Japan, Chapter 4: Nara

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Nara is the ancient capital of Japan. It is filled with temples, traditional handicrafts, and roe deer (who are believed to be a messenger of god). We awoke around 730am and indulged in a nice cheap and spectacular ‘bread and cheese’ breakfast (note the sarcasm). It is a simple day trip from Osaka, just a 40min subway/train ride to Nara. When we arrived, we sat down for a much needed coffee and overlooked the very slim amount of information we had received from the tourism office.

Our first destination was Tofukuji. It is temple with a huge 5 story pagoda. Unfortunately there was a lot of construction going on, so the overall mood of the place wasn’t what we were expecting. We did however manage our first run in, with what would come to be hundreds, of Roe Deer. Since the temple wasn’t that amazing, we decided we should head off to one of the surrounding Japanese gardens. We made our way to Isuien Garden. We finally found something we had hoped to see. The garden was beautiful with amazing Japanese landscaping. It was refreshing to wander around in such a peaceful and wonderful environment. After the garden, since it was included into the ticket, we went into the small Neiraku museum just outside the garden entrance. This museum was a stretch for pride. Containing no more than one very boring exhibit, we wondered how and why this place remained open.
Being around mid-day, we came to one conclusion. JAPAN IS FREAKING HOT! It was barely noon, and the temperature felt well into the 40’s (we would come to find out that a heat wave was indeed causing havoc in the country during our time in Japan).
Heat or no heat, we maintained our stamina and headed off to the next temple. What came upon us was magnificent. The GINORMOUS namdaemon gate was astounding in size and composure. The gate included the typical statues of gods, but it’s size was incredible compared to what we had seen at this point. Is there a downside? Yes… of course there is. As we entered the vicinity the amount of Roe Deer had becoming overwhelming. It has gotten to point where you look around at these deer wondering why the government has allowed the population to grow so out of control. The deer had literally becoming an annoyance and mass producer of feces (yes, there was deer pooh everywhere). Although the deer were an enormously historic presence in Nara, we believe that they are treated inhumanely and have become an over-populated nuisance.
ANYWAYS…

We finally made our way to the much anticipated Todia-ji. This wonderful structure is the LARGEST wooden structure in the world and inside contains one of the biggest Bronze Buddha in the world (437 Tons & 130Kg of gold). It was simply huge, awesome, and a grand display. Buddha’s eye alone measured over 1m across…ya.
After a mediocre and ‘touristy overpriced’ lunch and thinly cut beef and rice we wandered through the vast sea of temples and academies that filled the hillside with the constant reminder of how hot it was and how impossible it was not to get the deer poop lodged between your toes or on the bottom of your sandals. Although a little infested with the deer, the walk offered some wonderful views of the country side and the little town of Nara. We managed to walk to the Kasuga Shrine which contains 1000 bronze laterns and 2000 stone lanterns. Although the shrine was mediocre, the surroundings were pretty with huge trees and lanterns. The only disappointing factor was that they had put paper in all the holes of the stone lanterns with a mascot of their festival, understandable, but takes away from the ambience of the rustic surroundings.
After the shrine, we headed back into the town to find the traditional area of Naramachi. This area was filled with old traditional houses and museums offering information about the history and cultural relevance of Nara. With much work, we found the Koshi no ie lattice house in which we were allowed to tour freely and look about the architecture and layout of a traditional home. The ambition to wander more and find different treasures in the area lead to us getting turned around in the maze of alleys and small streets. After 3 attempts to find a museum, we managed to stop and ask its location only to find out where we stood was indeed the location of the museum but it only opened on weekends and currently was closed.

With sweat pouring down our backs, and a thirst for some delicious liquids, we headed back to the train station to get back into Osaka.

When we arrived in Osaka, we decided to look into the “Osaka Unlimited Pass”. We had read about the pass in our hotel, but until we looked deeper into the brochure, we didn’t realize what a steal this pass was. Costing us 2700 Yen each, we were given free reign of the subway systems and access to 90% of the sights around Osaka for 2 days. We did some things we would never dream of giving money to indulge our need for excitement. We played on ferris wheels, escalated to 3 observation decks to watch sunsets and view the city, and many more things you’ll read about in the rest of the Osaka blog.
Determined to ride the culinary wave in Japan, we finally managed to find a sushi-belt restaurant in Amerika-Mura district. We both paid a lump sum for a delicious all you can eat sushi bar and we managed to polish off 34 plates in one hour.

AND THEN…. You can read Osaka and learn some more. Good ending? Sure! BYE !!! Oh ya… Danielle ate sushi too… good for her, it was definitely an impressive moment to watch her swallow down some raw fish.

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