Ten to fifteen minuite walk from the 21st Centrury Museum, you find Shin-tatemachi shopping street 新竪町商店街. The street goes only for about 200 meters and it looks pretty deserted, but if you see carefully you find some interesting shops selling antiques and japanese homeware zakka made by local artists here and there along the way. Many of the buildings seen here are the traditional machiya (town house) style and throughout the street there is a really nostalgic feel to it. I wouldn't say it's a must-see place, but if you have some extra time it could be interesting to wonder around.
Kamakura is known as a city of "ajisai" - hydrangeas and now is the best time for them. And yes that was the main purpose of my visit. You can find them just about evrywhere around the city but the Hase Area has many temples that are famous for hydrangeas, Hasedera Temple is one of the most famous and popular ajisai spot but it gets too busy and puts me off... But I can tell you that the Jojuin Temple (成就院） is a perfect spot! A lot less people, no entrance fee! (above bottom 4 photos are from Jojuin )
Today I took myself to Kamakura which is about an hour or so from Tokyo on the local trains and is a popular day-trip destination. My favourite old city.
Random shots of Kyoto from our January trip (finally). We were told that it was the most quiet time of the year in Kyoto when we vi...
