I pulled into the station around 11am and visited the information desk to try to orient myself to the town. It's certainly not a large city, but as is the case elsewhere in Japan, even the smaller cities are very dense with many shops and apartment buildings. Most of the attractions in Nara, however, are situated in a sprawling city park on the east side of town. 1300 years ago, this was the capital of Japan, so some of the temples here are particularly ancient and impressive.
Trying to save a little time, I decided to take a bus to the far end of the park and walk back instead of walking all the way there. I had done a lot of walking recently, so cut me some slack. Todai-ji Temple, the largest wooden structure in the world, was the first stop.
I'd heard that there were deer in Nara. I was a bit surprised by just how many deer there were. I was dropped off a little ways from the temple and they were everywhere. Walking amongst the tourists on a shopping street, the deer seemed to be completely comfortable with people, even walking right up and sticking their face into someone's lunch. There were, of course, amusing Japanese signs to warn of the dangers of the seemingly harmless animals.
There were several structures leading up to Todai-ji, and each one was one of the most impressive buildings I had seen so far on my trip. The first entrance gate was enormous, with ancient, intricate wood carvings and construction. As you walk through the gates and look to either side of you, you find two towering and frightening wood sculptures of guardians glaring down at you.
Continuing on, I reached the outer wall of the temple complex with another beautiful 2-story flared red gate.
I walked around the side to the entrance. Once through the gate, I could finally see the temple, and man, it certainly looks like the largest wooden structure in the world. People look puny in front of the massive wooden doors. The double roof is crowned by arched golden fish that look like horns, supposedly to prevent fire. Unfortunately, these didn't work, and the temple had burned down in the past. Amazingly, I later read that the reconstructed temple was built back only at 2/3 scale, so the original was 50% bigger than this one! Amazing. Excuse me, ahem, "sugoi, ne!" Seeing this building was one of the few times during this trip where I've actually said "whoa" to myself out loud.
Once inside, you can see the reason that the temple was build so large: it houses the world's largest statue of Buddha. The Buddha and his throne reach right to the very top of the ceiling inside, as do the numerous hefty wooden columns supporting the structure.
Flanking the Buddha are two more towering carved wooden guardians dressed in what I believe is samurai's clothing. The rear of the temple features some other wood sculpture as well as miniatures of the temple grounds.
At one point, there were some children carrying on what I think has become a kind of ritual here: squeezing through a hole in one of the thick wooden columns, probably for good luck or something.
I spent some time just hanging out and enjoying the place, but eventually had to move on.
I walked back through the woods, passing some more deer on my way to the Kasuga Shrine. I wasn't sure what to expect here, but the lady at the information desk at the train station had circled it as something I had to see. The shrine itself was pleasant, bright vermilion with a rock garden and several beautiful structures. The thing that stands out about the grounds of this particular temple is the stone lanterns. Hundreds of them everywhere, all covered with bright green moss. Walking amongst them with the river running nearby and the rest of the forest around you is a pretty cool experience.
As I made my way back towards town to see a final pagoda, the skies darkened and a mid-day downpour let loose. At this point, I had learned to have an umbrella at all times - even on nice days - so I was covered. I made a brief stop at a couple of stores to pick up some gifts, tempted to buy a stuffed doll of the baby buddha with deer antlers that seems to be the de facto Nara mascot.
After the ride back from Nara, I made an attempt to visit a museum of old Japanese farmhouses, but decided it had gotten too late to spend enough time there before closing. Instead, since I had not seen a true Japanese castle yet, I decided to visit the grounds of Osaka Castle.
The castle grounds are sprawling, with two gaping moats surrounding the castle. Osaka is one of the largest castles in Japan, and it looms over the city, visible from far away. The route up over the bridges across the moats to the castle is quite a hike. The stone walls of the moats and foundation are ancient and impressive.
Finally, I arrived at the bottom of the castle. The castle itself was rebuilt more than once and is kept in very good condition, almost like new. The bright white walls with golden trim and decorations are quite a sight.
Soon, another sudden downpour would chase me back towards the trains.
That night, while once again getting ready to go out and explore, I ran into a Dutchman named Roel who was also traveling alone. He was up for hitting Dotombori, the nightlife center of Osaka, and being Dutch, he insisted on renting bikes to get around.
While I was skeptical about riding a bike around at night in a busy city, it ended up being a great idea. We flew around, dodging people and other bikes as we took a little tour of the area. We stopped on a bridge over one of the canals running through the city and ended up meeting another American who had been living in the city for a couple years. He decided to show us around, taking us to some of his favorite places. We toured some hole in the wall bars hidden down long hallways underneath buildings, as well as some larger beer halls frequented solely by locals. Interestingly, at a couple of smaller places the locals were surprised to even see foreigners in their regular bar. Many of them were happy to come right up and say hello and try their English out on us. Eventually, we came to a bar called Grotto with weird, faux-rock walls, and ended up hanging out for most of the night talking with a group of locals who were kind enough to struggle to speak our language.
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