Kamakura Daibutsu

Welcome to The Great Buddha of Kamakura.

japan-guide.com

One day my friends invited me for a trip to Kamakura, to do some hiking, take a look at Daibutsu (a real big Buddha) and... lose a precious memory card with 8 GB of pictures from New Zealand and Japan.

digital-images.net

Well, we set off in the morning, from Azamino via Yokohama Municipal Subway (Blue Line) to Yokohama, where we changed trains to JR East Yokosuka Line direct to Kita-Kamakura (via Ofuna). We did some hiking (speaking of which, it was just a very short stroll through some nondescript suburban forest-park), but then came the highlight, a visit to the Daibutsu.

Wikimedia

Daibutsu (大仏) is a generic name for a giant Buddha statue, as 大 (dai) means «large» and 仏 marks «Buddha».

digital-images.net

Kamakura appears to have been very central in Japan, at least during the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when the Kamakura shogunate ruled much of what mattered in the country.

Round about this time (1252 - 1262, to be exact) this big bronze statue of Buddha was cast, so it's safe to say it's fairly old. The statue itself is 11.3m tall (add 2m for the pedestal) and it weighs 93 or  121 tons, depending on the source of information (the second figure likely includes the pedestal).

And as travelclassics.com writes:

"A couple of centuries later, a tidal wave swept in from the sea, destroying the temple, but leaving the Buddha undamaged and standing alone in the great outdoors. It has remained so ever since."

According to OrientalArchitecture.com:

"An earthquake in September 1923 destroyed the base of the Buddha but did not damage the body. The base was repaired in 1926, and subsequently in 1960-61, after which it was rebuilt to allow the body of the Buddha to move independently of the base in the event of a future earthquake."

Those more interested in history can find some more information in a Wikipedia article about the temple this Daibutsu is housed in, as well as here.

digital-images.net

Now comes the great part. It's all hollow...

See, it even has ventilation holes! | tripadvisor.com

...and you can get in!

I'm not kiddin' | sacred-destinations.com

The entrance fee to the complex is just ¥200 and to get in Buddha himself, you just queue (no extra charge). To make it even more queer, you enter through the statue's, ahem... bottom. Is it ok to say "through Buddha's ass"?

And it looks so serene, with sakura and all... | digital-images.net

Anyway, inside there's a short explanation of the construction and how they succeeded to make such an amazing work of art with limited technology of the time.

The little booth to the right is the entrance | sacred-destinations.com

But getting in through the (_!_) is not the only weird thing. Outside the complex, there're a lot of souvenir shops and one of the more favorite snacks being sold is a Buddha cake:

123RF.com

or a Buddha cookie:

iBoris.com

I'm telling you, the day you eat a Jesus cookie and enter Muhammad's statue thru his arse (or vice versa, for all I care) is the day of the dream of World Peace coming true. Mark my words.

After the visit to Daibutsu we proceeded to the beach,...

The beach was surprisingly dirty, mind you | andawayigo.blogspot.com

...where I bought ancient-Japanese-coin-shaped cookies in a ¥100 shop, with a different set of four kanjis on each.

bgfysh4444.blogspot.com

Another of the pictures, loss of which I mourn dearly, is that of 4 ladies, each dressed in a traditional kimono; they posed for the pictures willingly.

Something like this... | hear-the-boat-sing.blogspot.com

Then we found an enclosure with cute animals (mostly babies), which was my bane. As I was exchanging the memory card in the camera... well, long story. I lost my memory card probably somewhere there.

Was it gobbled up by a cute little chick?

I could have replaced the memory card back at home, before the trip.
I could have taken different pants.
I could have put the memory card into a different pocket (not the one with a hole!)
I could have put the memory card somewhere safer, like a wallet, hadn't I been in a hurry.
I could have bought a PC and backed up my images there.
I could have...

For consolation...

After playing with some animals (and putting the memory card into the very pocket with a hole) we proceeded to Tsurugaoka Hachiman shrine.

The most important Kamakura shrine

Sake drums, however, were more picturesque:

This prayer plaque was even better!

Some real drawing skills...

But I keep returning to the cutest picture of them all...

I am here to peck up your memory card!

We said...

Bye-bye!

...to the shrine, and made our way back to the train station through shopper-filled streets.

