Ushiku Daibutsu, Ushiku Chateau (winery and museum), and a Japanese garden

To join this event please see below and send me a message on LINE. Without this, you will not find out our meeting point. EVERYONE needs to do this EVERY TIME, including those who have participated with me previously.

***Discounted event fee (¥500) for early applications. See below***

Ushiku Daibutsu used to be the world's tallest statue. We'll be going exploring inside, and hopefully seeing some cool views of Tokyo from the top.

We'll also see Jodo flower garden, and Ushiku Chateau (Japan's oldest winery).

We will meet at Ushiku Station at 10.50am. Please make sure you arrive early as we will take a bus at 11am.

◾️After you have applied to join this event, please contact Mark via the Line application quoting your FULL NAME and this message: [Ushiku - 4th October] MARK’s LINE ACCOUNT
If you would like to bring a guest, please ask me via Line.

◾️参加されるイベントの名前(フルネーム)と日付を付けてマークにLINEしてください。
例:[Ushiku - 4th October] MARK’s LINE ACCOUNT
定員の都合上、お連れ様がいる時は事前にLINEでご相談ください。

Please bring your own lunch. We will find a suitable spot for lunch.

https://www.japan.travel/en/sg/jbyj-blog/visiting-the-french-style-ushiku-chateau/

https://www.oenon.jp/ushiku-chateau/

https://jigsaw-japan.com/2021/12/09/ushiku-chateau-wine-and-westernization/

JODO FLOWER GARDEN
To reach the Ushiku Daibutsu, visitors walk through the Jodo flower garden, a 10,000m² traditional Japanese garden with 12 kinds of flowers blooming throughout the year - including cherry blossoms and creeping phlox in spring, hydrangea in summer, and cosmos in fall.

USHIKU DAIBUTSU
The statue was erected in 1992 to create a place for people to find solace and peace in their hearts. The city of Ushiku was selected for its ties to Shinran (1173-1263), a prominent monk in the history of Japanese Buddhism.

The statue’s exterior is covered with over 6,000 bronze panels, which took ten years to erect. The interior has five levels and an elevator, so senior citizens and wheelchair users need not worry.

The following are highlights according to the fixed route for visitors.

Before entering the statue, visitors will be asked to take their shoes off. The first area you’ll encounter is the “World of Light” located on the first floor. It has a serene atmosphere, furnished with the 12 blessings of Amitabha Tathagata and Buddhist scriptures displayed on the screen.

The second floor displays how the Daibutsu was built. There is a full-scale model of its feet and photographs taken during its construction.

Take the elevator to the fifth floor, the Mt. Ryojusen Room. The name is derived from an Indian mountain where the Buddha is said to have resided.
Here Buddhist history and the remains of the Buddha are displayed. The three narrow windows visible from outside on the chest of Ushiku Daibutsu correspond to this floor (85 meters above ground) and are part of the observatory. Visitors can even see Tokyo Skytree and Mount Fuji in the distance if the weather is clear.
There is a souvenir shop on the fourth floor, which also handles limited-time items.

From the 4th floor, take the elevator down to the “Lotus World” on the 3rd floor. In Buddhism, the World of the Lotus Sanctuary is filled with happiness. The third floor is decorated in gold colors, with more than 3,400 “tainai butsu” (a small Buddha figure placed inside a larger one) lined up along the walls. Homyo (a posthumous Buddhist name) is placed inside each figure, and the sutra is recited for the souls of the departed for eternity.

On the second floor, visitors can experience the World of Gratitude and Thankfulness (acknowledging Amitabha Tathagata’s benevolence and responding with gratitude) and shakyo (hand-copying sutras). The thin workshop paper is placed on sutra paper illuminated from below by a screen built into the table. That allows anyone, even those unfamiliar with Japanese, to easily trace sutra letters. The exercise will surely calm one’s mind.

USHIKU CHATEAU

Just a 10-minute walk from Ushuku station, Ushiku Chateau is a building modelled after a French winery. Completed in 1903 in an area surrounded by vineyards, the Ushiku Chateau established a system from cultivating, harvesting, producing, bottling, to shipping. It soon became Japan’s first full-fledged winery, with a vineyard of 160 hectares with over 130,000 vines at its peak.

The main arched entrance once had a small railway that used to transport grapes into the fermentation chamber in the main building.

Today, the factory building is now where you can learn about its winemaking history – large wooden barrels that are filled with about 1,000 liters of wine line the ground floor, while the second floor displays the history of Ushiku’s winemaking the founder Denbei Kamiya, and accoutrements of the winemaking process used back in the day.

Please note that the chateau itself is not open to the public.

There are many other activities to be explored such as visiting the expansive verdant garden to enjoy the historic atmosphere. Wine and craft beer made in Ushiku Chateau is perfect to bring home as souvenir.

The chateau was built by Kamiya Denbee (1856-1922), another of those visionaries that make Japan’s Meiji Period (1868-1912) such a distinctive time in Japan’s history. At the same time as he was building his chateau, Kamiya was also busily planting vineyards all around it, all part of his grand plan to make this area into a major wine producing region.

