Kamakura or Yokohama?

Kamakura has the better beaches, because it is on the shore itself. Yuigahama and Zaimokuza are a short walk from the station, the Enoden runs on to Koshigoe and Katase, and Zushi and Hayama offer calmer water to the east. The sand is dark and volcanic and the swimming season is only high summer, but you can step out of a temple and into the sea on the same afternoon.

Yokohama's waterfront is quays and promenades. Its one beach is the man-made strip at Umi no Koen on the shallow inner bay. Most Yokohama residents who want a proper swim take the train to the Shonan coast, which means Kamakura's own beaches.

Yokohama is clearly the stronger place to eat. Japan's largest Chinatown, the city's own iekei ramen and sanma-men, the ramen museum at Shin-Yokohama and the food halls under the station give it range at every hour, and Noge's tiny grill bars keep it going into the evening.

Kamakura's food is narrower but has a character of its own. There is shirasu whitebait over rice near the beach, refined shojin ryori vegetarian cooking by the Zen temples, snacks along Komachi-dori and local vegetables at the Renbai market. For dinner with any choice, people take the train to Yokohama.

Kamakura carries far more history. It was the shogunate's capital from 1192, and the open-air Great Buddha, Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and the great Zen temples of Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji are national landmarks. Hase-dera, the bamboo at Hokoku-ji and a dozen smaller temples fill out two or three days.

Yokohama tells a different, later story: the opening to foreign trade in the 1850s. That story lives in the merchant houses on the Yamate Bluff, the Red Brick Warehouses and the liner Hikawa Maru. Its finest sight, Sankeien, is partly made of historic buildings moved there from Kyoto and Kamakura.

Yokohama is the only one of the two with a night out worth the name. Noge's warren of izakaya and standing bars fills after work, Kannai adds pubs and karaoke, and Minato Mirai has bars looking over the lit harbour. It is a city for long evenings of yakitori and beer rather than clubbing until dawn.

Kamakura empties once the day-trippers leave. A handful of izakaya near the station and some summer evenings on the beach are about all there is.

Both give similar access to the same green country, but from different starting points. In Kamakura you are already inside it. The Daibutsu and Tenen trails climb from the temples into the wooded ridges, Shichirigahama draws surfers, and Zaimokuza's calm water suits paddleboarding and windsurfing.

Yokohama is densely built, so its nature mostly starts with a train ride to those same Kamakura hills, the Miura coast, the Tanzawa mountains or Hakone. Within the city, Negishi Forest Park and Sankeien's ponds are the green spaces.

Both are excellent bases for day trips, and what differs is the direction. From Yokohama, Tokyo is under half an hour away, close enough to go in for a few hours on several days, and Kawagoe's Edo-period streets are on direct lines.

Kamakura is closer to the coast. Enoshima is a few stops along the Enoden, and Yokosuka and the fishing port of Misaki on the Miura Peninsula are easy outings. Hakone and Odawara are within similar reach of both.

Yokohama is built for children in a way Kamakura is not. They can design their own instant noodles at the Cup Noodles Museum or ride the Ferris wheel by the sea. Hakkeijima Sea Paradise has an aquarium and rides, there is the Anpanman museum for toddlers and the zoo at Zoorasia, and the flat harbour and station lifts make pushchairs simple.

Kamakura has its own small pleasures, such as climbing inside the Great Buddha, the rattling Enoden, the caves on Enoshima and the aquarium at Katase. Long temple staircases, weekend crowds and cramped rooms make it harder work.

Yokohama is easier to move around. The Minatomirai Line, JR, the subways and the private railways all take one tap-on card, signs are in English, and water buses cross the bay. The harbour walk from Minato Mirai to Chinatown is flat.

Kamakura is small enough to cover on foot from the station, with the Enoden for the Great Buddha and the coast. But weekend gridlock slows the buses, the little trains fill to standing, and many temples sit up steps or valleys. A rented bicycle helps on the flat run to the beach.

Yokohama has the real shopping. There are department stores and underground arcades around the station, waterfront malls at Minato Mirai, and Motomachi, a long street known for leather goods and the port's Western-tinged style.

Kamakura is for an afternoon of browsing on Komachi-dori and the quieter lanes off Wakamiya-oji. The one thing it does that Yokohama cannot is Kamakura-bori, the carved lacquerware descended from the Zen temples, along with good knives and ceramics.

Yokohama is the cheaper place to stay. Plain business hotels in Kannai, Sakuragicho and Shin-Yokohama keep rooms moderate, everyday food is inexpensive, and the harbour, the Bluff's Western houses and Yamashita Park cost nothing.

Kamakura's day-to-day spending is fair, with small temple fees and good-value soba lunches. Its few hotels are in demand from Tokyo weekenders, though, which is why many visitors sleep in Yokohama and come in by train.

Yokohama has a proper stage life. The Kanagawa Philharmonic plays in Minato Mirai Hall, the Kanagawa Arts Theatre puts on opera and dance, and the old jazz cafés of Noge and Kannai keep up the port's long jazz habit, which peaks with its autumn festival.

Kamakura offers little on an ordinary evening beyond occasional Noh at its small theatre. Its real performances follow the shrine calendar, with traditional dance in spring and yabusame horseback archery at the autumn festival.

Yokohama gives you Japanese bathing on the doorstep. It has neighbourhood sento and large hot-spring complexes, one of them on the Minato Mirai waterfront, with open-air baths and saunas, and Sankeien's teahouses for a slower afternoon.

Kamakura has no baths of its own, so its calm is a temple calm. There are zazen sessions at Engaku-ji and Kencho-ji, and the moss gardens around Jomyo-ji and Zuisen-ji are near silent on a weekday morning. For a mountain onsen, both send you to Hakone.