THE GREAT BUDDHA
Without saying, the most famous in Kamakura. Some travel guide only refers to great Buddha as what to see at kamakura.
Great Buddha is about 13 meters high Cast Bronze statue, build about 750 years ago. It is quite surprising that the old people has such a technique to build such a gigantic statue with casting.
Great buddha and TSUNAMI
Great Buddha is not located as it is today when it had build. It is said to be located much closer to the beach, however, when there was a major earthquake 600 years ago, TSUNAMI pushed great Buddha to current place.
I can understand that she can float in the water in theory (like huge boat does.) However, standing in front of the statue make me hard to believe it actually float and pushed! (note the inside is cave and the statue is NOT an solid bronze.)
As it is casted bronze, you should note that inside is a cave and you can enter. Inside looks like below.
Panoramic picture of inside of Buddha. You should be able to see the layers of bronze and that will gives you a hint how it had been build.
Map to great buddha (DAIBUTSU)
Public transport:
Bus from Kamakura station (towards FUJISAWA or KAJIWARA).
Walk from ENODEN HASE station.
My recommendation is to take a trail path from KENJIYAMA. (Close to ZENIARAI BENTEN)