It's the day after our big night out. We're tired and hungover and wondering what the best hangover cure might be. In the end we decided the best thing to do to get all the alcohol out of us was to head a mile or so out of Tokyo by train to Kamakura, and see the huge Buddha statue there.
Matt, Nate and myself were joined by Lynsey, who did my gap year project a few years ago, and now lives in Tokyo. The train journey was about 50km south west of Tokyo, in Kanagawa prefecture. We were still quite tired (having had about 5 hours sleep) but there was one redeeming feature of the length of the journey and that was warmed seats. Mmm! We could just about see Mt. Fuji on the skyline too, which was quite exciting. It was a really cold but clear day, and it was the first time I'd seen Mt. Fuji in any detail.
From the station we walked a short way to the Great Buddha. We looked down at the ground when we got there so as to save the suprise of seeing him for the first time from close up.
Needless to say it was a rather big shock. But the biggest suprise was for the meagre price of 20yen (10p!) we could go inside the Buddha! What an offer!
It was very dark inside and I couldn't take photos very well, but I did get to stand inside the head figure of Buddism's crotch. How many people can say that?! It was somewhat claustrophobic in there and having the only blonde hair made me a beacon of interest for everyone inside, so we quickly left and explored the area around Mr. Buddha.
It was truly amazing and for once I wasn't the biggest person around. (Although Nate is a little taller than me. Woohoo! I'm almost normal!) In part 2 of this update I'll talk about the oriental gardens, with the many tiny statues and underground caves. But for now I have to go and get ready, as tonight we are hitting the party circuit hard to welcome in 2007. So as the next update will be written in 2007, I might as well say Happy New Year!
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