Before anyone wonders, “Where is part 1?”, well, back in March 20, 2018, I made the first travel blog post about Ofuna Kannon. Detailing the history of the bodhisattva Kannon but it was merely seeing the statue from Ofuna Station.
I ended that blog post that I needed to visit the area and sure enough, I made the trip to Kamakura City, Kanagawa to check it out.
So, what is Ofuna? Ofuna is actually a major street name in Kamakura City. It’s not a town… any longer.
Back in 1888, Ofuna Station opened and the village around the station became Ofuna Village in April 1889 and would become known as Ofunamachi in 1933.
But on June 1, 1948, Ofuna became part of Kamakura City.
So, the first thing is to head to Kanagawa and stop at Ofuna Station which is halfway between Yokohama and Kamakura Stations.
When you get out of Ofuna Station, you have two sides to come out of the station…one side is where all the shopping/restaurants are located.
While the other side is where you will see Ofuna Kannon immediately.
It’s really hard to gauge how far Ofuna Kannon is from the station. You see a big head in the center of all these trees.
So, the first thing I did was visit the taxi and asked him about it and he immediately said, no reason to take the taxi there. Just walk across the street and it’s all within walking distance.
The good news is that there is not a whole lot of traffic, but I do recommend that you are in walking shape. Not just to walk to the area because once you arrive, you have to walk uphill to get to the location.
But the first thing, get from the station and take the walking platform to cross over the river.
It seems I am walking through a freeway, but fortunately not a whole lot of cars but keep an eye out…I went through the area directly to Ofuna Kannon, but it’s probably best for those with slower legs to take the crosswalk and go to the nearest crosswalk. Otherwise, it’s “Frogger style!”.
