The weekend before Christmas I found myself having a social Christmas dinner in a loft above a café in Aizuwakamatsu, Fuskushima. The dinner featured board games as well as a fun round of a White Elephant style Christmas gift exchange. It was a nice way to spend time with friends, especially on this particular weekend.
I crashed at my friend Ken’s house with my friends Chais and Mitch. The next morning we didn’t have any plans, so I suggested going to see the giant Kannon-Sama statue about a five minute drive from Ken’s house.
The Aizu Jibo Daikannon stands nearly 57 meters tall and was built in 1987. It is hollow on the inside and has a spiral staircase going up the middle. When you first get inside, before you go up the staircase you can see many different depictions of Kannon-sama.
You can climb to her shoulder height, and there are small windows that you can open and look out going all the way up. In the distance you can see Mt. Bandai.
Along the inner side of the spiral staircase are display cases that feature thousands of miniature Kannon-sama statues in different poses and incarnations. I was told at the time that these statues represent children who are lost or have passed away. Since then, I have read from an online source that the statues merely a display of the names of people who have donated money to the temple. I could find no corroboration either way.
The statue of Kannon is holding a child and is a shrine popular among women who are hoping to get pregnant, have a safe childbirth or pray on behalf of their children.
This is a statue and shrine at the top of the Kannon statue. You will see that there are various candies and toys scattered about the base as an offering to Kannon-Sama.
This is the view from the top:
On the temple grounds, there are many other shrines and beautiful attractions other than the Daikannon. Even in winter the temple grounds were beautiful. I would love to see this in the spring or summer when it is green and the flowers are blooming.
There is a koi pond and bridge that were beautiful. The bridge was blocked off when I was there, so we didn’t cross to the other side, but it was still beautiful.
The koi fish in the pond swam right up to us and I tried petting them, and they let me! They also were nibbling at my finger. It felt weird but it was super cute!
There is also this statue of a sleeping Buddha with lotus flowers on the bottom of his feet. And when in Rome…
Here is the gang!
There is also this beautiful three-storied pagoda on the temple grounds and the wood looks old, but still beautiful. I especially like the demon faces on the decorations of the eaves.
There was one smaller shrine tucked away in the corner of the grounds along the path as we left the grounds. It had a row of Jizo-sama statue and other styles of memorials in a row nearby.
We walked around on the way out enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Once we left the grounds we were getting hungry so we stopped at the Bandai Katsudon restaurant across the street. This style of katsudon is famous in the Bandai area of Aizu. The restaurant gives you huge portions, and in the second photo you can see just how much rice was given to me and just how absolutely massive these pieces of pork are.
After stuffing myself, I still had enough food for leftovers for three days!
After we were done we went our separate ways. I was headed east to Minamisoma, and so was ken, to Koriyama to do some shopping. I followed him and we hung out in this large mall in Koriyama. He bought what he needed to and we went our separate ways. It was a nice weekend, and it was good to have the company of friends on this particular weekend.
