A Day in Kamakura, Kanagawa

Back in late October (yes, I'm officially 2 months behind on my posts... =.=), on a nice Sunday my two girlfriends D., J., and I fumbled our way to Kamakura, thanks to the Shonan Shinjuku line and their many splits! We finally made it there at lunch time, so of course we had to eat first ^.^"

Mine lunch, oyako-don, super boring but oh so good.

With a full stomach, we finally got started with Hase-dera which I've been before. On that day, the temple happened to be hosting a local festival, so we got ourselves a little taste of craft booths and snacks. Totally unexpected and fun!

We climbed the scenic stairway and got a nice view (of Zushi, I believe).

Here's the view on the way down.

This sizable joro-gumo totally freaked the crap out of D. and J. xD

All 3 of us took turn to pour some water and pray to Jizo.

Snapped a photo of a beautiful camellia on our way out.

Next stop was Kotoku-in for the Daibutsu, which I've also been. There were tons of people there so we didn't hang around and left pretty quickly.

More flowers in the area.

And of course we had to stop for snacks, despite having eaten just a couple of hours prior. Come on, look at that face, who are you kidding?

For the rest of the time, we ended up wandering around from shop to shop--most were local mom-and-pop places which we all love. Next thing we knew, it was dark and cold, and that got us to hurry our asses to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu. This was when we got to experience a little magic: we happened upon a shinto wedding! And shivering we stood from afar, watching the whole ceremony play out, eerie music and all. I discreetly took a few photos with my phone, making sure my flash was off as to not disturb their moment.

Here's the miko doing her dance.

Bride and groom.

View from atop the stairs.