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 6, Part 4: The Towering Red and White Structures of Yakusiu-ji

The shade-less walk between Toshodai-ji and Yakushi-ji is only 600 meters, but it felt much longer in the afternoon sun. At least I got to see this amusing sign that clearly illustrates that there are incautious children at play in the area. 

Once in the shade of the temple's eaves, I drank most of the water I'd carried with me and I enjoyed looking at a two story round pagoda. After spending a year in Korea and almost a week in Japan, the temples - though still interesting - were starting to look awfully similar. Variation in architectural styles was a breath of fresh air, as was the change in color scheme. 

I was already impressed with the temple from the round pagoda alone. Then I entered the main courtyard. 

The East pagoda is the oldest of the three structures, built almost 1300 years ago. The layers vary in width, which gives the building complexity and character greater than pagodas that simply get smaller and smaller on each higher layer.

The West pagoda is much more modern, but also had varied widths. It also was very red, which became all the more apparent when looking up into its eaves. 

Even the main hall looked like a stack of different sized blocks, and from the side almost looked like a pagoda as well. 

After admiring the architecturally interesting trio during a couple circuits of the courtyard, I exited and took a bus back to Nara. 

Japan Day 6, Part 2: The weathered phoenix hall of Byodo-in

In Uji I had a brunch of cinnamon buns, a sandwich, and a delicious loaf of French bread while sitting on the steps to the river that runs through the city. The water formed fascinating eddies and whirlpools.

The main reason to come to Uji is to see Byodo-in, a thousand year old Buddhist temple famous enough to be on the back of the ten Yen coin. 

Only the main hall remains, but it is incredible.

The ancient building manages to both look its age and remain intact and structurally sound.

The hall is also known as the phoenix hall. The mythological bird is popular in China, and in Japan is seen as a protector of Buddha. Oxidized metal phoenixes stand atop each end of the wooden hall. I think its amusing that the temple covered in phoenixes is one of the few in the country that hasn't burned down and been rebuilt.

Walking back to the train station, I spotted some other amusing sights in Uji, including a life-sized monster.

The cicadas were out in force here as well, and were bigger than my thumb.

I don't know why the public service announcements were demonstrated with a cartoon platypus, but I'm glad they were.

After my brief stop in Uji, I continued on to the former capital of Nara. 

Japan Day 6, Part 1: The massive wooden temples of Higashi Hongan-ji and Nishi Hongan-ji

Just North of Kyoto station stand two large wooden temples. They made an excellent choice for my last sights in Kyoto both because of their convenient location and the fact that their gates open before 6 am. The first I entered was Higashi Hongan-ji, which claims to be the world's largest wooden structure. It was hard to judge since one of the connected buildings was under restoration and was covered up on the outside. The uncovered buildings certainly weren't small...

Covered walkways connected all of the buildings. I was able to walk around in the building under restoration, but the accessible parts didn't look like much. The sections of the structure that stuck out on either side of the aircraft-hangar-like restoration cover were impressive, though.

Inside was an area that showed how the enormous logs for the temple's construction were brought to Kyoto: by sledge. 

The sledges were pulled by huge human hair ropes:

A diorama showed that such efforts were not without risk. If you look closely, you'll see that some of the tiny figures are bleeding into the snow.

A few blocks away stood Nishi Hongan-ji, an equally impressive site. 

I loved this dragon sculpture fountain.

Children from various schools had collected bottlecaps and applied them to their assigned square of a template to form a picture of a monk. 

The wooden buildings had some cool architecture. I love timber-frame buildings in both the European and East Asian styles.

Here too covered walkways connected many of the buildings.

My favorite part was a three story wood slat building. I find wood grain beautiful, and all the more when it ages well. 

It was still early in the morning when I walked the few blocks to Kyoto Station and boarded a train to Uji.

Japan Day 5, Part 6: Kyoto Station

That evening I returned my bicycle and headed to Kyoto Station for dinner. In my rush to get out and see the ancient sites, I hadn't paid any attention to the train station that brought me to the city. Once I went back, though, I realized that it is an impressive building. For one thing, its enormous. The huge central staircase was used as benches for many people wanting to chat or read.

At the top I enjoyed view from the rooftop terrace, which itself is quite people friendly with lots of benches and greenery. I like that the station was turned into more of a public space than necessary.

I reserved a spot for dinner at a restaurant serving Kyoto beef, which is raised and served in the same style as the more famous Kobe beef. For $60 I was served slivers of marbled loin and marbled chuck. Serving was a very involved process: they greased a pan with a cube of fat, sprinkled on salt, briefly applied the beef, added marinade and natural juices, flipped the beef, and then transferred it to my plate. There was also rice and vegetables. Desert was pineapple, melon, and grapes. The beef was melt in your mouth delicious. It didn't ruin beef for me, and may not even (quite) be the best beef I've ever eaten, but it was damned good. Also, I sat at a counter along the windows, which had a fantastic view of the city.

After dinner, I went up to the twelfth floor terrace to watch the sunset. 

Japan Day 5, Part 2: Tofuku-ji pillars and covered bridge

Up a quiet hill sat the large temple of Tofuku-ji. I admired the architecture of a pavilion near the entry.

Beautiful covered walkways stretched between buildings. 

Numerous gates stood a the entrance to a short path into the woods.

From the difference in weathering, it looks as though the holes in a building's pillars once had cross beams, but their absence makes for an interesting view.

I saw very few people around the temple and often had entire sections to myself. I was sorely tempted to jump the low wooden wall and wander up into this building, but in the end I'm far too lawful to ignore posted signs saying the building was closed. 

I had wandered the grounds for some time but had yet to see the Bridge to Heaven, so I poked around a while longer and found the path parallel to the impressive wooden covered bridge. The bridge almost looked to be resting on the tree-tops of the valley below it. 

I wandered through the tree covered hill back to where I'd locked my bike at the temple's entrance.