At the top of the stairs there was a surprisingly cool little shrine that we later found out was a Kitsune shrine. We ended up here purely by chance.

Every shrine in Japan has a small square basin in front from which water wells up. The purpose of the basin is to cleanse yourself so that you do not defile the shrine. This is done by rinsing both hands and taking a sip of the water.

After walking all day in Kamakura and then climbing a seemingly endless flight of stairs (Japan seems to have more than its fair share of them), I was fairly sore and quite ready to fall over at the nearest convenient place.

After wandering about the shrine a bit and taking photos, we climbed the rest of the way up the hill and down the other side. I hadn�t really noticed it until we got to the bottom of the hill but since leaving the shrine, the pain in my feet was gone and I felt surprisingly ready to wander some more. While all of the shrines in Japan are very peaceful, I can�t recall any of the others having had this effect on me.