Kon’nichiwa!
One of the most iconic things in Kamakura is the Great Buddha aka the Daibutsu at Kotoku-in Temple.
The way to get there starts at Hase Station. (Pronounce hase = more like ha-say.)
You could walk directly from Hase Station to the Great Buddha, and it would be about a 10 minute walk, or less.
You could even walk from Kamakura Station, about 30 minutes, although there’s nothing majorly noteworthy.
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So if you’re short on time and the Great Buddha is your priority, then you can reasonably walk from Hase Station to the Great Buddha and back in like 30 to 40 minutes. This includes a little bit of time to walk around and see the Great Buddha up close at Kotoku-in.
You can also go inside the Buddha statue and see the interior.
A walk to the Great Buddha is often paired with Hasedera Temple, as you’ll pass the temple along the way.
I think this temple is a must-visit! So many different very-Japanese things and lots of cute things. I saw a couple of laughing buddhas (love seeing them! 😄) and a cute Jizo statue. (And there’s a little shop with cute jizo things too.) There’s even a small cave with little statues, with a red torii shrine gate at the entrance! And there was also a short path through bamboo trees. So yes. I thought it was great!
If you want Kamakura to be a quick(er) trip and not an all-day thing, then head to Hase Station, and then walk to the Great Buddha and Hasedera Temple!
Kamakura is most commonly done as a day trip from Tokyo. It is also possible to combine a day trip to Kamakura with Enoshima or Yokohama, but that would mean keeping your time in Kamakura short. If you do want to do Kamakura and Enoshima in one day or Kamakura and Yokohama in one day, walking from Hase Station can be a perfect place to spend your time in Kamakura!
I’ll show you below a bit of how to figure out train directions from Tokyo to Hase Station, along with pictures of what you can see walking from Hase Station!
Day trip tours from Tokyo you must consider!
From Tokyo to Kamakura
👉 Bus tour to Kamakura and Enoshima: See the Kamakura highlights of Great Buddha, Hasedera Temple, and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine, and then you’ll have 2 hours in Enoshima on your own. The meeting point is in Shinjuku.
From Tokyo to Hakone
👉 Day trip to Hakone Ropeway, Owakudani volcano valley, and Lake Ashi (with possible Mount Fuji views!)
Read the reviews on getyourguide or viator.
Tokyo to Hase Station
Depending on where you’re coming from, the best train to take will be the Shonan-Shinjuku Line (from Shinjuku Station) or the Yokosuka Line (from Tokyo Station).
No matter what train route you choose, you will first need to go to Kamakura Station, and then transfer to get on the Enoden train to Hase Station.
To get from Tokyo Station to Hase Station is around 1 hour 5 minutes. To get from Shinjuku Station to Hase Station will take around 1 hour 15 minutes.
You can use your IC card (like suica card or pasmo card) to get from Tokyo to Hase Station. Otherwise, you can buy individual tickets when you arrive at the train station.
👆 You have several options to get from Tokyo to Hase Station. While train transfers aren’t really a big deal, look for the route that requires only one transfer, instead of 2! For example, if you’re coming from Shinjuku, you will get on the Shonan-Shinjuku Line first, and then transfer at Kamakura Station to get to Hase Station. Compare the train routes. (Make the starting point to your hotel, and also change the departure time to give you a better idea.)
Great Buddha Kamakura walking tours (Meet in Kamakura)
You can easily walk to the Great Buddha on your own. But as a former samurai capital, Kamakura is also a city full of history, so to get a better appreciation for the history, here are tours you must consider!
Kamakura half day walking tour with Japanese sweets (4 hours) – You’ll start off by going to the famous places near Hase Station (Great Buddha at Kotoku-in) and Hasedera Temple, and then head to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. It will end with you being guided around the food and shopping street of Komachi-dori Street! Read the reviews.
City of Shogun Kamakura walking Tour (3.5 hours) – This also goes to the famous spots near Hase Station of the Great Buddha and Hasedera Temple, and all goes to more famous spots of Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine and Komachi-dori Street. Read the reviews.
Walking to Great Buddha
So once you’ve arrived at Hase Station, you will simply look for signs pointing to the Great Buddha! There will be signs in English. Lots of people do this route so you will be able to figure it out.
