There are many beautiful temples in Kamakura region, and this 13 meters tall bronze statue is one of the must-see temple here in Kamaura which is about an hour's train ride from Tokyo.
It was a humid and warm afternoon in Kamakura and everyone was decked out in T shirts and shorts. We found a rather peaceful soba restaurant called Kamakura Yamaji 山路 along the main shopping street of Kamakura, and decided to have lunch here. There are quite a few soba restaurants here in Kamakura, and it is to my understanding that there is even a one Michelin star soba restaurant further down from the main city.
There is a narrow walkway from the front door to the restaurant, and the owners cleverly redecorated it into a Japanese garden. This reminded me of the garden walkway at our White Rabbit restaurant in Singapore.
It was full house here during a weekday lunchtime. We were the only foreigners here with 99% of the customers native Japanese. But still, we managed to get an authentic tatami table and seat at one of the quiet corners.
Kamakura Yamaji prides herself of excellent soba made in the house. And they have a large soba making viewing gallery where fresh sobas are churned out everyday.
The warm weather warrents ice cold Japanese beer.
Our first soba was this Cold Soba with Duck Broth (1,890 yen). The broth must have been cooked with lot's of ducks, because it has a robust taste and aroma to it. Excellent match for the cold soba. Pieces of duck meat were also sliced into the dipping soup.
On the other hand, we didn't really like the Cold Soba with Yam Paste (1,575 yen). Perhaps the sticky yam paste was not as good a dipping sauce as it was with the warm duck broth.
At the end of the meal, the service staff brought out this soup which was the water used to cook the soba. Although there is virtually no taste to it, but it was refreshing to drink it with what is leftover of the duck broth.
山路 Kamakura Yamaji
神奈川県
鎌倉市
雪ノ下
1-7-3
http://kamakurayamaji.fc2web.com/