and then gave us a badge to let us up to the 32nd floor. We think he thought we worked for the US Embassy.. but not quite sure. There were no restaurants on the 32nd floor, but was rather a cafeteria for government workers. After finding some English instructions it was made clear we needed to pick out the food item we want from the display :
Then buy a meal ticket from this machine :
And redeem the ticket in the cafeteria line to obtain the food. In the end I got a delicious bowl of government subsidized Sapporo ramen for only ¥500 and a fun story to tell :)
After finishing our meal we went back down to the main floor and were kindly escorted out of the building.
We decided we should go to the observatory one more time for nighttime pictures of the city. We could not have made a better choice.
