In Japan - Field Trip Part 5: Around Kamakura Station

Sight seeing was over, time for lunch!

Basically, we had to stick to the group for lunch. There were 3 choices: Bowls, McDonald's, or Seizaria. I personally want to try Seizaria, but McDonald's is definitely out of question. Going as far as Japan to eat McD? Unless they have a very unique menu I have to try before I die, I will not buy anything from McD when I'm in Japan. I'm the adventurous type, so I have to eat what I cannot eat outside Japan no matter how strange it is. The stranger, the better.

Seizaria is basically a family restaurant chain that serves Italian food. I heard Seizaria is a pretty good place to eat, but hey, I'm in Kamakura and it will take 1.5 hours to go back here from my dorm. And I can find Seizaria close to where I'm currently staying.

So since Kamakura is famous for its seafood, I decided to go with Bowls. Bowls serve original donburi. The one I ordered was shiraru donburi, which is basically rice topped with wakame (curly seaweed) and shirasu, a type of tiny white fish.

I grew up eating this kind of fish and I don't particularly mind fish eyes staring at me. It was very delicious, and I was glad I chose this menu. It's a little bit pricey. Mine was small size bowl, and it costs 880 yen. But it's really worth the money. If you have the chance, by any means please try it!

Close to the station was a Ghibli shop. As I'm typing this I'm surprised that the word 'Ghibli' doesn't get any red underlines LOL. Nicely decorated. It's probably a little easy to miss because it doesn't really stand out, but if you see a reddish Totoro sign then you've come to the right place.

They sell a wide variety of goods.

This is a little scary for a piggy bank LOL. As if your money won't be back once you put it in!

Well, time to move on. Ready to board the train :)

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In Japan - Field Trip Part 4: Tsurukagaoka Hachimangu (Kamakura)

Next on the list: Tsurukagaoka Hachimangu. Still in Kamakura.

There was a traditional Japanese wedding ceremony when we visited the shrine :) Lucky!

It's not the type of sakura I normally see around my dorm, but it's very pink and beautiful!

A lot of doves here.

We saw a weird ema advertising a website. NO NAME LOL

On the way to the main shrine, there were quite a number of candy stalls. One of them is ichigo-ume or strawberry candy.

There's also budou-ume (grape candy). I bought the grape one because it's more rare than strawberry candy (at least to me it is).

As we walked closer to the shrine, we saw an on-going wedding ceremony.

The 'hachi' Hachinmangu temple's writing (the first letter from the top) is actually a pair of doves. So that's probably why we saw a lot of doves earlier :)

Last food explored: ginnan (ginko nuts)

It's the first time I've had ginko nuts that were roasted. I often find ginko seeds stir fried with vegetables in Chinese cuisine (my mum used to love to put tons of ginko because there is a believe that ginko nuts have positive effects on your brain, such as memory improvement). Well, the roasted ginko nuts had weird taste. It's lightly salted, it smells a little like roasted corn (maybe they have similar starch/protein constitution that gives the same aroma when heated?), tasted a little bitter, shaped like jelly beans, but soft on the inside like baked potato. Honestly, I don't really like it. Maybe it's an acquired taste.

Speaking of ginko, the saddest thing about this visit is that the majestic 1000 years old ginko tree that people used to adore as a symbol of longevity and liveliness fell down in 2010 due to strong winds.

:(

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In Japan - Field Trip Part 3: Hokokuji (Kamakura)

Alright, back with the field trip story last weekend! On the second day, we left the ryokan and then first we visited 報國寺 (Hokokuji - a temple's name, basically). 

But I guess one attraction that you cannot miss here is the bamboo forest.

These bamboos are called Mousou bamboo, and they are the biggest species of bamboo. I forgot about the average heights of the bamboo; if I'm not mistaken my teacher told me it was around 40 m. Well, either 40, or 20. Either or, the bamboos are VERY TALL.

There are a lot of 竹の子 (takenoko - bamboo shoots) on the ground too :)

There's also a cave called Yagura, which is the tombs of the Ashikaga family.

We didn't spend a lot of time here because we still had to visit Tsurukagaoka Hachimangu, Hasadera and Daibutsu. And those are going to be in my next few posts!

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