"Sharrie's Kamakura Excursion" a Yokohama Travel Page by Sharrie

YOKOHAMA is Japan's 2nd largest city. It is only an hour by train from Tokyo but it feels less Japanese than Tokyo with a long history of foreign influence (WWII bombing) & the largest Chinatown in Japan. I was here only for dinner & a night stay (on one of my earliest trips to Japan). Other than Chinatown, I don't recall much about this city. Since Yokohama is the nearest city to Kamakura which I visited on a day excursion from Tokyo, I've chosen to combine these 2 cities under one travel page.

KAMAKURA, capital of Japan from 1185 to 1333. Yeah, it was the capital though one can hardly feel it. Today, it's more a seaside town with a legacy of 19 Shinto shrines & 65 Buddhist temples. My main purpose for visiting? To see The Great Buddha!

Kamakura once was as significant as Nara & Kyoto. It was the political center of Japan when Minamoto no Yoritomo (after being named Shogun) established Japan's first Shogunate (military government) here. Later, it was a center of Zen Buddhism in Japan!