End of Year Trip: Day Trip to Kamakura

Introduction
Tale of Two Lounges - Dulles Airport
Onward to Tokyo - First Class United & ANA Dreamliner
Castle in the Clouds - Park Hyatt Tokyo
Day Trip to Kamakura
Tokyo Hilton
A Blast From the Past - American First Class
Tale of Two Lounges - Narita Airport
The Joan Rivers Hotel - W Chicago Lakeside
Wrap-Up of Trip

After a wonderful breakfast at the Park Hyatt, it was time for my day trip. My initial plan was to take a day trip to see Mt. Fuji. However, ever person I told my plan to visit Mt. Fuji thought it was a bad idea, because it was winter and there would be little to see. One of the person who thought my Mt. Fuji trip was a bad idea was one of the ANA flight attendants. Instead, she suggested I take a trip to Kamakura.

Kamakura is located southwest of Tokyo. It takes about an 90 minutes to get their via train and tram to get one of the first major stops around Kamakura. I would recommend buying the Enoshima Kamakura Free Pass, which costs about 1,500 Yen. You can find more information about the tickets here.

The pass gives you a roundtrip on Odakyu Railways. One picks up the Odakyu train at the Shinjuku station, the station closest to the Park Hyatt. You take the Odakyu line to Fujisawa.

The next step is a little tricky. One needs to transfer to the Enoden line. To get to the Enoden line, one needs to walk out of the Fujisawa station and follow the signs:

Outside of the Fujisawa station, one needs to walk over the a bridge towards a department store.

Right by the department store is the small Fujisawa- Endoden tation. Look for the sign for the Enoden line in the direction of Kamakura.

The Enoden line is operated by a very cute electrical rail line with green trains. The train goes from the Fujisawa- Endoden station to Kamakura with many stops between. The free pass allows ultimated rides on the Enoden line on one day.  Each stops various things to do and see. I go off the train at the three major stops: Enoshima, Hase, and Kamakira. 

The Enoshima station takes one to a beach resort. This station involves the longest amount of walking for the day. I would recommend doing this stop first. Follow the signs to the major attractions. 

                                     

On the walk, one will need to cross a major street. There is a walkway under the street to the right. On my way to the attractions, I missed this walkway and tried to cross this very busy street.

Enoshima is an inlet with some attractions on the top of a big hill.

Enoshima

To get to the top, one can walk or take an a series of escalators. Pay for the escalators. Actually, pay for all of the attractions on the island at the first escalator, it will save you money. I made the mistake of not doing this and it cost me going up the tower.

The cost of the elevator ride is 350 Yen or under $4.

While the cost of the elevator, gardens and tower is 750 Yen or $8. I would pay for this option.

The final option cost 1000 Yen or under $11 for a ride up the escaltors and tower, a visit to the gardens and the caves. Skip this option. The caves, as you will see where a waste of time and effort.






The escalators are a series of three or four that takes you up to the main area.

At each landing, there is areas to buy various things and eat.

There are three shrines located throughout the island that make up the Enshonma Shrine, here is one of them:

The last escalator will drop one off at the Cooking Garden and Tower. No pictures, because I refused to pay the 500 Yen (my only regret on this entire trip was not doing this for $6).

The walk to the cave is long. Lots of stone steps going down to the cave, but going down on the way to the cave requires you to go up the stairs

The cave is a true tourist trap. There is not much to it except a few statues:

The only benefit of the caves are the ocean views.  However, I don't know if the views outweigh the long walk up and down the steps.

After my visit to Enoshima, I boarded the train to head to the next station, Hase. Hase is the home to the main reason for the Kamakura trip: the Great Buddha. Its a 5-10 minute walk from the Hase station.

         

The Buddha is an impressive piece of work. One turns the corner and the view is breath taking. The last time I had this feeling was at the Grand Canyon. As one gets closer to the statue, the detail on the statue become evident. Then you remember that the statue was cast in 1252. 1252!!!! For a small extra fee, less than a $1, one can go inside the Budda. The inside is cramped, but a must see.

One the exhibits at the statue are these sandals. They were created by school children after using math to figure out how big the sandals would have to be to fit the statue.

After spending time with the statue, I headed to the other major attraction at Haas, the Hasedera Temple. The temple has amazing gardens and interesting little statues throughout, but I don't remember the temples.

     

 

At the Haas Station is an important stop: the 100 Yen Store or now 105 Yen Store.

The 100 Yen stores can be found all over Japan and are dollar type stores. Everything in the store is 100 Yen or now 105 Yen. One can get anything from food, dishes, paper, and clothing. On this trip, I lost my gloves and the 100 Yen store had it. If in Japan, defiantly stop at these stores to stock up on things.

The last stop is Kamakura. The major attraction here is the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This shrine is the symbol of Kamakura being the capital of Tokyo 900 + years ago.

The other major attraction in Kamakura is ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but purple sweet potato.

                               

Purple sweet potato is special to Kamakura. I heard that purple sweet potato ice cream was a must try. And I agree, if in Kamakura, one must try it. It was very sweet, but the color did not scream purple. It was light purple. The same vendor has fried purple sweet potato and the color on that was deep purple.

The trip to Kamakura was amazing. I loved getting out of the city for a day. I visiting Tokyo, I highly recommend a day trip to Kamakura.
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Castle in the Clouds - Park Hyatt Tokyo

Introduction
Tale of Two Lounges - Dulles Airport
Onward to Tokyo - First Class United & ANA Dreamliner
Castle in the Clouds - Park Hyatt Tokyo
Day Trip to Kamakura
Tokyo Hilton
A Blast From the Past - American First Class
Tale of Two Lounges - Narita Airport
The Joan Rivers Hotel - W Chicago Lakeside
Wrap-Up of Trip

After landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, I took a tram to the center of Tokyo and then the subway to the Shinjuku station. From the Shinjuku station, I walked the 1/2 mile to the Park Hyatt. I don't recommend walking with your luggage, it is not easy. The main entrance is not on the main street, but on a side street.

