A Tall Tale

Firstly, thank you everyone for the birthday/e-cards/emails/msn's; I really appreciate them all.

I had a great day yesterday; wanted to do something new and different and was running out of ideas. I search far and wide on the Internet for new trips and places to explore in and around Tokyo and I don't think you'll find someone who has been somewhere I haven't. I'm a walking guide book.

I was about to rely on good old Odaiba, but then I found something on someone's blog. I'm not sure if you can plagiarise a day-trip or blog entry, instead I'll call it a homage.

Ushiku is a city in Ibaraki prefecture, just North East of Tokyo*. It is allegedly home to the mythical Japanese creature, the kappa.


Allegedly because there are a handful of places which claim this across the country. The kappa is a god-like animal which is a mixture of a tortoise with a duck-mouth, and a strange flat hair-piece on their head. Although fondly cutsified into small toys and key chains, the legend is a little more terrifying. The kappa live in ponds/lakes and drag children underwater. There are more details, including their love of cucumber etc.

The amazing thing is, you've all seen the kappa beforehand (well most of you). Recognise this guy:


It's a koopa (or koopa trooper) from Super Mario, based on the kappa. Anyway, this was outside Ushiku station:


And with all Japanese cities designing their manhole covers:


Near the station is Kamiya Chateau and winery, which was the first place in Japan to make its own wine. Free to roam around, we explored the basement with its creepy dark corridors among the barrels, and its damp dank atmosphere. Perfect for a Resident Evil re-enaction. A few sips of wine, some cakes and baguette from the patisserie, and a wine cake from the souvenir shop and we were merrily on our way to the main destination.


I assume the only reason I'd never heard of "The Tallest Statue in Japan" was because it was a beast to get to. An hour and a half train ride from Tokyo, then a 30 minute bus, which only comes every two or so hours!). But that's not going to stop me. Maybe the Ushiku Buddha is busy during Summer festivals, as the two large car parks would suggest; but there were only a handful of sightseers yesterday.


The Buddha, which stands at 120m and 4000 tons is impressive; it is the third tallest statue in the World (the tallest two in China), but is the tallest Buddha in the World; it was visible 15 minutes before we arrived there by bus! And to put that into context, it is three times the height of The Statue of Liberty.

The great image of the Buddha, which stands in the center of Jodo Teien garden, is 120 meters high symbolic of the 12 beams of light said to emanate from its body and reach throughout the World. Standing upon a lotus blossom, the feet are poised to signify his vow to step forward and search out all those who are lost within the impure World with its five defilements. In turn, the position of the hands symbolise his acceptance of all sentient beings without exception.

And to grasp the size even further, the Buddha in Kamakura would fit in this Buddha's palm! That deserves another exclamation mark: !


Behind the back of the Buddha is a petting-zoo where you can enter a over-sized rabbit hutch. Of course the only animal to come up to me was... a cat.


One of these things is not like the others:


The lovely if slightly mad woman who worked there named all the 50 or so rabbits, as well as the squirrels who weren't afraid to come and take a bite out of anything food-worthy. The goats were laid-back and the pig was the noisily and awesomely named Shou-chan, who responded to his name and the hint of food; conditioning and all that.




The back of the Buddha had a pair of sliding doors, where you had to remove your shoes and wait for the doors to enter. They did after a few minutes, and Keiko and I were greeted by a Japanese tour guide who welcomed us into the first room. The doors closed behind us and we were in darkness as the woman narrated some facts; it felt like the set-up for a scary roller-coaster or haunted house.


The doors in front opened, inviting us to the "World of Infinite Light and Life, the reliefs of silence and mystery". Or as I saw it, the artifact Abu stole underground in Aladdin.


A museum outlined the construction of the Buddha, as well as reinforcing by scaled objects just how large it is.


Up a lift to the slits you can see on the Buddha image above (somewhere on the chest), for views towards Lake Ushiku, where kappa resides.


The most amazing place was the "World of the Lotus Sanctuary" which spanned on the whole way round with small talisman (about 3,300) which are bought by families before memorial services for dead relatives. This room glimmered with gold.

Outside, a few poses, including a replica head which is a 1000th the size of the Buddha, and a rather gormless video of me and a bell.

A patch of spirally flowers lined the main paths:


Back to Tokyo for a drink in a pub, and for a nice relaxed night. A really great day trip, which isn't suitable for tourists with limited time, but worth a look if you believe size matters.

