http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Nara/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Japan , Nara en-us Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:18:59 UTC Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:18:59 UTC 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 Zenkoji 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 gor http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-348404.html 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 int http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-330338.html Pretty exhuasted at the moment so hopefully this entry wont be too random today... Been walking around Kyoto today going to check out the older part of the city tonight maybe catch a Geisha sighting or two.. Nara is both one of the more beautiful cities in Japan I've visited as well as the friendliest. The train to Nara is a pretty small line.. .at times only one track so the other train ne http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-327688.html One must take oneself to Nara so that one can see the largest Buddha in Japan housed in the largest wooden structure in Japan. To that end Samia Rachel and I set off for Nara another ancient capital of Japan. It was only the capital for about 70 years but it is considered the birthplace of Japanese civilization. Many temples and works of art dating from the 7th 8th centuries still survive http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-322557.html 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 bumI took Danilo to see the Daibutsu great Buddha at Todaiji The worlds largest wooden building. It is a suitably impressive place and some of the buildings you pass l http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-312636.html Nara was an easy day trip on the shinkansen from Kyoto. Most of the important sights are in an area called Narakoen which is home to hundreds of supposedly wild Deer. Deer are considered sacred and are believed to be messengers from the gods and so are treated with upmost respect. You can even buy crackers to feed to them which Dan thought was a brilliant idea....until he was surrounded by http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-298699.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-280153.html We took a train from Osaka to Nara which is Japans old capital...Its a really lovely place but you can see from the pictures that it was peeing it down just for a change..Most of the sights are in the park which has loads of old temples which are amazing plus the biggest Budha in Japan which is 16m high...we just missed the president of China by a few hours although we didnt realise. The templ http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-275362.html Kavin junalla Narassa. Tuli kuvattua vaikka olikin sadepaiva.Nukuin pitkaan melkein yhdeksaan ja kun satoi ei oikein huvittanut lahtea liikkeelle. Olin unohtaa hostellin lainasateenvarjon bussiin linjaautoasemalla mutta asiasta huomautti minulle nainen joka oli noussut kyytiin samalla pysakilla japaniksi siis. Olin asemalla Kintetsuyhtion lippuluukulla klo 11.55. En ottanut 1100 jenin lipp http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-269628.html Up early this morning no particular reason but just felt like getting up and about. Had a great hot shower and spent an hour or two writing to people before the ladies awoke. Said a sad farewell to Gojo Guest House and made our way to the train station where we had to say an even sadder farewell to Sarah who heads back to Tokyo for her flight to NYC on Saturday. Sanj and I carried on to Nara whic http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-265328.html I found about The Takenouchi Highway.First goodthing about this place is that we can know about Nara's buddhist culture.We are go in spring. Spring is good season travel to Japan. So we can see Spring flower. Japan is famous for Spring flower.And we can see sumo traditional match in March.Second badthing about this place will be language.Because Japan peoples are no good English speakers.And me http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-261249.html The Okinawa Peace Memorial Museum is located on the southern tip of the island. In 1945 the bloodiest battle in the Pacific began. It started with 90 consecutive days of bombing a ldquotyphoon of steelrdquo that disfigured mountains leveled cities destroyed the cultural and changed the topography forever. The Japanese military had sent large forces to fight a battle of attrition to gain ti http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-259416.html The next leg of our trip was to Nara where Buddhism first came to Japan. This small city SW of Kyoto was the capital when Buddhist missionaries brought Buddhism to Japan and it has lots and lots of fine temples. We stayed in a Ryokan not a Rokugan as I kept calling them which is a traditional Japanese inn with tatami floors and futons for beds. There was rather more luxury here as we got three http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-257011.html On Saturday I went to visit Asuka in the Nara prefecture as part of my Japanese History class. Leilani came with me even though she's not taking the class and we had to