Kamakura is surrounded by the ocean in the south and by wooded hills in all other directions. Attractive hiking trails lead through the woods along these hills and connect Kamakura’s numerous temples and shrines. It is possible to walk them all in one go, starting and ending at train stations.
Musashi-Mitake Shrine (武蔵御嶽神社) is the shinto shrine sitting at the top of Mount Mitake. On May 7th and 8th, it will hold its annual Hinode (Sunrise) Festival.
A couple of weeks ago, I went to Okutama in western Tokyo on a hike to Mount Otake and Mount Mitake.
On Saturday, I went to Senso-ji Temple in Asakusa to watch a nakizumo ceremony. During the event, babies held by sumo wrestlers face each other in a mock sumo game, two at a time. A referee shouts “Nake, Nake” (“Cry, Cry”) at them and the baby who then cries the loudest is declared the winner. If no baby cries inside of 1 minute, referees will use demon masks to try to scare the babies. The ceremony is religious and has its root in the belief that crying brings good health to the babies and scares evil spirits. It has been going on for 400 years and there are similar events (with different rules) in many places in Japan. I took a few pictures but my zoom is not very powerful. This page has more close-up shots of the event.
A peony festival is currently taking place at the peony garden of the Toshogu Shrine in Ueno, until mid-May.
Takosenbei (たこせんべい), with real bits of octopus. I bought it freshly made from a stand near the Samuel Cocking Garden on Enoshima. There are also packaged biscuits for sale at most souvenir shops on the island.
A wisteria festival (藤まつり; fuji matsuri) is currently taking place at the Kameido Tenjin shrine (亀戸天神), in eastern Tokyo, and will last until early May. I was there a couple of days ago: Purple wisteria flowers were dangling from trellises surrounding the pond, which was crawling with turtles.
Yanagimori Shrine is a shinto shrine located across the Kanda River from Akibahara. It is dedicated to the tanuki (Japanese racoon dog), often pictured with enormous testicles.
