Exhibition of the Buddhist ashura

Last Sunday, with my wife I went to “The special exhibition of the national treasure Ashura”, shown only for a limited time at Tokyo National Museum (Ueno park). This exhibition commemorates the 1300th anniversary of Kofukuji Temple, Nara and to raise funds for the restoration project of the temple. When we got there, it was around 4 o’clock in the afternoon. It was about 1 hour before the closing time, so there were not many people there and we took time to have a good look around. One of the people there told us that they had so many people visit in the morning that most of them had to wait for 1 hour to get inside.

The Ashura is a national treasure earmarked as one of the important cultural assets of the country. It must be one of the most famous Buddhist statues in Japan. It is a wooden statue made almost 1300 years ago from today. With 3 faces, it stands with 6 arms, some palms facing toward the sky. Although it has experienced repeated fires and arson at the temple and wars, it still holds the original shape even after 1300 years; so it is really precious that we can still see it right in front of our eyes. It is usually kept in a glass case at the Kofukuji Temple. To see its faces, we could only see from a distance and could only have the front view. But this time, it is exposed and we were allowed to get as close as 1m to the statue, checking it from a 360 degree view. I do not think I would have another chance like this in my life time.

Looking close, Ashura’s 3 faces are all attractive and small, and it has a tiny body. Most Buddhist statues we see at temples usually look angry or smiley but Ashura does not look angry or smiley. But it is not emotionless. It has a dignified expression on its faces – it was like the love it has sent to so many people over a long, long time. If we look at things philosophically, without any dark side of human nature such as desires, foul passions, distresses, etc., we might look like the statue one day.

Because it was just before closing time and not many people around, I stood in front of the statue for a long time. I felt really good after feeling pure energy coming out of Ashura.

We are lucky because we live in Tokyo where this sort of rare art and cultural exhibitions always come not only from all over Japan but all over the world. I have been to a lot of exhibitions of art and Buddhist statues. The organizers of the exhibition said that it was extremely rare opportunity and not going to be repeated in this century. I was incredibly lucky.

On the way home, we stopped at “Ameyoko”, a famous wholesale market. It was also just about closing time, so I bought a big chunk of oily belly tuna cheap after a bit of negotiation of the price. Have I used up all my luck?

Fierce competition among highway bus services

In Japan, the main transport for a long distance journey used to be airplanes or bullet trains. However, now becoming more popular is highway buses. The reasons are that they are “cheap” and “luxurious”.

Of course, bus trips should be cheap; but now we have some bus companies offering ridiculously cheap fares. For example, the trip between Tokyo and Osaka, a customary discounted one way ticket costs JPY 12000～JPY 13000 by bullet train but the cheapest bus fare is an incredible JPY 3400!! The bus is a standard type with 4 seats in a row and no toilet on it. If you want a reclining chair or a toilet on the bus, you can upgrade your ticket for only JPY 500. On the other hand, there is an auxiliary seat option and you can use the service for JPY 2100.

So if you use this service, it will be a lot cheaper than using bullet train if you use it for a round trip. If you use an overnight one, you can travel while you are asleep and you will not waste your time. For bullet trains and airplanes, you have to think about the time to get to the nearest station or airport and if you want to get to the destination early in the morning, you will have to get up even earlier but even if you get up early, because of the time table, you can only get to Osaka at 8:30am. If you use a night bus, you can get to Osaka at 7:00 in the morning. You can sleep on the bus and Voila! You get there at the usual wake-up time. This is the reason for their popularity.

Now the buses are not just competing in price, they are making their service more comfortable. One of the bus companies uses a bus with large seats (big enough to put 2 people in each). You can also receive terrestrial digital media broadcasting and the one-way ticket is JPY 9900. Another bus company has luxury seats, a TV and a DVD player, outlets for computers and even wireless LAN on the bus and their one-way ticket costs JPY 11000, almost the same as a bullet train ticket.

The reason for this fierce competition among bus companies is the change in the road transport law in 2002. For route buses, bus companies have to use their own buses and employees but if it is a long distance tour bus, the company who organises the tour and the company who actually owns the bus can be different. A travel agent can decide how many buses they want to hire, depending on the number of passengers; so they can cut unnecessary cost and lower the fares. Thus, the tour bus industry expanded their business largely within a short time.

Especially, when the oil price went up extremely last year, more people started using buses after getting rid of their own cars. So with more people wanting to use buses, the competition among bus companies is getting fierce by lowering fares and increasing quality.

Japan’s economy is not getting better and even if it gets a bit better, it does not always means working people would end up with more cash in hand. I think that we will see more of these type of tour buses as long as people are looking to cut costs or a bit of luxury.

So if you have a chance to come to Japan, please try one of the highway buses.


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