Shrines, Surf, and Showers

Some days, travel magic comes wrapped in sunshine. Other days, it shows up wearing a raincoat and laughing at your choice of footwear. Today was most definitely the latter.

Undeterred by a wet and stormy forecast, your three intrepid travelers set out from Shinjuku and headed south to Kamakura—a coastal gem rich in history, temples, and the kind of humidity that could double as a facial.

First stop: the Great Buddha of Kamakura. Towering serenely above the umbrellas, he seemed entirely unbothered by the weather, radiating calm as if to say, “This too shall pass… but your socks are done for.” Standing before him in the rain, we couldn’t help but feel that maybe soggy shoes were a small price to pay for this kind of perspective.

From there, we made our way to Kamakura Hasedera Temple, a hillside complex with gardens, shrines, and a terrace overlooking the ocean. Even under a low, gray sky, the water shimmered faintly in the distance—a reminder that beauty doesn’t wait for perfect weather. The rain added a cinematic mist to the pathways and made the temple’s vermilion accents glow as if someone had quietly turned up the saturation on the world. Down below, a few windsurfers zipped across the choppy water, proving that in Japan, even leisure sports come with a dash of determination.

When the rain finally began to seep through our resolve (and our jackets), we ducked into a cozy local pub (pub is a generous characterization). Holden celebrated the occasion with ice cream—because when you’re 20, dessert is a perfectly valid rain strategy. Jen and I went with beers—less sweet, but equally effective. It was a perfect pause before catching the train back to Shinjuku.

Yes, it was wet. Yes, we looked like extras from a weather documentary. But Kamakura in the rain has its own magic—a softer, quieter beauty that sunshine can’t quite match. Besides, any day you see a giant Buddha, a hillside shrine, windsurfers braving a storm, and your kid happily eating ice cream in a downpour counts as a win.