ティン　の　伝記: Kamakura & Ushiku Daibutsu and Sasa's Curry Party

28 April, Saturday

Alicia, Peggy and me decided to go to Kamukura and invited Novea, Gloria, Denny (Peggy's friend, not from Rikkyo) and Tatsuya (the only Japanese).

I can't remember the names of the temples/shrines there. Hehe... These pics were taken at Kita Kamakura.

Pic 1: Tatsuya & Me
Pic 2: Taken on top of the hill where the temple is located at the bottom. (Tatsuya, me, Peggy & Alicia.　Missing ppl - Novea who's taking pics on the left, the cameraman Denny and Gloria who gave up climbing the hilll halfway)

Pic 3: Climbing down the hill.
Pic 4: Peggy and me
Pic 5: Buddhist monks at the temple

Pic 6: Most Japanese temples have gardens like this (some are dry garden with stones known as Zen garden) where people sit down at the main hall and appreciate the scenary. I was obssessed with 周傑倫の七里香 in my ears cos I couldn't help singing it to myself while I was looking at this beautiful ponds from the wooden hall. It's a really nice plae to listen to Jay Chou's or Lee Hom's songs which give you the feeling of 中國風 or 東風. Haha.. reminding me of my favorite Taiwnese TV channel slogan 東方有多大東風告訴你! Oh, another person who was in my mind at that time is Fei Fei. I wish I could hear her Gu Zheng there while reading a poem or watching Zhang Ziyi dance like in the House of Flying Daggars. (omg, I'm daydreaming now!)

Pic 7: Some flowers are as big as my face.

Pic 8 & 9: Japanese traditional wedding at the shrine (I thought it's just a show for the visitors but it was a real wedding ceremony)

Pic 10: Nice colors! I didn't wear it purposely though.
Pic 11: Taken at the entrance bridge to the shrine

After that we went to Kamukura station to eat lunch and Hose where the great Buddha statue is.

Pic 12: Tororo Soba for lunch (quite expensive 1100 JPY for Soba alone)
Pic 13: SMU Jump at Kamkura

Pic 14 & 15: More Pics at Daibutsu (great Buddha statue)
Pic 16: Taken inside the statue

After that we went to En no shima (an island in Kamakura)

Pic 17: On the train going to the island
Pic 18: With Alicia taken at a temple on the hill of the island (it costs 310 JPY to take escalator to go up to the hill haiz...)

Pic 19 & 20: Can you see Mt. Fuji behind me? It's on the bridge to the island.

Pic 21: View from the hill on the island
Pic 22: Colorful island (taken from the bridge on the way back)
Pic 23: Group pic taken at En no shima Odakyu station

30 April, Monday (Holiday)

I think today is Japan's late emperor's birthday (or the greenery day? hmm.. not sure) Anyway, I went to Ushiku, a small city in Ibaraki Prefecture to visit the world's largest bronze statue according to Guinness World Record. It's nothing but a bronze Buddha statue.

Pic 1: At Ushiku Station (950 JPY from Ueno Station)
Pic 2: Ushiku Daibutsu seen from the bus

Pic 3 & 4: How big the statue is!

Pic 5: With the sample Buddha's head (the actual one behind is 1000 times bigger than this)

Pic 6: This is one sample hair

Pic 7 & 8: Couldn't stop taking pics.

Pic 9 & 10: Flowers inside the compound

Pic 11: With my Burmese friend

Pic 12: Burmese powers in Japan

Pic 13: Outside the compound

Pic 14: Me feeding the fish so that I won't be starved in Tokyo where food are expensive

Pic 15: Did we go there to pay homage to Buddha statue or to take pic?

Pic 16: That's how the statue was built

Pic 17: This is the entrance of the lift inside the statue

Pic 18 to 20: Inner decor of the statue

Pic 21: One Little Buddha statue represents the donation from a person/family/group

Pic 22: The golden statue can be seen as soon as the lift door is opened (the lights in the lift are switched off while the Dhamma music is on)

Pic 23: This one was donated by one Burmese lady in Yokohama (shocked to see this 'cos they only display few statues on the highest floor. Btw, this is located at the chest level of the Great Buddha statue)

Pic 24 & 25: Views from the window at the Buddha statue's chest level. (24 is the cemetry and 25 is the way to the statue)

Pic 26: One toe of the statue is even taller than me

Pic 28: The comparison between the Great Buddha Statue with other famous places (From left to right: Ushiku Daibutsu, Japan Senate (or Lower House), the Statue of Liberty, Todaiji in Nara (biggest sitting Buddha statue in Japan which is even bigger than Kamakura statue). Check their heights on the left of the pic. Ushiku Daibutsu is 120 m to represent 12 beams of light from Buddha.

Pic 29: Seen from the Lotus Seat level outside the statue

Pic 30 & 31: Bird-eye view of the statue.

Pic 32 & 33: Fashion shock. Whose legs do you think are these in Pic 32? These are the legs of the guy on purple beside whom is his girlfriend

Pic 34 to 35: Monkey show (Kor, I didn't know you are that smart hor)

Pic 36: On the bus to the station (everyone was tired and sleepy cos we woke up early to meet at 8am at Ueno. I had to wake up at 6am plus on that day)

We came back to Tokyo around 4pm and went to my friend's house to eat Fried Bee Hoon with the whole gang. It's quite fun cos I could speak my mother tongue whole day. It's really a holiday for my brain. After that my brain was not working haha.... and I didn't even want to try to speak in Japanese for the whole day.

Sasa's Party

After that I went to Sasa's house in Shiki (near Rikkyo's Niiza Campus) for dinner. He cooked Japanese Curry for us. He's only 19 years old but look at his curry! Much better than 80 to 90% of S'porean (also Burmese living in Myanmar) girls.