1 day Cycling Kamakura

Hello everyone,

I was hoping someone could check my itinerary. I've been reading that there's a cycle shop at kita-kamakura that lets one rent a bike for a day for 10000 yen. I saw a proposed walking route on the japan national tourism website to visit the shrines and temples but notice that Hokukuji is unfortunately not on the list.

The main sites I'd love to see while in Kamakura are: Hokukuji, Daibutsu and Hase Dera Shrine.

Is this do-able if I the shop lets me rent the bike, since they open at 0830 I imagine needing to figure out the paperwork and finalize, I leave around 0900 and have to return it by 1700?

1. Kita-Kamakura Station head west to Rent a Cycle
2. Cycle to Daibutsu
3. Cycle to Hase-Dera
4. Cyle down towards Kamakura Seaside Park
5. Cycle up to Kamakura Station for late lunch
6. Cycle to Hokukuji (after lunch around 1430 hr)
7. Cycle to Kencho-ji
8. Return the Bicycles by 1700

I estimate we'll be checking out the temples for about an hour max..

I'm looking through google maps and I'm not sure about whether.. is there a bike lane on the streets? Are bikers allowed to bike on pedestrian lanes? I'm using googlemaps to plan my route, are there paved streets where bikes are not allowed and is there a way for me to know? I don't want to offend the locals.. I've read that kamakura is flat so hopefully pedalling won't be too much of a problem on a regular bike.. I've read a blog somewhere that they were having problems securing a bike on one of the shrines.. do all the shrines have parking area for the bike?

Any thoughts would be wonderful.

I'm looking through google maps and I'm not sure about whether.. is there a bike lane on the streets?

No. Kamakura's streets tend to be narrow, and I imagine the main roads to be rather uncomfortable for cycling. I personally would try to keep to minor roads, but they do not tend to get you from A to B in a straight-forward manner.

Are bikers allowed to bike on pedestrian lanes?

Most streets of Kamakura are too narrow to even have pedestrian lanes! If they have, they can be used by bicycles only if there are blue, round signs with a bicycle and walking people on it. However, local cyclists tend to ignore (or be unaware) of any traffic rules. Don't copy them.

I've read that kamakura is flat

Certainly not! It is built into the hills. However, you can avoid the hills and "stay in the plain" most of the time except from central Kamakura to Kitakamakura where you have to go up a small slope.

I've read a blog somewhere that they were having problems securing a bike on one of the shrines..

Indeed, that is another challenge that comes to mind when thinking about cycling in Kamakura.

do all the shrines have parking area for the bike?

I doubt it.

As you can feel from the above, I personally don't think that Kamakura is well suited for cycling. I think it is best explored in a combination of walking (there are lots of attractive walking trails off-limit to bicycles in the hills of Kamakura) and public transportation. But then again, I have never tried it myself on my 15+ visits to the town, and I may be mistaken...

Thank you for the input!

I will rethink my way of transportation. Do you think, it would be feasible to include hokukuji in with the 1 day suggested walking trail?

1. Engakuji Temple (3 min from Kita Kamakura) : 0800-1630
2. Kenchoji Temple (15 min walk) : 0830-1630
3. Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine (2 min walk)
4. Hokokuji Temple : 0900-1600 - BUS from tsurugaoka Shrine? if walking it takes 24 minutes?
d. Kamakura Station (Lunch & Shopping) (Bus to kamakura station)
e. Hase-Dera Temple (11 min bus from kamakura station )
0800-1700
f. Daibutsu (5 walk from hasedera) 0800-1730

*Hike the trail back to kita-kamakura? Or take the bus back to kamakura then head to tokyo

4. Hokokuji Temple : 0900-1600 - BUS from tsurugaoka Shrine? if walking it takes 24 minutes?

It is a very unpleasant walk along a busy street without proper space for pedestrians. I recommend to take the bus.

e. Hase-Dera Temple (11 min bus from kamakura station )
0800-1700

I recommend to take the train. It is easier to use.

Hike the trail back to kita-kamakura?

I guess you could decide based on how you feel by the time you have seen the Daibustu. It is quite a long day and walk, so I feel there is a high chance you would decide against walking.

Thank you so much for the recommendations!

I wonder if it's a typo when you mentioned that bike rental is 10000 yen a day. It seems to me that one can almost buy a bike for that amount of money.
Anyway a Kamakura Enoshima Pass costs only 700 yen and covers all the rail transport around Kamakura including the Enoden Line and should be able to take you to all the destinations you stated in your itinerary.
Also I tend to agree with Uji that bike riding and the difficulty in securing your bike makes it not a good choice to see Kamakura.

When I was there the streets in Kamakura were all quite busy... some intersections heavy with traffic. As mentioned about that the streets are narrow it just doesn't seem like a safe choice with the bikes

Hi nww,

My apologies, its a typo. The sign/websites for renting a bike around kit-kamakura say 1000 for a day.

Thank you for the heads up about the kamakura-enoshima pass, I will try to read up on its benefits and whether it would be more cost effective.

I spent a day in Kamakura in late 2014 and rented a bike from Kamakura for the afternoon. Here's my itinerary, using a Kamakura-Enoshima FreePass:

1. Take Odakyu line from Shinjuku to Kamkura; take Enoden line to Hase.
2. Walk to Daibutsu.
3. Walk to Hasedera.
4. Take Enoden line from Hase to Kamakura.
5. Rent bike (JR side of station); visit Hachimangu Shrine and others (inc. Zeniarai Benten); rode to beach to watch sunset.
6. Return bike; take Odakyu line from Kamakura to Shinjuku.

As I recall, the bike rental was fairly cheap. The roads were reasonably flat (except to Zeniarai Benten, which is up a massive hill). There were no bike lanes, but the only really busy road was the one right in front of Hachimangu Shrine; most of the time we felt safe. We didn't ride on footpaths (as other posters have said, a lot of the time they don't exist) and had to walk our bikes up the main street to Hachimangu Shrine because there were so many people! The bikes have a built-in lock on them so you don't need to worry about locking them to something. We just parked the bikes off the road at the front of the shrines we visited (except for Zeniarai Benten, where we parked them in a carpark below the main hill to the shrine). All the bikes I rented in Japan had this built-in lock; it locks the wheels and you have a key to unlock them. Fairly simple but make sure you practice it before leaving the rental in case you get confused!