The Ancient Temples of Nara

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We took a day trip from Osaka on the train to visit Nara, a nice little peaceful city of 300 odd thousand people and famous for its series of Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines and an old imperial palace. Nara is also where hords of tame deer roam the city, the deer are regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion, and roam the streets and parks freely. Whilst they didn't give me any messages, the presence of these creatures seemed to increase the calming impact of wandering around this very green city - I guess they stop people driving too fast too!

We started off at the main attraction of Nara, the Tōdai-ji or Eastern Great Temple, a Buddhist temple complex containing the Great Buddha Hall, which is the largest all-wooden building in the world and houses the world's largest bronze statue of the Buddha Vairocana - an imposing 15m high statue weighing in at over 500 tons! It was fairly impressive to walk around. The building dates back to 720AD, but has been rebuilt twice due to fire, the latest in 1760. Seems they don't learn and continue to make it out of wood! The temple also contains an impressive gate and belfry, which make the entire park area and surrounding gardens an area that we spent several hours wandering around. It was a fairly warm day, so luckily there are plenty of drink vending machines around and we are never too far from a drink.

Lastly we went on a nice little uphill walk to the Kasuga Grand Shrine. Established in 768 AD and rebuilt several times over the centuries, it is the shrine of the Fujiwara family. The interior is famous for its many bronze lanterns, as well as the many stone lanterns that lead up the shrine. All templed out, we jumped back on the train and went back to Osaka for more madness in the big city.

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