The night of the Wakayama Orientation, more than half of the new ALTs were staying at Leilani's place in Wakayama City. The next day, Rose, Megan, Tristan, Leilani and I ventured off to explore the historic city of Nara. Nara is another one of the great Kansai cities. It is a former capital of Japan (710-784) and its claim to fame is that it houses the largest Buddha in the world in the largest wooden building in the world, the Daibutsu-den at Todaiji. Aside from the Buddha, it is famous for its deer which are supposed to be sacred. Supposedly, they just run free all over Nara Park. So, armed with some train directions, we headed into Osaka to change trains and then a little further east to Nara. The trains were easy enough to navigate except at one point when I thought we should board a train only to be saved by Tristan's hunger attack.
Tristan's a hungry man. Thanks for saving us from taking the wrong train!!Upon arrival, we got directions to Todaiji from the tourist information centre in the train station. Since we were still hungry that morning, we hit up Bikkuri Ramen (Surprise Ramen!) next to Nara Station. It was good,cheap and fast and now we had fuel for our day of sightseeing.
We wandered down the main shopping street in Naramachi leading towards the sights and I spotted many quaint cafes that I would love to linger in one day. The first sight we came to was Kofukuji with its three and five story pagodas. Near the entrance of this temple, we met our first deer. We called it our training deer as it was very docile. Silly us though, we still acted very timid towards it. Here is a picture of me with it.
Me with the "training deer"
The entrance to Kofukuji and its majestic pagodaSince we had already warmed up with the training deer, now it was time to mingle with the rest of the deer. The best way to make friends with them is to purchase crackers called sembei for 150 yen ($1.40 Cdn) and then try your best to not to get attacked by hordes of deer. For the most part, this went well. But watch out for the deer with horns. They can be vicious and being poked by their horns definitely hurts! As Tristan found out later that day, you gotta watch your back, because a deer surprised him at a vending machine. It was pretty funny to watch that sneak attack since Tristan was a little jumpy to say the least.
Look! I am calmly feeding a deerAfter laughing at our (mis)adventures with some of the deer, we made our way to Todaiji. Of course, there were more deer lining the route to the main attraction in Nara but there were also lots of omiyage and food stalls. I also spotted a begging monk. He looked very serene. The Daibutsu-den is absolutely amazing. It's hard to imagine how such a large building was made pre-modern construction techniques. The Big Buddha is awe-insipiring as well.
The Daibutsu-den at Todaiji
The Big BuddhaIt seems that the path to enlightenment is tangible after all. It is in the Daibutsu-den in Nara. I saw a lot of adults and children trying to wedge their way through a small hole in a wooden beam. I stopped to look at this madness. After consulting another tourist and my guidebook, there is method to the madness. People crawl through a hole which is the same size as one of the Big Buddha's nostrils to gain enlightenment for the year.
The path to enlighment ends hereOn the way back to the train station, we found a beautiful park with a lake and rowboats. It was so picturesque. Then, we spotted a maiko out of the blue. It looked like she was on her way to a party but stopped to oblige us tourists. This was the first maiko I spotted! It was really exciting.
Scenes of Nara Park
On her way to a party?So far, Nara is my favourite city I have visited in Kansai. I feel at peace in this beautiful city. I hope to visit again in the fall and spring.
