This is my favorite picture so far. This little boy and his family were praying at the Great Buddha Shrine in Kamakura.
This bronze statue of Amita Buddha was cast in 1252 A.D. by the sculptus Ono-Goroemon and Tanji-Hisatomo at the request of Miss Inadano-Tsubone and Priest Joko, who not only orginated the idea of building this large statue and the temple covering it, but also collected donations for it.
In 1498, a tidal wave swept away the great temple of the Buddha, leaving only the foundation stones. In the 500 years since then, the statue has been exposed to sunshine, storms, and snow.
The latest repair was done in 1960, to strengthen the Buddha's neck and to make it possible for the Buddha's body to move freely on the base to prevent damaging shock to the statue in case of an earthquake.
The statue is 13.35 meters tall, and weighs 121 tons.
4 comments:
Mr. Z,
Congratulations on your trip - what an honor! Deb told me of your blog, I hope RHS and Ely are keeping up on your adventure.
Best wishes and safe travels,
Tom Samson
PS - It appears that you and Buddha are weaing the same hat.
Tom,
The same hat is fine. I'm not sure the Buddha was a biker though. At least your didn't say that we have the same belly. Arigato (Thank you)
David
Japan looks so beautiful and CLEAN! Have you seen any open space/fields in Japan.
Hagen
Ms. Hagen,
There are many gardens and parks in the areas that I have been. 45% of the people live on 17% of the land in Japan. While Japan is very mountainous, I am in the low land and therefore very populated. The area that I am at is surfer heaven. There are many surfer stores, naturally with hawaiian themes. I can see Mt. Fuji but I will not get to go to the mountains unless my host family takes me there this weekend. I have heard that there are real differences between urban and rural just as there is in the U.S., i.e. family relationships, community closeness, social issues etc. Japan is about the size of North and South Dakota but has 127 million people.
I will post some pictures showing some of the differences in daily life.
Are the high school kids checking the site out? I have not heard from anyone. I am touring the high school tommorow. I was wondering if they have any questions.
Z
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