Nara
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Day 9 (Thursday): Check out the photos here. Nara was fabulous; I took 200 photos, but I’ve limited the online gallery to just a handful of the most interesting. It’s an expensive trip from Kyoto to Nara — about $10 each way — but I’d certainly recommend it to visitors.
The Nara park is extensive and includes a number of Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines — in Japan, the newcomer Buddhism was amiably welcomed by Shinto and the two co-exist very well, often participating in each others’ ceremonies — as well as the famous free-wandering miniature Nara deer looking for handouts.
We visited the Buddhist Todaiji Temple on an unexpectedly lucky day; it was the day that the new high priest was being inaugurated, as we discovered as we asked why so many camera crews, suits, and robes were surrounding us. That meant we couldn’t get a face-on shot of the giant, 52-plus-foot-tall Buddha for which the temple is famous, but on the other hand, we got to watch the ceremony, which was a rare pleasure for a tourist. I whipped out my iPad and audiorecorded almost all of it; missed the first five minutes or so, but I have 41 minutes of chanting, which I’ll put online eventually. I also took some gorgeous photographs of the new high priest in his lavish robes!
However, lingering to watch the ceremony meant that I had to rush to see the second “assigned” sight, the Shinto Kasuga shrine; this is the shrine to the kami (spirit/god) of the area, for whom the deer are sacred messengers. More luck; a wedding in traditional kimonos was being held there! The walk up to this shrine is shadowy and full of mysterious stone lanterns and the occasional deer; too bad the lanterns were often marred by paper posters of Nara’s fabulously ugly trademark character, Sento-kun. Akiko, who is from the Nara prefecture, said she’s ashamed of the character and can’t believe it was chosen by committee in an open design competition. I have to say, the creature, which is a babyish-looking Buddha with Nara deer horns, is extraordinarily creepy.
I could easily have spent a whole day wandering around all the temples and shrines and museums in Nara; I’d call this a must-go trip for any visitor to Japan. It’s rich with history, vibrant with color, and offers a chance to feed (and be chased by) little Nara deer for any children you might have along with you….
At night the groups split up; Brad, Rachel and I visited the Kishimoto family, who served us a sukiyaki dinner cooked over a kotatsu table; later in the evening their fourth-grade granddaughter showed us how to fold origami. It was a delightful evening, although I’m very glad Brad was with us to translate the signs. Otherwise, we would have otherwise gotten completely lost taking the train, a bus, and following a hand-drawn map to the house….! Also, I met and was defeated by a new chopstick challenge: boiled tofu dipped in raw egg.
drupagliassotti @ May 27, 2010