#i used to have a very milky coffee and maybe a parfait and a small lunch and be

[cheapcheapfaker]

already hungry enough to make lunch after making myself a second breakfast an hour and a half ago knowing im also gonna need to have a before dinner snack so i can have energy to make dinner where ill most likely not even have leftovers to save for lunch like i used to anymore and then also maybe an after dinner bowl of cereal and havin to make all this food not to mention seeing the amount of silverware n dishes im goin through and and and

[asterinjapan]

Reaching for the skies

Good evening, here I am again! How is the weather back home? Here, it’s a nice 32 C with sunshine the whole day! I am so happy! That airconditioning exists!!

First things first: I took my good friend the Yamanote-line to Nippori station, coincidentally the same station I made a quick stop at yesterday to buy my train ticket, haha. Could have done that today in retrospect, but oh well, free travel with JR anyway, might as well abuse it! From Nippori, I took the Joban line to Ushiku. They had actually bothered to put up a poster pointing you to the bus stop nearby and which stop you had to take, but the entire bus was in Japanese and I couldn’t even use my pass to get in. Nope, you have to draw a number the good old fashioned way. (In Japanese buses, when you can’t or won’t pay with an IC card, you either have a flat fare or you have to pay for the amount of stops you get. In the latter case, you draw a number in the back of the bus, take your seat, and keep an eye on the screen in the front that tells you how expensive your number is by the time you get to the next stop. You have to pay the exact amount in cash in a box next to the bus driver’s, which thankfully does allow you to exchange your thousand yen bills for coins. I mean, it works, but this kind of system would be an absolute drama in the Netherlands, wow.)

My bus was one of the hourly direct lines to the Ushiku Daibutsu, of which there are maybe a dozen a day in the weekend and none on weekdays. Yep, they really want to draw in the tourists, huh… Oh well. For some reason this trip was cheaper than if I’d taken the normal bus, which – shouldn’t that be more expensive since it’s a special bus then? Or at least the same amount of money since it’s basically the same trip?? Oh well, not complaining, haha.

I got super impatient and stared out the window, because I really doubted you wouldn’t be able to spot a statue of that height miles and miles before you got there, come on. And there it was, a head towering out over the treetops! The bus dropped me off at the nearby Ushiku garden stop, and I walked the last 5 minutes to the Ushiku Daibutsu entrance. It was totally, utterly quiet – there was a small shopping street leading to the entrance, and there surely were some tourists there, but man, it’s a Sunday! In summer! Even at 10:30 in the morning, you’d have to walk over the heads at any other touristic spot. But nope, Ushiku just doesn’t seem to be that popular.

Anyway, I got a ticket that allowed me to go all the way up into the Buddha and entered the premises. There is a park surrounding the Buddha, including a lovely Japanese garden with a pond, but most of the flowers had either already bloomed or were waiting for autumn. August is not a good month if you like flowers here, haha. It was still lovely, and I got a couple of nice shots of the Buddha before I got too close to manage.

It’s really hard to grasp just how massive this statue is. It was getting kinda hot already, so I quickly made my way in. Me and two other tourists were instructed to take our shoes off (pretty common in temples in Japan), and were then led inside to a first elevator. This one led a couple of floors up, where we first walked past a recitation of sutras before ending up on the 2nd floor (10 metres high according to the leaflet, which would put us at the base of the lotus flower the Buddha stands on – that one in turn stands on a 10 metres tall pedestral, making the statue itself 100 metres tall and the full height 120 metres). Here, they’d put up an exhibition on how the statue was constructed, which was super interesting to see, since well, it’s a 120 metres tall bronze Buddha, how the hell did they manage that? On this floor, you can also find a replica of the big toe of the Buddha, which is higher than me. I could just reach up to the start of the nail, the rest of the toe was higher than me. His toe! The Buddha of Nara can literally fit in the palm of this Buddha’s hand, what even.

Next up was another elevator taking us all the way to 80 to 85 metres high into the statue, where there were windows looking out in all directions. Of course, they had a special corner for seeing the Sky Tree and Mount Fuji – and of course, today I couldn’t spot the stupid mountain either, haha. Anyway, interestingly enough, this room also narrated the life of the historic Buddha and the beginning of his teachings, something I haven’t seen before in a Japanese temple. Kind of odd to me, because since a number of the plates were translated into English, you’d think they’re aiming at an international audience who might not be familiar with the story of Buddha. Oh well. For me it was a good chance to see how much I remembered from university class, anyway.

The elevator down takes you to the World of the Lotus Sanctuary, which features thousands of small and big golden Buddha statues. This was really impressive – I think you can also hold memorial services here, and the plates did ask you to say a prayer because it was basically the inside of a temple. Very impressive.

There was a souvenir shop too, because of course there was, and I found the tiniest little crystal featuring the Buddha. After laughing for an hour, I got one for myself, since I collect these 3D crystals as they make for fun souvenirs. Granted, later on I discovered a bigger crystal in the shopping street, but nah, I’m keeping this tiny one because it makes me laugh. (It was the same in the Sky Tree back in 2014, actually. Phenominal giant tower! Itty bitty souvenir crystal.)

Finally, on the way to the exit, I ran into a small golden replica of the Buddha, and it said to put golden leaves on it. I didn’t get it until I walked out into the observatory – you can actually buy a golden leaflet and paste it on the real Buddha. The tiny golden one was an example of what it should eventually look like. Uh, yeah, good luck with that one guys, the leaflets are like 10 cm, haha. But the idea is very nice!

Once outside, I followed the route to a vending machine, where I got a can of ice coffee, and then thought I was slowly losing my mind, because I heard It’s a Small World playing behind me. A look over my shoulder verified I wasn’t hallucinating; there’s a petting zoo over here. Playing Disney songs. And that’s the thing that draws in the crowds. Alright.

I was personally less interested in the petting zoo, especially since they also have monkeys perform there according to the phamplet which, yeah, no, I’m not gonna support. So I skipped it and took a nice stroll through the park; thankfully the wind was picking up a bit, so I was only melting every other step instead of every single step, haha. I entered the Japanese garden and noticed where the big crowds were gathered: feeding the koi carpers. I mean. A pond with koi in them is pretty common around temples, but – that’s what you’re here for? Really? Not the giant Buddha right behind – okay, never mind.

I waited at the bus stop for the special bus to pick me up, which took a while, because as said, only once an hour… It gave me enough time to go to the bathroom and pick up an ice cream, anyway.

Back to Tokyo, I melted every time the door opened, so I decided to make a stop in Akihabara to flee into a couple of stores for the A/C until it was time to go back to my hotel, at 3 PM.

I proceeded to do absolutely nothing but bask in the A/C until dinner, haha. I found the Milky Way cafe here in Ikebukuro, which is star themed and mostly offers parfaits, but also some sandwiches and other dishes, so I had dinner here before some last late night shopping (I still have space in my suitcase left! For now).

And now it’s slowly starting to get time for bed, because tomorrow, I will be going to Sendai! That’s slightly over an hour from Omiya station by the fastest shinkansen, so not exactly around the corner. Sendai celebrates the Tanabata (star) festival from today until the 8th, and I wanted to visit the city already anyway, for the ruins of Aoba Castle and the great Kannon statue (the second tallest statue in Japan, actually). So my Japanese friend agreed to meet up with me there so we can visit all these places and experience the Tanabata festival! I’m excited.

Good night and see you tomorrow!