Big Buddha in Little Nokogiriyama

My friend Sara and I visited a place called Nokogiriyama today - home to an enormous stone Buddha. Nokogiriyama is about 2 hours south-east of Tokyo on the Chiba peninsula - across the bay from Tokyo actually. Anywho, it was a really great day, prob the best thing I've done since I came to Japan - the scenery was stunning, and it was great to escape from the city and be surrounded by nature.
Some pics:

Walking from the train station to Mt Nokogiriyama - a real Japanese rice field!


Lots of stairs
On the way up the mountain


The largest statue of the Buddha Daibutsu in Japan! It was completed in 1783 after 3 years work by Jingoro Eirei Ono and his 27 apprentices. In 1966, work was begun on restoration, after it had suffered much erosion over the years. From the information sheet:

The statue is an image of Rurico Bhechadjaguru Tathagata and signifies that whole universe is "a pure field confined in a lotus world" - it was constructed to be construed as a symbol of world peace and tranquility.

The Buddha is 31m tall from base of the pedestal to the top of the head - and pictures really don't do it justice - you need to see it!


a close up (as close as you can get without cutting out bits of him)

Then we stopped for lunch - soba and udon noodles. You dip the noodles in the sauce (which is like soy sauce, and has spring onions and wasabi in it). You eat the noodles cold - yum!

Eating lunch by the Buddha



more stairs:


The view from the top - on a clear day you can see Mt Fuji, apparently.

The lookout from where I was taking photos

Below the lookout - the hundred-shaku Kwan-non

A little while later - more stairs


Many low-roofed tunnels - this is supposed to be me holding the roof up... but i just look like a tool.

Some of the 1500 stone figures of Arhats - novices who had undergone spiritual awakening. These carvings were scattered the whole way up the trail.




Some interesting food they were selling at the ropeway (cablecar) station - they looked like they could've been strawberry-ish, or at least somewhat dessert-like..

Then they dipped it in soy sauce... so yeah, not as delicious as it looked...


After the buddha, we went to the beach!! The town we caught the train from (Hota) is a beachside town - I was so happy to see the ocean!

But the beach was quite polluted :(

The last two weeks have been fairly uneventful - I've been working and enjoying my days off. There's been some karaoke, some strawberry daquiris (happy hour is dangerous - three ridiculously large drinks is enough to render me unable to walk without the help of friends - will not be drinking that much ever again. But my friends are wonderful!) and some strange spider sculptures in Roppongi.



I truly discovered the brilliance of Tori's Strange Little Girls album. ADP came and was/is superb. While waiting for ADP I got Bjork's new album, and it too is great (although I can't listen to the two Antony songs - his voice drives me insane). Also I plan to go to Kyoto in two weeks for a few days - will hopefully catch up with Aaron! Oh, and I'm reading American Gods by Neil Gaiman - fantastic book so far.

Finally, I leave you with another shot of the Buddha :)