Blogs from Nara, Nara, Japan, Asia - page 4

Well got the train to Nara with no hitches at all we must be getting good at this and we even got off at the right stop. We thought Kyoto had a lot of history and also very typical Japanese but hey ho, it has nothing on Nara. Mind you we arrived at Nara train station and looked at the map and spoke to the lady in the tourist information centre and she said it is a 15 minute walk to where we are staying. We arrived in the hotest time of the day and guess what Mike wants to walk - WHAT I exclaim, are you sure - it is hot out there i.e. 90 degrees - yes he exclaims I want to feel like a real back packer. Well that came to haunt him ... read more

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

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

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

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