Been a little while since an update or post which I promise to work on once this final week passes. On Thursday, I had no activities so I went with a friend to Nara after class let out. While we rode on the train(which I thought was express, but wasn’t)we passed through some wonderful views of mountains, rice fields, and suburban neighborhoods that were neatly ordered. When we arrived, we took a bus, but there was some major traffic up the hill so we decided to just hoof it to the temple. As we walked, I came upon one of the reasons Nara is a popular tourist attraction; the deer. I had never really seen deer before in my life except in Disney movies like Bambi or their cliche representations in American popular culture.
Anyways, we made our way to the temple where deer roam more freely than the bus stop area. I took a couple of deer selfies for a friend, but what really struck me the most about this place was not the deer, but what awaited inside after we paid(only 500 yen, about five bucks).
Seeing this from afar is seriously surreal. The sheer size of it from that vantage point hits you and you realize that we’re pretty amazing(humans, that is).
From inside, you get to see two things that make people come to Todaiji, the Daibutsu of Nara and the hole representing his nostril through which people slither in and out of as it is believed to give good luck to a person. Todaiji is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the Daibutsu of Nara is the largest bronze imagery of the Buddha in the entire world. It’s so huge that I don’t really have words to describe it.
Once we left the main temple grounds, we hiked up towards a view my friend wanted me to see. By the way, you can circumvent paying to get in free if you just go by the exit(no one is the wiser honestly). On the way up, I was interviewed by Japanese kids on school field trips around three times. Honestly, this was the cutest thing I’ve experienced here so far and they were dumbfounded when I answered them in Japanese. They asked me where I came, why I came, what food I liked best, what did I want to see in Kyoto. I seemed to be the most approachable foreigner I guess which I found odd given my resting face.
Anyways, in the path leading up are a variety of little temples and prayer halls and shrines where people can leave ema’s(wooden tablets in which people write their wishes) or bad paper fortunes so their luck isn’t at risk. Something interesting there had caught my eye which was this very faded painting I suppose. If you look closely, you can see a samurai and demon fighting each other with a horse in the background. It was pretty cool, but oddly strange how it hasn’t been repaired to restore it.
We reached the view my friend wanted to show me after so long. It was pretty impressive although my picture probably does not do it justice as I feel most of my pictures have.
After this, it was pretty much up to me where to go so we just made our way back down and headed in the general direction of the station where we passed by a Shinto Shrine named Kasuga Taisha Shrine. Unfortunately, by the time we got there the main parts of the shrine were closed, but I managed to snap some pictures of things that interested me. For example, this wall of names.
Or…… after that, we found ourselves in another temple that’s pretty famous called Kofukuji with these two beautiful structures.
This five storied pagoda was absolutely breathtaking even though I hated the shot I got of it. The main temple area was huge and there was construction being done for the hall to the northeast. Deer were still roaming around the grounds and people were taking pictures with them, feeding them, and petting them. As we made our way to the area near the second picture, people were coming in on their way and praying quickly before moving on to whatever other activities they had. It’s simply amazing how interconnected these rituals, structures, and what they represent are with the Japanese.
Nara is filled with beautiful views and plenty of places for people to go to get a taste of Japan’s past. While it may not be as bleeding edge like Tokyo or bursting with tradition like Kyoto, it was certainly worth going to and I think everyone who has a chance to go, should come
Till next time,
Adrian
P.S. Just noticed I didn’t show any deer. Here’s one!
P.P.S.
My flickr account with all the pictures of my blog posts so far.