~NARA~

(Those are crackers for the deer!)



On Dec 30th, Dave and I headed to Nara... at last! It was a sunny day, and although our main aim was to see the deer, which it is famous for, we discovered what a lovely little place Nara actually is. Much smaller than Kyoto, it was formerly Japan's capital in the 8th century, before the court was moved to Kyoto. Walking around Nara, we found lots of historic buildings, green space, a strangely high amount of people who seemed to be living in temple compounds, and a cute little main street that made us feel like we were in somewhere small like Fraserburgh or Macduff (but really nice!) while we were walking down it.

Below: Various sights around Nara.

















After wandering around the town for a little while, we headed to the deer park, near the great Todai-Ji Temple.

Oh Deer!

















After having finally seen (and fed) enough of the deer, we moved on to Todai-Ji Temple, the world's largest wooden structure, which houses the world's largest bronze statue (a giant Buddha) inside. To get to this, we had to pass through Japan's largest gate. Inside the temple, along with the Buddha, are two other large statues, to his right and left, many other statues and relics, and a wooden pillar with a hole in it, which people try to squeeze themselves through, often succeeding, because the size of the hole is supposed to be the same size as the opening to paradise. It's not a very big hole.



It was difficult to get photos of the Buddha that actually show how big it was, but to help indicate the size, every New Years Eve (we were a day early, but already all the preparations were in place, food stalls set up in the grounds, etc) the small opening under the arch in the centre is opened and the inside lit up, and the Buddha's eyes can be seen looking out through this. So, that little arch = eye level.























People pray to this figure here in order to cure any illnesses or ailments that they might have. You put a coin in the box as an offering, then rub the applicable part of the statue's body, then rub the same area on yourself, and any ailments will supposedly be healed. So he's good, even though he looks a bit scary.

After leaving Todai-Ji, we walked back into town, but visited the twin pagodas that we had passed on the way to the deer park. On this site is a 3-storey pagoda and a 5-storey pagoda, plus some other small buildings, some houses that look like temple buildings, and some stray deer.









After all of that, we headed to a nice Italian restaurant where we had tea, and then caught the train back to Kyoto, where we climbed up to the skywalk to get a view of the city at night. And that was our happy day out in Nara, with the deer.