Nara Daytrip

Saturday, November 19, 2011
Nara, Kinki, Japan
The day in Nara was pretty much spoiled by an endless rain. It started raining in the morning, when we were in Kyoto and it didn't stop until the end of the day. As a result, all our photo gear was wet, my travel book suffered water damage and ended up with warped pages and we were generally wet and miserable most of the time.

Upon arrival to Nara we walked to a Tourist information office and dropped off our luggage . Then we headed to the Nara park, where Todaiji temple was located. Entering the park we were immediately greeted by herds of semi-wild deer living in the park. The deer are considered in Shinto religion to be messengers of gods (kami), so they are allowed to wander the park freely, begging passerbies for snacks, harassing picnickers and generally being bothersome pests. These guys are literally everywhere over there: on the grass, on sidewalks, near stores and especially around vendors selling special "deer cakes". I poked several deer, pulled their ears, touched their noses, they never seem to mind. Male deer had their antlers removed by the local priest (in some ceremony), so they had sad little stumps on their heads, which they didn’t like to be touched :)

Making our way between wet deer and excited school kids we walked to majestic Great South Gate, a huge wooden structure housing 2 massive protector demons. We took a short break in the gate, away from the rain, to shake out umbrellas that were already soaked through by that time . A few minutes' walk from the gate, there was an entrance to enormous Todaiji, the largest wooden building in the world that houses Japan’s largest bronze Buddha statue. The statue is exceptionally striking; it is barely contained by the massive wooden temple. It depicts a cosmic Buddha sitting on a giant lotus flower, presiding over all aspects of Buddhist universe. Each petal of the lotus is engraved with diagrams of the universe as it is described in Buddhism. Walking around the great statue we saw several smaller, but still pretty impressive statues, a model of the temple and a hole in one of supporting beams, climbing through which is supposed to guarantee a reserved place in paradise (or enlightenment in the next reincarnation, according to another theory) :) Maran was able to squeeze through without any problem :) After securing a spot in paradise, Maran decided to test her luck and got a fortune from a special box, filled with numbered sticks. She shook the box, pulled out a stick and immediately got the best possible fortune :) I guess her wish was not for the rain to stop, because when we got outside, it was raining even harder %)

We walked back through the park and had a lunch in one of the restaurants on the park's alleys. Then we walked to a nearby Nara National Museum, which had free admissions that day. While the main exhibition was away somewhere, we saw a collection of Buddhist statues, made of wood, metal and stone and a collection of Chinese ritual bronze objects, most of which were familiar to Maran :)

It was raining slightly less when we walked out of the museum, so we headed back to the train station stopping for some souvenir shopping and to watch a sumo wrestling match on TV on the way. Then we picked up our luggage and took a train to Osaka.

Photos & Videos

Comments

smaran
2011-11-24

haha, i wouldn't say the day was *spoiled*... as i still secured a spot in paradise, and got best fortune haha. but you're right i didn't blow it on better weather :P. it was fun photographing all the umbrellas though :) and the tree moss were really glistening! AND we learned that wet deer don't smell :))

2025-02-17

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