I entered from the main street and was pointed up a set of stairs to get the "main entrance." 

Recommendation, if you are walking, go on the side street and directly to the main entrance:

The check area is on the 41st floor of the building, so a long elevator ride waits for you. The ride takes about a minute.  The elevator drops you off at the entrance of The Peak Bar. During the day, the glass ceiling allows in tons of light. 

At night, this area becomes a very swanky bar. The views at night are stunning. No other buildings views compare and I went to almost everyone.

The desks to check-in can be found after a short walk pass the Girandole Restaurant and the library:

Quick Tip: At the corner of the library is a bank of windows. This bank of windows provides one of the best views of Mount Fuji, if you don't have a room with a mountain view like I did. The best time to see the mountain is between 11am and 2pm due to fog. None of the days I was there produced a great view, but the staff told me to keep trying. This is the best I got:

The hotel does not have a check-in desk, per say. Instead, they have multiple check-in desks. When I arrived to this area, a young women greeted me, brought me to her desk, pulled out my chair and offered me a cold bottle of water. Service with a smile.

10 days prior, I emailed the hotel and asked for a very early check-in ie 8am. The response was that they would try their best, but at the very least they could hold my bags. Therefore, my expectations were low to getting my room and taking a nap. So, I was pleasantly surprised, when she told me my room would be ready in 5 minutes.

The women that checked me in, also, brought me to my room. She led me to a Park King room. I have never stayed at a 5 Star hotel before this stay. Therefore, this room, the most basic of basic for the hotel, blew my mind away. I will sound like a school kid in a candy shop, sorry.

When you entered the room, a longish hallway takes you to the rest of the room.

The bed was typically Japanese style, low to the ground. The bed was so comfortable. Each night I put my head to the pillow, I went into dream land within minutes. The sheets were butter soft.

In front of the bed was a large entertainment unit that held the TV, a little library and the mini bar.

The mini bar was stacked. All of it was out of my price range, but I did open it a few times and dream of eating and drinking it all.

The liquor cabinet was AMAZING. Again, outside of my price range, but I took note of what they had and that became my shopping list at the duty free shop on my way out of the country.

Every time housekeeping came to my room, they left me two bottles of water. At one point, I had 7 unopened bottles, but this became a gift, as I could not find a bottle water I liked to drink other than the one they provided.

The room had a large desk, which I used often to blog or write notes to people.

Directly behind the desk was a large window. As a typically guy, I did not let the employee show me how to use all the buttons in the room. This resulted in me spending 10 minutes trying to get the automated shades opened. When I did, I had a beautiful view of the city.

The room took my breath away. So much so that I did not notice that my suitcase was missing for over 20 minutes. Talk about service, they put my suitcase in the closest and hung up my clothes:

The last piece of my room was the bathroom, which was huge. I think it was as big as my college dorm room freshman year.

 

The toilet was separated from the rest of the bathroom by the a frosted glass door.

The number one question, I got from friends and family was about the toilet. Yes, it had many buttons, had a bidet,and was heated. The heated portion was the thing that bothered me the most; sometimes it was to hot. I actually prefer a cold toilet. TMI?

There was an interesting piece of art work above the deep soaking tub and a TV above the sink. With both options to look at while soaking, I went with the painting. Actually, I never turned on the TV. It was on when I arrived in the room, but I turned it off shortly thereafter.

The bathroom had every last amenity that you could need from Q-tips, razors and shaving creams and even combs and brushes. I wanted to test to see if they would refill the amenities, so I took a razor and shaving cream and hid them in my suitcase. Sure enough, the entire basket of times was refilled later that night.

The last thing I will say about the bathroom is the shower. It had two heads and was amazing. I took a shower right when I got in the room and feel asleep. I have decided my future home will have one of these set-ups, one day even if I have to order it from the Japan.

The hotel is fabulous. Many others have talked about the other aspects of the hotel, so I won't go into much detail. The only part I want to write about is the pool/gym. It is located on the 47th floor and offers stunning views of the city. You aren't allowed to take pictures of the place, so I had to take these sneakily:

The pool is infamous from the movie Lost in Translation. Bill Murphy's character goes up to the pool, late at night, and back floats looking at the ceiling. I had to copy this scene, its iconic. While floating in the pool, by myself, I had plenty of time to look at the cool looking ceiling.

My stay at the Park Hyatt Tokyo made me speechless. This could be the reason why this post took to so long to write ie 3 months, I'm sorry. Words can't describe how they treated me at this hotel: white glove high class service. They did not care that I paid for the two nights with free night certificates. The staff was superior.

Again, I got the two free night certificates from the Chase Hyatt Vise. The credit card gives you two nights at any Hyatt in the world for applying. The offer with the $100 statement credit is not avalible, but it has popped up at $50 once in a while. Follow these directions to see if you can grab the statement credit in addition to the free nights. I could never afford this place on my own nor would I ever pay the cash rate, but this wonderful credit card allowed me to experience heaven once.

The title of this post comes from three places: one the Musical Les Miseable. Throughout my staff, I could remember signing the song, Castle in the Clouds, in my head. The second place is the Japanese Anime movie, Castle in the Sky, which is about the destruction of humanity and two young persons traveling to a castle in the sky. The final reference was one morning, I woke up and look outside and my entire view was of fog. I felt like I was in a mini castle in the clouds.

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