leave the seminar house at 730 in the morning I had only gotten 5 hours of sleep if even that much the night before so I was really tired. I wanted to go back to sleep so bad We met my professor at a station a few stops away http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-254524.html My last full day in Kansai ended with Chiaki myself and one of Chiaki's friends going all the way out to Nara for the day. Nara is about an hour train ride on the Kintetsu Line from Kyoto Station and is full of temples from the Nara Period of Japanese history. Chiaki bought a guide book and everything and planed out our entire day on the train ride down. We headed straight for TodaiJi after lea http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-233637.html So Jeff finally made it and soon after he got to the hotel it was time to go out and figure out our plans for the New Year. I heard that one temple was good but on the internet I was reading that this one close by Gion had Maiko and Geisha there and afterwards everyone gathered in the park to drink and dance. So that place sounded cool. We get there and its crazy. SO many people were out ther http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-232196.html I'd been meaning to go to Nara since I first got to Japan but most of my friends hit it when they first got here leaving me without anyone to see it with. But Mitsu hadn't been for years and gamely agreed to traipse around it on another of our magical too rare joint weekdays off. It seemed like winter was about to land the weather was just starting to turn parky so we wrapped up and headed http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-225923.html Day Trip to Inari Kyoto Fushimi Inari Shrine http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-225616.html OhdaigaharaAfter reading about the Ohdaigahara walk in the Lonely planet I decided I had to get out there and check it out. Myself and Mariko did the trek and as you can see from the pictures attached it was fairly spectacular. The area is an old medieval forest which is famed for its autumn foilage. Unfortunately as this autumn in Japan has been extremely warm we didn't get to see the foilage at http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-223251.html Some photos from our last day in Japan a truly inspiring experience http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-218634.html Day 2 in JapanThis morningrsquos authentic Japanese breakfast found four fellow kindred spirits two of whom were sympathetic with last eveningrsquos plight. They too experienced difficult dinner companions and vowed to avoid a repeat Off to visit Temples Temples Temples hellip water purification tossing of coins burning of incense and general adoration for Buddha The highlight of my mo http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-218452.html November 9th Kyoto Today we were off to Nara Park stopping first at the Gekkeikan Okura Museum where they explained the process of how to make Japanese Sake. This distiller has been making sake for over 400 years. One thing that I found interesting was that the best sake was only 500 yen more than the next best. Naturally I bought a bottle unfortunately after sharing a couple of glasses I http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/blog-218439.html to be updated http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-206592.html Ce matin la Sensei le professeur nous fait visiter la ville de Nara ville trs reconnue pour le plus gros Boudha intrieur assis du Japon et son parc de daim en libert. Nous devions y aller plus tt mais cette journe la il y avait un festival a caractere historique que lrsquoon pouvait observer.On a dbut notre visite par un magnifique temple mais je vous passe les dtails pour que http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-205617.html Pour faire changement des temples de Kyoto nous avons fait un voyage d'une journee a Nara petite ville a 45 minutes de Kyoto. Cette ville possede surtout... des temples Pour nous y rendre de la gare de Nara aux temples nous avons pris un autobus un peu au hasard nous savions toutefois qu'il allait vers l'endroit ou sont les temples. En regardant la liste des arrets affichees dans l'autobus http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-200061.html As you may know the US carpet bombed Tokyo in World World II and spent the next 30 years after the war financing the rebuilding of Tokyo. That is why much of Tokyo is modern and there is very little of ancient Tokyo that still exists to visit. So while in Japan we visited other destinations such as Kyoto and Nara to see Ancient Temples and Shrines. You can get to Nara by train in about 30 minu http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-199707.html I am now a solo traveller once again...hostelling it...hoorayBefore I left Sachiko and Namiko we went to a small town called Nara. It used to be the capital of Japan many many years ago. Deer roamed the streets and liked invading your personal space. We visited the world's largest wooden building...it was quite overwhelming...not to mention the giant gold Buddah that sat peacefully inside. There http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Japan/Nara/Nara/blog-195217.html