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Shangrila Tsuruoka Hotel - Kamakura - A Review

October 24, 2008 by Jeff · Leave a Comment 

We stayed at the Shangrila Tsuruoka Hotel in Kamakura at the start of October 2008. We found the hotel by simply wandering the main street in Kamakura. Definitely, not the best way to find a cheap hotel in a touristy location. However, it's a very good way to get a hotel in a good location! From all of our travels it seems that Price and Location are joined at the hip!

Anyway, here's a review of the Shangrilla Tsuruoka Hotel in Kamakura


Rooms

It's a little tough for us to judge exactly what the rooms are like as we had a deluxe room. No we aren't some rich tourists, tourists yes, rich tourists, no. We stayed in a deluxe room as it was one of the cheaper places to stay in Kamakura. We probably could have looked elsewhere, however, based on the places we'd checked prior to this place they were all around the same price (without the word deluxe attached to the end).

Anyway, our deluxe room was quite nice. It was basically the same as any normal room that we've stayed in Japan, however, it was bit more.... gaudy! The bed spreads, couch and wall paper all looked very dated, not dirty, just dated. The one nice thing about the deluxe room is that we had a very good view of the street with a little patio.

Location

The location of the Shangrila Tsukuroka in Kamakura is almost perfect. You're half way up the main strip between the post office and the main temple. You're close to plenty of restaurants and little shops. In fact, just behind the hotel is a really neat street with lots of cool little shops selling everything from Kimono's to Ice Cream to Fruit.



Price

The price was a bit on the expensive side for the deluxe room, 16000 yen (~$160 Canadian). Again, this is because we had to get a Deluxe Room. However, the 'basic' rooms are one of the cheaper western style hotels in Kamakura.

Overall

Overall this was a good hotel in Kamakura. We actually spent a bit of time as we were exhausted from our hike around Kamakura so it worked out nice to have a decent hotel room. I'd recommend for people to stay here but don't splurge on the Deluxe Room unless you can't find any other cheaper rooms in town.

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Great Adventure (and great walk) in Kamakura Japan

October 5, 2008 by Jeff · 3 Comments 

We started the day off by heading to the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu shrine. It's located right in the middle of Kamakura at the end of the main strip. It's a pretty cool shrine with a massive temple and lots of people all taking in the sights. It's quite neat watching people throw the money and bow their heads for a quick prayer. We ended up paying $2.00 to go into the 'museum' at the shrine. It'd advise against doing this as it seemed like a bit of a tourist trap. If you want to see an actual Japanese warrior armour, helmet and some authentic kimono's then it's worth it. Although, it is only $2.00.

The next shrine we ventured too was the Kenchoji shrine, approximately a 20-30 minute walk from the Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine. This was the best shrine 'complex' that we've visited. It's really neat because it's the grounds of a buddhist monastery too, so this is where they actually learn how to become monks. Neat stuff! The complex is really cool with some really massive buildings and great architecture. You are even able to take your shoes off and walk in a building.

At the Kenchoji Shrine we ventured up to the Hakono temple which is located at the back of the complex. Once you get to the near the back of the complex you venture up the side of the road (on the left). Follow this road until you hit a fork and stay straight (left gets you to a soccer field used for boys soccer). You'll then have to climb around 200 stairs (or something like that) and you'll get to the top. Once there you'll have amazing sweeping views of Kamakura and the beach. It's quite spectacular and pictures really can't do it justice! It was a pretty busy day at the Kenchoji shrine but at the viewpoint we were the only ones their for a little while.

From here we walked to the Jochiji shrine and headed for the walking trail to the great buddha (Daibutsu Hiking Course). You don't need to pay to get on the trail if you just stay to the left when going up the Jochiji shrine. Although, venturing to the shrine is probably nice too (we didn't for time sake).

The Great Buddha hiking trail is very nice. Lots of ups and downs, up roots, down roots, up and down through a forested area. It's 3 Km's and quite a nice adventure. The reward of the Kotokuin (Daibutsu) or Great Buddha at the end is really cool too! He is such an immense statue built back in the 13th century from Bronze. It's so massive that it's actually quite intimidating!  Oh, and for 20 yen (20 cents) you can go inside the Buddha!

From here we walked back to our hotel along the beach stopping for dinner. The whole circuit took about 6-7 hours and is a nice day trip. Although, be warned that good walking shoes and some handy nutrition is needed throughout your day. Hindsight is 20-20! lol!

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