Buddha's Head, Watching You Over the Treetops
Aomori doesn't have a lot to see and I'd already seen most of the things I was interested in last night so I slept in and took my time getting up and ready. I made an obligatory stop at their fish market (which I could smell- yay, except...ewww) and got some takeaway. I was eating it in a large plaza and kicking at pigeons simultaneous when I saw the largest crow I've ever seen. It was probably three times the size of a normal crow and was really intimidating. I felt like I could finally understand why Tippi Hendran would be afraid of them in "The Crows" as I made a plan for what to do if it attacked me (kick, mostly, and whack with my purse).
Since I still had lots of time, I shopped around a bit, walked a bit farther and got a cup of Haagen-Daaz cookies and cream ice cream (I was PMSing, or at least, used that as my excuse). Finally it was time to get on the bus to see the one thing I particularly wanted to see in, well, outside of, Aomori; Seiryu-ji.
Showa Daibutsu is the largest outdoor Buddha in Japan. The complex it's in, Seiryu-ji, also includes numerous statues and a temple and five storied pagoda (the tallest one North of Kyoto). Amazingly, they had a very detailed brochure (4 pages of explanation on computer paper stapled together) in English! Usually this would be nice, but full of basic, vaguely interesting information that you'd forget in an instant but this brochure had a diatribe discussing the problem of secularism, a decline in ethics and insincere Buddhist priests! It was funny, bizarre, unexpected and fascinating. Western Honshu is seen by many Japanese in the same way that many Americans see the deep south: as a deeply religious, outdated place full of agriculture and bigotry and lacking education and pretentiousness. This rant made me understand this stereotype a bit better and amused me because if I replaced just a few of the words and removed a sentence of two I could easily imagine a middle aged white woman saying it in a Southern accent. Below, I've typed the best part, using parentheses to show words I would replace to make it work.
"There is another big reason for building the Daibutsu. (church.) After World War II in Japan, (the United States,) religion was excluded from the education curriculum due to separation of state and religion. Is moraland emotional education capable without religion? The answer is obvious when we look at the current situation. We have witnessed a decline in ethics. Such miserable cases as parents who have killed their children and children who have killed their parents and indiscriminate murders have often been reported. In contrast to the poverty-stricken society after WWII, (during the Great Depression,) we now enjoy the benefits of a developed economy, high quality education and scientific culture, which enable us to lead a very convenient life. However, there has been a growing concern that moral degenerations is progressing year by year. Although our economy, education and culture have developed, if we don't cultivate richness of the mind, Japan (the United States) will be in ruins someday. Then, who takes care of the issue of the mind? Religious people do. However, many Japanese Buddhist priests (American Preachers) behave as if priests' mission were only to perform rituals like funerals and memorial services."
Weird, right?
The temple was nice, as was the pagoda, but the real reason I came was to see Jizo Bosatsu (Boddhisattva) and put a pinwheel on this hill. The pinwheels are left by parents for their children who have died. Since my mother couldn't be there, I bought a green one and left it as high as I could get on that hill to catch the breeze for Joseph.
I walked up to the Giant Buddha and inside the hall underneath where you could see part of the structure. There was one group of Japanese tourists who came through while I was there but for the most part I had the place to myself.
Walking away from Buddha, I ran into Ichigan Kannon, who grants you just one wish.
Then I passed this fearsome god, Fudo Myooh, who is actually supposed to be good because he slays your negative thoughts with his sword and lassos people back onto the path of righteousness.
Kobo-Daishi is the statue on the other side of this pond and the founder of the Shingon sect of Buddhism. Each of the plates around the pond holds sand from one of the 88 temples associated with the Shingon sect. According to my brochure, it would be "a great experience to follow the footsteps of Daishi by stepping on the plates one by one, chanting his honorific name (Nama Daishi Henjokongo)." I tried it and it was just okay, not great.
This part, outside the main complex, is Kobo-Daishi-do, and these are the cool things that were inside it.
My overnight train to Sapporo (included in my rail pass so I didn't have to pay extra or for a hostel one night!) didn't leave until 10 p.m. but since I had nothing to do, from 8 onwards, after going online at the free internet place and getting dinner: a small crab and cheese omelette that was awesome and remarkably cheap and fantastic calamari, I just sat in the train station and finished reading The Lady and the Unicorn. On the train, I brushed my teeth and curled up with my mini tempurpedic pillow, my microfiber towel as a blanket, and an Ambien, and shortly, I was out.
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