Golden Week, Day 4 - Nara

Bright and early on our 4th day (Wednesday) we bid sayonara to Kyoto and traveled onto Nara. Nara was founded in 710 and was Japan's first capital. Nara still holds many cultural treasures.

Again, I chose a hotel close to the station for our stay. But, what a difference! The Hotel Nikko Nara is a modern, upscale hotel. They even had a crib already setup in our room!! Fabulous. Blackout curtains and lack of noise from the street made for a more restful sleep than the previous few.

First stop - Diabutsu! But, we couldn't get near the temple without first encountering Nara's sacred deer. The deer are regarded as messengers of the gods and roam freely. However, they seem to stay near the parks where the deer "cookies" are sold. Addison wasn't afraid of the deer. But, maybe that's because she was in the backpack. I had to pet a lot of deer!




The Nandaimon gate.



The giant oni (demon) guardians. Look at the size of the people!


Diabutsu means "Big Buddha". We've seen another one in Kamakura. This Diabutsu is the taller of the two measuring 16 meters tall (that's 53 feet). The statue was cast in 752, but has lost its head several times in fires and earthquakes. The current head has been in place since 1692. Nara's Diabutsu is also unique because of the upturned hand on his lap.

The temple that houses Diabutsu is Todai-ji Temple. It is the largest wooden structure in the world. BUT, this present structure is only two-thirds the size of the original building! Within the temple there is a support beam with a hole carved through at the base. I've heard that people that can pass through this small space will achieve enlightenment. Ian and I didn't try, maybe we should have. But we convinced Addison to go through the "tunnel". When she reached the other side we clapped and so did the 30 or so Japanese people that were watching too! On a side note, Addison loves to say "Diabutsu". It's funny and cute and she says it properly.



A religious festival was beginning as we were leaving. These are Buddhist priests.
If Diabutsu was quality (the sheer size of the Buddha statue and temple), then Kasuga Shrine is quantity. Kasuga Shrine boasts approximately 3,000 lanterns. Beautiful, moss-covered lanterns. It was beautiful to walk through this area.

This is a purification fountain. The deer has water running out of a reed in its mouth.

Addy tries to make a friend.






One last chat with a deer.

For dinner we went to a restaurant named the Mellow Cafe. It was really mellow and they had a cool, all-juice drink that we bought for Addy called a Jungle Monkey! She loved it!

One last note. We loved the Nara bus system. It runs in a loop (not unlike the Yamanote line in Tokyo) around the city and stops at all the major sights. Very convenient and easy to take. So much nicer than Kyoto's buses!