Livin' the McDream: Independence Day and a visit to Aomori Big Buddha!

Happy Independence Day! Ours was pretty low-key. Had tried to plan a BBQ with Keenan's co-workers but the weather forecast called for rain and strong winds. The base also cancelled the fair they had planned. Once again the weathermen were completely wrong. It was a great day, 70's and sunny. We spent most of the day relaxing. Grilled steaks in the afternoon on the grill we bought earlier in the week from someone about to move. While sitting outside reading in the afternoon I noticed my right ankle was getting swollen. There was a bug bite so I didn't think much of it. We went to a movie that evening and when we got back out into the light I saw that the swelling was getting worse, it was hot and red. (2+ pitting edema for my nurse friends). A lady at the theater told me she'd seen people with these bites before and after the swelling the bites ooze for a couple days...oh great, can't wait! I had to request a stop for Benadryl before we went to dinner. I'll put a pic at the end of this post (don't want to scare anyone away by starting off with a pic of my feet!).
We had dinner at Ankur (Indian food), this was our second visit there. Keenan and I shared the butter chicken and nan. Not as good as the chicken curry I'd had last time.
No fireworks going on :(

The next day, July 5th the weather was supposed to be cloudy with a chance of rain. I convinced Keenan that we should go see the Big Buddha by Aomori. We took a longer more scenic route through the mountains going there, we saved money by not taking the toll road, but as far a seeing the scenery, there wasn't much to see due to the fog. The Big Buddha is about 75km away (46 miles) by the route we took.

A little shrine we passed on the way there.

So much for taking in the scenery...

A cemetery that was near Big Buddha.

The Big Buddha was bigger than I expected and there were also several temples/shrines in the park. I also didn't expect to be able to go inside the different buildings. It was drizzling while we were there, but they had complementary umbrellas everywhere for us to use. Which was great because we don't have our umbrellas yet, they're in our Unaccompanied Baggage. I'll use pieces of the English visitors guide they gave us to help explain my pictures (they aren't the greatest quality and some aren't quite straight, but I don't have my scanner).

Path from the parking lot.

Umbrellas by the parking lot!

Entrance ticket was 400 yen (~$4).

This is a little background information about the Big Buddha area or "park" as I called it earlier.

Had to remove shoes before entering any buildings.

The "large Buddhist picture" behind
the altar that's mentioned in the brochure.

Altar.

Another view from outside the main hall.

Me by the pagoda.

This was a small shrine and purifying station, it's not listed in the English pamphlet.

There were several of these paintings
describing the "life cycle" in Buddhism.

Upstairs inside the Big Buddha, it is a special area honoring
war dead, we guessed that these had names on them.

Small altar on lower level inside.

Over where?!? Ohhh, over there? haha

I missed getting a picture of this one...oops

At least I had options in this bathroom...

Altar.

On the way home we took the toll road so it would be faster. It was about 58 km (36 miles). We did take a small detour and drove along the shore of Lake Ogawara which is the lake that the base is also on.