Blogs from Nara, Japan, Asia - page 7

On Sunday I used my 4 day Kansai train pass to go to Nara. Kansai is the region surounding Osaka and Kyoto etc. I decided to follow a walking tour shown in the lonely planet, so I wandered up to Nara-Koen which is a big park in this city. Incidentally I did see some farm land on this train trip, not just bumper to bumber buildings! The park is full of dear and visitors are allowed to feed them with the biscuits for sale. I bought some but barely had time to take the paper ribbon off them, as dear started to head butt my bum and nearly push me over! A small crowd of Japanese tourists stood watching me and laughing, I quickly handed my camera to one of them - I didn't want them ... read more

The upside of leaving Kagoshima sooner than we thought was getting back on the superb Shinkansen. After that we had a beautiful ride up through the mountains to Takayama. Here we booked ourselves into Zenko-ji temlpe run by the very enigmatic Tommy. Our first night was in the temple hall which was a unique but chilly experience. Takayama is a picturesque town with historic wooden buildings and gorgeous temples. We spent a very relaxing couple of days walking and exploring. ... read more

We had a nice day trip from Kyoto to Nara to see the Todaiji Temple and the deers that casually roam around the city. We had a great time. Our first stop was the 100 Yen store to pick up some "healthy" snacks for the deer. We were not too sure what they would like so we got some peanuts and some chips. Well... the peanuts sure did the trick. When we got closer to the parks in Nara we ran into more and more deer. We loved feeding them right out of our hands. Erin was quite fond on these two that had a hard time walking and would hobble over slowely to get some food. We spent a couple of hours feeding, taking pictures, and petting the deer. It is really neet to be ... read more

Old news? Never. Nara is a beautiful area to walk through, with deer nuzzling you for food - and on occasion chasing you down the street. I had deer's noses poking into my pockets for cookies, and one of them bit me on the bum! I took Danilo to see the Daibutsu (great Buddha) at Todai-ji (The worlds largest wooden building). It is a suitably impressive place, and some of the buildings you pass (like the 7- storey pagoda) look like evil hide-outs for the villians of yore. This is quite strange considering they are actually buildings belonging to Japan's first school of buddhism. My brain won't accept it and I keep expecting to see Emperor Ming-Tsu or Oda Nobunaga step down from the dais. This is only a short blog, as there is more information ... read more

The 45 minute train ride through glum suburbia(*) on a dull day did not give rise to any confidence in a revealing and pleasant day. But that is very much the end result we had. We enjoyed Nara by foot, taking in the Kofukuji and Gangoji temples. Then a wedding at the spectacular kasuga Taisha shrine that has thousands of stone and iron lanterns. Here we saw a bride being maticulously prepared in her shinto wedding gown for the photographer, followed by the start of the ceremony that was accompanied by haunting woodwind music. Onwards bound through the deer-studded park we reached the Todaji temple and so did hundreds of schoolchildren! The temple's features include giant iron guardians inside it's tall wooden gates and a 15 metre high buddha. A grand sight indeed. Darren bolted for ... read more