Kon’nichiwa!
Hokokuji Temple is where to go in Kamakura if you want to see a bamboo forest and drink traditional Japanese matcha green tea! It’s a peaceful experience, where you can take your time to sip on the tea with views of the bamboo trees right in front of you.
This bamboo area is also called the bamboo garden of Hokokuji, and the temple itself is also called the bamboo temple.
I spent around 40 minutes at Hokokuji Temple, which included walking through the small bamboo forest and drinking matcha at the tea house.
Kamakura Station is the closest train station to Hokokuji Temple, where you will go for the bamboo forest tea house. It’s a 30 minute walk from Kamakura Station. There’s also a bus that will take 10 minutes.
I walked to Hokokuji Temple and took the bus back to Kamakura Station. I used google maps to figure out where the closest bus stop was, and it worked out well.
I will take you through what my visit to Hokokuji Temple and the bamboo forest tea house was like!
📌 Save this post for later! Save on Pinterest! 👈📌
There are partner websites included in this post. I may earn a commission.
Kamakura tours (Meet in Kamakura)
It’s very possible to walk around Kamakura on your own. But Kamakura is also a city full of history, so walking around with a guide will give you a better appreciation of what you’re seeing. Kamakura is a former samurai capital of Japan!
Great Buddha, Nature, Bamboo, and Samurai Culture tour (4 hours) – This tour goes to Hokokuji Temple for the bamboo forest matcha experience, as well as the top Kamakura attractions of the Great Buddha, Hasedera Temple, and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine.
Kamakura Historical walking tour (5 hours) – This tour allows you to see the popular highlights like the Great Buddha and Hasedera Temple, and it also goes to less commonly visited places like Jochiji Temple, Zeniarai Benten Ugafuku Shrine, and Sasuke Inari Shrine. This includes hiking in Kamakura! This tour doesn’t go to Hokokuji Temple. The tour starts at 9am, so you would have time to go to Hokokuji afterwards on your own.
The regular hours of Hokokuji Temple is from 9am to 4pm, with last order time for matcha at 3:30pm.
The cost for the bamboo garden entry is 400 yen, and it’s an additional 600 yen for the matcha. So if you want to go to the Kamakura bamboo forest tea house and drink matcha with bamboo garden views, it will be 1000 yen (US$7).
So you can walk directly to Hokokuji Temple, and it will be around a 30 minute walk from Kamakura Station.
But instead of going straight to Hokokuji, along the way you can walk Komachi Street and Dankazura Avenue, and have a walk around the most famous shrine in Kamakura, the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine.
👆 As part of your day trip to Kamakura, your walking route from Kamakura Station to Hokokuji Temple can include the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine along the way. Here is a map with a sample walking route.
👆 There are lots of temples in Kamakura! There are signs with directions to Hokokuji Temple, not to be confused with Hokaiji Temple that will take you in a different direction!
👆 Hokoku-ji is off of a small street. That’s it to the right.
👆 Walk through the temple gate!
👆 It’s a walk through Japanese gardens, and along the path you’ll see some stone statues too.
👆 It’s another stone statue.
👆 After walking for a few minutes, you’ll come to the paid entry area of the temple, which includes the bamboo forest and the tea house to drink matcha.
👆 This says the bamboo garden entrance is to the left!
👆 You’ll buy a ticket to the bamboo garden, and a separate tea ticket if you want to drink matcha tea.
👆 You’ll drink the matcha sitting in a proper seat, unlike some Japanese matcha tea experiences where you sit on the traditional Japanese tatami floor. (There’s a tour for that! You can do a Kamakura tea ceremony, or a classic Kyoto matcha tea ceremony.)
You can also do matcha-making in Tokyo without the tea ceremony.
👆 On your way to the bamboo forest, you’ll see a rock garden.
👆 There are stone statues at the bamboo garden.
👆 It’s a short path walking through the bamboo forest at Hokokuji Temple.
👆 The trail through the small bamboo forest leads to the tea house!
👆 It’s the tea house in a peaceful setting surrounded by bamboo trees.
👆 Next to the tea house.
👆 Sit anywhere and then hand your tea ticket to the tea house person.
👆 Your traditional Japanese matcha green tea is served!
👆 Your matcha will be served with Japanese sweets. It’s tempting to pop the whole thing in your mouth at once, but take small bites to savor the moment! 😄
👆 Slowly drink your matcha tea with views of the bamboo forest in front of you!
👆 After you’ve your had peace sitting in the bamboo forest, back out to walk through the bamboo forest the same way you came!
👆 I took a bus back to Kamakura Station.
My itinerary with the Kamakura bamboo temple
I took 2 days to go from Tokyo to Kyoto, and had an overnight stop in Kamakura.
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 went to Kamakura and did the things near Hase Station in the afternoon upon arrival, and then stayed overnight at Kamakura Hotel, which was a walk of a few minutes from Kamakura Station.
Day 2: I did a sunrise walk to the beach, and then did things near Kamakura Station things in the morning, which included the walk to Hokokuji Temple and the bamboo forest tea house. After that, 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.