Blogs from Nara, Nara, Japan, Asia
March 16th 2012
Friday, March 16, 2012 Today we were up early. We were checking out of the Hilton Osaka a day early. We decided since our trip was delayed a day, we should go back to Tokyo to visit a few more sites before returning home. After a quick breakfast, we headed to the train station to go to Nara. The train ride should only take 45 minutes, however not today. It took two hours. We are not sure what happened, but we think either our train had an issue or there were other trains delaying our trip. This is our second trip to Nara. We visit here in 2002. Today we are visiting the Todaiji Temple, Kasuga Taisha Shrine, Three Story Pagoda, and several deer on the way. Nara is a fairly large city, however ... read more
September 19th 2011
Introduction Quite often, first time visitors to Japan are directed towards Kyoto as it does have the more famous sights. I can only blame myself, but I also fell victim to this and visited Kyoto three times and I enjoyed the sights a lot and continued to put Nara off as a second rate Kyoto and never went there as more important sights were left to explore elsewhere. When I finally made it to Nara, it was like a revelation: Instead of rushing from one side of a typical urban Japanese town to the other to catch the sights like in Kyoto, everything was located in or around Nara Park and the sights in Nara are first class, no matter what people might tell you. We were lucky, as it was a gloomy November day, the ... read more
January 29th 2011
Nara is famous for having seven great temples. Today, my friend (who finally had a day off) and I decided to hit up Nara’s temples and check out the deer (鹿(しか)) (shika). In Nara, the deer are revered and considered sacred, so they meander across streets, through parks, and around the temples. It’s considered a criminal offense to molest a deer, or feed it anything other than せんべ (senbe – rice cakes). There were vendors selling senbe at various sections of the great temples, so I bought a couple of stacks to feed the deer. It was fun, if not a bit unnerving to be surrounded by hungry deer nibbling at your hands and clothing. I managed to feed the deer with nothing more than a sharp headbutt to my hind thigh, and then we made ... read more
December 25th 2010
Day 20 December 25, 2010 Kyoto & Nara We took a 30 minute train ride from Kyoto to Nara, which used to be Japan’s capital prior to it being moved to Kyoto. Nara was a much smaller city where about half the city was made up of a park. The park had hundreds if not thousands of “sacred” deer that walk freely around the park looking for food. In the park we saw the Kofukuji temple which has a 5 story pagoda, the Todaji temple, and the Kasuga Taisha Shrine. Though they were all nice to see, the Todaji Temple was clearly the showcase for us. Inside it has the largest (gilded) bronze Buddha in the world. It was a humungous statue that if I remember correctly was casted back in the 8th century. After seeing ... read more
1/2 Day Nara Tour (Todaiji Temple, Nara Park, Kasuga Taisha (Kasuga Grand Shrine)
Published: November 19th 2011Asia » Japan » Nara » Nara
November 24th 2010
We did an afternoon 1/2 Day tour of Nara near Kyoto and we went to Todaiji Temple (the largest wooden structure in the world housing the Japan's largest bronze Buddha), Nara Park (with the deer) and Kasuga Taisha shinto shrine, with lots of stone lanterns.... read more
September 15th 2010
So tonight I am in Nara and its raining for the first time since I’ve been in Japan. When it rain here, it pours. I can’t complain though. After the heat, it feels amazing and this is by far the nicest hostel if I am going to spend an evening inside. It’s totally traditional with the tatami map and rice paper dividing walls. Kyoto had some interesting sites but I honestly didn’t see that much. Their transportation system was a pain and they had a major lack of English maps but the scenery was nice. My hostel was right on the river which made a nice evening walk and the staff were super friendly and pulled me out of my homesickness with good conversation several times. The train ride was much slower than the shinkansen but ... read more
August 30th 2010
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, ... read more
August 22nd 2010
Yet another site to ancient capitals, only forty minutes away from Kyoto. I local trained it and then checked into a cheap hostel I found near the station. The owner was a really friendly guy. I went off to the main sight area and spent some hours walking about. I also took a power nap on a park bench during mid-day. Truth be told, although many of these temples and shrines were impressive, I'm at my wits end with them. It's crazy temple overload for me and I think this will be the last city that I actively seek out some temple sights because it just doesn't do it for me anymore. Neverthess in terms of nature this city was gorgeous. There were deer that roamed the park area unobstructed, as well as patios in the ... read more
May 26th 2010
Today we spent the day in Nara, It was a really long train ride out there. But once we got there it was beautiful. First we went to Todai-ji Temple, it is the largest wooden structure in the WORLD! Even thou it is only two thirds of the original size due to earth quakes it is still the largest wooden structure ever. Inside this temple is the Daibutsu of Todai-Ji Temple. This is the "largest" bronze Buddha ever built. Thou some places in china say there bronze Buddha's are bigger. But do not be mistaken this is not the biggest one, just the largest bronze one, so they say. Standing next to the Daibutsu was awe inspiring, the sheer size of it was very impressive. There is a whole in the back of the temple in ... read more
April 30th 2010
We arrived in Nara late in the afternoon and immediately checked into our hostel (which is the best hotel I have ever seen!! It was more like 4 star hotel!). After sitting around relaxing (I was very tired again thanks to the medicine so it was at this point I decided to cut my medicine from 3 a day to 2...) we eventually went out in search of dinner. As we were just about to stop in at a restaurant my (3rd) friend called me to say she had arrived in Nara so I left my 2 other friends to go pick up the 3rd friend. Once I met her, we went out for a simple beef bowl dinner and then went back to the hostel to relax. Pretty uneventful first night in Nara, but we ... read more
