Nara

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  Nara, Kinki, Japan
Thursday, September 4, 2008

Our next port of call was Nara - the former capital of Japan (710 to 784). It was considered the cradle of Japanese culture, arts and crafts; all of which are still present today. Nara is a beatiful place to visit with many sites listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.   We arrived into Nara via train from Hiroshima, after a quick tour around the massive city of Osaka. We were meant to change trains in Osaka, but we hopped on the wrong one. Had to wait at the next stop for about 3 seconds for a train to return us back to the orginal station. One thing you can say for Japan is that the train system is amazing - always on time and the staff are all so friendly and helpful.   Decided to get a taxi to the hostel. Turning in the gates, it was like being dropped at school, but school on summer holidays. Not a sole in sight, a big empty car park and entrance that looked like Springfield Elementry School. We arrived in and were greeted with the standard - take your shoes off and put on sandels.   Having paid more for this hostel then any other in Japan, our expectations were high

deer and us

. But it was too strict. The rules of the hostel included: Bath time (communal!!) - in the evenings only from 18:00 to 21:00. Lights out at 22:30 and Silence at 23:00.It also had: Wake time at 6:30am (which we slept through), and check out time: 8:30am. None of the above mentioned information, comes in the lonely planet description for the hostel.   Keen to get out of there, we checked out the amazing sites that Nara had to offer. One plus for the hostel was that we could rent bikes. So,we set off with the many maps we received at the tourist office. We also had a suggested route from the Lonely Planet.   Many of Nara's most important sites are located in Nara-koen. The park is home to about 1200 deer, which in pre-buddhist times were considered messengers of the gods. Today they enjoy the status as national treasures. They roam the park in search of handouts from tourists. We brought some biscuits, "deer only biscuits", and they mobbed us like seagulls. When I teased them they decided to eat one of the maps. Disatisfied with that - they went for the Lonely Planet.   We went through the Nandai-mon gate, through to the Todaiji Temple, founded by Emperor Shomu to enshrine the Great Image of Budda and as the General Head-temple of all the provincial temples in Japan. It is the largest wooden building in the world and is a magnificent structure. The Daibutsu (Great Buddha) inside is one of the largest bronze figures in the world and was orginally cast in 746. It took aver 2,400,000 people to help build it

deer looking for biscuits

.   In one of the wooden column of the temple there is a hole through the base. Popular belief maintains that those who can squeeze through the hole, which is 'exactly the same size as one of the Buddha's nostrils', are ensured of enlightment. We watched as two very, very skinny Japenese ladies had trouble wiggling their way through. Ailbhe was next in line, she did it, with ease - as shown in the picture, and with a little assistance. Grechy was busy guarding all the maps and Lonely Planet in case the deer came back for more - so he chose not to attempt it! From the temple we headed up to Nigatsu-do hall which has one of the best views of Nara. Then we headed for the Kasuga shrine, around this area there are hundreds of lanterns. Twice a year the area lights up when they hold a lantern festival. There are many shrines in this area of the park worth checking out.   From there we headed to Kofukuji Temple only a short ride away it is another World Heritage site, in the same area is the five story pogoda which is well known as a symbol of Nara. We also met a couple in their traditonal attire. We headed back into town to the Gangoji Temple, the lonely planet says it is a more impressive world heritage site from the outside. We arrived just as they were closing the front gates and got a quick glimse. We decided to relax after a busy day of riding our bikes. We sampled the local beer and 3 diferent variations of sake - all of which were very nice.   We strolled around town taking loads of pictures of the turtles swimming by Sagi-ike Pond

deer eating grechy shorts and lonely planet

. Strolling to main shopping area, we noticed a Guinness sign near the post office. Ailbhe tried the Nara Guiness on offer and was impressed with her 1st Guiness since leaving the shores of Dublin Bay. We had traditional dinner on the main strip then rode back before the bath time was over.   When we read "bath time" in the rules, we did not expect the bath time to be tradtional bath where you strip naked in front of all, shower on a seat then bath in the lovely bath water that had had been there all evening. Ailbhe was a bit taken back by this, especially in a youth hostel. I decided to wait til the last min. I headed for the bath time action at 20:55, with 5 min to spare i had a quick rinse in the shower on a seat, and decided to give the bath part of "bath time" a miss.   Nara is defintely a place to visit in Japan - it has alot to offer. Actually, the whole Kansei area has a lot of offer. Nara is small enough and flat enough to get around on a bike. Some of the streets felt like a rural country town. We compared it to rural Holland.   Three days in, Japan is an amazing place. So varied. Not sure about the credit card and ATM situation though. For such a dominant country financially, ATM's have opening hours of 9:00 to 18:00 in the post offices and not many places accept credit card. No doubt this will change when we hit the bigger cities of: Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka.  

Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

deer wanting more	Big Buddha	Ailbhe going thro hole the size of Buddhas nostril	Lanterns
More lanterns	Temple	Don't worry, it's empty!	So unimpressed - but sacred!
Todaiji Temple	View over Nara	'Reading' Lonely Planet	Traditional dress
Pagoda	Woohoo! A pagoda!	Turtle power	Turtles on the rocks
Good, but not as good as Stronges Guinness!

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