The Buddha and Me

Monday was President's Day and even though we're in a foreign country, the government still gives its employees the day off! Woot!

I have to admit that I wasn't all that thrilled to be "wandering" that day...it was a deluge.  No joke.  Tim and Adam opted to just wear their rain jackets, but I put on full rain gear.  I was still pretty much soaked to the bone by the end of the day.

Once we got to Hase, where the Buddha is located, we followed the line of the other brave tourists and headed to the temple.  We had to buy tickets to get in and see the Buddha, but they did provide us with some interesting facts about the big guy. 

For instance, did you know that this is the Seated Buddha and named Amida Nyorai, but commonly referred to as the Kamakura Daibutsu?  OR that it is a national treasure? OR that construction began in 1252 and lasted about 10 years?  OR that Kamakura Daibutsu is 13.4 meters tall (including his pedestal) and 121 tons?

To give you an idea of his largeness, here is a picture of Tim and me standing close to the Buddha, while Adam took a picture from those first set of stairs...

And a picture of Tim and Adam standing closer to the camera...

We spent a little bit of time exploring his surroundings.  I found a pair of awesome sandals...

And, in the spirit of wanting to really understand and "get inside his head," we took an extra little tour...

literally inside the buddha! Here's his torso area, which has been reinforced to his head to withstand natural disasters.  We found that there was a lot of graffiti inside the buddha, in a variety of languages, but I'm choosing to believe that it's more spiritual graffiti than basic vandalism.  

After we got our fill of the Big Buddha, and spent some time in the gift shop warming up at their electric heater, we walked down the street to the Hase-Dera Temple.  The official program explains it as "A temple with a view and lots of flowers."  Rather poetic, isn't it?

This temple is famous for its statue of Kannon, an eleven headed Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.  According to legend, in 721 AD the monk Tokudo Shonin discovered a camphor tree near Hase that was large enough to provide material for two statues of Kannon.  The statue from the lower part of the trunk was enshrined in Hasedera Temple, near Nara.  The larger statue from the upper part was thrown into the ocean near Osaka with a prayer that it would reappear to save the people.  Well, 15 years later it washed ashore not far from Kamakura.  The temple we visited was constructed to honor it.  

We didn't take photos of the Kannon, it wasn't allowed, but this is a link to the temple website, which does have pictures.  The gardens were amazing though, even in the rain. 

 

This is one of the buildings housing a different statue, next to the Kannon.

And a photo of the main Temple...

The rest of the grounds were pretty awesome and on a clear day, there would be a magnificent view.  We weren't so lucky...

The guys had fun wandering on the different paths...

I found a cave, but we didn't want to pay another admission fee, so we just stood outside of it...

Due to the downpour and being nearly frozen solid, we called it a day in Kamakura.  Hopefully we'll go back and explore more of the area on a sunny, clear day!  

On another note, Tim and I are still sick. :-( I woke up on Tuesday with whatever Tim had and am still recovering.  Tim has progressed to a loud and never-ending cough.  I'm practically drowning myself with liquid and getting lots of rest, and already I'm feeling much better.  It seems though that we've been on the tail end of whatever was going around.  Hopefully we'll be totally recovered soon, it would be no fun to spend another weekend sick!