KAMAKURA: Day 2

THE BIG BUDDHA AT KAMAKURA

The Great Buddha at Kamakura

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Today was the chosen day to meet Cindy’s decade-old wish to visit “the big Buddha.” I am finding it relatively easy to negotiate the Tokyo Metro so far. The web of complex tunnels, color-coded signs, escalators, and staircases that seem to lead to endless junctions, blind alleys, and dead ends are gradually being decoded. We took the Chou line from Suidobashi to Akihabara where we changed to the Yamanote line to Tokyo station. From there we boarded the Yokosuka for the one-hour journey out to Kamakura. At that point we took the Enoshima electric train to Hase. 

 

Hase is a quaint village housing two of the areas most remarkable Buddhist temples. The Hase-dera temple complex contains several buildings, shrines, gardens, koi ponds, and statues and even boasts a cave filled with stone Buddhist wall carvings. The highlight of the temple is the 30-foot tall, 11-headed, standing, gold leaf Hase Kannon. I found this statue of the Avalokitesvara Boddhisattva quite moving. It is also known as “the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy” although strictly speaking it is not gender specific.

The Daibutsu temple is just up the road and contains one of Japan’s most famous statues, that of the majestic Great Buddha. This is a sitting Buddha that is 40 feet high plus the pedestal. The Great Buddha, an image of Amida, was cast in 1252 and has withstood a history which includes earthquakes, typhoons, and tsunami which destroyed the building in which the Buddha originally was housed. It is actually even possible to go inside the Buddha. Fancifully enough, there was one remaining cherry blossom still in late bloom nearby. 

The late afternoon brought light rain and we ducked into a tiny tea shop where we were served macha tea in hand thrown ceramic bowls and gratis truffles by a delightful little old lady who then showed us the correct way to hold the bowls for a typical tea ceremony. 

It was an appropriately rainy evening to go home, fall asleep early and burn off the remainder of the ubiquitous jet lag.