Kamakura

A bronze Amida over 11m tall sits under open sky. Storms and a tsunami wrecked its hall more than once in the 14th and 15th centuries, and after the late 1400s nobody rebuilt it. Hase station is 10 minutes away on foot, so it is usually paired with Hase-dera.

From the station a raised walkway, the Dankazura, splits the road right up to the shrine, and in early April the cherries lining it close overhead. The great ginkgo by the stone steps blew down in March 2010; new shoots grow from the stump.

A gilded wooden eleven-headed Kannon a little over 9m tall stands in the Kannon hall, and the terrace looks down on Yuigahama beach. In June the hydrangea path gets so crowded that numbered tickets are handed out with an entry time printed on them.

Some 2,000 moso bamboo crowd behind the main hall, hence the name bamboo temple. Matcha ordered at the tea house in the grove is drunk sitting among the stems. You reach the valley by bus from Kamakura station, so it is quieter than Hase.

In June blue hydrangeas cover the grounds, hence its name as the hydrangea temple. The round window in the main hall frames the rear garden, which opens only while the hydrangeas bloom in June and the leaves turn in late November, for an extra fee.

The steps start right outside the Kita-Kamakura ticket gates. The railway cut through the old grounds, leaving one pond across the tracks. The Shariden, a national treasure, stays shut except on 1 to 3 January and during the early-November treasure airing.

Founded in 1253 as Japan's first temple built purely for Zen training. Twenty minutes of steps at the back lead up to Hansobo, lined with tengu statues, and when the sky is clear Mount Fuji shows from the lookout above.

You enter through a tunnel cut in the rock. Money washed in a basket in the cave water beyond is said to multiply. Plenty of people soak banknotes too and are often seen drying them in the sun outside. Kamakura station is 20 minutes away, uphill.

An island about 4km round, linked to the mainland by a bridge, with steps climbing past the shrine to the Sea Candle lookout on top. The paid Escar escalators only go up, so you take them up and walk down to the Iwaya caves.

A level crossing where the Enoden tracks and the sea share one frame, known from the opening of the anime Slam Dunk. Photographers spill into the road, so on many days guards are posted, and the backlit hour around sunset is the busiest.

A narrow shopping lane of about 360m from Kamakura Station's east exit to Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, crammed with snack and souvenir shops. A city ordinance discourages snacking on the move in the crush, so finish yours at the counter.

Kamakura's broad sand beach on the south edge of town, a short stroll from Hase or Wadazuka station. In July and August rows of umi-no-ie beach huts go up for swimmers; in other months it belongs to windsurfers and surfers.

The shore running from Inamuragasaki to Koshigoe, where on clear winter days Mount Fuji rises beyond Enoshima. Swimming is banned because of strong rip currents, and the Enoden runs right behind it, so many know it best from a carriage window.

Fifth of Kamakura's five great Zen temples, smaller and quieter than its seniors. The Kisen-an tea room beside the main hall serves matcha and a sweet facing a dry garden, and a separate cafe up the slope behind runs on its own hours.

Said to date from 734, Kamakura's oldest temple, its moss-smothered stone stairway leading to the hall. Rope keeps feet off those steps to protect the moss, so you climb by a side path; it is ten minutes by bus from Kamakura Station.

A Zen temple deep in a valley east of Kamakura, keeping the garden Muso Soseki carved straight into the cliff, pond and cave cut from the rock. Few come outside February plums and autumn colour, and the last stretch from the bus is a 15-minute climb.

Founded by Emperor Meiji in 1869 for Prince Morinaga, held in a cave prison here and killed in the fourteenth century. The cave behind the main hall can still be peered into, and a rock in the grounds takes clay saucers hurled to smash away bad luck.