From Ofuna I wanted to try out the double-decker. JR East commuter trains, among others, consist of 11 carriages, of which 2 middle ones are two-storey (e.g., E231 series). And they actually feature regular seats, not sideways facing ones. Little did I know that it's called Green Car, and it's an equivalent of first class in European trains.

Luckily I wasn't checked or caught or anything... Where were the conductors, anyway?

I parted ways with my friends at Yokohama Station as I decided to go and check out the Yokohama Landmark Tower (observation deck admission costs about ¥1,000). Even though it doesn't even reach 300m in height, it features the 2^nd fastest elevators in the world, right after Taipei 101.

Wikimedia

2^nd fastest, why is that significant?

Well, maybe because the Japanese are second in everything? Like, they've got the 2^nd tallest structure in the world (Tokyo Skytree trails Burj Khalifa in Dubai by mere 200m)

Wikipedia

No, no.

The key is the edge (over competitors). Taipei 101's elevators top out at 55-60 km/h (depending on the source of information), Yokohama Landmark Tower's are slower by a significant margin (45 km/h), but the best of the rest runs only at 35 km/h!

Mind you, both fastest elevators were built by Japanese companies. Toshiba made the ones for Taipei 101, while Yokohama Landmark Tower has elevators manufactured by Mitsubishi.

And the next record-breaker, elevators at Guangzhou CTF Finance Center, due to be completed in 2016, will be from Hitachi. The elevators are set to reach 73 km/h in their quest to scale almost 100 floors in just 43 seconds.

But back to the trip.

I returned home later that evening, and that very same evening found out about my memory card missing. So I decided to go back right the next day, even though there was next-to-no chance of finding something as small as an SD card.

I thought alongside these lines: I put my memory card in the pocket with a hole in it, but then I was squatting and sitting in the enclosure with the animals. So it's very likely that it had fallen out right there and then. I had to comb an area of about 100m², which wouldn't take that long.

But it wouldn't be me if I went back the same way. No. If I had to return to Kamakura, I had to make it worth travelling. Thus, I decided on Enoshima-Kamakura Freepass from Odakyu Railway.

In the morning I woke up a bit too late, made my way from Tama Plaza to Chuorinkan on Tokyu Denentoshi Line and bought the pass for slightly less than ¥1000 (mind you, costs ¥500 more from Shinjuku).

From Chuorinkan I took an express to Fujisawa over Odakyu Enoshima Line, where the free area of the pass (i.e., unlimited travel) starts. I changed the train to Enoshima Electric Railway and got off at Yuigahama.

All aboard!

They're really all a-board!

I arrived at the grounds in question at about 10.00, but the local cleaners were just finishing the job, so my spirits sank even deeper. Naturally, I didn't find a thing.

By tram on the way to...

...Yuigahama.

When returning, I took the Enoshima tram from Wadazuka only to Enoshima, where I took a few pictures of the Shonan Monorail. To get a free ride on that you'd need another pass, namely Kamakura-Enoshima Pass from JR East for ¥700 (sounds confusingly similar, doesn't it?)

Shonan Monorail from Enoshima to Ofuna, where it connects with Tokaido Main Line

Then I made my way to Katase Enoshima station on Odakyu Enoshima line. Nearby is the eponymous island (Enoshima), connected to the mainland via a 600m bridge (or a causeway?). Well, sometimes it appears to be a peninsula, probably depending on the tide.

Picturesque Katase Enoshima station

But I wasn't in a mood for further sightseeing, neither did I have time, nor extra money to shell out. Suffice it to say that the grandest attractions there are Aquarium (¥2100; that's actually on mainland), Observation tower (¥500), Iwaya caves (¥500), and... an escalator (¥300)!

From Katase Enoshima I took a local train to Fujisawa where I just missed an express to Chuorinkan (how un-Japanese!). So I took a local train, leaving in 10 or 20 minutes. But as soon as I boarded it I changed my mind and decided to try my luck looking for the memory card around Yokohama Landmark Tower, where I had been (loitering :-) yesterday evening.

Sure, it cost me extra money, and yes, there was even slimmer chance of finding anything, but I didn't want to leave a single stone unturned. So I got off at the following station (Fujisawa-Hommachi), made my way back, and waited for a JR Tokaido Main Line train from Fujisawa to Yokohama (and lost a great deal of time doing all this).

Of course I didn't find anything.