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Monday, May 21, 2012

Kamakura and Tokyo Tower

After we left the zoo, we headed to Kamakura. There they have a large Buddha statue at the Kotoku-in temple. It was built in 1252, and is over 43 feet tall and weighs 270,000 pounds.
We also got to go inside, which was interesting. The statue is made of bronze, and looking up into the head, you can see the impact points from what I guess was hammering to make the shape.









After seeing the Buddha statue we went to Tsurugaoka Hachiman-guu, which was built in 1063. It is dedicated to the god Hachiman, which even many Japanese who I have talked to don't realize is the god of war. The only reason I know this is because I lived next to a Hachiman temple for a year, so was interested in finding out more about it.





















From there, we headed back to Tokyo and went to the Tokyo Tower. This one is near Ropongi, and is 1,098 feet tall. They have built a new Tower, called Tokyo Skytree, which will open on May 22, 2012.













We went to the first observation deck, which is at 475 feet. Here you can get a great view of Tokyo.









They even have a clear floor area where you can stand and look straight down. We had seen the same thing at the CN tower in Toronto just last month









We didn't make it up to the top observation deck, which is at 819 feet. There was a 40 minute wait to get to that deck, and it was already nearing 10:00 PM, and we were just too worn out by all the days traveling. So, off to the hotel we went.

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