A self-guided audio walk through Kamakura, the seat of Japan's first warrior government, starting beside Kita-Kamakura station and running south through the valley. It begins at Engaku-ji, founded in 1282 to memorialise the dead of both sides in the Mongol invasions, with its gate, its Relic Hall and the Great Bell of 1301, then Tokei-ji, the nunnery where women could obtain a divorce until the Meiji period, Jochi-ji and Meigetsu-in. At Kencho-ji, founded in 1253, the gate, Buddha Hall and Dharma Hall stand on one line, with a cloud dragon on the Dharma Hall ceiling and a pond garden behind the abbot's quarters, and across the road Enno-ji keeps Enma and the Ten Kings, the judges of the dead. The walk ends at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, the shrine the city was laid out around: the Main Shrine of 1828, the stone steps where the shogun Sanetomo was killed in 1219, the Genpei Ponds of 1182 and the raised Dankazura path down Wakamiya Oji. Visitors from a cruise ship at Yokohama come here by train.
20 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 186 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata · 53 cross-referenced entries (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Engaku-ji Sanmon, Engaku-ji, Shariden, Great Bell of Engaku-ji, Tokei-ji, Jochi-ji, Meigetsu-in.
Kencho-ji Sanmon, Kencho-ji Butsuden, Kencho-ji Hatto, Kencho-ji Karamon and Hojo Garden, Enno-ji.
Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Main Shrine, Great Stone Steps and the Ginkgo, Wakamiya, Shirahata Shrine, Maiden (Lower Worship Hall), Kamakura Museum of National Treasures, Genpei Ponds and Hataage Benzaiten, Dankazura.
Founded in 1282 to memorialise soldiers of both sides who died in the Mongol invasions, with a white dragon painted on its Buddha Hall ceiling.
A National Treasure cast in 1301, hung high above the valley, its inscription praying for peace and harmonious wind and rain.
The Zen nunnery of 1285 where women could obtain a divorce they could not otherwise seek, a practice that lasted until the Meiji period.
The Dharma Hall completed in 1825, where a cloud dragon on the ceiling seems to follow you with its eyes across the hall.
The hall of Enma and the Ten Kings, judges of the afterlife, where the stern Enma is said to hide a smile.
The steps where the shogun Minamoto no Sanetomo was killed in 1219, beside the stump of the Great Ginkgo that fell in 2010.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 20 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 20 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Kamakura — the Zen Temples of Kita-Kamakura and Tsurugaoka Hachimangu, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
20 narration points, including Engaku-ji Sanmon, Engaku-ji, Shariden, Great Bell of Engaku-ji and Tokei-ji. That is about 29 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~1–2 hours total, but you walk at your own pace. 20 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.