The 800-year-old city of Kamakura is only an hour outside of Tokyo, which makes it an ideal location for the first-time tourists, and also explains why I've avoided it until now.

Had I known that I would encounter a multitude of large predatory birds like kites perpetually circling up above in search of food (other animals and your lunch alike), I would've been here long ago. For me, the latter's hypnotic air exercises would've been reason enough to visit. Then there are ravens, crows, white pigeons, the ocean, mountains, woods, blooming plum trees...

Oh, and the great Buddha along with temples and shrines, of course!

But the birds. THE BIRDS!

I'm seriously considering returning on Thursday or Friday for the sole purpose of photographing them.

And I owe it all to the lady to whom I often refer as my "Japanese mother," who, in the span of only a few hours, managed to show me so much that I almost ran out of memory cards for my camera. And my iPad, the mobile photos from which you see below, is just about out of space.