We had clubbed 2 prefectures in one day and this day was just one of those. We followed a triangular route from our Airbnb home in Osaka, to Nara, to Kyoto, and then back to Osaka. We can say that a prefecture is like that of a province in most countries.
Prior to visiting Nara, we had been to few other prefectures on the northeast of Japan.
| Date | Place | Preview |
|---|---|---|
| April 29 | Airport Tour = Missed flight! |  |
| April 30 | Tokyo Tour Tokyo Prefecture |  |
| May 1 | Nikko Tour Tochigi Prefecture |  |
| May 2 | Mount Fuji Tour Shizuoka and Kanagawa Prefecture |  |
| May 3 | Osaka Tour Osaka Prefecture |  |
| May 4 AM | Todaiji Temple in Nara Nara Prefecture |  |
| May 4 PM | Kyoto Tour I Kyoto Prefecture |  |
| May 5 | Kyoto Tour II Kyoto Prefecture |  |
| May 6 AM | Himeji Tour Hyogo Prefecture |  |
| May 6 PM | Kobe Tour Hyogo Prefecture |  |
| May 7 | Hiroshima Tour Hiroshima Prefecture |  |
Place Visited
May 4, 2016
Tips and Notes
May 4, 2016
Todaiji Temple
So what’s so special about Nara that it was part of the itinerary? Well, it just happens to house the world’s largest bronze statue of the Buddha sitting in the world’s largest wooden building!
We started out early as usual, around 7:30, since we came from Osaka and we reached Nara a little past 9 AM. There was a 1.6 kilometer distance to be walked from the train station to the temple waiting for us. Delightfully, along the way, we met several sociable and friendly deer roaming around, greeting the tourists. By the way, I came to verify that the nouns deer, sheep, and fish don’t end in ‘s‘ to make them plural. They remain as is. I only knew of sheep but even fish? Fishes, can? Okay, okay, just fish. Anyway, the deer are regarded as messengers of the gods in the Shinto religion.
From the previous visits to temples or castles, I’d say Todaiji also has its own body of water, some kind of lake that preceded the main temple grounds.
Like all the other temples we had been to in Japan, there are gates before the main halls. And most of these gates have guardians or fierce-looking large statues on each side.
After passing by these gates, I was awestruck by how enormous the wooden temple was when I saw it even from afar, to think that this size is just two-thirds of the original temple size, which was before series of reconstructions. I could see the tiny people like ants in front and those entering the gigantic wooden structure. I could already imagine how big the Buddha would be inside.
It likewise has its huge guardian statues near the Buddha. Everything seemed just so massive.
The mammoth building just does not have the largest Buddha but also serves like a museum. It features the different versions of the building, the gate, and the Buddha over time through miniatures.
We left after half an hour and it was good enough to roam around the inside of the temple. We also needed to consider the time it would take to go back to the station and that was the second set of 1.6 kilometer distance.
On our way out and met the deer again, we saw one that was trying to munch on the food of a woman. It was a funny scene.
Then next stop … Kyoto!
You can also check some of my tips and notes here.
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