Hasedera+Temple

The Buddhist Hasedera temple is located in Kamakura, Japan. It was built around 1,300 years ago or around the early 700s and is still there today, open to the public. According to legend, Tokudo Shonin found a camphor tree large enough to carve 2 massive statues of the god Kannon. One stayed in Nara, while the other was sent to the sea and wasn't seen again until June 18th, 736 when it was found on the beaches of Miura Peninsula. The entire statue reaches an amazing 30 feet and was so impressive a temple was built to honor it.

This temple is famous for the legend and is now known as the 4th station out of the 33 holy places throughout the Kanto area. The hydrangeas that bloom throughout the summer months also receive a lot of attention. The temple offers spectacular views of the Kamakura bay and below the two story structure lies a cave, known as Benten Kutsu cave. The cave is dedicated to the Japanese sea goddess Benzaiten. This grounds are also littered with Jizo statues that are placed there when parents lose a baby because of complications of some sort. Those small statues are there for around a year and are then moved so there is more room for new ones. About 50,000 have been there since World War II.