Nara, Japan - March 16, 2012

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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 there a lot of trees and parks here. Before leaving the Hilton, the concierge recommended riding bikes to the sites in Nara. However since we arrived late, we ended taking the city bus. We boarded bus no. 2 and our first stop, Todaiji Temple.

Todaiji Temple and my deer encounter

We walked a long path to the temple. Along the way there were several shops and food places; however the highlight of the walk were all the deer. Throughout Nara, deer walk freely in the parks, walking paths and the wooded areas. The deer also bow to you, similar to the Japanese people. The funniest thing happened along the way to the temple. We decided to buy a packet of wafer cookies to feed the deer. Within seconds about 10 deer surrounded me wanting some of the cookies. I initially stepped up onto a small wall hoping to individual feed the deer, however that did not work. I made the decision to step off the wall and all heck broke loose. Deer started goosing me from behind, pushing my arms and trying to steal my cookies. Before I knew it, a couple of the deer stuck there nose into my jacket and pulled out our maps and starting eating the maps. When I tried to pull the maps away, good luck with that, another kept forcing my hand to give up the cookies, I lost the battle. They got our two maps of Nara; thankfully I was able to pull one of them from their mouth to partially salvage it. It was really fun and funny at that the same time. I ended up having an audience watching all this happen and it is was great entertainment for the audience but also a lifelong memory.

Back to the Todaiji Temple. The entire temple is made of wood and absolutely enormous. I read somewhere recently this is the largest wooden structure in the world. The temple serves as a Buddhist Temple. Although this structure is not the original, the entire temple area is well preserved and remains very colorful. The great Buddha inside the temple is really a site to see. I can’t even image how it was constructed and then permanently placed in its current location. I attached a link explaining more about the temple and including its history.

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/japan/nara-todaiji

Kasuga Taisha Shrine

After leaving the Todaiji Temple we walked a very long gravel path up a hill to the Kasuga Taisha Shrine. On our walk, we observed several concrete posts, almost like lamp posts. Later research found out they were lanterns made of concrete and bronze. In total there are 3,000 lanterns. We started thinking that the walk would not be worth the effort however we ended arriving at the shrine to our surprise, the shrine was beautiful. We did not pay the admission to walk inside, however stayed outside and walk around. This shrine, according to DK Eyewitness Travel book, was originally built in 710 as the tutelary shrine of the Fujiwaras, one of the families who helped to establish Nara. They claim this location is best known and most photographed Shinto sites.

Three Story Pagoda

After visiting the Kasuga Taisha Shrine, we walked back down the long gravel road passing more deer, incredible but awesome. We made our way to the Nishinkyo District which is where we found Yakushi-ji Buddhist temple. The highlight in this area is the three story Pagoda. It is actually six levels, but three intermediary roofs placed between the floors. I attached a photo of the Pagoda.

After our quick tour of Nara, we boarded a bus to go to the train station. We took a Japan Rail trip back to Osaka to pick up our luggage so we can travel to Tokyo. The return trip to Osaka was much quicker. We arrived in Osaka and ate a very quick meal, McDonald’s. We wanted to eat our meals while walking back to the Osaka Hilton, however we learned earlier in the week that it was disrespectful to eat your food while walked. We ate our food in the hotel lobby before heading to the train station. We had to take a local train to Shin-Osaka which is where our bullet train left for Tokyo. We barely made our reservation, but we made it.

The train ride took approximately three hours. We arrived in Tokyo at 9:00 pm and made our way (confusing at first) through the train station to the subway. We arrived at our hotel around 10:00 pm. Our reservations were at the Courtyard by Marriott, Ginza.

Before heading to bed, we headed downstairs of our hotel to the bar for a night cap. We tried some cold Saki (yuck) and I had a rum and diet coke. Cindy and Jenny had a Cosmo, and Michael a non-alcoholic beer. The drink was a good way to relax after a very busy day of sightseeing and hectic travel. Before Michael and I returned to the room, some gentleman walked out of the bar and sat down on the stairs next to Michael. He ended up resting his head down on a step and fell asleep. This was a pretty funny scene. Like my comment from the other days blog, the Japanese love to indulge.

On Saturday, our last full day, we will visit the town of Nikko, Japan.

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