Kyoto: Day 3

Nara: The Land of 1,200 Deer


Nara is an ancient city about 1 hour south of Kyoto.  It is often overlooked in guidebooks and is usually overshadowed by the allure of bigger, more famous cities around it like Kyoto and Osaka.  Nara is a quaint little town that can be pretty fully explored in one day, which is good because that’s all the time we had.  First stop was Nara Park which is populated with roughly 1,200 freely roaming deer.  They are said to be very accustomed to human contact and are not shy at all.  We found out first hand how not shy they are.  Most of them mind their own business until you buy a handful of crackers and suddenly they’re upon you.  I watch at a safe distance as Jacob busily switches from petting, feeding and guarding his crotch from aggressive head nudges.  1,200 deer sounds like a lot, but actually spread out over a humungous park, we only really saw a few dozen at a time.  

   
Kasuga Shrine

This was a place recommended to us by Ai-chan.  It was a pleasant walk to the main shrine because along the way stone monuments lined the path on both sides.  These stone lanterns were aged, some with signs of damage or overgrown with moss.  The whole time, a single winding stone path weaved through a lush forest all around us.  It’s quite a remarkable and fantastic experience.  I know I’m not doing it justice by describing it and pictures don’t do much better.  But it’s really just an atmosphere you have to feel to believe.

7-5-3

So there’s this festival called 7-5-3.  I don’t know why they count it backwards, but I think that’s how it’s called in Japanese.  Anyways, it’s a festival that celebrates all kids who are the ages of 7, 5, and 3 years old.  Not sure why that’s so special, but apparently every kid goes through this 3 times in their lives and they are forced by their parents to dress up in elaborate outfits and do cute poses.  It’s really funny watching Japanese parents shoving their kids over towards some shrine and telling them to pose and taking a whole bunch of pictures.  Well we took a couple pictures to, and they were quite cute at least.

Search for the Giant Buddha

After eating a very satisfying meal of half raw egg over katsu-don (fried pork chop over rice bowl) we continued our search for the giant Buddha.  On the way, Jacob read to us from his guidebook that this Buddha was made of many kg’s of gold, tons of wax, bronze and iron and was housed in a temple so large, it was the world’s largest wooden building.  LARGEST IN THE WORLD.  Okay so we had to find this.  But along the way we found a giant bell and got distracted.  We all simultaneously contemplated ringing it and running away, but our diabolical plans were quickly foiled by a group of Japanese tourists who walked right under the bell.  

Found It!

Toda-iji Temple (The World’s Largest Wood Construction Building) is enormous.  The courtyard is a grand open space that makes its hundreds of guests seem like ants in its mighty chasm.  Entering the temple’s inner sanctum is even more awe-inspiring.  I’m compelled to make a small prayer in front of the Buddha.  Even though I don’t consider myself a religious person, I’d like to say I’m a spiritual person.  Architect or not, anybody would simply be amazed that human beings could or would ever build anything so large out of wood.  Somehow they did it.  And actually, this is a rebuilt version of an older temple that is only 2/3 its original size.  Yes, it was even bigger and older before.   Ridiculous.  Amazing.  Ridiculously amazing.  So I walk through the temple forward and back 3 or 4 times.  Marvel at the humungous wooden columns, the unfathomable foundations and the incredibly steep staircase.  Mostly I just try to take in the wonder of standing in what feels like an aircraft hanger built out of sticks from trees.

  Handstands at Buddha’s Feet

We stayed until they closed the doors and kicked us out.  I didn’t want to leave and neither did the rest of the guys.  Once again we had lost Laura (this seems to happen a lot for some reason) but we’re sure we’ll track her down later.  Being one of the last few people in the gigantic courtyard Baptiste has the great idea of taking some group shots.  So we take four, one jumping, one seriously kneeling, one waving (kind of) and the best spur of the moment quarto handstand picture EVER.  From this point on, handstands have become a necessary tradition to all great group photos.  But I feel none will ever be as legendary as this one.  The first and the best photo ever.  Legen- wait for it… DARY.  LEGENDARY.