A bit over an hour train ride from Kyoto brought us to our first stop for the day: Horyuji Temple. Before we left the train station we were approached by an elderly gentleman who volunteers to take people on a guided tour to keep his mind active. In fact there are a number of them who officially do this. We thanked him but did not take up the offer as the weather was atrocious at that stage.
Horyuji Temple is a staggering place to visit. It was founded in 607 and some of its wooden structures are the oldest still intact in the world. The size and craftsmanship is superb. It also contained a large collection of important Japanese artefacts that date back to the 6th century.
Back onto the train and onto Nara, capital of Japan from 710 to 784. Much like Kyoto there are a huge number of shrines and temples to see here so we concentrated on three main sites: Five Storied Pagoda, Todaiji Temple and Kasuga Taisha Shrine. These are all centred around Nara Park.
When we arrived at the Pagoda the first thing we saw was the "tamed" wild deer wandering around. For most of the afternoon anywhere we went, deer were there. People we feeding them special deer cookies, patting them and surrounding them for photos which the deer didn't seem to mind.
The pagoda was interesting, unfortunately the Kofukuji Temple next to it was under repair. So onto Todaiji Temple which had some spectacular buildings and a massive Buddha inside its central shrine.
Our final stop took us on a walk through Nara Park to Kasuga Taisha Shrine. This shrine had an uncountable number of lanterns leading towards it and hanging from its buildings. They rattled a lot in the wind.
A long walk back through Nara Park to the station and onto the train back to Kyoto for our last night before we head to Hiroshima.
No comments:
Post a Comment