A Day in Nara

Today, we visited Nara. We took the train and met Matt's friend Hiroki at the station there. We then all walked to Nara park.

Nara park is very big and very popular. It was swarming with schoolkids, as well as tourists.

You see, Nara Park is famous for its deer.

There were lots of deer there. The deer were very friendly, apparently extremely well accustomed to people, allowing you to come up and pet them.

Bram, Matt, and Hiroki approaching the gate.

Within the park, there were several temples and shrines. At the entrance to one of the larger ones, we entered and were looked down upon by two statues guarding the entrance.

The largest and most famous temple there plays host to Daibutsu, or the giant Buddha.

The temple. Note the large number of school kids outside.

The actual buddha; he is enormous, the largest in the world. To give some scale, those pillars are roughly 2 feet in diameter.

On either side of him lie two smaller buddhas, each massive in their own right, though dwarfed by the centre one. They were probably about eight feet tall.

In addition, the temple had several smaller attractions. On the left is a hole in a pillar, whose name means roughly Buddha's nostril. Being able to pass through it is supposed to be a sign of luck, although after Bram went throught it, he hurt his elbow.

On the right is a 1/50 scale replica of the temple.

Among the many gift shops, we spotted snoopy dressed up as a deer.

Another attraction, the big bell. It probably has a better name than that, but that is what Hiroki called it, and the name fits.

The park also housed a forest, which in turn house an inordinate number of lanterns. There must have been thousands of them.

The park also had a large number of stairs. Japan in general has a lot of stairs; something we have learned the hard way.

A famous pillar, though I don't recall its name.

I wanted to buy something here, but I didn't feel like waiting in line.

Deer aren't the only wild animals that are comfortable in the park. This cat has snuggled up in someone's goods.

The local mascot, Senta-kun.

A local priest praying.

Nara had an incredible number of beautiful sights to see, and we did quite a bit of walking through it. I'll leave you all with a few choice pictures.