April 14: Kamakura

Unfortunately Luke woke up at his normal time for Honolulu, which means it was 2:30 am in Tokyo. Christal was somehow able to drag herself out of bed and take down to the Family Mart to get a bite to eat, but she forgot her key and I had to go down to the lobby to get them. When we got back to the room I fell asleep for a few more hours an then woke up around 8 and went and got a quick bite from the Family Mart too. Luckily Luke was able to get a nap in before we left too. We met up with Hiro-ojichan and Kyoko-san around 8:30 in the lobby and then went to Shinjuku Station to catch the a train to Kamakura.

At Shinjuku Station

We made one transfer once we got to Kamakura onto a smaller local train, which took us to the neighborhood where we met up with Kanoko-san, Uncle Kiyonari, Auntie Megumi and Naomi-san who was a good friend of Masumi obaachan's. We had some time before our lunch reservation so we walked around a little bit and headed to Kotoku-in, which is a buddhist temple.

Daibutsu (Giant Buddha) at Kotoku-in Monastery

The temple grounds housed the second largest statue of Buddha in Japan and it was pretty impressive. The grounds were in immaculate condition and the cherry blossoms were still popping out everywhere. We wandered around and took some pictures and then headed off to the restaurant.

Yamada-san Restaurant

When we pulled up to the restaurant, which was called Yamada-san, it was in a residential neighborhood and looked like someone's large house, rather than a restaurant. That feeling stayed with me when we went through the front door, and then they led us to a back room that felt more like a private dining room. Auntie Megumi said that the restaurant only takes two groups per day and that she had to make reservations two years in advance, so needless to say we felt grateful to be there.

Hassun - Fresh Yuba w Wasabi, Kamaboko, Pickled Bell Peppers, Cheese & Sesame Seeds, Pickled Chrysanthemum Greens

The first course was waiting for us when we arrived and sat down. It had a variety of seasonal dishes that is called hassun and it consisted of some fresh yuba with wasabi, a fish cake that tasted homemade, pickled bell peppers, cheese dipped in sesame seeds and some pickled chrysanthemum greens. I thought everything was exceptional on the plate except for the cheese, which didn't quite seem to mesh with everything else as well. The yuba was extremely soft with a milder flavor than I'm used to and the pickled bell peppers had a sweet and subtly savory flavor that was totally unexpected.

Sakura Mochi

Next came a savory sakura mochi that was stuffed with fish and swimming in a crystal clear dashi. The mochi was pleasantly sweet and fragrant when you chewed it, which was enhanced by the pickled sakura leaf and the fish and dashi both added a pleasant savoriness without overpowering the delicacy of the mochi.

Maguro & Scallop Sashimi

After we finished the mochi they brought out the sashimi course, which consisted of scallop with ume and maguro. The maguro had a milder mineral taste than usual, which made it even easier to eat. The scallop was extremely tender and sweet and had the silkiest texture I've ever experienced from any shellfish, and the ume helped to accentuate the sweetness and the texture of the scallop.

Tempura

A sampling of tempura accompanied by matcha salt came out next. It included sweet potato, lotus root, shishito pepper, adzuki bean and shrimp. Each piece was absolutely perfect. The batter was thin and light and when you bit into it it shattered like glass. There was no greasiness to it at all and the flavor of each individual ingredient stood out.

Tofu Dumpling w Yamaimo & Dashi

Next came a tofu dumpling with dashi. The tofu was very soft and fluffy, basically like a pillow, and it had some thin shavings of carrot and zucchini mixed in as well as some small cubes of yamaimo, or mountain yam. The yamaimo added a nice crisp textural contrast to the dish and the dashi tasted to me like it was made primarily with katsuobushi, which helped to season the tofu.

Takikomi Gohan, Miso Soup & Tsukemono

Our last savory course was miso soup, takikomi gohan and tsukemono. The miso soup had silken tofu that had been cut very intricately and it was quite impressive. The takikomi gohan was rice cooked with fresh bamboo shoots and I think some dashi. It was very flavorful and as you kept chewing the rice it became sweeter. The tsukemono consisted of cucumber, daikon and konbu. The cucumber and daikon were very lightly pickled to point where they could almost be mistaken for fresh and the konbu was sweet with a strong shiso flavor that really made it stand out. I personally enjoyed the konbu tsukemono the most.

Mizu Yokan

For dessert we had mizu yokan, which is a agar jelly with adzuki and sugar. It was soft and very refreshing and the adzuki flavor was well balanced with the sugar so that it brought out a fruitiness I've never experienced with adzuki.

Group Pic in the Backyard

After we finished eating Kyoko-san walked Luke into the backyard so that he could burn some of his energy and annoy the cat. We all followed and enjoyed the weather and took some pictures. It was the most social Luke has been and he was walking away from Christal and me so that he could hang out with Auntie Kanako and Kyoko-san

Bamboo Forest

From the house/restaurant we all loaded up into Naomi-san and Uncle Kiyonari's cars and they drove us to Hokokuji Temple. The temple was very nice, but the main draw was the bamboo forest.

Next to the Tea House

Halfway through the forest they have a place where you can stop and sit and have some matcha so of course we did. It was a pretty serene setting, all the benches looked out into the forest and off in the distance a fountain that fed a stream was babbling.

Hokokuji Temple

Once we finished the tea we walked the rest of the loop through the forest and back to the temple where we took more pictures.

Komachi Street

From the temple we drove into the main part of Kamakura and walked along Komachi street, which is popular for shopping. Along the way we got some soft serve cones and shirasu taiyaki, which were flaky taiyaki stuffed with shirasu, or white bait.

Shirasu & Adzuki Taiyaki

When we got to the end of the street we headed to Hachiman-gu park which is named after an important Shinto shrine that was established at the beginning of the Samurai era when Kamakura was the capital of Japan, over 800 years ago.

Sakura lined Lake

There was a small lake with a shrine and some sakura blossoms so we ventured over there to take a few pictures and check out the surroundings.

At the base of the Shrine

Then we walked through the park to the shrine. We didn't really want to climb the stairs so we took some pictures at the base and then walked back to the car. After exiting the park we followed a walkway that separated traffic on the main street through Kamakura. Uncle Kiyonari and Auntie Megumi gave us a ride back to our hotel and on the way I was mesmerized by all the sakuras that were blossoming on the hillsides.

Sakura Walkway

After they dropped us off we grabbed a light dinner at a kushiyaki restaurant that was in the hotel called Kaki-yaki Hajime. We ordered a variety of dishes, including grilled sazae, or turban shell, grilled oysters, skewered hokke, eringi, and shitake, yakitori, grilled eggplant, grilled squid legs, grilled garlic and fresh tofu. Everything was cooked well and very tasty.

When we finished with dinner we headed up to our rooms and turned in for the evening.

Grilled Oysters