First time to go to Kamakura, certainly not the first for Yokohama.

Kamakura is very nice, once you get past the fact that the trains that run there on the local line are far more packed than should be legally allowed. The Japanese call it すし詰め; we'd say something like "packed like sardines". Whatever the language, prepare to be jostled, poked and pushed...very politely, of course.

The most popular stop besides Kamakura itself is Hase, because this is where the famous 大仏 - the "Big Buddha" statue - lives. While it is certainly big, it's not as big as I thought it would be. But the surrounding area is nice. 

From a photographic POV, the challenge was to shoot the big Buddha in an interesting way. Most people just stand back and shoot it head on, which usually means a pretty boring shot compositionally speaking. So I thought I'd try and find ways to make it more interesting. There are plenty of trees around the area, and first I took some shots with the camera set to high f-stops, trying to frame Buddha through the trees and various other objects while keeping him recognisable and not just a blur in the background.

Then I took a few shots with the intention to include some foliage or other scenery, the idea being that the Buddha alone is not a very interesting photographic subject.

Overall, the Big Buddha was pretty impressive (it helped that the weather was fantastic; it's been cold and windy down in Nagoya recently, so it was nice to be somewhere where it was warm and sunny).

Scene from downtown Hase

After we'd had our fill of Big Buddha, we stopped off at a small temple area where I caught this nice shot

Next stop was Kamakura itself, following another cramped train journey.

The road leading to Hachiman Shrine (our next destination) is like one long shopping street. It eventually leads to the shrine itself

Hachiman Shrine:

Hachiman shrine is OK, as these things go. It was (of course) full of people, and it was hard to get many decent shots. As the in-joke among the foreigners in Japan goes, "get out of My Japan". 

Elsewhere was a rest spot with a lake and two birds whose precise name I couldn't tell you. They were fun to photograph though

Going fishing:

After Kamakura, we headed for Yokohama, a place I've been to before and will quite willingly go to again. It's a really nice city. We were only there for the night, but we headed out to Chinatown for a walk.

There are lots of these stalls around selling all manner of things.

Fortune telling. "I foresee that you will soon be 995 yen poorer and none the wiser"

Rickshaw man takes a break to check his mail:

Yokohama at night

Next up will be Tokyo, coming soon...