Kamakura Shrines Part 1: Houkokuji

I've found another favorite spot in Japan!  The beautiful temple, Houkokuji, with its accompanying bamboo forest!  After leaving the hustle and bustle, crowds, photo booths, and high-rises of Tokyo the other day, we hopped back into our car and drove down the coastline to Kamakura to see some of the more ancient parts of Japan.  They really have it all here I tell ya!  Fast-paced city life, quiet mountain towns, farms and farms and farms, beautiful beaches, and the most serene shrines and gardens in the world.  I seriously couldn't love Japan any more.  

Anyway, Houkokuji.  It's awesome.  Leading up to the shrine is a small, but beautiful, zen garden.  The shrine itself is pretty and unassuming, but with large windows that look upon luscious vegetation set alongside some small cliffs/natural rock.  In fact, there's even a small cemetery tucked inside a cave in the side of the cliff wall. 

Just in from the rock walls surrounding the area are more gardens, beautifully manicured, leading to a small, but unbelievably peaceful bamboo forest.  It's not huge like the one in Kyoto, or some that we saw growing wild by the roadside in Shimoda, but this bamboo forest was incredibly maintained and was so calming I think we could have stayed for hours.  

The bamboo didn't quite have the same calming effect on our children as it did us, but they had a great time nonetheless, and I think they really nailed their bamboo poses.  And Will's accessories really got him a great response from the other garden visitors ;)

So, if you're visiting Kamakura anytime soon, be sure to stop by Houkokuji!!!!  I want to go back again and again and again.

GPS Coordinates:35.320274, 139.569312

Beach Days in Shimoda

With Andrew in town, we decided to go down to Shimoda for a few days to do a little relaxing by the beach and, mostly for Andrew, some surfing.  Shimoda is so beautiful!  The coastline is breathtaking with its large cliffs and clear blue water.  We stayed at the Shimoda Tokyu Hotel, which was fantastic, but the real selling point is its amazing view!  This is what we had to wake up to every morning:

And the view of the grounds and pool:

So so beautiful.  I really think that being in such a beautiful place, and so near the ocean is truly good for the soul.  Plus, the hotel itself was great; good sized rooms and nice onsens (of which I am slowly getting more accustomed!).

We spent the majority of our time in Shimoda at the beach surfing (or trying to anyway!) and playing in the sand.  The beaches we spent most of our time at were Sotoura Beach and Shirahama Beach.  Both beaches were beautiful and great for kids with lots of good sand and the water stayed shallow for quite a ways out.  Sotoura Beach hardly had any waves at all, which made it even better for the kids to play in the water.  Then, the last morning we were there, Peter and Andrew also surfed at Iritahama Beach.

Here's a picture of Peter surfing.  He really loves it, and I'm sure one day, when we live closer to the beach he'll be surfing all the time.  Until then, we'll just have to make regular trips down to Shimoda to practice!

And here's some proof that I actually got up :)  I caught quite a few waves, but always with a nice push from Andrew to get the speed to catch them!  He's the best surf teacher ever!  Hopefully one day I'll be able to do it on my own though :)

The kids had a blast playing in the sand.  They spent most of their time digging a giant hole and filling it with water.  Or at least the big kids did.  Benny just want to throw sand back in and splash in the water.  

In addition to just hanging out at the beach, we also went to the sand ski hill at Toji Beach, to see the secret cave at Ryugu Park, and we stopped to hike Kawazu Nanadaru (7 waterfall hike).  So stay posted for a few more posts with lots more pictures!