Kannon Statue Goddess of Mercy over Tokyo Bay

Dec 16, 2005

Shige spent the entire day with us, driving us all the way up to see the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy overlooking Tokyo Bay. Just like the statue of Liberty the Goddess has interior stairs for visitors to climb, but unlike Liberty the Goddess has beautiful shrines and prayer boxes along the way so that you can offer incense to the gods or goddesses that represent your needs. Within the Crown of the Goddess is a rickety ladder that you can climb to reach a small alcove with a book of goals or wishes left by past visitors. Most of them were written in Japanese, but here and there throughout the book you could find one in English.

We walked around the beautiful gardens for awhile, looking at all the statues and floral arrangements before taking a brief stop at the gift shop and heading back down to our vehicle.

I was dying to see the beach after standing out on the rails near the Crown of the Goddess, so Shige drove me clear out to one of the few beaches that weren't completely destroyed by polution from the city. From what Jason and Shige claimed, most of the beaches have become unpleasant due to the amount of waste being washed up on shore from the big cities. But the beach we visited seemed to be pretty clean, although completely empty of visitors. I collected a pocketful of shells as a souvenire before we made the long walk back to where we'd parked, and made our way homeward.


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