The Great Buddha of Kamakura

We have been extremely busy since Andrea's arrival two weeks ago. Her arrival also coincided with Mona and Macie's Christmas Break so we have had time to do a lot of sightseeing. We have been to Tokyo twice to shop and to go to Disneyland, to Yokohama to go shopping at IKEA, took a road trip to see Mount Fuji and took a second trip to Kamakura. The trip to Kamakura was our first trip by ourselves off base (we went earlier as part of the Navy orientation of the base and Japan). This time Andrea and Zach were able to go with us - and one of the sights everyone wanted to see was the Great Buddha of Kamakura.

The Great Buddha as you
enter the Temple grounds.

The Great Buddha is nearly
45 feet high.

The statue is made out of
bronze and weighs 133 tons.

The statue is over 750 years
old - built around 1252.

The statue has survived
typhoons, earthquakes and
tsunamis. A 30 foot high
tsunami destroyed the last
building to house it in 1498.

This was taken after we went
inside the statue. Really
interesting but no pictures
were allowed.

These are said to be the
sandals of the Great Buddha.