Kamakura is stuffed with entertaining shrines and temples, but this is the only one with a hillside of gorgeous hydrangeas, a thirty-foot-tall Kannon figure covered in gold, and a candle-lit underground grotto!












* The famous nine-meter-tall golden Kannon is a sacred object, so photos aren’t allowed. Despite nearly overwhelming temptation, I honored that request (and I hope you will too!) but if you can’t wait to see its golden benevolence with your own eyes, there are quite a few pirate photos of it on the web.
Open: Every day; Mar-Sept 8:00 – 17:00, Oct – Feb 8:00 – 16:30, last entrance 30 minutes before closing time
Admission: ¥300
Hasedera is in Kamakura, my favorite day trip from Tokyo.
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While you’re in Japan, read a novel set in Tokyo!
“A genuinely gripping crime thriller which wrong-foots and perplexes the reader throughout, drawing us in emotionally . . . Highly recommended.”
