Kamakura

Kamakura is a very spiritual and touristy part of Japan. It's a former capital, and has many Shinto shrines as well as Zen Buddhist temples. We visited both. First, we had a "Zazen experience"-- at a traditional Buddhist temple, a monk instructed us on how to meditate the zen way, and then after an hour of me trying to concentrate on counting my breaths and not how I could see them because inside the temple was effing freezing, we had a traditional simple vegetarian lunch.








Then it was off to a Shinto shrine. This was surrounded by cheesy tourist shops and food vendors, and many smaller shrines and a beautiful park. And a blooming cherry blossom tree! The first one I've ever seen in my life! Cherry blossoms are super pretty.


ALSO LOOK AT THIS CHILD AND HER TRENDY HIPPIE FATHER. SO. CUTE.

Finally, we visited the largest Buddha statue in Japan. It was pretty big people! I bought some Buddha-shaped cakes that were made of delicious.