*47 prefectures, of which I've been to 12.

The Greatest Birthday Present Ever

All this time, I've been searching and searching for funny brand names and signs to add to the numerous internet-laden misuses of language. And, finally, I find this carton of milk which, I kid you not, reads...


Penis!

Cake-o and Me

A joint present to each other:


And an extra surprise: fruit the whole way through!

Image Of The Week #87

Talk about strict!

(taken in an Irish Pub in Osaki - 27th June, 2008)

The Last Day To Be 23

And the ninth consecutive year to be abroad (Israel, France, Florida, New York, a train somewhere in Europe, Amsterdam, Thailand, Japan, Japan).

Next year in....?

How Not To Climb Stairs

Luckily, my ASIMO demonstration was glitch-free, unlike this guy:

The Future's Looking Innovative

Hidden around the back of Odaiba is a comparatively compact glass-framed museum: Miraikan - the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. It's not an expensive visit, hands-on and well aimed for kids (or big kids) with glasses, or that way inclined.


It's impossible to be bored there, every table or display has a model to touch or a button to push. For example, in the Life Science arena, you can perform a technologically-advanced surgery, dissect the brain, or test how your reaction to stem-cell research measures up to the general consensus.


There are robots galore, with demonstrations throughout the day, including the famous ASIMO.


Or an artificial 'pet' which has shown to be just as successful in patient therapy as the real thing. This manatee responds appropriately depending on where you stroke him:


And you can explore the world and beyond, even entering a space habituation module, which comes with a toilet and shower. Messy.


The most interesting model for me was the 'reverse-mirror' trick, which is used for patients with a phantom limb. It's tough to explain; suppose someone lost an arm but had sensations it was still there. By tricking your mind with mirrors, so it appears your arm is there, you can control the pain and reduce it. Pretty amazing stuff.


For all the positives of the above, the main advice I can give is be prepared to feel frustrated at the organisation of the museum. There are shows, virtual theatres and a planetarium, but you can only choose one (or two depending on what you want to see) per ticket, and they sell out quickly. If you arrive over an hour after opening time, everything will be sold out. For example, we managed to snag a ticket to the virtual reality theatre showing of the cosmos and beyond, which only about twenty people can fit in, and there are only two shows a day. Kudos to the presenter who, with selecting the views we could see through our 3D glasses on a Playstation control, narrated the entire spiel for about 20 minutes - a remarkable feat which took some time I would assume. And for that reason I'm not surprised there are only two shows a day, the poor girl would be exhausted. But why not just record the speech and have the show running all day? This was the general set-up of every show.


The main-attraction MegaStar Planetarium was unspectacular and for boasting that it projected five million stars, it was less a show than a chemistry lesson; an overhead slide-show of how liquid and gas are dispersed in the Universe. I recommend giving it a miss and spending more time on other bits and pieces, such as going inside the cockpit of the world's deepest manned research submersible.

There is also an ever-changing special exhibition area. At the time of my visit, it was about aliens and the chance of life "out there"; including the Clangers and a display of the War of The Worlds radio play that caused mass-hysteria. Quirky, but not in line with the spirit of scientific aspiration and respect that the rest of the museum deserves. However, for all the criticism I give Japanese companies for not bothering consulting a single foreigner about spelling and grammar, the signs here were not only correct but well-written.


My favourite exhibit was the Geo-cosmos, I'll let the website explain:

Geo-Cosmos, which floats in the open space of the 1F Symbol Zone, is the symbol exhibit of the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation. Director Mamoru Mohri wanted to "share with many people the glowing image of the earth as seen from outer space." On the surface of this suspended sphere which is 6.5 meters in diameter are approximately 1 million LEDs through which it is possible to project various images relayed by satellite as the world's first spherical display. Through the direction of wind, amount of solar radiation, temperature and wind velocity, sounds are created in real-time by the mechanism where it is detected by sensors set on top of the roof.

The globe's display rotates in any direction and can even be controlled by hand, and was extraordinary just to watch. Different settings meant that you can see real-time weather displays, the surface of the moon, or even how Earth's temperature has rapidly increased and the estimation for the future.

(A quick stop at the Toyota showroom for the latest in laziness:*)

Overall, a fun and educational museum, with some layout flaws, finished off with a nice sunset:

*Actually, I think it's more aimed at wheelchair users, but I can see a lot of theme parks being interested.