Day Twelve: Nara

According to the guide book it takes 40 to 60 minutes depending on the train to get to Nara by JR and the trains run every 15 minutes. We must have gotten extremely lucky because our train ride took over an hour. In addition to that we missed one train by a minute and the next one was scheduled in half an hour. On the other hand, it gave us a chance to get some breakfast, which consisted of Belgian waffles that we smelled out in the station and some freshly squeezed juice.

Main attractions of Nara are all conveniently located in Nara Park and are easily accessible on foot. We didn't have a good map of the place with us so we picked up one from the Tourist Center at the station and then started out along the main tourist street of Nara, Sanjo Dori, to the park. Funnily enough I was navigating.

First site at the entrance to the park is Sarusawa Pond populated by small turtles and sporting a fountain in the center.

From there we climbed the stairs aiming for Kofukuji Temple, passing by a small three-story pagoda on the way.

The Kofukuji Temple, one of the "Seven Great Temples" of the Heian period, was established as a family temple of the Fujiwaras and once upon a time was a very large complex of 175 buildings that are mostly gone by now. Even the ones that remain are once again not the original structures, everything has been repeatedly rebuilt after getting destroyed by fires. For instance, the pagoda, second tallest in Japan, had been rebuilt five times. The original entrance to the temple grounds was traditionally from the South next to the pagoda but since the complex is no longer enclosed and the gate is gone we entered the complex next to Nanendo (Southern Octagonal Hall).

Only then we finally approached the pagoda and its neighbor - the Tokon-do (Eastern Golden Hall).

Tokon-do houses few images of Buddha and his attendants, which we were not allowed to photograph. Fortunately, the "no pictures" sign was so well hidden that we pretty much took all the pictures we wanted before noticing that sign. Not that it would really have stopped me anyway.

We didn't go into the Treasure House, the admittance cost 500 yen and, as we already realized, almost every attraction that charged 500 yen was a disappointment. So we tried to avoid those unless the guide insisted it was a good spot to visit. As far as I could tell the rule failed only ones - at our next major stop and the most famous attraction of Nara - the Daibutsuden.

Nara is one of the ancient capitals of Japan (the other being Kamakura, Kyoto, and Edo, now known as Tokyo) and is a home to many world famous historical sites and treasures. However, what it advertises, puts on its magnets and other touristy souvenirs, and takes great pride in are its deers. Hundreds of these creatures freely roam the park, approaching the passerbys without fear in hopes of being petted and treated to the special deer cookies sold all over the place. They are quite harmless, males get their male attribute - antlers - sawed off, and very friendly.

On our way to the home of the world's largest bronze Buddha we saw quite a few of these cute creatures and one of them even approached me.

I didn't have any cookies but was holding a map in my hands and the doe found that a suitable substitute, but I fought valiantly and saved the map from being eaten.

After braving the ferocious maploving deers and crowds of shoppers ...

... we finally reached the huge Nandaimon Gate guarding the entrance to the Todaiji Temple.

At the gate Lena got accosted by a group of small school children who wanted to practice their English on her. They were led by a teacher and armed with cheat sheets that listed the questions they were to ask of unsuspecting foreigners and possible answers they could give. Nothing too complicated: your name, your favourite colour and favourite animal. To that last one I suggested a deer as a response but the kids' cheat sheets didn't list that choice, so Lena had to go with an elephant.

At the end they asked for an autograph and then gave us some candy.

This was the second time I saw kids practicing their English on foreign tourist and both times they wanted to talk to my companions.

The main attraction, and the reason to visit the Temple, is the largest wooden building in the world, the Daibutsuden, that houses the largest bronze statue in Japan - the Great Buddha. The building used to be even bigger, before it burned down a couple of times and shrunk to two thirds of its original size, and the statue managed to lose its head twice - in an earthquake and in a fire - but both still present a very impressive sight.

Behind the statues are models of what the Daibutsuden and its surroundings used to look like before the fires.

Just outside the door sits some scary figure that everybody was touching, so I am guessing it's supposed to have some healing powers. I gave it a try anyway.

According to our map somewhere to the side of the temple was located something called a Great Bell. We tried to look for the markers visible on the map, didn't find anything but followed the nearby road and steps up anyway and after a while managed to come across something that by rights could be called a Great Bell.

Some more climbing and we found the highest point of the area, some temple whose name is lost to me for reasons explained below, that gave us a great view of Nara.

On our way down from the temple I suddenly realized that the map we were following had disappeared. It must have had a really bad karma and wasn't meant to stay with us through the whole trip. Fortunately we only had one more stop to make so I did what I usually do in such situations: found a local map and took a picture of it just in case we get lost. But we didn't.

Kasuga Grand Shrine came highly recommended but it turned out to be the greatest disappointment of the day. The myriad lanterns hanging everywhere, its only call to fame as far as I could tell, didn't look all that interesting unlit.

Perhaps during the time all the 3,000 lanterns are lit it looks more impressive. We wondered around a bit trying to make sure this was the great shrine and we weren't missing something but didn't find anything more interesting and eventually turned back. We had a train to catch.

Happy that we managed to get to the train where we had reserved seats on time, because the train from Kyoto to Tokyo was packed, we settled in. Unfortunately, everyone around me was eating and I haven't had anything to eat in a while and were totally starving. It was two hours of pure torture (after two hours everyone finally finished eating). So, upon our arrival in Tokyo we went straight to a restaurant.

For my last dinner in Japan Lena picked some very fancy place, where we got a small curtained out private table, an English menu, and a somewhat English-speaking waiter. His English gave out when I asked him what the fish of the day was. Fortunately my Japanese was just good enough to recognize the Japanese name of the fish. I got the fish and Lena got the beef that she had to cook herself. We were both quite happy with our choices.

Once home it dawned on me that my adventures in Japan were over, it was time to pack.

Complete album:
Nara