Kamakura or Nagoya?

Kamakura has the beach on its doorstep. Yuigahama and Zaimokuza are a walk from the station, the Enoshima beaches are a short Enoden ride west, and Zushi and Hayama to the east are calmer. The sand is dark and the water rarely clear, but a swim fits easily around a day of temples.

Nagoya's own shoreline is port and industry, so a swim means an hour on the train to the Chita Peninsula or a ferry out to Shinojima. The beaches there are wide and the bay is just as warm in midsummer, but going is a separate outing rather than part of the day.

Nagoya is the place to eat well. Its regional cooking is rich, sweet and built on red miso, and miso katsu, hitsumabushi eel, tebasaki wings and misonikomi udon each have their own specialist restaurants. The department-store food halls and the snacks in Osu fill the gaps, and the morning service custom adds a free breakfast to a cup of coffee.

Kamakura's cooking is narrower and gentler: shirasu whitebait on rice near the beach, Buddhist shojin ryori around the Zen temples, and snacks along Komachi-dori. It is lovely at lunchtime but thin in the evening, which is why visitors go to Yokohama for sushi or izakaya.

Kamakura's heritage survives and sits close together. It has the open-air Great Buddha, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu at the head of its long avenue, and the great Zen temples of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji, with Hase-dera and the bamboo grove of Hokoku-ji in between. As the seat of Japan's first warrior government, it still feels like a town shaped by its temples.

Nagoya lost most of its old city in 1945, so its sights stand apart in a modern grid: the rebuilt castle and Honmaru Palace, Atsuta Shrine and the Tokugawa Art Museum. Its own strength is industrial history, seen in the Toyota museum and the railway museum, and Kamakura has nothing like them.

Nagoya is not a famous night out even within Japan, but it does have one. Sakae and Nishiki fit izakaya, tiny bars, karaoke and a few dance clubs into narrow buildings, and at weekends some places stay open until morning.

Kamakura goes quiet once the day-trippers leave. A drink at an izakaya near the station or a summer evening on the sand is about all there is. Otherwise it is an hour on the train to Yokohama or Tokyo.

Kamakura's landscape starts at the edge of town. Wooded hills ring it, and ridge trails such as the Daibutsu route link temples through forest. Surfers ride the waves at Shichirigahama, and on clear winter days Mount Fuji appears across the bay.

Nagoya lies on the flat Nobi Plain, so nature in the city means Higashiyama park and the Tokugawaen and Shirotori gardens. The Suzuka Mountains, Korankei's autumn maples and the Nakasendo through the Kiso Valley are all an hour or two away, each a day out rather than a morning walk.

Both are excellent bases, but they point in different directions. Kamakura looks towards the capital region: Tokyo is about an hour away, Yokohama under half an hour, Enoshima a ride on the Enoden, and the hot springs of Hakone lie further west.

From Nagoya, the shinkansen reaches Kyoto in about 35 minutes and Osaka in under an hour. Ise Jingu, the original castle keep at Inuyama and the post towns of Tsumago and Magome are also within reach. The choice is between modern Tokyo and old Kyoto with the castle and pottery towns of central Japan.

Nagoya has far more made for children. There is the port aquarium with its orcas and belugas, Legoland, Ghibli Park, the Higashiyama zoo and the science museum's planetarium, and Nagashima Spa Land's rides are under an hour away. The catch is the long train rides between them.

Kamakura works best for a few gentle days. Children can climb inside the Great Buddha, ride the little Enoden, paddle in summer and visit the aquarium at Katase. Steep temple stairs and weekend crowds make it harder work with small children.

Neither needs a car, but they are easy in different ways. Kamakura is compact and walkable, with the JR line up to Kita-Kamakura and the Enoden out to the Great Buddha. At weekends, though, traffic slows the buses and the Enoden can be standing room only.

Nagoya is a grid of wide avenues, best covered by subway. One IC card works on the subway and the railways, and a sightseeing loop bus links the main sights. It is less pleasant on foot, but the network handles the distances well.

Nagoya is a proper shopping city. It has department stores around Sakae and above the station, brand boutiques along the avenues between them, and the covered arcades of Osu with secondhand clothes, anime and electronics. For crafts there is Seto and Tokoname pottery and Arimatsu shibori dyeing.

Kamakura is good for an afternoon on Komachi-dori and Wakamiya-oji, buying sweets, tenugui cloths, ceramics, knives and the carved Kamakura-bori lacquerware. For anything more, take the train to Yokohama.

Nagoya is the cheaper place to stay. Its many business hotels keep room prices moderate, and set lunches and the free extras of morning service make eating out easy on a budget. Eel and the theme parks are where costs climb.

Kamakura has few hotels, and Tokyo weekenders compete for them, so beds cost more there. Temple fees, train fares and soba lunches are still reasonable. Many visitors save by sleeping in Yokohama or Fujisawa.

Nagoya has a real evening programme. There is opera and ballet at the Aichi Arts Center, the Nagoya Philharmonic's concert season, kabuki at the Misono-za, Noh near the castle and jazz in small live houses around Sakae. Most of it is in Japanese, so check what is on first.

Kamakura's performances follow the shrine calendar: traditional dance at the spring Kamakura Festival, yabusame horseback archery in autumn, and occasional Noh at a small theatre. On an ordinary night there is little to see.

For bathing, Nagoya is well ahead. Sento and large super sento with saunas and open-air pools are found all over the city, the Nagashima hot springs are under an hour away, and Gero Onsen is worth a night at a ryokan in the mountains.

Kamakura has no hot springs, and its calm is of a quieter kind: zazen meditation at Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji, and moss gardens in the valleys of Kita-Kamakura early on a weekday. For a proper onsen, visitors go to Hakone.