Kyoto - Nara - Kyoto
Rain,rain, rain. We had almost forgotten what this felt like. We were reintroduced today and I got to legitimately road test the umbrella.
And it could have doubled as a "deer prod" if the need had arrived because they were everywhere today in Nara.
Back on the train this morning for our adventure and of course it involved shrines and walking. Ooh, and let's not forget, dear, oh deer, the sacred deer. They were everywhere today in Nara. @Yasuna made sure that we understond the importance of the approximatwly 1400 deer that call this place home. They wander the grounds freely and are protected animals as they are closely connected with the gods.
Legend has it that in AD768, a god traveled from the north of #Tokyo, to #Mt. Mikasa in #Nara, on a white deer. From that time, deer were considered sacred messengers, and killing one was punishable by death.
Today, they are protected as Natural Monuments and are revered as holy animals in #Nara.
The deer are wild and they are hungry and "gently stalk" (is that even possible) every tourist who walks by - checking out pockets and bags - looking for the special rice crackers (shika senvei) that are prepared for them and sold to tourists. There is a little jostling for cookies that can happen - but if you hold out your empty hands, they get the idea. The deer offer a low bow of the head as they approach for the food - it all looks very tame, solemn and righteous - as if the "bowing deer of #Nara" deer are showing respect. In truth, the bowing posture is a pretext and warning to a head butt. They can become a little aggressive, and we certainly saw some of the bigger males engaged in full on reared on hind legs fighting over a rice cracker. But that quickly subsided and for the most part - the deer wandered from pocket to pocket in the hope of some food.
Must admit, there was a bit of a dank wet animal smell coming from the thick molting ciats of the animals and you did need to do a bit of Fred Flinstone tipoy toeing to avoid the fresh little clumps of deer droppings.
No visit is complete without some staggering stories of history, buildings and Shrines and temples. And there were some "big" ones today.
Today's explorations
Todai-ji Temple - #Nara is #Japan's original capital city and this Buddhist Temple complex was constructed on order from @Emporer Shomu. It is the largest wooden structure in the world and houses a the largest bronze statue of Buddha in the world. The 15 metre Buddha was created on a mound in the earth and the building was then constructed around it!
This site is a series of temples and halls that have been ravaged by fire and earthquakes over the centuries, but always rebuilt and maintained and apparently, the current iteration, built in the 1700's is only 65% the size of its predecessor.
@Yasuna invited us to "crawl through" one of the supporting beams in the temple, to bring us good health - a very tiny squeeze that no-one in our group tried - although we did get some enjoyment iut of watching the locals wriggle and squeeze their way through.
Sure, we could get through that!
The temple was filled with people - all dwarfed by the massive Buddha - and "blessings" and "offerings" and "rituals" were on sale everywhere. And it seemed as if everyone who was Asian was buying, burning and offering something. And very noisy with that party going atmosphere.
The entrance us always marked by a series of gates and bells and often a Pagoda- no exception here and each with their own story - including the 20 year replacement cycle for the Pagoda and its earthquake resistent structure.
No photos inside - just the approach
- Made our return trip down the avenue of lanterns after visiting the Shinto shrine filled with stone lanterns.Kasuga Taisha has more lanterns than any other shrine in Japan. Around 2,000 stone lanterns line the path to the main shrine, with another 1,000 lanterns hanging at the shrine itself. There are 3,000 lanterns in total.
You can only imagine what this avenue would look like during festival time when all the lanterns atw lit - and of course - each one is different! To get a taste of this "illumination" a small darkend area has been created that you enter and see the orange glow of the light in the dark.
Made our return trip down the avenue of lanterns. Still lots of deer. Still raining and still walking. @Yasuna thought we might get a bus back, but the gentleman organising the boarding indicated it would be a long wait - so we just kept on walking and finally found the meetup point ready for another train lesson. We were missing two from the group but @Yasuna did a quick sprint around the mall and located them and wheeled them in.
Had a very late lunch - and very excited it included vegetables. This was enough to tide us over for dinner with just a top up from the 7/11 and there is always liquid refreshments from the vending machine.
Another great day - of course it included the usual return journey home ad another walk in the rain - and it did leave us with absolutely nothing left in the tank.
Weather: rain from 10 am began as light falls and built to pouring by evening 18 degrees
Steps: 21 031
KEEP CALM THOUGHT FOR THE DAY
The whiter my hair becomes, the more ready people are to believe what I say. Bertrand Russell
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