The apostrophe implies that this is not an auction of actual mothers, but of things that mothers are auctioning. I can imagine that a mother’s auction is held one weekend when the rest of the family has gone out somewhere and the mothers get together to auction off all their family’s beloved possessions that were getting in the way a bit. Then the mothers feel a great sense of release from seeing empty shelves and empty wardrobes etc. Their families return home and think they’ve been robbed but “no” says the mother, “I just had a good clear out, everything you once loved is gone.”
So on with the statue. Unless you already know the answer you may be wondering what/who the statue is actually of. The first sight you see of it is from the bus:
Yes, that’s right. It’s Buddha.
The statue is pretty enormous and claims to be three times taller than the Statue of Liberty. It is so enormous, in fact, that it is quite hard to take in exactly how big it is. To deal with this problem the designers leave little reminders around of how big the statue really is. For example, there was a model of the head of the statue, scaled down 1000 times. It comes to something when you have a model of a statue.
The statue stands in a nice kind of park with some ponds, grass, flowers and lots of places to sit. There is even one of those seaside poke your head through photograph attractions, but of the Buddha. This seemed a little cheapening of the Buddha to me, especially after you have just built a 120 metre high effigy of the man why put that thing there too. They
The pond was full of carp but for some reason they were all trying to get out.
I went to the statue with Yoko and she made a bento lunch for us to eat.
We ate lunch underneath the watchful eyes of Buddha, about 120 metres under.
The statue was finished in 1995 and as such has a lift on the inside. The journey into Buddha begins with taking off your shoes and putting them into a plastic bag to carry around with you. Electric doors open in the base of the statue and you enter a small room with tiny lights on the floor. A gentle looking woman says something in Japanese as the doors close and the lights begin to fade. A story is to told over a speaker system and the light fades to complete darkness, except for the little lights on the floor.
After a moment the lights come on again and bewilderedly you walk into the next area, which is even stranger. The lights here are very soft and there is slightly spiritual but more just eerie sounding music playing. Lots of little Buddha figures sit around the room and coloured lights fade in and out, drifting around the Buddhas. Beyond this area is a corridor with curved walls and a long line of light shimmering along its length. I didn’t know what to make of it but Yoko summed it up nicely when she said, “It feels like a spaceship.”
That area ended in some normal looking stairs, which lead to an even more normal looking museum. Even though we were now standing inside the statue itself, here was another reminder for us about how big the statue is. There was a lifesize model of Buddha’s toe.
Around the wall were some amazing black and white pictures of the Buddha’s construction.
I especially like this one. There’s a certain beauty in being unfinished, like cake mixture.
Beyond the museum was the shakiest lift I have ever been in. It felt like there was turbulence but I suppose that’s absurd.
From the outside of the Buddha you can see some innocuous looking slits in the chest and arms. Once inside the statue these reveal themselves to be narrow windows to give you a view of the surrounding countryside and park.
Like all over high places in Japan there was a picture of Mount Fuji on the wall as it allegedly looks from the window on a fine day. I think it’s a lie though; I think they made the photo on a computer and just feel they have to put the Fuji viewing claim in there to keep up appearances.
So after straining your eyes to make out the outline of Mount Fuji you head down to the shop and then the lift back to the ground. However, it is not the ground you land on but a kind of graveyard with over 3000 graves.
It is a large round room with stacks of golden Buddhas, each with a name written underneath.
Behind the statue we found lots of rabbits in a petting zoo.
This one was very fond of its brick.
There was also an unpettable creature present also, a peacock.
In the children’s play area was a tall blue dinosaur and I tried to make a Godzilla attacking the Buddha picture but it was nigh impossible.
Yoko hates being photographed this is the best I will probably ever get.
We sat down by the pond and watched the large carp occasionally splash the water. The sun was still shining and we talked about life while the Buddha looked into the far distance.
But eventually it was time to go home and a few hours later in the 100 yen shop we came across inapropriately named gas cannisters for sale.
Don’t ask.
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