Couple of weeks ago we took the kids to see the great Buddha. The Great Buddha of Kamakura is a huge bronze statue of Amitabha Buddha in the Kotoku-in Temple. This guy is massive! He is about 45 feet tall and weighs about 110 tons...and he's hollow. You can actually pay an extra 20 Yen...that's about 16 cents (thank god for COLA!) and go inside. So naturally we had to go into the belly of the great beast! It was really cool. Of course, Lila wasn't really impressed. Now if there was an ice cream place inside, she'd be all over it.
Anyways, the Buddha's been around a long time, since about 1252. He used to be covered in a huge wooden temple, but that temple was WASHED AWAY by a massive tidal wave in 1498!!! Then in 1925 a massive earthquake struck but only damaged the base, so they re-enforce the neck and made it possible for the Buddha to move freely on a new base to avoid the shocks of another earthquake, kind of like a surf board!
At the end of the day, it is still a shrine and temple where many people come to worship, pray and meditate. So each of the kids gave some yen and then 'made a wish'. Liam went the extra distance getting his Zen on.
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