Today we set off for Nara which I think has more sites protected by the World Heritage organisation than any other town we have ever been to! It is about an hour by train from Kyoto station so we left the hotel about ten to nine to give ourselves as much time as possible there. Despite this earlyish start we didn’t actually arrive in Nara until almost 11.00 we jumped on the circular bus to take us to the first stop which was the Todai-Ji temple, which was built between 710 and 794AD . It was officially built as one of the state established principle temples but as the chief area of worship is the Vakricana Buddha (Buddha that shines throughout the world like a sun) they built the great Buddha hall to reflect the statues importance. The temple was burnt down twice, once in 1180 and again in 1567, each time they built the hall a little smaller and it is now 33% smaller than the original, it contains a Buddha whose body is 48.91 feet high, and head is 17.39 feet making the whole Buddha 66.3 feet! His eye alone is more than half the height of Chris at 3.3 feet and he sits on lotus petals that are 10 feet high! We walked all round which was interesting as it gives you a view of the size and scale of it, they had replicas of the lotus petals and the intricate carving for something that you can’t really see is amazing. This whole of this area is actually park land and is full of deers which are protected in Nara. According to legend, when Kasuga Tanisha Shrine was founded as a family shrine for a dominant aristocratic clan they invited a god from the Kashima Shrine who is said to have arrived riding a white deer, since then they have been protected. Many tourists buy crackers to feed them so they are very tame and as there is no risk to them they just wonder around including in the road! From there we walked up the hill to the Nigatsudo Hall which had spectacular views over Nara, this complex is set in the trees and is mostly wood buildings we walked to the top to take in the views then set off for our next stop Kasuga Tanisha Shrine. There are two paths to the shrine and both a lined with about 2000 stone lanterns and the eves of the shrine are decorated with about 1000 hanging bronze lanterns. We didn’t actually go into this shrine as we had a good view of the lanterns fro the outside so after looking at these for some time we set off in search of the next temple complex. This was the Kohfukuji temple, this was originally founded I the 7th century and contains a five story pagoda, a main hall and a three story pagoda. Unfortunately the main hall is being renovated but the three and five story pagodas are quite spectacular. The five story pagoda is a symbol of Nara city and has burnt down five times with the last reconstruction around 600 years ago. We had planned to stop for lunch but a couple of the other temples are just outside the city and close at 4.30 so we decided we would crack on and see as many as we could today. We took the train to Yamato-Saidaiji and had planned to walk to the Heijo Palace site but it wasn’t obvious which way we should go so we jumped into a taxi which was a good thing as this site is in the middle of quite an industrial area, we were left by the side of the road by the taxi but it turns out it was actually really close to the gate. There isn’t an entrance gate as such and you basically just walk onto the site. They have reconstructed the Former Imperial Audience hall and it has imposing views of the whole site, it is just unfortunate that there are only two buildings that are still standing, however we walked round the hall then started walking to the other end of the site to the Suzaku Gate, it would seem that they have built a railway line through the middle of the site so we waited at the level crossing for the train to go by before crossing to head through the gate. This gate was the main entrance from Nara which apparently is only 4 km away! The road from the Rajo gate in Nara to this was 75m wide although nothing remains of it. We exited through the gate and set off in search of the next temple which was Toshodaiji Temple. This was founded in 759AD and established as a place for Buddhist training, it has been regarded as the headquarters of the Rigsu-shu denomination for more than 1250 years. We walked all round the complex which was really peaceful, it is really interesting that the temples at this end of town are virtually empty. Our final stop was Yakushiji Temple this was built by the emperor to pray for the recovery of the empress which obviously worked as he died before it was completed and she succeeded him on the throne. We were aloud in a few buildings including the lecture hall where a monk was talking to a group of school children and the main hall which again contained a number of Buddha statues. One of the two pagodas are currently being restored but the other one was quite spectacular. By the time we had finished walking round it was almost 4.30 so we decided to start making our way back to Kyoto. This involved a bus, train, tube and a bit of walking so by the time we were back in the area where the hotel is we decided to grab something to eat before going back to the hotel so we went back to the Raman restaurant we went to on our first night in Kyoto, the food was really good again so once we were fed and watered we headed off to the hotel and the bar to update the website before heading up to the room to pack up before moving on tomorrow.
