Japan Day 7, Part 6: The Stone Lanterns of Kasuga Taisha Shrine

I had a pleasant, though hot, walk across the Eastern side of Nara park.

In the Southeastern part stood a Shinto shrine. The area around it is filled with stone or cement lanterns, covered in moss and surrounded by large trees.

The hall of Kasuga Taisha was founded in the 700s replaced every twenty years in accordance with Shinto traditions, though the current building is about 100 years old. As I had come to expect with a Shinto shrine, it is very orange. 

It would be amazing to visit during one of the lantern festivals to see them all lit, but I enjoyed the lanterns even during the daylight. 

A fountain paid tribute to the deer residents. 

The bamboo base must be more modern than most of the lanterns, but I liked it nonetheless.

I then visited the Nara National Museum. My favorite part was the Buddha hall, filled with statues of Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and guardian spirits carved from stone, wood, or clay.

I had a little time left before my bus to Osaka. I meant to spend my last 1370 Yen on a Japanese meal, but I ended up ordering ice cream with fruit instead. A cherry, orange slices, pineapple, and whipped cream sat above chocolate, vanilla, and berry ice cream (which I was pleasantly surprised to find to be actual ice cream instead of the soft serve that I'd come to expect in lactose intolerant East Asia), layered above peach, pineapple, mandarin orange slices mixed with cornflakes. I have no regrets.

I bumped into the poetry guy again in front of the pagoda on my way to the park. I was even less impressed this time as we went on about god and humility. Beyond the fact that he was obviously not humble himself, he had no response when I asked why being humble was at all valuable. 

In the park, I sat and wrote in my journal, which is good because otherwise there's no way I'd remember half of these details three years later. The deer kept me company as I wrote.

I was early to the airport bus and the airport. I wrote a little before boarding the plane. 

The airline was obviously operated by Koreans because the map of the route prominently labeled "Dokdo" island and "The East Sea". Japan would have labeled Dokdo their name for it since they (on flimsy pretext) claim the island themselves, and everyone in the world besides Korea calls the body of water separating the two countries "The Sea of Japan." The pilot spoke Korean, English, and Japanese with a distinct French accent. I returned for one final week in Korea before heading home.

Japan Day 7, Part 5: Lizards, Dragons, Eagles, and Deer at Nigats-do and Sangatsu-do

The grounds of Todai-ji stretch out for some ways, and I wandered to some of the sub-temples. First up was Nigatso-do hall. On the way I noticed a brightly tailed lizard a temple wall. 

Nigatso-do hall sits on a hill and has a nice large balcony.

The balcony had a nice tripod on it, with demons for legs holding it up.

The hall's balcony was well situated. I've noticed that most Buddhist temples are placed on hilltops or mountain sides that make them more impressive and beautiful. People give up a lot to become monks, but at least they usually get a nice view.

There was a lot of dragon iconography in the hall. The fountain is one of the coolest dragon sculptures I've seen.

The ones on the ceiling were't bad either.

Some of the next buildings over were closed, and at first I thought the main hall of Sangatsu-do was among them. I was annoyed at myself for not going to Nara first, as I had originally planned, and then saw that the hall was in fact open, so it all worked out well. 

The hall had some nice wooden carvings. Even when being saved from certain death, no one in The Lord of the Rings looked half as serene while being carried off by giant eagles as this monk carved into the rafters, not even Gandalf.

Nara's deer know the temples well enough to take shelter from the sun in their eves. 

Japan Day 7, Part 4: The World's Largest Wooden Building, Todai-ji's Daibutsu-den

It is fitting that the largest wooden statues I've ever seen guard the largest wooden building in the world: Todai-ji's main hall, Daibutsu-den. The building is set in an enormous courtyard, and dominates the view from every part of it.

Inside is a bronze Buddha that itself is not particularly small. 

In fact, it is one of the largest bronze statues in the world. Lonely Planet says it weighs in at 437 tonnes and 130 kg of gold. 

There are guardian statues in the hall as well, and they are just as expressive as the ones at the gates, if about an eighth the size, which is to say human sized.

Apparently the world's largest building is merely a two-thirds the size replica of the original hall. It looks fancier than its larger predecessor, though, judging by the models:

A hole in a pillar is the size of one of the giant Buddha statues nostrils, and it is supposed to be good luck if a child can crawl through it. I wouldn't consider the ability to crawl into a nostril lucky, but to each their own.

Also, it seems that an ancient version of Dr. Seuss was allowed to do some of the decorations.

The hall was just as big and imposing after I walked out of it. 

Standing in the hall's shadow, I could see the gorgeous lattice of wooden eaves was required to hold up the enormous roof. 

Daibutsu-den is a hard building to walk away from, but with only a single day to tour Nara I pressed onward.

Japan Day 7, Part 3: The Giant Gate Guardians of Todai-ji Nanai-mon

Todai-ji is an enormous temple, so it is fitting that it have a similarly gigantic gate. 

The guardians in the gatehouse were of a similarly colossal scale. 

These amazing wooden statues were carved about eight hundred years ago and have been recently restored. They are some of the best wood carving I have seen anywhere. The guardian gods are as lifelike as they are huge, and are forever what I'll use for a mental reference when I think of giants.

A single foot was large enough to crush me, and was so detailed you could practically see the muscles flexing under the skin. 

Being around giants causes one to look up, and the rest of the gatehouse was not disappointing. One of the many things I love about Japanese temples is that even the rafters are elegant.

Japan Day 7, Part 2: Kofuku-ji Pagoda and Deer

I retraced my steps, and this time paid more attention to the buildings than the deer. Apparently there were once 175 buildings in this temple complex, but only a few survive to the present. Those remaining are pretty awesome, though. 

I'm used to everything being anthopomorphized and made cartoonish in East Asia, so the deer messenger of the gods getting that treatment wasn't surprising. I wasn't prepared for the pose, though.

Okay, I didn't entirely ignore the deer on my second pass through the area.

To be fair, the temple didn't ignore the deer either.

Kofuku-ji's pagoda is the second tallest in Japan, mere inches shorter than the one at To-ji.

Japan Day 7, Part 1: Nara Deer

I awoke early so I could see as much as possible in my one day in Nara. I headed into Nara Park for breakfast, and ended up spending most of my time there looking at the deer. I took more trouble than I'd care to admit trying to emulate a picture my friend Jeff took of himself in Nara with a deer's face right next to his own. The deer are considered sacred messengers of the gods, and are protected as National Treasures, just like the ancient buildings around them.

Most of Nara's sights are in the park, but even the part closest to the city center was filled with historical buildings such as this impressive pagoda. 

As with Yellowstone, and other places full of both animal life and tourists, people seem to think that the animals' presence around humans mean that they are domesticated. This sign reminded me of Yellowstone's warnings of potential buffalo goring. 

The irony is that one almost has to step over deer in order to read about how the deer are potentially dangerous.

Most of the deer were totally relaxed, though a few were curious about me.

Some of the bucks had impressive racks of antlers, and others were just budding.

I realized the deer would steal my food if I ate around them, so I eventually headed down to a pond to view fish and turtles as I ate breakfast.