Nara The Beautiful! The Deers Are Ugly Though!

Trip Start Dec 01, 1999

103

Trip End Aug 31, 2000

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Flag of Japan Nara, Japan
Saturday, February 19, 2000

Nara and the Free Deer

Nara and the Free Deer (2)

Nara and the Free Deer (1)

Hey Hey and a Big G'Day toya,

Nara!

Nara...

Nara is...um...words please!

Nara is a very unexpected gem!
It's an awesomely preserved UNESCO World Heritage Site and from what I can gather its history is like the 'cradle of modern Japan'. It was also Japans first capital city and had been around for along time prior to that (350 to 800 AD) and thankfully due to one cloudy day during the war, its history and beautiful still remain for us to walk amongst!

Getting here took a few hours due mainly to a few train changes. You'd think that due to the popularity of the town and its history they would have one train going all the way there. I guess it can't be that easy or they would. It was awesome to sit and watch out the window and watch all the modern fly into my past.

After finding the Nara-Ken Seishonen Youth Hostel I grabbed a free map and pointed my shoes in a direction and walked that way. The first stop of the day was the Two Storey Pagoda where I met the cities deer. Even though I knew I would see deer, it was so strange to actually see deer, if you know what I mean. There were no fences, they were free to roam anywhere they pleased.

Usually it was roaming over to where ever the food was being offered.

I know they are deer and we are supposed to say, oh deer are so beautiful, but these deer really aren't that cute. They seem to be missing parts like horns and fur and all things cute! No matter what, they are considered to be the messengers to the ancient Shinto gods so simply feed them and be happy you fed a messenger!

I mainly feed them because I watched what they did to you if you didn't feed them.
They nudge you, they push you and some even they snot on you!
I watched as people were prodded and pocked until they actually ran off!

I then headed to the Three and Five Storey Pagodas where I walked around chatting to different people who were also admiring what was before them. I then headed to the Todaiji Temple. Mate, this place was huge, and being the worlds larges wooden structure I guess it must be big! The place is now only two thirds the size of what it was originally.

It must have been massive before fire destroyed it and it had to be rebuilt to the size it is today.

So what do you put inside the worlds larges wooden structure? A huge brass Buddha! What else! This poor guy had lost his giant brass head on several occasions due to earthquakes.

It was now time for the lantern walk. I then headed into the hills in search of them. No real need to search as there is something like four thousand of them. I soon found the Kasuga Temple where I walked around for a time before heading further out and walking around the little tracks that led to little pagodas.

As the hours passed which soon led to the passing of the daylight hours I made my way back to the little city and back to the hostel for a shower. Here I met a beautiful girl named Janine. We hit it off straight away and decided on spending the evening together walking around the cities streets.

It was a beautiful evening during which we discussed what she would like to do for her birthday.
Her birthday is tomorrow and we are off to a small town in the mountains called Takayama. The train journey there is supposed to be full of views of splendor! Or so her guide book says.

Nara, Takayama, Janine...doesn't matter, they are all beautiful!

Beers N Cheers toya...shane

Accommodation:
Nara - Ken Seishonen Youth Hostel
7Ikenoue Handa, Hiraki - Chu
NARA JAPAN
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The soundtrack to this entry was by a band I'm sure everyone knows....Slade!
The album was 'Wall of Hits!'