Tokyo Days 28 - Kamakura Daibutsu

Having a half day of work, I decided to take a short trip to Kamakura to visit the famed Giant Buddha (Daibutsu) that every tourist seems to visit when coming to Tokyo. Despite being my third time in Japan, I have yet to actually visit this so called "must-visit" place for all tourist. Hence, with just a hour train ride away, I boarded the train to find out what the hype was all about.

Before checking out the many shrines and temples that Kamakura had to offer, I first decided to head down to the nearby beach, Yuigahama beach to see how Japanese beaches are like. Well, to be honest, it was rather disappointing but fairly expected coming from a country not known for its beaches to begin with. Along the beach there were various constructions being carried out to create wooden huts for the coming summer wave.

A short bit of getting lost and walking later and I found myself at the entrance of the Giant Buddha. Despite being a weekda, there sure were a lot of visitors.

Entrance fee was 200 Yen for adults and the attraction revolved solely around the giant Buddha statue.

At around 13 meters tall, the Buddha statue was indeed really imposing considering it was at a height close to that of the 1/1 Gundam in Odaiba.

A mini-moat surrounds the Buddha statue.

The weather was really cloudy that day so, the background was not exactly ideal.

What are those windows around the back for? You will find out soon enough.

There was even a small area in front of the statue where devotees could offer their prayers.

One of the plus points of this attraction is the abundance of information available about the statue, both in Japanese and English.

It may look slightly dated by now but, keep in mind, this statue is seven and a half centuries old!

Despite its age, the status has some really impressive details!

Evidently, the statue was not a single giant structure. Instead, like many modern structures too, this statue is a lattice of many smaller pieces combined to form a complete statue.

Something akin to a 3D jigsaw puzzle but, realized all those many years ago.

Speaking from an engineering stand point alone, this statue is really impressive even by today's standards.

For 20 Yen, you can even enter the statue.

Inside there is a detailed explanation of the statue's construction and repairs.

Here are the fiberglass reinforcements applied to the neck of the statue.

Various visitors had made sure to carve their special messages on the support bar.

Remember those windows earlier? Well, they are actually to allow light to enter the interior of the statue.

Now meet, small Buddha.

This was as sparse of a shot that I managed to capture.

On my way out, I spotted this great sign!

And the guard lions which were guarding the official entrance not open to visitors.

See this sign? You will know you are on the right track from there. With one destination aside, I moved on to another one of Kamakura's many attractions. The area surrounding Kamakura is not very large but, contains a high density of temples and shrines. If that is your interest, that makes Kamakura a must visit location on your list. Well, until next time, thanks so much for reading and have yourself a great day ahead!