Kamakura & Kawagoe

A gorgeous bronze Buddha statue dating to around 1252. I love the way bronze streaks and ages, visually marking the passage of time. The statue is 40+ feet tall and used to be gilded entirely, but now there are just faint traces of that gold on his face. The sign outside the temple noted that it is The Temple of Buddha and the gate of the eternal, marking it as an important spot in Japanese Buddhism. I didn't make it to the interior viewing because the line was insane (Golden Week), but apparently you can view up into the statue and see the graffiti left there through the years.