Taking the Big Break

Have you ever explored inside a Buddha body, been harassed by a Chinese lady and gotten tricked into buying ten bucks of chestnuts all in one day?!?  I don’t think so!  But, on my first day of being back in Tokyo, all those things happened.

Buddha in Kamakura

I started by going to this big Buddha.  His name was Amida Nyorai. It is a holy site a hour south of Tokyo.  I also purchased a little souvenir Buddha keychain.   We saw some gigantic rope Buddha slippers.  Even though they were maybe as big as my brother, we didn’t think they would fit the statue.

Then we went inside the statue.  It was huge!  We could walk around only the lower half of his body, not his upper half. It was quite dark, but there was enough light to easily see the ground at your feet. It was 11.3 meter tall and it was sitting down!  On its stool, it was 13.2 meters.

Chinatown, Yokohama

Then we headed to Chinatown on a train.  We saw a fountain that looked  like a good fountain to play on and we saw a cruise ship that had crossed the Pacific 248 times before becoming a museum, docked in Tokyo, Japan.

We finally were in Chinatown.  We asked a lady about a restaurant.  She took us there.  There was no one in the restaurant and we left without eating.  She cursed in Chinese and ran after us, calling in Japanese “40% percent off!”  When we finally chose a different restaurant, the lady said “Okay.  I work here too.”

We left the 70 choice dish buffet, and this chestnut seller offered us a bunch of chestnuts for free.  He gave my 6-year-old brother Elio a 10 buck bag of chestnuts.  Elio didn’t know that it was 10 bucks so he said “Thank you” and walked away while my dad paid the trickster.

I was surprised how many Chinese people live in Chinatown.  I would definitely go again if I had the chance. Even though we won’t be going to China on this trip, now I feel like I have a glimpse into that culture.