About kamakura.info
Table of contents
kamakura.info is an independent planning guide to Kamakura and Enoshima, the old samurai capital and its island neighbour south of Tokyo. It covers this one area only: where to go, in what order, on which day, at what cost, and where to sleep if you stay.
Who writes it
kamakura.info is edited by Rainer Lang, who writes and updates the pages and the planning tools. The site is not run by, or paid by, any temple, railway, hotel or tourism office.
Where the information comes from
- Fees, opening hours and rules come from each temple’s and shrine’s own website, and from the City of Kamakura and its tourism association.
- Train times and fares come from JR East, Enoshima Electric Railway (Enoden), Odakyu Electric Railway and Shonan Monorail.
- Bloom and leaf dates are worked out from the Japan Meteorological Agency’s plant observations at the Yokohama observatory, recorded since 1953. The method and its track record are on the calendar page.
- Walking times are routed on OpenStreetMap paths.
- Visitor numbers come from the City of Kamakura’s tourism statistics.
Each page lists its sources at the bottom. The facts page collects the main figures with their sources and the date they were last confirmed.
How often pages change
Fees, hours and fares are re-confirmed every three months, and after every official announcement we see. Bloom windows are re-run each year once the new observations are in. Each page shows the month it was last updated.
Tours and hotels
Pages that recommend tours or hotels link to them through booking sites, which may pay us a commission. See the affiliate disclosure. We describe tours by what they include and who they suit, and we do not show prices that would go stale.
Corrections
Spotted something out of date? Tell us through the contact form and we will fix it.