So within 10 minutes of walking, as you are nearing the entry for the Great Buddha, you’ll see a traditional Japanese gate with red nio “guardians.” Just past this is the ticket office for Kotoku-in Temple.
Depending on the time of year, the Kotoku-in Temple with the Great Buddha is open from 8am to 5pm or 5:30pm. The entry to walk inside of the Great Buddha closed as 4:30pm, and the lastest you’ll be able to enter is 4:20pm.
It’s 300 yen (US$2) for entry. (Kids are half price.) It’s another 50 yen to see the interior of the Great Buddha statue.
👆 Hase Station is the train station closest to the Great Buddha of Kamakura.
👆 At the train station exit, there will be a sign pointing you in the direction of the Great Buddha. It’s to the right! (And be sure to tap your IC card on the way out! That’s the yellow thing to the right.)
👆 Walking to the Great Buddha, you’ll pass through the Nio-mon Gate with red nio guardian statues.
👆 You can see them up close!
👆 Once you have your Kotoku-in Temple ticket, you can walk right in, and you can walk right up to the Great Buddha!
👆 A visit to the Great Buddha can be quick… unless you want to spend some extra time taking it in!
👆 Up close to the Daibutsu of Kotoku-in Temple.
More Buddha at Hasedera Temple
For lots more Buddha (and more!), you’ll also want to go to Hasedera Temple near the Great Buddha. It will be good to have at least an hour to explore Hasedera Temple.
Depending on the time of year, the Hasedera Temple is open from 8am to 5pm or 5:30pm, with last entry 30 minutes before closing time.
It’s 400 yen (US$3) for entry. (Kids are half price.)
👆 You can see a golden Buddha in Kamakura at Hasedera Temple.
👆 There’s a colorful laughing Buddha you can see too. 😄
👆 And another laughing Buddha. 😄
👆 Lots of little stone statues.
👆 There’s a short path that goes through a small bamboo grove. If you want to see more bamboo trees, you want to go to the bamboo forest tea house (Hokoku-ji Temple) and have some traditional matcha tea!
👆 You can climb for some views too.
👆 This is the cute jizo statue at Hasedera Temple. I almost missed this! Right before I was ready to leave the temple grounds, I decided to have one last look at the Hasedera map (received at entry) to check if I saw everything I wanted to. Then I realized I didn’t see the jizo statue! So I went back to look for it. It’s in a visible location along a main path, but when I passed by it, there was a group of people gathered around it, so I couldn’t see it!
Great Buddha or Hasedera Temple first?
The Great Buddha and Hasedera Temple are a 5 to 10 minute walk from one another, and it really doesn’t matter which one you go to first.
As Kamakura’s most iconic attraction, going to the Great Buddha first is common. But if you start your day early, you may prefer the calm garden atmosphere at Hasedera Temple before the crowds. Similarly, you could end your day at Hasedera, as the crowds will have thinned out by then.
Beyond Hase Station and Kamakura
What else can you do on your Hase Station day?
- 1 hour south by train: Odawara Station for a quick visit to Odawara Castle
- 1 hour north by train, kind of on the way back to Tokyo: Yokohama for Chinatown, the Noge food alley that comes alive in the evening, or a 6pm baseball game
Sample day trips from Tokyo:
My itinerary with Hase Station and Great Buddha
I took 2 days to go from Tokyo to Kyoto. After staying a few nights in Tokyo at the Grand Prince Hotel Shin Takanawa near Shinagawa Station, this is what I did on the way to Kyoto Station:
Day 1: I left for Kamakura in the afternoon and did the walking from Hase Station, and then stayed overnight at Kamakura Hotel, which was a walk of a few minutes from Kamakura Station. (I dropped off luggage at the hotel first.)
Day 2: I did a few things walking from Kamakura Station. Then, I went to Enoshima Station, and then walked to Enoshima Island and the caves there. After that, I went to Odawara Station to walk to Odawara Castle! Then, back to the train station to go to Kyoto by shinkansen! I used the coin lockers at the train station for luggage storage in Kamakura, Enoshima, and Odawara. (Example: Odawara Station coin lockers!)
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