Kamiya was the owner of Japan’s first western-style bar, Kamiya Bar, which opened in Asakusa in 1880 and is still in operation. In 1873, while still a teen-ager, he got a job in a warehouse in Yokohama operated by a French wine merchant. When he was injured on the job, his kind employer visited his sickbed every day and gave him a glass of wine to drink to aid his recovery. Kamiya became convinced that wine in moderation could be marketed as a health drink. But he struggled to get his fellow Japanese to drink wine; the flavour was just so different from anything they were used to.

Finally Kamiya realized that if he added honey and Chinese medicinal herbs he could create a drink more pleasing to the Japanese palate. This is when Kamiya’s “Bee Brand Kozan Wine” was born. Although Kamiya’s given name is pronounced Den-beh-eh, with short e, when romanized it becomes Denbee and the second syllable looks like “bee”. It is likely he leveraged that spelling and the honey in his product to brand his product with a bee.

Kamiya was the owner of Japan’s first western-style bar, Kamiya Bar, which opened in Asakusa in 1880 and is still in operation. In 1873, while still a teen-ager, he got a job in a warehouse in Yokohama operated by a French wine merchant. When he was injured on the job, his kind employer visited his sickbed every day and gave him a glass of wine to drink to aid his recovery. Kamiya became convinced that wine in moderation could be marketed as a health drink. But he struggled to get his fellow Japanese to drink wine; the flavor was just so different from anything they were used to.

Finally Kamiya realized that if he added honey and Chinese medicinal herbs he could create a drink more pleasing to the Japanese palate. This is when Kamiya’s “Bee Brand Kozan Wine” was born. Although Kamiya’s given name is pronounced Den-beh-eh, with short e, when romanized it becomes Denbee and the second syllable looks like “bee”. It is likely he leveraged that spelling and the honey in his product to brand his product with a bee.

Today the winery has been turned into a museum where visitors can learn about the history of wine-making at the chateau. On the ground floor are large wooden barrels, the first stage of the fermentation process. When this was a working winery, the barrels stood up, rather than resting on their sides, and the grape juice that was pressed on the second level was poured into them from above. They are turned sideways now to allow visitors a better view.

The courtyard between the chateau and the winery, once a hive of shipping and processing activity, is now a leafy spot with a fountain in the center, a serene spot to relax and soak up the historical atmosphere. On one side of the courtyard is a souvenir shop and snack facility, which a red brick warehouse once used for storage is now a French restaurant.

While the grounds around the chateau are not as expansive as they once were, it is still a spacious facility fun to stroll around in fine weather. There is still a small vineyard in cultivation. There is also a microbrewery in operation, although it is not open to the public.

In one corner of the grounds is a small modern museum, the Oenon Museum. Oenon is the name of the food and beverage conglomerate that now makes Kamiya’s original Bee Brand Kozan Wine, among other well known beverages. This little museum has displays on some of their popular products and especially their past packaging and advertising. It’s probably the most fun to visit with a Japanese friend who will regularly exclaim “Oh, I remember this!”

Today the entire chateau facility belongs to the municipal government, the result of a campaign by local residents to have the buildings preserved. It is designated as a Japan Heritage site, acknowledging its role in the history of wine production in Japan. It is open daily from 10 am to 4 pm and entry is free.

Additional costs (estimated):
Return bus fare 2x ¥560 (Ushiku station to Ushuku Daibutsu)
Jodo garden and entry to the Daibutsu ¥800

Event fee:
¥500 - limited to the first 7 applicants (make sure you contact me on LINE immediately!) - prompt payment is essential to guarantee this reduced fee.
¥1250 if you pay by 3rd October early evening (PayPay, or in cash at an earlier event).
¥1500 in cash on the event day (4th October) - please bring the correct money.

If you don't have PayPay, please ask a friend or coworker to do the transaction for you (give them cash!).

Cancellation policy:

• Full refund given if cancellation is notified BY LINE MESSAGE at least 36 hours before the event start time.
• Reservation and then no-showing without prepayment requires full payment of the event fee via PayPay within 24 hours. Further non-payment will result in removal from the group.

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After the event, you may submit a review/evaluation. Please kindly rate appropriately as a low evaluation has an impact on the group. Things you should clearly understand in advance:

1. I (Mark) am not a tour guide. For many events this will also be my first time, and events are mainly organised based on intensive internet research.
2. Nature cannot be guaranteed, so flower festivals may be impacted by the recent climate.
3. We aim to depart on time, however bus schedules might change. This is unavoidable.
4. We request participants arrive EARLY. In rare cases we might wait a few minutes if we do not need to take a bus.
5. The number of participants is not guaranteed. However we will not have large groups.
6. The event finish time might be earlier or later than advertised. The hiking time might be longer/shorter than anticipated. Return bus times are not guaranteed.

How to calculate your review appropriately:
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars) = Everything was as described.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (4 stars) = The event was generally ok, but there were a few things that you weren't happy with (please provide further details).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars) = The event was disappointing (please provide further details).
⭐️⭐️ (2 stars) = The event was poor (please provide further details).
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