Whenever I have down time when traveling, I always like to explore various parts of the city or country where I’m at, weather I’ve been there before or not because there’s always something new to see. Today was one of those moments where my co-management Anijha and I jumped in the car and took the hour drive from Tokyo to Kamakura where I had never been. Kamakura is a beautiful beach town with lots of surfers, surf shops, waves and temples which I was especially excited to check out. Our tour guides for the day were good friend and DJ, Yosuke Tominaga and MC Coma-Chi who are locals and showed us a great time which basically turned into an 8 hour day of sites, foods and friends. First stop on the journey was to visit Hōkokuji Temple where the surrounding area was filled with bamboo that was as tall as the sky.
One of the very unique feature of this temple is the small open air enclosure which had four ladies making authentic hot green tea with powder and water. I’ve had green tea before but there was something different about it, maybe it was the bitter taste that you needed to eat a piece of sweet candy that was supplied along with the drink that gave it such a different flavor. Either way, there was something relaxing about being able to sit and stare into the bamboo forrest while enjoy a tradition made from scratch from these wonderful older ladies.
Stay tuned for part 2.