nara

I always know it’s been an amazingly beautiful day when I can’t decide which photo to feature!  Nara is on the eastern side of Osaka, about 50 minutes by train.  Sort of like going to Titusville but no swamp in between, only city.

The building in the photo is Todai-Ji Temple and houses the largest Buddha statue in Japan.

Buddha is 49 feet high.  The temple is 157 feet and the largest wooden building in Japan.  In the back of the temple is a pillar with a hole cut through the bottom.  The hole is the size of Buddha’s nostril, haha!  Katie definitely could’ve wiggled through it.  Here’s Katie for perspective.

On either side of Buddha are other huge statues. This one is Komokuten, the guardian of the south. You can see the elaborate walls and ceiling.

The city of Nara is famous for its deer.  The Sika Deer are considered sacred in Nara and are protected and roam freely throughout the park and city.  There were hundreds of them!  You could pet them and feed them special wafers, but of course then they follow you around.  They are beautiful and sweet, and even the young ones are tame.  If you bow to them, they bow back–it’s true, we saw several of them do it throughout the day and got one to bow to us, even without wafers!

You can see the beautiful hill in the background.  The park area is huge and includes forest, shrines, hills, temples, trails, and deer in and around everywhere you look.  For obvious reasons it is a popular place to take wedding photographs.  We saw a half dozen brides, most in western style white dresses and some in extravagant kimonos.  Here you can see a bride and in the very center another bride in an orange kimono.  Plus the deer of course.

Kasugataisha Shrine is in the middle of the park area, with beautiful buildings all trimmed in bright orange.

Lanterns adorn the shrine, both inside and outside.

The two main religions coexist here.  On the same grounds as the Shinto shrine, we found yet another Buddhist temple, with stairs leading to the top and glorious view of Nara.

The woods and hills were beautiful, with more decorative pillar lanterns throughout.  Even the exposed tree roots were elegant.  The deer were the exact color of the trees and stones, easily camouflaged, so that if you really looked you would realize there were deer you had not noticed.

This cedar tree is over a 1,000 years old and considered sacred, so the shrine is built around it.

As in Osaka, there is a covered market area.  Nara’s market was charming and reminded me of a Japanese Winter Park, with its nice restaurants, shops, and pond with a lovely view.

Katie explained that Italian food is quite popular in Japan.  I was intimidated because the signs are all in Japanese, of course.  But Katie found us a darling trattoria where we had flavorful prosciutto, parmesan, greens, and tomatoes, followed by fresh, delicious Pasta Bolognese comparable to what we had in Italy.  The only employees we saw at this 3-table restaurant were 2 teenage Japanese men and there were forks and chopsticks. We also had a matcha (green tea) flavored mochi (rice cake), filled with bean paste at a stand in the market.  I would not give up chocolate for it, but it’s surprisingly tasty!

The train home took us out and around the city, so I was really able to see the expanse of the area–it goes on as far as the eye can see.

It was another long day of walking; my app said we walked over 10 miles and climbed over 20 flights.  I was glad to be home in my new cheerful apartment!  I stayed up late watching the movie Lost in Translation.  I mentioned that movie before because of the karaoke scene, but I was surprised to see how well it captures the entire Japan experience.  It’s a serious movie for Bill Murray and Scarlet Johannson, who find themselves in Tokyo, which looks very similar to Osaka only bigger.  The essence of alone-ness is portrayed perfectly, with the constant sense of feeling like an outsider and confused by the vastness, noise, lights, and colors, and the awe-inspiring unfamiliarity that is day-to-day existence.

Photo:  Todai-Ji Temple, Nara