Japan Trip 2012, Day 2 - Ushiku Daibutsu

By this point, I had spent two nights in Japan, and it was time to go someplace a little out of the way. Our destination today was the Ushiku Daibutsu, the third largest statue in the world, superceded by two other Buddha statues. From Ueno Station, we went off to Ushiku Station which took around an hour, and from there we hopped on a bus bound for Ushiku Jouen （牛久浄苑） and took it up to Ushiku Arcadia （牛久アケイディア） where the Daibutsu was, around fourty minutes.

Once we got past the mini-street with all the shop owners around, we bought our tickets and headed in. After the ticket stand, there was a road leading up to the grounds, upon which a Buddha's head was on display. I think it was about as tall as I was, but the caption on the statue said that 1000 of those could fit inside the actual Buddha head.

After walking a short distance, the entrance is marked with a building with an exposed walkway underneath, where a donation box, a Buddha statue, and a bell (which you are allowed to ring, though softly) are placed - the picture below was taken after passing through for the view of the Buddha within.

Walking through lies a garden which surrounds the Daibutsu, which was made to have some flower in bloom at every month of the year. Here, the Daibutsu is directly in front of you, standing tall at 120 meters (394 feet), with the path leading straight up to it.

They also have a few little ponds in the garden. One of them, right before the Daibutsu and just off the path to the right, is filled with fish, and you can throw down a little money on fish feed for them. The gluttonous carp that inhabit the lake recognize humans as a source of food, and are all too happy to nearly beach themselves in shallow waters in their pursuit of food. Feed or no, it is a nice place to relax for a while.

Everyone who comes in has to get a ticket for the surrounding garden, seeing as that's what the grounds are made of, but the ticket to get into the Daibutsu is a little more expensive. Like many sightseeing places, shoes are not permitted within the inside of the statue, so you'll have to grab a shoe bag from the entrance and put your shoes in there. The entrance itself is a little theatrical, as they stick you in a dark room and close the doors, after which some narration sounds from some set of speakers somewhere in the room and resounds throughout it. After the short speech (in Japanese), the doors open to a slightly less illuminated floor, at which point you are free to wander around. Pictures are permitted, so here we go.

The second floor is a small museum of sorts, which if memory serves details the construction and the layout of the Daibutsu and its surroundings. I remember seeing pictures of the garden at every month of the year along a wall here. A replica of the Daibutsu's right big toe is also on display, which is taller than your average person.

From here, you have to wait for an attendant to work the elevator that takes you to the top floor - which is about at the level of the Daibutsu's chest. While there are also a few religious exhibits here, the floor mainly functions as an observatory where you can also look out the windows into the distance. The Tokyo Skytree is visible from here on clear days, as are a few other sights, though when we went it was cloudy and we couldn't see much.

A flight of stairs will take you down to the next level of the Daibutsu... a gift shop. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but back in the day, Buddhist monks were prohibited from directly handling money, so this came across to me as slightly... sacriligous. Nonetheless, I suppose this is Japan, where religion doesn't care as much about handling money, but I passed this floor up pretty quick as did my companions, since exchanging currency within a Buddha just felt wrong. No pictures of this floor, either.

The next elevator takes you one floor down to an impressive sight - the walls of this circular chamber are lined with Buddhas, one after the other, and not just in a line. The entire wall is dedicated to the storage of golden Buddha statues, the only space without containing a prayer alter. This is quite an impressive way to end the tour, at least from a touring standpoint. There's not really much else to say about the floor, that's all that's here, so let me just let the pictures speak for themselves.

The only remaining floor is the one you came in on, except in a different section walled off from the entrance. Not much to see here, although there is a chamber of sorts that I'm not sure what it's used for.

Once out the exit, you're free to roam the gardens. There's an animal garden you can go to where you can feed and pet some squirrels and rabbits that we skipped out on, as we were only concerned with the Daibutsu and making it back to Tokyo at a reasonable time.

All in all, a pleasant experience I suppose, but for a religious site, something tells me this place was played up a little more than it could have been. There wasn't even a temple on the premises or monks to be seen at all, nor was there any place I found where prayer incense could be had, so I can't help but wonder. From a tourist's perspective, this was an impressive place. But from a personal perspective... it's a little unfortunate that the place is geared towards such and not for what it represents... but in the end, I don't know what the money that's being made here is used for or even how much of it is being made, so I guess I can't really comment too much. I suppose the world works in ways that religion just has to deal with.