Kamakura, soba, Jamaica and Roma – Japan

Our original plan had been to do a day trip down to lake Kawaguchiko at the foot of Mt Fuji. Unfortunately the forecast was for rain, meaning there was very little chance of getting even a glimpse of the mountain. So after some consideration of our options we decided to take the train to Kamakura instead.

Kamakura is (apparently) famous for sweet potato ice cream, its giant Buddha statue, and numerous other temples and shrines. We tried the ice cream (it was surprisingly good!), and we did end up visiting the Buddha, but of more interest to us was doing some hiking in the hills surrounding the town.

Green tea on the right, sweet potato and vanilla on the left.

Obviously loves his job!

A shrine at the start of our first walk.

Info on how to get to the Great Buddha (shown above) and a couple of hiking trails nearby, can be found here and here.

The unexpected highlight of the day though was the lunch we had. We decided to leave the well travelled tourist strip and, instead, wandered the lanes and alleyways where we ended up finding this incredible little restaurant that specialised in soba noodles.

Unlike most of the other restaurants we saw, the ‘chef’ here actually hand made his noodles from scratch, cutting each soba strand individually!! And the meal…? Absolutely amazing!

Its places like this that make our travels off the beaten track so worthwhile.

Google street view doesn’t have any images for the alley that the restaurant is located on, but it’s down here on the right hand side, about half way down.

…and a few shots taken that evening on the way home…