Nara

Nara: home of tame deer, hundreds of stone lanterns, and the biggest bronze Buddha in the world.  We ventured to this smaller city on Monday, April 4th, after our two days of Kyoto adventures.

To the left, I meet a friend!

To the right is the famous 5-story pagoda, just one of many old and beautiful buildings in the first temple complex we found upon reaching Nara.


We walked into the foothills and as far as we could see stood stone lanterns.  Paper was being cleaned off them the day we visited.  I think recently there was a festival when all the lanterns were lit, which would be a breathtaking sight, simply judging from how many lanterns there are.  We meandered, taking in cherry blossoms, stone carvings, and many shrines with amazing architecture.  The craftsmanship of these places is unbelievable.  Nara is another site that delivered the ancient Japanese aesthetic in bounds.  It was incredibly peaceful (except for the deer chasing anything that looked like food) and otherworldly.

Below, the boys do their own version of "Entourage" in front of a giant torii.

L-R: Steve, Alan, Jake, Matt

A view inside one of the many shrines nestled in the mountains, among stone lanterns.  This one was very ornate.  The tatami on the right is silk-lined.  This place is open to the air, and provides a place of worship and ceremony to followers of this particular shrine.

The lanterns faded away eventually and we came to Nigatsudou, or February Hall, pictured above.  It is an immense structure up a bit on a hill.  It is in another temple complex, and there is space for services at the top.  It is built so that the light in February hits it just right and illuminates the view perfectly.  Unfortunately we were visiting in April, a few months off of the "perfect time."  I thought it was still extremely gorgeous.  Down the path just a little ways is a huge bell, pictured to the right.  There is an ancient myth that a monk romanced a woman, slept with her, and left.  She got very angry and turned into a snake.  He hid under the bell, but she wrapped around it and circled faster and faster, making it so hot that he roasted inside the bell.  Shakespeare did not know how right he was when he wrote, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."    

A short distance from the roasting bell lies the Toudaiji.  It is the largest wooden building in the world, and houses the largest bronze Buddha Vairocana in the world.  It is called Daibutsu in Japanese, which literally means "great (large) Buddha."  It is, understandably, a World Heritage Site.  The Buddha, pictured below, is truly enormous.  He is 14.98 m (49.1 ft) tall.  His entire face is 5.33 m (17.5 ft), with eyes that are 1.02 m (3.3 ft), ears that are 2.54 m (8.3 ft), and a nose that is .5 m (1.6 ft).  He is said to weigh 500 tons.  Like other old relics of Japan, the building and the Buddha have been maintained throughout the centuries, although the most recent work done was in the Edo period (1615-1867).  So it's still impressively old.

On the way home, we crashed a luxury train (no regular trains going home for another hour!).  Since there was barely anyone on board, we rode in style in a group car, of course snacking all the way.  FYI, I don't know if I've mentioned this on the blog, but Japan has great snacks.  And lots of 'em.