Kōtoku-in, Kamakura

This was a beautiful place to go and visit. I got the train from Tokyo and it was about a 15 minute walk following some fellow good signage from the station. It was very popular with tourists so there were a lot of people there. The gardens of lovely when we were there the trees were in blossom. You were also able for a very small fee to go inside the giant Buddha.

A reasonable and interesting place to spend half an hour to an hour of your time. Keep in mind that the temple doesn't have that much beyond the Buddha statue. History: The bronze Buddha was built in the 1200s in a big temple hall. A tsunami in the 1400-1500s swept away the temple hall, but the Buddha remained standing. A few more storms and such continued to corrode the surroundings of the Buddha, but the Buddha stands strong still. There have been reconstructive work throughout the years to help preserve the Buddha after mayhem. The Buddha is the second largest in Japan, after the largest in Nara. You can pay a bit extra to enter the inside of the Buddha, which shows you some of the restorative work that has been put into the Buddha, along with the original engineering used to build the Buddha. The inside is pretty small but it's decently interesting. Price: 200 yen for entrance fee per adult, and once you're in there's an option to pay 20 yen per person to enter the inside of the Buddha statue.